Getting More From Google Adwords
n tougher times, Google AdWords can be a saving grace for many small to medium businesses. Often times, inexperience or a short trial period can lead business owners and marketers to conclude that it is "too expensive," while in fact in almost every case AdWords is one of the most cost effective ways to get new business. How to get more from Google AdWords:
Content Network
While there is gold in here, the content network takes some time to get right, so if you haven't spent much time on this yet, turn it off for now.
Many customers with un-maintained accounts will have half of their monthly spend going here, with almost nothing coming back in terms of revenue.
This is worth spending some time on, but takes a little time.
Targeted Landing Pages
For every keyword group there should be a targeted landing page that is relevant, adds value to that person and has a clear call to action - a form-fill.
Landing pages must:
1. get a person to stay for 5 seconds and not immediately bounce or hit the back button (is this what I'm looking for?)
2. Get a person to read and receive some value or information about the information they are looking for. (is this helping me solve my problem, further my investigation, find deals.. etc..)
3. Give them a clear reason to proceed with giving you their information - (get a free report, receive our product catalog, book now etc..)
Geo-Targeting
Consider narrowing your focus to areas where your products or services have had some success. Perhaps cities, or perhaps specific cities.
Also, consider building custom landing pages with testimonials etc that target those regions specifically.
Tweak Your Keyword Matching Strategies
If your click-throughs are very low,you may want to limit your broad matching strategies or use negative keywords like (-free) this means you're not paying for visitors that are looking for "free blue bicycles" or any combination of your search and the word free.
Increase Your Quality Score by ditching low CTR campaigns and Increasing Landing Page Quality
CTR means click-through-rate, and if your campaign is below 1% it means that google is likely going to penalize you for having poor relevance. There are a few reasons for this 1. google makes less money from you 2. most importantly google users are voting with their clicks and saying 'that's not what I'm looking for" and if that happens enough, they won't trust the "sponsored links" section anymore.