The 7 Best Adwords Tips Ever

I see lots of AdWords accounts, and want to share a few tips that will make your account perform much better in the future!

1. Always run Display and search separate
The two way of advertisement is VERY different from each other. To many just start up, with both mixed together. The ROI is not the same, so the max cpc should not be the same either. Also the user is in very different situations:
Ssearch: they are looking and you just have to say "Hey we have what you look for"
Display: You are disturbing, you have to get their intention "Hey you need this"

So - split it into different campaigns.

2. Don't have all activity in one campaign and add group
The worst way of structuring AdWords - puke all in on group. AdWords is about relevance. When the user search for a Asus tablet, the dont want to see a generic campaign about you have electronic stuff. They want to see an add saying "The Asus tablet you are searching for? WE GOT IT". By structuring it good you can make relevant adds and landingpages related to the users search term.
This also helps you increase your Click through rate, which again gives you lower Cost per click (cpc).

3. Measure the results
Always measure the results. Use both AdWords conversion tracking to have the 30-day cookie results, and integrate with Google Analytics.

4. Don't just run broad match keywords
Oh my dear. To many use to broad keyword types. It cost soooo much. The better you match the keyword, also in match type, the cheaper you get the click. AND the quality score raises.
So make the goal: The amount of click from broad match has to be less than 20% of the accounts total. Exact match should get the most click, then phrase, and then broad.

5. Add negative keywords
When you use broad match or phrase your add are shown in many wrong searches. If you just have asus tablet, then it sucks big time to get the ad shown when users are searching for "Ipad tablet". So you have to add "ipad" and "apple" as negative keyword.

In that way you only get your add shown when it is relevant, and again: Higher CTR, Lower CPC.

6. Use Keyword details
Which keywords should be added? Which negative keyword should be added? Learn from the keyword details. You just go to your keywords, mark a broad keyword, and then click on "keyword details" on top of the table. Then you can see what the users actually searched for when the keyword where triggered. This is hot stuff. The best list ever to use to keyword ressearch!

7. Remember sitelinks
Sitelinks is the easiest quick win! It takes few minutes to add, and it will make you add so much more visible (if you are places in top 3). There is no excuse not adding sitelinks, so GO do it now!

This was my AdWords tips. Did you like them? Any comments?

 

I utilize most of those tips except for the sitelinks. You mean allowing Google to links your add with the mini site map below the ad, right? Have you seen increase in conversion that way? My worry is user will be distracted by site links and will not click on the ad but end up on a page to the site.

 

Thank you for your comment.
Regarding sitelinks, you are able to add the exact sitelinks you want. Again, if the user search for "asus tablet" you can promote 4 different tablets in the sitelinks, show the price and link directly to the product.

It increases the CTR, and i have only seen positive results by having these. The users are also able to come directly to products, so the conversionrate does not decrease.

 

In addition to running search and display separately, we also run mobile separate from desktop. We then gear the ad differently even though the keyword is the same.

 

Great post! Very informative so thank you for taking the time to share with us. I agree that sitelinks will surely help your CTRs due to the direct links to products - also they will help by simply drawing more attention to your ad because of the additional size of your add with the extra line of links. Great stuff! Thanks again!

 

great post really helpful i don't know about negative keywords and sitelinks in adowrds give some more detail about these topic.

 

Great post and good advice. I write adwords copy for an ad optimization agency and our goal is to improve CTR. What webanalytiker says about relevancy cannot be stressed enough. If you don't have high relevancy, then you will be spanked on cost per click. High relevancy = lower cost per click.

As for negative keywords. I recently did some research for a new client and discovered that they were spending over $800 a month on a keyword that was not relevant enough. They weren't getting massive click volumes but the cost was over $50.00 a click. Meanwhile, I found that their competitors were using low cost keywords that were not being utilized by the my client.

Negative keywords can stop that happening.

 

Very nice informative post... but I see you forgot one of the very best... that is of course after using the Googe Adwords study section... where they have it all... But the thing that I like the best, is the Youtube videos and there is over 800 by google staff alone... and I won't even guess how many there are by neohyte... and looky loos... but most of them do provide accurate information... every now and again some one is spouting bullsh...t but not very often.... Just goto google and search for site:youtube.com "adwords tutorials" and you will see thousands of videos... so many you will become lost.... so signup for a youtube account and you will be able to just click "Watch Later" and pick the ones you like and save them.. I got so darn many in my locker it will take me years to view them.. But especially pay close attention to those by the Google staff.. they are the real thing..

 

Great post. really helpful Thank you..

 

Great tips indeed. I can't agree more with "Don't just run broad match keywords". It wastes time and a large amount of money.

 

For my display campaigns I've found that broad terms are better performers and I am able to get my campaigns in the black fairly quickly. Have you had more success with broad terms are something more targeted? If so, did you use negative keywords?

 

Great post, these are all the main point which we have remembered while run a campaign.

 

I've done several test on sitelinks and found NOT using them works best for me. I do realize from talking to my Google rep that they do work with most people. Use this feature with caution!

 

i am new in Google Adwords and i got good tips from this post.

 

Thank you so much for great post.. Lots of useful info here. I am sending it to several friends also sharing in delicious. And of course, thank you for your effort!

 

Super post.

 

I also found this thread helpful. I have a couple of additional tips that might be helpful for new AdWords users.

1. I always suggest setting an end date for all your campaigns. You will get automatic emails from Google as the end date approaches so you can always extend the date and having an end date encourages you to monitor your account and keeps you involved instead of just forgeting about your campaigns and allowing them to continue to run up bills.

2. Install and use Google Analytics as soon as possible on your website so you can gather data as to the engagement of visitors to your website. This information can be very valuable so the longer you wait to install Analytics the more data is lost forever.

Also, when first starting an AdWords campaign, I do prefer phrase and exact match keywords to broad match, but I also include 1 or 2 broad match keywords in the beginning to cover for any keyword phrases I might have forgotten. After a few weeks I then use the search terms report to fill in any gaps in my keyword phrases and maybe to add some negative keywords.

 

To continue the theme of Sitelinks, whether they work or not, I have always been of the opinion that the more clickable real-estate you have in the SERPs the better.

Google have told me that they are planning a crack down to ensure that all sitelinks point to different deep-link URLs (what sitelinks are designed for really), but at the moment we're still using them to pull out different features of the same product - all the landing pages are the same, but we get to highlight up to 5 features rather than just one. I can't understand why they wouldn't work?

Also...a word of warning on Analytics - Opt out of Google getting to see you data. Google do offer great "free" tools, but many businesses are learning to their cost that Google are not their friends. Give them a window onto your business and they will learn your model (even better than you know it even the number of analysts they have) and use it against you. I don't blame them. When stock-holders are demanding double digit growth they don't have a choice, but just make sure it's not your business model that they are fueling their growth with!

 

Thanks for this, plus the replies. This is very informative.

 

thanks for your post!
It's very useful for me!