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Basic AdWords Optimization Strategies
Google AdWords Optimization means modifying an AdWords account to improve its quality and performance. It can involve a few minor tweaks or large-scale reorganization.
What you can do to optimize an AdWords account:
- Add, re-group, or delete keywords
- Add negative keywords
- Refine ad text
- Change landing pages or destination URLs
- Adjust maximum CPC bids
- Change campaign settings
Why do you want to optimize your AdWords account?
You optimize to optimize to improve performance and maximize profits:
- Branding: Increase visibility and traffic
- Ads Quality: Increase CTRs and lower CPC
- Return On Investment (ROI): Lower CPA or boost sale
- Manageability: Build account for scability and visibility
Things to do before you optimize your AdWords account:
(1) Assess Your Industry
- Know where you fit in the grand scheme
- Understand the competitive landscape
- Define what differentiates your business
- Identify industry trends and the effect of seasonality
(2) Assess Your Audience
- Understand your customer base
- Know what your customers want
- Know where your customers are
- Understand your customers’ buying cycle
(3) Assess Your Website
- Know how users interact with your website
- Maximize user experience – Is your website is visually appealing? Is your website easy to use?
(4) Define Your Goals
- What are your desired results?
- How will you prioritize campaigns?
STRUCTURAL OPTIMIZATION
- Do make sure that ad groups contain a central theme
- Do be specific
- Do suggest descriptive names for ads/campaigns
- Do create ad groups for individual products or services
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with different structures
- Don’t mix keyword themes
ACCOUNT ORGANIZATION
(1) Account Level
- Contact info and password
- Billing information
- Account preferences
(2) Campaign Level
- Daily budget
- Distribution preferences
- Scheduling preferences
- Language targeting
- Regional targeting
- Start and end dates
(3) Ad Group Level
- Ad text creatives
- Landing pages
- Maximum CPC bids
- One set of keywords
(4) Keyword Level
- Individual terms
- Matching options
Structural Optimization Benefits
- Allows highly targeted ad text, resulting in higher performance and overall relevancy
- Qick expansion with new products/services
- Allows seasonal promotions
- Improves ROI and conversion tracking
- Allows indentification of high performing keywords and products
KEYWORD OPTIMIZATION
- Do add all singular/plural variations
- Do add all relevant keyword variations
- Do add negative keywords
- Do refine or eliminate non-performing keywords
- Do expand on successful keywords
- Don’t add irrelevant terms
- Don’t add very general terms
- Try to keep keywords focused on a central theme
- General tip for keyword relevancu: “Would a reasonable person searching on this keyword term find my ad potentially relevant?
AD TEXT OPTIMIZATION
- Do think about the type of user searching on Google and write ads to catch user’s attention
- Do reflect keyword concept in the ad
- Do try to use emotional messaging
- Do use keywords in ads
- Do test multiple ads (questions, unique phone numbers, etc)
- Don’t use generic language of landing pages
- Don’t make your ads like everyone else – differentiate from other advertisers
Advanced AdWords Optimization Strategies
