I would appreciate if anyone could give a brief step by step guide on how to optimise my adwords campaign. Although, I know it must be difficult to give away your "secrets", I am no match for you guys. They have recommended this book 'Definitive Guide to Google AdWords' but it feels to me that it covers only the basics. In other words, I would like to know how you SEO Experts like you go about optimizing the campaigns... I would understand you don't want to share this. I thought it was worth asking for it. thanks anyway krilin
You know what? I bet the gurus all follow everything that Perry Marshall says in his Definitive Guide! If you're dismissing it as "only the basics," I've no idea of what you want. There's nothing that's as complete or authoritative. I suspect you're looking for some quick fix, some Five Easy (overnight) Steps, or some such magic formula. But if you've really read and taken in what Perry says, you just have to recognize that there's no such road to success with AdWords. It's a case of try, try, try again until you've got it right. And Perry tells you every damn thing you need to know to get there! Duncan
I haven't used AdWord a lot, but I don't see what the big secret is all about. To me there are 3 steps or stages to a successful AdWords Campaign. And in the end the only way to measure sucess is ROI or return on investment. If you don't make 3, 4 or 5 times as much profit as your AdWord cost you aren't getting a decent Return On your Investment. If you only break even or worse yet loose money then you are doing all this work just to make a profit for Google. So the steps are: 1. Choose your relevant keywords. Google will make a lot of suggestion. If you are selling internationally look for non American spelling. Again Google will help you with this. Some of the big AdWord players I know claim that you should use a large number of Keywords. Once your campaign starts you can quickly see which keyword are converting to click throughs and you can adjust accordingly. 2. Write your ads very carefully. You only have a little space so you need to use it well. Usually some call to action should be included, like "Buy Now". What you should do is always use at least 5 different versions of your ad. Then every few weeks throw away the 2 worst performing ads and write 2 more. This way you will eventually fine tune your ads for the highest CTR, or conversion. 3. The ads only bring people to your web site. You won't make any profit unless those people buy your products or services. So in the end it is the conversion rate of visitors on your site that matters. Set up as much detailed tracking as you can. Try and determine where each visitors comes from and what the visitors that are coming to your site via AdWords are doing once they arrive on your site. If you are making $X per day from your site now and add AdWords to your marketing mix remember to subtract what you are making now from your sales once you start using adwords. This is important if you are going to calculate an accurate ROI on your AdWord's cost. I suppose I missed a step relative to determining how to set the maximum you will pay for an ad. But if you want your ads displayed often and reasonably near the top then you are pretty well forced to set your maximum close to what other are paying. You can determine that by looking at Google's forecast of click throughs and daily cost at different maximum ad prices. I feel that Google provides all the tools you need. The process is one of common sense and careful trial and error and fine tuning. I don't think there is any magic formula or secret processes.
The number one thing is work on the presentation of your sites. Make sure that when someone comes to your site they can definitely see the "Buy Now" button and all the reasons to buy. Once that is done, then follow the steps Bob listed.
Bob, Everytime I have some doubts, you always provide easy to understand and to easy to implement advice. Again many thanks, Krilin
Contact me if you would like more info on adwords and how it can help you without spending tons of money.