Google makes Adwords very accessible to set up, which masks the fact that it’s incredibly complex.

After looking under the hood at 100’s of Adwords accounts, I’ve seen a number of extremely common mistakes that can be avoided by being a bit more knowledgeable and proactive.

This is by no means a complete “how-to” but will highlight a few of the areas that can make a big difference.

Rather than a formal presentation, we’ll dig right into the topics we’re talking about…

Leveraging the Keyword Tool

Intent based Keywords

Ad Group Strategies

Modified Broad Match as a research tool

The Search Query Report

Negative Keywords

Phrase & Exact Match

Quality Score, Average Position & Clickthrough Rates

Landing Pages

Conversion Tracking

Month Over Month Tracking

Common Sense!

Find relevant keywords

Narrow them down by intent

Group them strategically

Broad match can kill campaigns!

Modified broad match gives keyword variety but great focus and can migrate towards other matches (we’ll cover this shortly).

With modified broad, any keyword with a + before it MUST be in the search query, allowing you to ensure relevant matches.

The most valuable report in Adwords (that nobody uses).

Shows what people are actually typing into Google to trigger your ads (similar, but can be vastly different than what you’re bidding on).

Just what they sound like.

You can add anything irrelevant that turns up in your Search Query report or proactively add them.

Having a higher quality score and higher clickthrough rate (CTR) can raise your position and reduce click costs (Google rewards relevance and performance). Focus on: ◦ Narrow ad groups.

◦ Relevant, compelling ads (keep your ad groups narrow enough that you can include your keywords in your ads.

◦ Ad testing to boost clickthrough.

Targeting a page to exactly what a visitor wants and needs (as determined by their search query) through landing pages is a tactic used by almost all successful advertisers in competitive markets.

Track what it is you want the ad to accomplish, by ad & keyword!

Compare it month over month to identify what’s working (and not working)

Ridiculously powerful tool for long term improvement.

Hidden for client privacy reasons

You need to take responsibility for the end to end process and use common sense to make things work: ◦ Does the offer match the audience

◦ Is your landing page or website set up to convert?

◦ You can’t leave anything to chance!

Important but not covered: ◦ Ads & ad testing

◦ Landing page testing

Questions, Comments? Get me at Rob@PlusROI.com