Hi, I would like to share with you some hints and tips with Google Adwords. My apologies if these are known to you, but if your new they will help you. These tips will help you create ads that generate higher click through rates, and lower cost per click. 1. Target The Right Audience Target the right audience by selecting the language and countries that you want to target. For example, I exclude all countries where English is not understood by a large percentage of the population. 2. Refine Your Keywords Use square brackets '[...]' around your keyword's. For example... [google] [google adwords] Your ad will only show when the search is for the exact keyword phrase you have included within the brackets. The ad will not show for searches that include other keywords. In our example, this would be for searches such as 'google search,' or 'google news.' 3. Test Multiple Ads Simultaneously Always test 2 (or more) ads simultaneously. This is what is known in the print industry as an A/B split test. Find out which one produces the higher click through ratio. Then replace the weaker performing ad with a new one. Continue this process in your never-ending quest to get the highest click through ratio possible. More tmrw Cheers Scot
Hello Scott, I agree with you on tips #1 and #3, but not on tip #2... ... Believe it or not, [exact matching] is actually more expensive than broad match or "phrase match". Try it out... take your keyword trigger phrase and submit it with all 3 options (Google says this is perfectly okay). For example, if your search query is: mp3 search engines Submit it as: mp3 search engines <-- this is broad match "mp3 search engines" <-- this is phrase match [mp3 search engines] <-- this is exact match Once you get some clickthrus, sort the Google Adwords' report by keyword and then look to the right at each cost per click... usually, exact match is the most expensive. You'd think it would be the least expensive -- this is a recent change. These days, exact match is "dead to me". Are you finding the same?
Nicely explained Mr. Markus. I also disagree with point #2, as it is not necessary that every keyword needs to be made exact match fot better number of conversions.
You should always use exact match, but phrase match and broad match are usually worth a try, as they can help you hit the 'long tail', which generates cheap, highly targeted traffic (sometimes). Just watch out for irrelevant 'expanded matching' on the broad match...
[exact match] is still the best converting and highest CTR for me. Always has been - you are targeting the exact user search and your ad can better reflect the search not to mention the exact search appearing in bold. Check out this free Google Adwords guide - no strings - just some enbedded ads for keyword elite.
It all depends on how complete your keyword list is, and what sort of expanded matches you're getting. Phrase Match will work better if you've missed some good phrases on exact match - in fact, if Phrase Match is working well, it's a good indication that you've missed some keywords! Broad Match can give some very good results, if the expanded matching comes up with good keywords (although what I said about Phrase Matching is true here, as well). Or it can be completely irrelevant traffic...
Jimbob -- love your username... ... And I agree with you 100% -- [exact match] will almost always be the best converting/highest CTR (click thru rate). But my clients care mostly about ROI. Specifically, I watch their "Cost/Conv." (a.k.a. the cost to acquire a new customer) like a hawk. For example, take a look at this: Now while it's a bit too early to start dancing a jig (I just picked up this client about a week ago), the initial acquistion costs are quite promising. I highlighted my work -- it's the campaign that's at $10.50 cost per sale. That's 1/6th the average acquistion costs on the account. What's my secret? Actually, I'm employing just a few... but the big secret is I only run "phrase match" on the account. (The other big secret is I will ultimately have 50 test ad variations running -- that's why my clickthru rate isn't as high as it will be a few weeks from now). If you're into branding or bragging -- yes, [exact match] is the way to go. But if you're militant about ROI, I highly suggest you test "phrase match" instead. Do you track acquistion costs? If so, are you seeing the same with "phrase match" vs. [exact match] like I am?
The big question is can you produce significant volume at that cost per conversion? I've seen similar stats in accounts and the issue usually boils down to a campaigns ability to scale.
Great debate guys...and positive comments from all. Its what ever works best for you...all we are doing is sharing knowledge...Myself I do prefer the exact match Cheers Scot
Hi Markus (MarketingJunkie) - Love your name too ;0) ROI is definitely the most important feature of my clients campaigns. I also have around 20 different ad variations for each campaign which I leave on even rotation until the best ad starts to show itself, then switch to showing the best ads with highest CTR and conversion rates. I also separate campaigns into [exact match] and "phrase match" so I can see the differences. regarding exact match - It really does depend on what type of keywords and market you are targeting. Some products are known by one brand type so exact match works great for this. Other are more general and phrase match can come in. My methods for making exact match work involve researching virtually ever permutation of the keywords and market involved - I would generally hope to catch around 80% of possible searches using exact match. And in that way only 15% of searches would come from phrase match. Good conversion stats btw - but ealry days yet ..