Get more from Google Adwords
Using pay-per-click advertising can be a cost effective way to drive targetted traffic to your Website. If you have a new Website which isn't ranking very well in the 'organic' search engine results yet using a service such as Google Adwords can help you get a good paid for position in the search engine listings.
How it works
Within 15 minutes of signing up for Google Adwords (www.google.co.uk/ads), you can have an advert appearing on Google. Simply write your advert, choose the keyphrases you want your advert to appear for and set your budget.
Choose keywords and phrases carefully
Focussing on keywords and phrases that are too broad will see your advertising budget being used up very quickly! In addition, you are likely to attract traffic that isn't necessarily very targetted to what you offer. Pick slightly more obscure or specific phrases. There will be less competition for them and you will end up paying less.
Use negative keywords
You can include negative keywords by including a keyword preceeded by the minus sign. For example, if you run a hotel and you dont want your advert to be shown to people looking for a 'cheap hotel', include the keyword '-cheap'. This means that anyone searching with the keyphrases you have chosen and including the word 'cheap', will not be shown your advert.
Use target pages
You dont have to send people who click on your advert to your home page. If you are promoting a particular product or service then take people to that page on your site. This has two advantages. Firstly, it saves people hunting through your site to find what they were looking for and secondly it enables you to optimise your landing page to relate to the advert (see next section).
Optimise your adverts and landing pages
This is one way to help reduce your cost per click. You need to make sure that both the content of your advert and the landing page are related to the keyphrases you are targetting. For example, if you were targetting the phrase holiday cottage Wales, you need to make sure this phrase is included at least once in your advert and that the landing page mentions the phrase several times too. Google uses the advert and landing page relevance to determine the 'quality' of the advert and a well optimised advertising campaign will cost you less to run.
Create multiple adverts
A good advert is punchy, well optimised and entices the reader to click through to your site. Google offers the option to create several adverts which are then rotated. Google will then show the best performing advert more often in order for you to get more click throughs.
Create multiple campaigns
Creating multiple campaigns is the one thing that someone new to Google Adwords rarely does. However, it is an important technique to keeping your costs down and your click through rate high. It is impossible to target a whole raft of keyphrases and expect the advert and landing page to be optimised for all of the phrases. Creating separate campaigns enables you to create product or service focussed pages that link through to several different pages.
Set an affordable budget
It sounds obvious but this is one of the most important things to do that is sometimes done carelessly. You can set a daily budget from £1 so make sure you choose a daily limit you can afford.
Monitor and measure success
You need to make sure you keep an eye on your campaign to see how it is performing. A neglected campaign can easily run away with itself and cost you money without creating any sales or enquiries. Use a statistical package like Google Analytics (www.google.co.uk/analytics) to see where your traffic is coming from and whether your Google Adwords clicks are staying on your site or just leaving straight away.
We hope you find these tips useful. InSynch manage pay-per-click campaigns for businesses. Please click here to find out more.