Make it Count with AdWords

How do businesses make them themselves heard online? Simply by having a presence and some form of content. But businesses would also need to draw attention and advertise themselves to be heard amidst the cacophony of the digital world. That is when Google AdWords comes into the picture. Simply put, Google AdWords is a service that Google has for brands and businesses wishing to display their advertising on Google and its network.

How does AdWords work?

Google AdWords fetches traffic to users by way of a pay per click or PPC method. The right use of keywords will bring more conversion to sales. Each time a user searches something on Google, there is an AdWords auction. All advertisers who have keyword matches to the specific search are participants or competitors in the AdWords auction. It is the advertiser’s Ad Rank which determines the success of the competitor. The Quality Score (1-10) is another important aspect that helps you get clicks and conversions. It is the quality of your keywords/ads that help trigger a landing page.

You can easily check the Quality Score when you check your Keywords tab on your Google Adwords campaign. All you need to do is click on the bubble next to the keyword status. You can see ratings for expected rate of clickthrough and relevance of ad.

So, how would you boost your AdWord campaigns?

No story on AdWords is ever complete without the mention of the longtail. It is this longtail keyword that wags your campaign, so focus on what it means to you. Identify sets of five or ten longtail keywords for the best ROI. Still wondering what longtail keywords are? They are the three-four-word-long phrases that are highly specific to your brand, product or service. However, short-tail keywords also have their benefits.

The long and short of keywords

You should use both short and long tail keywords, depending on the kind of traffic you want to drive to your site. If your aim is to drive a huge volume of traffic, you should use the short-tail keyword. But because the search volume is high, everybody tries to rank for short-tail keywords and there is a lot of competition. Another flipside to a short-tail keyword is the lack of specificity or targeted quality. If someone’s looking for movies, they may be looking for a movie player, a movie review, a theatre, bookings, or even movie rentals. You have huge competition, and some of the biggest names may come up first. Also, short-tail keywords are more expensive. Then, there is the low conversion rate. Though your traffic is high, only a couple of customers may convert.

Longtail keywords, on the other hand, are quiet performers and fetch you greater conversions. The traffic volumes are low, which may be bad for certain businesses and good for others. On the positive side, the competition is low. When you have a long-tail keyword like ‘Victorian wooden dressing table’ rather than just furniture, wooden furniture or even dressing tables, your ad ranking on a relevant search increases.

Make sure you have quality landing pages

Each visitor who got in through your PPC ads should land on a page that is engaging and of interest to the user. If your marketing campaign is instead getting visitors to come to your homepage and then getting the user to do all the hard work, then, you will miss out on conversions and engagement. Google AdWords also helps you create display ads that are location-specific. You can also tailor your ads in the local/regional languages so they are more appropriate for a specific location.

Grouping keywords in the right manner

Marketers should not use all keywords in one ad group and therefore display the same ad to everyone. Businesses should break up their services and products into separate groups and show ads specifically related to what people search for. Experts suggest that each ad group should not have over 20 keywords. If you have too many more than that, it is  means that your copy does not match the keyword being search as narrowly as you wanted it to be.

Get the ad positioning right

Have you ever noticed that most users never click the top position and instead click an ad that is possibly in the third to fifth place? The first two places might fetch branding and awareness, but the third to fifth might pique interest.

AdWords for mobile

In a world where mobile is set to dominate, and more and more people live, work and play on their smartphones, Google has now made it easy for businesses to boost their visibility on tablets and mobiles.

Google’s new announcement to keep pace with a mobile-first world

Keeping track of Google’s new announcements is very important for businesses. The latest announcement by Google hands over greater control to businesses so they can set bidding adjustments for every device type like mobile, desktop or tablet.

This change is yet to be rolled out, but when it comes, businesses can anchor their base bids to mobile, for instance and then proceed to set adjustments for tablet and desktop. This helps advertisers optimize marketing campaigns with more precision.

Google AdWords in a great tool to help businesses test their marketing smarts and break through the din of online advertising. It’s not rocket science, but common sense and a lot of testing. Once you crack it, see the clicks come through!