Perform Adwords Surgery to Maximise Your Profit

Age : 45 Joined : 08 Mar 2008 Posts : 1850

1. Use targeted keywords
Never go with the full list of keywords that Google suggests. Pick the keywords that closely match your business. What would people search if looking for your products. Time and time again we see unrelated keywords in campaigns that companies run. For example, if you sell real estate in Florida, don't buy the keywords 'Florida' or 'real estate', buy 'Florida real estate'. Simple, effective, and won't waste your money.

Keywords really are the central hub of your success on AdWords. Take your time, and read every tip below that has anything to do with keywords before you start.

2. Search for the keywords that you are buying
Type the keywords into Google. See if your competitors are showing. If the page that shows is unrelated to your business then probably it is not a good search for you.

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3. Get some keyword clues from your competitors
Companies that know what they are doing in the area of search will have their page titles loaded with their best keywords. Have a look at the good performers in your market. See what keywords they are using in the page titles (the text that appears in the top bar of the browser window). If you are familiar with viewing the source of a page, you can see the keywords they have placed in their 'keywords' META tag.

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4. Use lots of keywords
Think of as many ways of saying your product or service as you can. This will enable you to buy more specific keywords. It is much better to buy a specific keyword such as 'buy reebok running shoes', than expect to catch this search on a broad match of 'running shoes'.

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5. Use keyword research tools
Google's tool is good in that it suggests similar searches. Google's tool is available as you set up your AdWords account. Yahoo has a tool that allows you to type in your root term and it shows searches that include this term. It also gives exact search volumes on Yahoo for the previous month for that term. It is an excellent tool when looking for negative keywords. Links to both these tools are below:

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6. Use Global Negatives
If you're selling something, you don't want people finding your ad when they're searching for free stuff. This sounds obvious, but do some searches and you'll see it happening. Use the word 'free' in your campaign global negatives. Add any words you don't want your ad associated with to this list. Using negative keywords is especially important if you're using broad matching.

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7. Create lots of ad groups
An ad group should contain a small number of keywords (10-40) that are targeted around a certain theme. These keywords will all show the same ad. Ad groups should be created for dominant search terms, different product groups, often individual products if they are well searched. The choosing of ad groups and grouping of the keywords is a difficult area so be prepared to restructure your campaign after a couple of months because your first attempt was not good.

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8. Test different positions
How much of a difference will being in the first position, as opposed to the second, third or sixth position make, for your net profit? The answer is that it depends on your creative, industry and who else is bidding on your keywords. Test your creative in each position and work out where it will be most effective, from an ROI point of view.

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9. Test different creatives
You can also test your creatives (the ad text). Write two or three different ads and Google will rotate them in this ad group. The creative that gives you the highest ROI is the one you should go with. You need to give the test long enough to produce statistically significant results. How long this is depends on the search volume and the number of conversions you achieve. Use common sense as to when you think the results show that one ad is better than the others unless you know your stats.

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10. Rotate ads evenly
In your campaign settings one of the options is to rotate ads evenly or to have Google optimize for you and show better performing ads more frequently. The default setting is for Google to optimize. Change it! Google optimizes based on clicks, not conversions. In other words, it shows the ad that brings Google the most money, not you. Many times we see ads that have lower click through rates getting a better ROI because they appeal to buyers, whereas other ads with higher click through rates appeal to the masses.

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11. Organise your campaigns by topic
You don't want to have your health supplements in with your running shoes now do you? Each campaign should be for a unique topic. If you sell one type of product then keep to one campaign unless there is a good reason to do otherwise. It will be easier to manage this way.

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12. Target the right languages and locations
I see this mistake over and over again. You run an ad that is selling blue widgets and you want to target the ad to the folks in Kentucky, then what happens? Because you have your settings wrong, Mr Wong goes onto Google China and sees your ad for Blue widgets.

You have targeted the wrong country, and the wrong language!

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13. Make sure your Ad Groups are highly specific
As with your campaigns, each and every ad group should be aimed at a unique product or service.

Example: Campaign 1 - Omega 3 Supplements
Ad Groups -

FISH OIL - all keywords relating to fish oil
EPA - all keywords relating to EPA (the most important ingredient of fish oil)
OMEGA 3 - All keywords relating to Omega-3
MIXED - Mixed terms relating to all above

If you are very serious about maximising your profits and really giving AdWords good shot, you will need to do this for every product or service that you are advertising. Keep it organised, clean and laser targeted!

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14. Optimise all of your Ad including your URL
Lets say for example you were selling golf clubs. Think about which URL looks better:

www.sportsshop.com/asp.369£0-/lop0-9823309877654/4/a/098665
SportsShop.com/GolfClubs

You also need to remember that the ad copy is what is going to make people click through, so make sure it is keyword rich and appealing In a display URL on AdWords, the domain name (www.sportsshop.com) must exist, but the extension (/golfclubs) does not need to exist, so use it as another opportunity to state your keywords and tell your users that you have a whole section on this topic.

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15. Avoid your home page as your landing page
The landing page is the page that the person who clicked on your ad will see when they come through to your site. Don't use your homepage as your landing page unless it deals only with selling the product you're advertising. For instance, if you're selling posters, have a landing page for 'flower' posters and a landing page for 'car'. You can even go one better and have a landing page for each poster - so you'll have a page for 'sunflower posters' and 'bmw 5 series posters'.

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16. Track conversions
This could actually be the biggest key to helping you increase your AdWord profits, if you don't know which words are turning into conversions then you are on a loser right from the word go! Just because an ad has a high CTR doesn't mean that it is making you money! How would you know if you are not tracking it? You can use Google's own conversion tracking codes, or you can use your own software. Use Googles as it will be easier! You need to know which keywords are performing so you can put more money there and switch off words that are not getting you conversions and are wasting your money.

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17. Work out your cost per sale
Why is this important? If it is costing you $20 to gain a sale and the profit on that sale is only $15, then you are losing money! Tracking your cost per sale is easy if you have the Google tracking code inserted on your site as Google work this out for you and display the result in the cost/conversion box on your account.

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18. Don't enter into bidding wars
It is easy to get into bidding wars with your competitors. You want to be number one and so does your competitor. The best thing to do is to take a step back, ten deep breaths and consider how important it really is to be in the number one spot. If you can justify it, fine but otherwise: let your competitor be number one, sit in the number two slot and wait. If you have a better product, your click-through rate will get you to the top - and you'll still be paying the same as you were in the second position.

More and more people are using automated bidding software. This software will update at a set interval to keep the ad in the desired position. Doing battle with this kind of software is even more frustrating and less rewarding than trying to outbid a competitor. Bidding software that targets a certain position can waste a lot of money. You can be cleverer than that by working out your ROI and therefore your optimum bid price.

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19. Use GeoTargeting for local campaigns
If you are running an Ad Campaign targeting certain geographical areas for example 'golf course repairs in Florida', make sure you use the GeoTargeting option. This will save you a lot of money on useless clicks and help speed your progress toward successful conversions and, ultimately, sales.

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20. Double-up when GeoTargeting
When running GeoTargeting, always mirror the campaign with a non-GeoTargeted equivalent with place names in the keywords. For example, for a Manchester-based IT company, run 'IT Company' as a keyword in a campaign targeted to Manchester, and run a country-wide campaign including the keyword 'IT Company Manchester'.

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21. Keep a close eye on your competitors
There shouldn't be any need for this if you are running a highly organised AdWords account that is using statistics, facts and tracking rather than guessing! If you are doing all of this it is you they need to be worried about.

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22. Do not duplicate your keywords in other Ad Groups
Google only shows one keyword per advertiser so there is absolutely no need to go and put the same keyword across all your ad groups.

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23. Keep keywords relevant to your site to maximise profits
You can waste a lot of money by putting up keywords that are not particularly relevant to your site in the hope that it might get you a sale. For example, if someone is looking for the Toronto Blue Jays and your ad pops up saying 'Toronto Blue Jays right here' and your site is selling baseball equipment, it's is as pointless as piles.

It's more than likely they'll click off your site to try and find out whatever it was about the Blue Jays they were trying to find. Be relevant and the click throughs you receive will be more fruitful.

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24. Take advantage of keyword matching options
With some keywords, you will get more ad impressions. With others, you will get fewer impressions, but potentially more clicks. By strategically using keyword matching options, you can reach the most appropriate prospects, potentially reduce your actual CPC or CPM, and increase your ROI. For example, use negative keywords to reduce irrelevant ad impressions and increase your quality score.

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25. Don't get emotionally attached to keywords
Judge every keyword on its conversions. If your boss says "we need to be number 1 for widgets" show him the data on the cost and return. Coming further down will make sure you are shown more regularly throughout the day for less; wider exposure at a cheaper price.

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26. Download AdWords Editor to make mass changes quickly and easily
It really is as simple as that, visit: http://www.google.com/adwordseditor/ If you are following this guide then AdWords Editor is essential. Using it will change your life!

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27. Install Google Analytics
It's free and it can tell you a great deal about your site. This is particularly useful when it comes to finding out what people are doing when they get to your landing page(s).

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28. Use capital letters wisely
Capitalize the first letter of each word of your ad. Also try to include words that people will love in your ad, or even in the URL, whenever possible. Try to use words like: Free, Special, Strong and Quality, and aim to capitalise them every time. I call these trigger words because they make people more likely to click your ad.

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29. Use numbers in your Ad
An easy trick. Numbers like 10% off or From $19.99 catch the eye.

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30. Use the dynamic keyword feature
This handy feature will allow you to get your keywords into the ad title. This has the great effect of making people more likely to click your ads! However, be sure to add some alternative text in case the search term exceeds the maximum headline length Google allow for ads, or the ad will be shown without a heading. Not good!