32 Useful AdWords Tips for Intermediate to Experienced Users

This is by no means a definitive list. Here are just some straight forward tips that I have learned over the years from experience with pay-per-click, AdWords in particular, as well techniques I have learned from gurus’ books and newsletters.

I am not merely repeating a combined list. These are in my words, and in no particular order. I believe in all of these and am currently using or have used these techniques in the past for multiple client accounts.

Some of these might require more explanation, which you are welcome to ask for here.
Each are split into categories that should help for reference.


Improving CTR & Conversions

1.) Use the core/parent adgroup keyword three times in the ad text and display URL.

2.) Bid on all three match types for every keyword/keyphrase: broad, phrase, and exact.
(This will get you more clicks for your money).

3.) Bid higher on terms that have been converting well.

4.) If continual ad performance improvement is one of your goals, on campaign settings, change Ad Serving to “Rotate: Show ads more evenly” from the default “Optimize: Show better performing ads more often. Then A/B split test your ads.

5.) Sign up for LowerYourBidPrice’s Winner Alert’s, letting you know which ad wins statistically without having to manually check every adgroup all day long.

6.) Use a relevant call to action in your ads (Avoid clichés such as “Click here.” which won’t be approved by Google anyway).

7.) Here are 13 calls to action verbiage ideas: Browse our store, Submit Your RFP (RFI), See our client list, Free Shipping, Order today, ship tonight. Download our brochure, Free Consultation, Free demo, Free quote, Free Report, Start now, Call 24/7.

8.) Make ad display URLs more relevant by adding a slash /keyword. Example Keyword: Red Shoes. www.companyname/redshoes.

9.) Make separate ad groups for keyword plurals for better bolding (note YSM bolds plurals in ads, Google does not, unless keyword is plural and keyword in ad is plural).

10.) Use prices in ads if:
-Lower than competition
-Competitors are not using prices.
-You are selling highly competitive commodity item in which people shop on price.

*May reduce CTR, but improve conversion rate by weeding out a certain percentage of non-buyers.

11.) Use specifics in ads: Percentages, names, product specs. Examples: Raise profits by 25%. Cut margins by 20%. Decrease skin oil by 10%.

12.) Use quotes & third party endorsements when factual and can be verified by Google. Ebert “Best movie 2007.” Oprah “My top five book.”


13.) From time to time use hyphens instead of commas as a slightly less common, and possibly more attention grabbing grammar tool.

14.) Use the words New and Free when true and appropriate.


Account Efficiency Techniques and Time Savers

15.) Download the AdWords Editor to copy and paste campaigns and adgroups easily (a must before doing #16)

16.) Separate & duplicate all campaigns and use one for Google + search partners and the other for the content network so you can see how each is doing from quick bird’s eye view without having to drill into each campaign.

17.) Clean out account of keywords with zero impressions after two months.

18.) Cross channel all other ppc platforms in order to see clicks and conversions from Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, Miva, Business.com, etc, all from your AdWords interface.

19.) Download account info into a csv using the AdWords Editor and send it to Yahoo! and MSN so they can bulk upload it. Do this after thoroughly optimizing the account, so your other ppc platforms mirror the same structure and keywords as your efficient AdWords account.

**Yahoo! is doing this for free just for a limited time because of the platform change. They will accept bulk uploads regularly if you spend 6k a month for three months. MSN only offers you one chance to do this. Give them a call and get the details.


Optimizing & Cutting Untargeted/Wasted Clicks

20.) Incorporate account wide and adgroup negative keywords by studying raw query strings which trigger your ads and eliminating non-relevant terms.


Increase Targeted Local Traffic

21.) For every campaign, duplicate it. Have one campaign that is manually geo-targeted for generic key terms/phrases and the other campaign for the same terms but with city and/or state added to the beginning or end. Example, one campaign has an adgroup for the key phrase Contract lawyer dallas which shows to all of US, another campaign adgroup had the generic key term contract lawyer, but will only show in Dallas.

22.) On the city/state stemmed keyword campaigns and adroups, use the state or city terms in the ad description text for more bolding and higher CTR.

Decreasing Cost Per Click

23.) If working with a larger budget, and you plan on constantly improving your ads, bid high to be #1 long enough to allow quality score to continually decrease your cpc.

24.) Enable content bids and bid separately for the content network. Typically start ½ - 2/3 lower and bid higher according to conversion rate.

Ad Space Savers

25.) Instead of using the word “and” use an ampersand (&). It takes up two less characters and gives you more room to sell.

26.) Use certain understood and acceptable abbreviations to save space.

Using AdWords As Market Research for SEO

27.) In the Reports tab, run a keyword report and look at high search impressions (not content targeting) on exact matches. Check for organic competition under those, and put your organic SEO efforts toward those keywords for even more clicks and conversions.

28.) Use a savvy analytics supplement to GA and study the raw query strings (GA does not show without special scripts and/or filters) that triggered your Google ads. Use the relevant buffering terms for added SEO as well as specific and relevant keywords for new ads.

29.) Keep ads running even when high on organic search for specific keywords. Having an organic listing and an ad has a 1 + 1 = 3 reinforcing each other and increasing the likelihood at least one will be clicked.

Miscellaneous No Brainers

30.) Set up at least two conversion codes. This is a no brainier and belongs on a beginner’s list. If you don’t do this, you are flying blind or basing results on the “gut feeling” email leads and incoming calls are coming from ads and web presence.

31.) Apply for pay-per-action and use it. Bid according to how
much you are currently paying for leads. If you don’t know that, run a keyword report and find out how much you have to spend before a click turns into a lead. This should be simple if you have your conversion codes set up.

32.) Progress through numbers 1-31, constantly improve, and repeat.

 

excellent!

thx a lot

 

Great little guide you got there...

Here my tip...

Treat adwords as if it were a business where you had to run at a profit or face bankruptcy.

Josiah

 

Nice tip! This is true. If one figures out what is the highest price he/she can pay per click while still making a profit and never goes above (no matter how much their ego wants to take over to "beat out the other guy"). This # could be different for any one keyword, it could even be different for the match type of the same keyword.

This is why users should always know exactly how much a visitor, lead, contact submission, email, phone call is worth to them -- aka visitor value.

More Info on Visitor Value.

 

Excellent Post ! I got some ideas from it and I needed that.

 

I love this post. I am very new to Google Adwords and am like a sponge absorbing as much info as I can on the subject. So coming across this topic was pure gold!

Cheers

 

Hey actually nice effort you have put down to get all the info.
It will definitely help while working.

 

Agree with some of these, disagree with some more, and some of them are often true but not always...

1) Repeating the keyword may improve your QS, but often you'll get more success with a strong call-to-action or by highlighting your USP's. Certainly worth a try, but doesn't always work (what does?).

2) Definitely not true all of the time - Broad Match uses expanded matching nowadays, and some of the traffic you get can be terrible. Like 1), definitely worth trying, but be careful...

3) Often true, but you should be looking at cost per conversion, rather than the conversion rate. Higher bid = more traffic, but if every click is costing more, this may not lead to higher profits...

4) Definitely agree, though I can't think of a single situation where somebody would want to not test...

5) Wrote a blog on this one (http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/...–-is-statistical-significance-over-rated.html) suggesting that you may not want to wait for statistical significance. Just my opinion, but I think it makes sense...

6) Yep!

7) Useful - Could be worth a thread of it's own? I'm sure there are plenty of good ones...

8) Agree with you - usually the keyword is a good idea, as it's emboldened...

9) I agree (and I have the feeling it improves your QS as well, though I'm not totally certain).

10) Good call.

11) Yarp. It should improve your conversion rate, even if your clickthrough rate suffers a bit, which is definitely worth it.

12 - 15) Yep.

16) Lost me on that one...

17) I generally do, though that's more for neatness than anything else. Shouldn't impact the campaign...

18) Yep.

19) Not a bad start point for a campaign moving to a new network, though they tend to perform a bit differently, and this will rule out keywords that perform on YSM but not Google...

20) Yes.

21) Not sure that I agree with this one - a search from Dallas will show results from all over the place, and you want to make it clear that you're local...

23) No. Why bid over the odds and make a loss? Experiment, bid the amount that makes you the most money, then improve your QS over time...

24) Don't agree with this particularly - I've often found the Content Network outperforms the Search Network even with the same bids - you have to experiment...

25 - 27) Yep.

29) Don't agree: 1 + 1 = 1.5 sometimes, particularly on brand names. If somebody's looking for you, and you aren't on PPC, they'll click on your natural result anyway...

30) Why two?

31) Why? I know what I'm doing, and I'd rather not give control of my campaign to a computer program.



Good post, though. A lot of useful tips for beginners who don't want to be beginners any more...

 

Hi Guys , u said use "LowerYourBidPrice’s Winner Alert’s" wheres that link can some one pm me ... or explain it here if there's some like me dont know the meaning as well

 

Excellent tips ! Just a excellent one... hope i will see more tips...

@ armond probably you are looking for this one

http://www.loweryourbidprice.com/affiliatemanager.php

 

Very good list. Thanks for the information.

 

Yeah, decided not to go into the exceptions, disclaimers, and too much info on each, or the post would be a mile long. Thank you very much for adding, affirming, and explaining more to the community on these tips.

Neil

 

I will learn your instructions very carefullly.
Msi

 

I say try them and see what works for your site.

 

Seostew--
Solid post. Well-written and succinct. A real valuable asset to this forum. Millions of rep points for you.

flip

 

Thank you very much.

 

Excellent list... and check this out:

If you've got the same search query for all three matches (broad, phrase, exact), I'll bet most of the cheaper clicks come from phrase match.

Check it out.

 

You know it! : ) I still don't want to miss out on the broad and exact matches if they are converting well enough and still making a profit for my clients. Oddly, exact match is usually the most expensive too.

 

Exact match is usually more expensive: I agree with that...
But broad match means that more of negative keywords also needs to be added.

 

You're right about that too. Always mind your raw query strings and add your negative keywords regularly for those broad matched terms. Don't trust what Google considers an "expanded match" that triggers your ads. Unfortunately, the best way to get your negative keywords is after you have already paid for it and can see the click. That is, after always starting off by placing the obvious ones.

Here is more on finding your negative keywords.

http://forums.seochat.com/showpost.php?p=424303&postcount=3