Tips and Tricks for Google Adword Success

Our last post gave you the rundown on getting started with Google Adwords, the tool that lets you run ads for your business on Google.

Today, we're going into a bit more detail, with a list of tips and tricks for making your Google Adwords campaign more successful.

1.  Strategy: Testing? Testing? Is This Thing On?

To see success with Google Adwords, it is important to test, track, make adjustments, and test again. This is a direct marketing channel, and like many direct marketing channels, testing is often the only constant.

2. Setting Your Budget

A first-time advertiser should set a daily budget that will allow them to test many different keywords over the course of several days. You will want to test both relevant broad terms and specific niche terms.

As your ads run you will be able to make changes to your cost per click bid for each keyword, and test variations on your ad copy to get the best CTR (clickthrough rate.) For example, in one ad test for my blog, Craft Ideas Weekly, I ran an ad on the keyword "craft ideas" for about a week. I spent $109.09, and my ad was served 18,847 times.

Of that total number of impressions, my ad was clicked on 363 times for a CTR of 1.93%. My average ad position in search results was 3 - 4 for that keyword. The goal is to get the CTR as high as you can get it, so I adjusted ad copy and average position (by increasing my bid for that term,) until I found the optimal balance between cost and CTR.

3. How to make your ad appear more relevant in search results:

• Use This Code: {KeyWord:My Art Site}. It can be included throughout your ad copy to insert the keyword that was searched. Data show that people are more likely to click on ads with the specific keyword they searched in the title.
• Test Different Ad Variations. You have the ability to set up more than one ad variation to see which one performs better. Try changing just the title or call to action. The one with the higher percentage of click through wins.
• Set Up Conversion Tracking. The only way to definitively tell whether the ads/keywords you have chosen are performing is to set up a way to track their success on your site. You will need to add a small snippet of code to the page on your website that represents your desired conversion (a page that would indicate a sale for example would be the the “thank you for your order" page.) Adding this code will allow you to see by keyword which keywords are costing you money and not getting your desired results so you can turn them off. Here is a guide to setting up Google conversion tracking.
• Use Data to Optimize Ads and Keywords. Companies that are successful with Google Adwords test regularly and remove anything that doesn't perform. Run the Search Query Performance Report to see if your keywords are triggering unexpected queries. If so, you can add those to the “Negative Keywords” for your campaign so your ad will not show up.

For more information on getting started with Google Adwords, check out the beginners guide!

Have you tried using Google Adwords? Has your campaign worked for you?

Molly Fisher has more than 10 years experience building brands and social networks for leading companies such as Schooldude.com and Burt's Bees as well as several other clients. She currently runs Craft Ideas Weekly Facebook Community, the Craft Ideas Weekly Blog, and works as an eCommerce and Social Marketing Consultant in Chapel Hill, NC.

Main image courtesy of Steven Depolo.

Just a friendly reminder to enter Meylah's July Contest: What's Your Passion? Name Your Price! for a chance to get your own personalized site at your price...entries will be accepted up until July 31, 2010.