Google AdWords Secrets for the Local Business

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Table on ContentsWhat to Know Before Using Google AdWords for the First Time............................5

Keyword Search Basics.............................................................................................8

How to Write Effective Ads....................................................................................13

Best Practices for an Ad Landing Page...................................................................16

The Importance of Capturing Emails......................................................................19

Using Customer Match...........................................................................................21

The Importance of Using Google Analytics............................................................22

The Importance of Testing Ads in Google AdWords..............................................24

Conclusion..............................................................................................................26

Next Steps..............................................................................................................27

Recommended Resources......................................................................................28

What to Know Before Using Google AdWords for the First TimeEvery business needs to advertise and today, no matter the type of business, that also means advertising online. There are many ways to do it but one of the most effective by far is the use of Google AdWords. Google AdWords uses a pay-per-click (PPC) model in which the business owner only pays if a user clicks on their ad. It’s not only one of the most productive ways to bring in more traffic to a website, but one of the quickest ways to do it, too.

It’s true that there are horror stories online of people who have used Google AdWords only to spend their entire online advertising budget and see very little results. But in most cases, when Google AdWords is used properly, the benefits greatly outweigh the costs.

Business owners just have to know how to use it, and be armed with these key tips before using the platform for the first time. Many of these tips will be explained in greater detail further on in the report, but it’s important to become familiar with them even before you dive in.

Have a strategy in mind

Having a good strategy in mind is important for any advertising campaign, and this is true when using Google AdWords, too. So what does a good Google AdWords strategy involve? It actually includes many of the same things you’d include in any other type of marketing campaign.

An AdWords strategy should include defining your target market, what impact you want to have on potential customers, and what actions you want them to take after clicking on your ad. After your ad is up and running, you’ll also need to know how to measure and analyze your results in order to tell whether your ads are performing as well as they could be.

Set an appropriate budget

One of the greatest things about AdWords is that you get to set the budget. And while once in a while Google will tell you that you need to increase your budget, you don’t need to do it just because they said so. A higher budget will mean that more people will be likely to click on your ad, but like any

other campaign, you shouldn’t set a budget that’s higher than you can realistically make. And it’s important to remember that when you set a higher bid, you’ll also be paying more for each click than you would with a lower budget.

Before ever setting up an AdWords campaign, it’s important to know what your budget is before you start and, at least in the beginning, try not to deviate from it.

Have an idea of what keywords you want to use

Finding relevant keywords is crucial to any AdWords campaign. They’re so important that you’ll find an entire section devoted to them further in the report. But before you start really digging around and performing keyword research, you should already have an idea of what they are.

Keywords are simply the words potential customers will use when searching for your product, and they’re probably already words that you use within your business. Real estate agents for example, would use keywords such as ‘open house’ or ‘sell your home’.

You will find a Keyword Planner tool within Google AdWords to help you really pinpoint the ones you want to use, but before you even get started on that you’ll definitely want to have an idea of some that you want to use.

Make a dynamic landing page

A landing page is the page visitors and potential customers will be sent to after clicking on your ad. Many people make the homepage of their website their landing page for all ads, but that is a big mistake. There will be more on this later, but it’s important to know that if the landing page is confusing, lacks the appropriate information, or is difficult to navigate, all of the hard work you’ve put into your AdWords campaign will be wasted. A strong landing page is one that will lead to more conversions.

It’s not a one-time process

With other advertising strategies, you may just set up the campaign and then let it run. But that’s not how it works with AdWords. Even after a campaign is up and running, you’ll need to test different aspects of the

campaign, track the results, and regularly make changes to ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck. This can be discouraging to business owners that mistakenly believed that once their campaigns were running they’d be finished. And when they find out they’re not, they may not believe it’s worth the effort simply because they didn’t expect it.

Know going into AdWords that it’s an ongoing process; and if you want to get the most out of it, it’s not a one-shot deal. Be prepared to regularly check, analyze and changes things up such as the ad text and your bid amounts to make sure that you’ll get the most out of it.

Keyword Search BasicsKeywords are really the backbone of any AdWords campaign. Without them, customers would never see your ads and you wouldn’t even be able to bid (pay for your ads) because all of this is based on keywords. Essentially, without keywords, Google AdWords wouldn’t exist. This is how important they are, and why it’s so important business owners do some research on them before starting their AdWords campaign.

Keywords are really just the terms users and customers will use in their search queries. So if someone is looking for a store that sells video games, they may use the terms ‘video games’, ‘great video games, or ‘video games for Xbox’, to name just a few. While these might be some of the most obvious keywords a person would use, and therefore that an attorney would bid on in AdWords, there are other things to consider, too.

Think like a customer

Again, the keywords are the search terms your customers and visitors are going to use; so it makes sense to try and think like a customer when creating them. Think about the main categories of your business, and the terms a customer would use when searching for them. Write down the categories, the terms, and the phrases that you think customers would use. So if you’re a retailer that sells video games your keyword list may start with ‘video game stores’, ‘new video games’, and ‘used video games’.

Include general keywords

Selecting general keywords is good, because it will mean the ad reaches as many people as possible. But, there is also a downside to being general. The first is that it could lead to the ad being shown in search queries that aren’t really relevant to the business. General keywords will also cost the business owner more, because these terms will have higher bids and be bid on by more businesses.

Remember that while general keywords can reach more people, they can’t be too general, and they must still be relevant to the business. So while words like ‘great’ and ‘store’ can be used, they should never be used on

their own but rather be used in conjunction with other words as part of a key phrase.

But be specific, too

General keywords are good, and not including them on your list may actually prevent your ad from being seen by more people. But when you want to flesh out your keyword list, it’s important to get more specific, too. For the video game retailer, this might include things like ‘multiplayer video games’, ‘role-playing video games’, and ‘good quality video games’. Being specific can help narrow a search down and really target an ad to those that are looking for something very specific. However, being too specific is not good, as it can lead to an ad not being seen by a larger audience that could still benefit from the ad.

Choose the right amount

While you do need a list of keywords, it can be difficult to know how long that list should be. A general rule of thumb is to have 5 – 20 keywords, for each campaign or each theme that you’re using in your ads. Choosing fewer than five will mean that fewer people are seeing your ads, while having too many may mean that you’re paying too much for that lengthy list of words.

Negative keywords

Because keywords really are the backbone of Google AdWords, business owners are sometimes confused when they hear the term ‘negative keywords’. But this doesn’t mean using bad keywords or words that are actually negative. All it means is that negative keywords are words that you don’t want to trigger – or show – your ad. When you include negative keywords in your AdWords campaign, you can save money by making sure your ad is not needlessly shown.

So what are examples of negative keywords? Let’s go back to the campaign a video store retailer wants to run. A negative keyword that could be used is ‘free’, if the video store doesn’t offer free video games. When ‘free’ is chosen as a negative keyword, Google will not show the ad when a user has typed ‘free’ into their search query. This is beneficial to the business owner because without including that negative keyword, if the ad is shown a user may click on it. When they get to the landing page and see that all video

games have a price attached to them, they’ll get frustrated and leave to find another website.

While the video store retailer may not have lost actual business, because someone looking for free video games won’t spend money on them, they will have lost money in their AdWords campaign. Because the person clicked on the ad, the business owner will have to pay money for that click, even though they didn’t benefit from the click.

Use keyword grouping

Keyword grouping is an important but often overlooked part of using AdWords. Chances are that, after performing all of your keyword research, you’ll have a long list of the different keywords you want to use. This can make for a disorganized campaign that looks at multiple keywords that might include a broad range of topics.

By grouping the keywords, you can segment those keywords into words that are similar to each other; and you can even separate them into high-level, mid-level and low-level keywords. These groups can be further divided and segmented to target users even more specifically.

Once you have all of your groups and sub-groups, you can then write ads that are targeted just to that keyword, instead of trying to write an ad that includes or is related to all of your keywords. Remember, you can create as many ads as you’d like and have multiple campaigns running at one time. Keyword grouping helps you do this so you can reach more customers and give those customers and potential leads exactly what they’re looking for.

How to Bid on Keywords

Once you have your list of keywords, and perhaps even groups of keywords, you’ll then need to bid on them. Bidding on a keyword means that you’re telling Google how much you’re willing to spend on any one click and how much you’re willing to spend overall. If business owners are going to make a mistake in Google AdWords, it’s likely going to be the amount they bid on certain keywords. So how do you make sure you’re bidding effectively, while also making sure you’re not paying too much?

Determine your monthly budget, and then lower it

Start determining how much you want to bid on a keyword by determining how much you want to spend on it per month. Then, break it down by day. So if your budget is $500 for the month, your daily budget would be about $16 ($500 divided by 30 days in the month).

But the problem with this is that Google has the authority to surpass those daily limits by 20 percent, which means that the daily budget could be increased to almost $20 and your monthly budget could be increased to $600. So once your budget has been set, lower it by about 20 percent.

Determine the keywords you want to bid on

This is where your list of keywords comes in handy. While you likely want to bid on all of those keywords, the chances you’ll be able to are slim. So how do you determine which keywords to bid on?

The best way to do it is to use Google’s Keyword Planner. Here it will tell you the average cost per click of each of your keywords, and will help you determine how much you want to spend on each. So if one keyword is $10 per click and you have a $20 daily budget, you’ll only be able to get two clicks for that keyword. If there’s a keyword however that costs $2 per click, you’ll be able to get 10 clicks for that keyword.

This doesn’t mean that you should automatically choose the cheaper keyword; it only means that you’ll have a decision to make. If the more expensive keyword is worth it to you, then by all means you should bid on it.

If it isn’t though, bid on the less expensive keyword and get more bang for your buck.

Don’t worry too much about being #1

All business owners want their ad to be number one and in the top paid search listing. That’s natural. But it doesn’t actually hold the importance that many believe it does. Firstly, customers are likely going to scan through all those ads before clicking on any, and they’ll still click on your ad if that’s the one they like best and feel speaks to them the most.

But, that number one spot will still change throughout the course of the day, which is another very important reason for not focusing on that top spot. At the beginning of the day, no budget has been completely spent and so this is the time that your keywords and ads will face the most competition. But as the day continues on, a competitor’s budget may be completely spent and they’ll get knocked out of that top spot. Even though you had a lower initial bid, your ad will move up because the competition is no longer there for that keyword.

Because of this, during the first few days of your AdWords campaign, you should start with a lower bid. If it doesn’t get you the results you were hoping for, then increase the bid amount and see if your ad moves up throughout the day. In this case, you may even be able to bid less on that keyword and still get the desirable number of clicks.

How to Write Effective AdsKeywords are important but of course, if the actual ad reads as boring or ambiguous, there’s a good chance it’s not going to get clicked on. That means people will not be making their way to your website and you won’t be getting those conversions and sales you want. So, how do you write a great ad for AdWords?

Start by knowing the specs

Whether you’re going to be advertising in the local newspaper, on the radio, or even with a TV commercial, there are going to be specifications that need to be followed. The organization that will be running your ad needs to ensure that the ad will fit within the space or time they give you, and Google is no different when it comes to AdWords.

While the specs within AdWords certainly aren’t the most important thing in an AdWords campaign, if they aren’t followed, the ad will not be displayed. So it is important to know and follow them.

When it comes to the specs, an ad in AdWords is not given a lot of space. Even though Google has recently changed those specifications to allow for a few more characters, the amount of characters that can be used is still very small; which means that businesses need to make the very most out of the little space they do have.

The headline of an AdWords ad has been boosted to 30 characters, up from the 25 Google used to allow. Two headlines can be used, but neither can be longer than 30 characters. Under the headline a longer description line, or the actual ad, is displayed and these descriptions can include up to 80 characters, up from the two 35 character description lines Google used to allow.

Perhaps the biggest change Google has made may be to the relevant display URL; or the link people will see and be directed to when they click on an ad. These URLs used to be manually entered by the one making the ad. If the URL was mismatched between the display and the landing page URL, the ad wouldn’t be approved and wouldn’t be shown.

With the new changes however, the domain is automatically extracted from the final URL to ensure that it is accurate. The URL path can always be customized by the one creating the ad, but they won’t have to manually enter it, which means that there’s less of a chance that the ad will be denied by Google.

Tell readers what makes you unique

Every business has something that makes them unique; or at least they should. If you know what makes your business different from your competitors, AdWords is the place to showcase that. And if you don’t know what makes your business unique, it’s time to really study your business and determine what that is. Whether it’s that you’ll ship free, you have later hours, or you offer more variety than your competitors, make sure to tell your customers whatever it is that makes you different and then showcase it in your ads.

Include prices and promotions

Study after study has shown that people who search for a business in Google also use Google to make a decision in their purchases. In order to help them do this, include prices, promotions, and other offers that will increase the likelihood that they’ll click on your ad, visit your website, and make a purchase.

Solve their problem

Most people use or purchase from a business because they have a problem to solve. Maybe their lawn is looking a little shabby so they need a landscaping service. Or maybe they’re paying too much for their current landscaping service, so they’re looking for something new. Whatever it is, they have a problem; even as, in the above example, if that problem is that they like to play video games but they don’t have any new ones (it doesn’t have to be a big problem, after all). Whatever their problem is, your ad needs to show them that you are the one to solve it. This will pique their interest, getting them to click on your ad.

Tell them to take action

Calls to action are a big part of any marketing campaign, and your AdWords campaign needs them, too. That call to action might be to purchase something, call the company, place an order, sign up for an email list, get a quote, or something else that is your goal for the AdWords campaign. Make sure that you include this call to action within the ad, or tell them they’ll be able to do it after visiting your website.

Include at least one keyword

You’ve done all that hard work performing keyword research, but what’s the point if you don’t use them in the ad? Including the keyword will tell your audience what to expect and how your business can help; plus it tells Google those same things, so the search engine will know to display your ad when appropriate.

Use an appropriate URL

There will be more on landing pages in the next section, but they are important and it’s important to make sure they’re relevant. This means that if your ad is promoting the newest stock items that just came in, don’t take the reader to a landing page displaying clearance items you’re trying to get rid of. And if your ad is about how your company is known for the beautiful bathroom renovations it does, don’t take the visitor to a page about kitchen renovations. When the reader finds themselves on a page that has nothing to do with the ad, they’ll become frustrated, leave the website and search again. And when they do, they’ll be sure to steer clear of your website and business.

Best Practices for an Ad Landing PageGoogle has millions of ads to display every day, and it must have a way to sort them in order to ensure that the most relevant and useful ads will be shown first. One of the ways it does this is by evaluating an ad’s landing page experience and giving it a quality score. Landing page experience is Google’s way of measuring the experience people are going to have once they’ve clicked on an ad and are taken to the landing page – the page the ad sends them to.

After evaluating that experience, Google will then assign the ad a quality score. This quality score doesn’t only take into consideration a user’s landing page experience but also the relevance of the ad and the expected CTR (click-through rate). Each of these components will be given a score of below average, average, or above average. Once all of these components have been evaluated, the score will be determined on a scale of 1 to 10, with 6 being considered the average.

Ads that have a lower quality score won’t be displayed as often, if at all, and they will also have a higher CPC (cost per click).

But there’s another reason to make sure that the landing page for your ad is dynamic and useful to the user – you want that user to actually use it! The whole point of ads and landing pages is to get more customers through your door, on an email list, or calling your business and if the landing page you send them to frustrates them or confuses them, that’s not going to happen.

So, how do you get a great landing page that everyone who clicks on your ad will love?

Make sure its content is useful, relevant and original

A good place to start is to make sure that the landing page is directly relevant to the text in the ad and the keywords you used. After all, a person looking for real estate agents online isn’t going to want to be taken to a mortgage broker’s website. Although they may need that later on, they were looking for a real estate agent because they want a real estate agent. The landing page must be relevant to the keywords.

In addition to using keywords, the landing page must also provide useful information about the product or service that’s being advertised. It’s not enough to simply send users to a page that has a picture of the product with a sale sticker on it. Include as much information about the product as you can, and treat the click as you would someone walking through the door of your business. Give them as much information about what you’re selling as possible. It will make them more likely to buy it.

Lastly within this point, know when to be specific and when to be general. If someone clicked on an ad for a particular model of television for instance, they shouldn’t be taken to a page that has many different models that they’ll then have to sort through. But, if someone clicked on an ad boasting the variety of television models a retailer had, they probably want to be taken to a landing page that has all those models laid out instead of just showcasing one.

Be transparent

Online customers like to feel as though they know a business fairly well before they make a purchase from them. Because they don’t get the same sense of familiarity that they would when walking into a physical store location, seeing staff members, and getting a feel for the place, they like to have as much information about a business before buying from them online or even taking further action. Because of this, all businesses advertising online must be transparent in order to foster trust between them and their customers.

In order to do this, it’s important to share as much information about your business as you can with your customers. Make your contact information as visible as you can – it will at least tell customers where you’re from. Give them as much information as you can about your products and services, being sure to highlight what makes you different from your competitors. You can ask them to fill out a form, and in fact you should to capture their email address, but always tell the user why you want it, what you’re going to do with it, and that their privacy will be protected if they choose to share that information.

Have clear navigation

Nothing frustrates a user more than landing on a site and having to search for what they want. And if they do have to search, or they want to look around a little more after they see the content they want, it will still frustrate them if they have to spend a lot of time getting to that information that they want. To avoid this, make sure that the site is well organized with a design that clearly shows them the information they may want and how to get their quickly.

Even with a well-designed site that has clear navigation, you still have to make sure that there are no pop-ups or other features that will annoy customers. This won’t just irritate them it will also interfere with the navigation of the site. One great way to make navigation easier for the visitor is to place all of the most important information they might be looking for above the fold. This means placing it on the portion of the page they will be able to see without scrolling down at all.

Reduce your site’s loading time

Customers go online to search for products and services they need because they want to be able to do it as quickly as possible. If your site takes a long time to load, typically longer than three seconds, there’s a good chance they won’t wait for it. Instead they’ll leave and go to a competitor’s ad and website. And they’ll likely end up making a purchase from them instead of you.

It’s important to make sure that your site doesn’t just load quickly on desktop computers and laptops, but also on mobile devices. This is especially important for local businesses because the chances are that they’ll be searching for your business while they’re out in the neighborhood and on their smartphone.

Incorporate clear calls to action

The whole point of getting people to click on your ad is to make a conversion – or convert that interested person into someone that wants to make a purchase from you or take another action. In order to do that, you have to tell the buyer what action it is you want them to take. And that action should be clearly stated on the landing page. This is something you

definitely don’t want them to have to search for. Use a catchy phrase, as wording that is boring won’t be enough to get them to take action.

So what should the call to action be? It can be anything from signing up for a mailing list, calling the business, signing up for a report or checklist, or actually ordering the product or service. Keep in mind that while your end goal might be to get them to order the product, and they might even want your product, they don’t necessarily want to be sold to right after clicking your ad.

Showing them that you want to give them more information and help them in any way you can will make them more likely to make an order, but you’ll have the chance to do this after they’ve signed up to an email list or called your business for more information.

The Importance of Capturing EmailsWhen starting to use Google AdWords, many business owners wonder why they would offer a free report or entice potential customers to give them their email address by filling out a form. But while someone clicking on your ad could definitely result in them buying something, the chances are that they simply want more information. And if you give it to them, you increase your chances of making that sale, even if it’s not right away.

Remember, your ad – and your landing page – should build value for the customer, not the business. That’s the only way a sale is ever going to be made, after all. But that doesn’t mean that capturing emails doesn’t have any value for the business. When a business owner uses these email addresses to send out email responders, the business gets great value from them.

And as the business owner, you don’t even need to spend a lot of time writing and sending emails. An automated email responder is a great help in doing it for you. So what are the benefits you and your business will receive from capturing email addresses and sending out responder emails?

Stay in touch with potential customers

If potential customers don’t make a purchase immediately after clicking on your ad, the chances are that they’ll forget about the business and whatever you had to offer shortly after leaving your website. But if you have their email address, you can remind them about your offer and your business and stay at the top of mind.

Reach customers wherever they are

Multiple studies have shown that more than 50 percent of all emails are opened on mobile devices. That means that customers can open emails wherever they are, so the email reaches them in real-time. But in addition to grabbing the customer’s attention at the moment you want to, it’s also been proven that well-designed emails will get higher conversion rates when emails are opened on a mobile device rather than any other.

Emails are action-oriented

People aren’t necessarily instinctively going to purchase something just because an advertisement – or a landing page – told them to do so. But studies have also shown that even though email has been a main form of communication for over 20 years, people will still be motivated to take action after receiving an email. Whether it’s replying, forwarding, clicking on a link within the email, signing up, or even purchasing a product, there’s a good chance that after you send customers an email, they will take further action.

Emails build credibility

It can be a real turn-off for customers when businesses are so busy trying to sell them something that they forget about the actual customer. But emails can prove this to be untrue and build credibility for the business. By sending an email that offers further value, particularly when it’s for free such as a report or checklist, you’re showing the customer that you actually care about them more than you do making a sale. This gains a customer’s trust and eventually has a better chance of turning that prospect into a sale.

It’s affordable

While Google AdWords does have a cost attached to it, and that cost can climb quickly if it’s not used properly, using emails to reach out to customers is much more affordable. And in some cases, it can even be free. On average, emails cost less than one cent to use and some email marketing services such as MailChimp will even give you the first 12,000 for free. This means that when you’re offering your customers something of value, even if you’re not selling your product, it doesn’t cost you anything.

Using Customer MatchCustomer Match is a feature Google AdWords released in 2015, and many business owners and online advertisers saw it as a godsend; and for good reason. Customer Match allows business owners to upload their email lists so that they can create, target, and even exclude certain users from seeing their ads. These lists can then be applied to Google Search, Gmail, and YouTube campaigns in order to customize them to the user’s experience. This is another reason why capturing emails is so important but with this feature being so important, and creating so much excitement, it deserves a section all its own.

Customer Match allows business owners to familiarize new prospects with their brand. As soon as the business has a new lead email address, they can upload them to Customer Match and use it to bid on more generic terms. Because the new customer or lead doesn’t yet know that much about the company, they’ll likely be searching for something very general, and businesses can capitalize on that.

Customer Match will also allow businesses to give a little nudge to prospects that are in the middle or still low in the sales funnel – meaning that they know a little bit about the company but aren’t yet ready to make a purchase. This too, allows business owners to bid higher on certain keywords that will appeal to this group, putting them in a top position, influencing their ad rank and quality score. This group doesn’t need the generic ads that new prospects do; they need ads that speak directly to sales objectives and specific products that they need.

But Customer Match will also help business owners speak to their existing customers. These customers don’t need to be persuaded, they just need to be encouraged to make another purchase. And this is easier than the other two because it’s always easier to keep a customer than it is to acquire a new one. Appealing to existing customers this way is super subtle and won’t make them feel as though they’re being sold to after already making a purchase. They’ll simply be able to see new products you have, or that their subscription period is about to end and it will give them the nudge as well to take another action.

The Importance of Using Google AnalyticsHaving ads online is great, and having an email marketing campaign set up afterwards is even better. But it’s also just as important and just as good to be able to track the results of your ad campaign. Luckily, this doesn’t mean scribbling down every response you get or constantly keeping track of how many people have viewed or clicked on your ad. Google has made this easy too by creating Google Analytics, a free service that tracks and reports web traffic.

To start, make sure that you have a Google account (if you’re already signed up for AdWords, you already have one), and that you’re signed into it. Then head over to https://www.google.com/analytics. Follow the prompts to set up a new account, making your business name your account name. Fill in all the options such as your website’s URL, the category your industry is in, and all other information. After filling out all the information, Google Analytics will give you a code that you will need to copy and paste onto your website. When tracking the results of your Google AdWords, you’ll want to paste this code onto your landing page.

It may take up to 24 hours before any data appears in your Google Analytics, so be patient and give Google some time to collect the data. Once you have that data, you can use it to start reaping many benefits for your business.

Understand your bounce rate

It’s very important for business owners to understand what the bounce rate is on their website and specifically to Google AdWords, on their landing page. The bounce rate indicates how many people have visited the website or page and then left, meaning that they didn’t find anything of value on it. A high bounce rate tells you that you need to go back and optimize the page more, including clearer and more persuasive calls to action and more engaging content.

Break into new markets

Sometimes business owners have the opportunity to break into new markets but they aren’t aware of it. Google Analytics will show you where traffic is

coming from so business owners can see it at a glance. So even if it’s a local business that is mostly serving the community, there might be customers just outside that city – or even across the country or the world – that are looking into the business. There’s no better way for business owners to learn about these new markets than by checking it on Google Analytics, so that they can then start marketing to those potential customers, too.

Understand what pages are already resonating

Just like Google Analytics will allow a business owner to see what pages aren’t resonating with customers by checking out the bounce rate, it can also help business owners see what pages are performing. When they can tell that, they can start to produce more content like that and create a landing page that has more of this information that customers are seeking.

Know where traffic is coming from

Traffic comes from many different places, even in the online world. The two sources will be paid traffic, the traffic that comes from Google AdWords; or organic traffic, the traffic that simply saw the website or page when doing a search and then clicking on it (not the ad results). Knowing this can greatly benefit a business owner. If most of their traffic is coming from paid traffic, it can be beneficial to boost AdWords efforts. If most of the traffic is coming from organic searches, less can be invested into AdWords, saving the business owner money.

The Importance of Testing Ads in Google AdWordsIdeally, the ads you run in Google AdWords will perform well, produce results, and get you even more sales and leads. But that doesn’t always happen. And when it doesn’t, business owners are often left wondering why. Or, in worse cases, they’re not even aware that their ads aren’t performing well and don’t realize that a few simple changes could turn those ads around and get them the results they’re looking for. This is where ad testing comes in, and highlights why it’s so important.

Ad testing is simply creating another ad, tracking the results the new ad gets, and comparing it with the results the old ad got. This is the only way to tell which ads will perform and get results, and which ads shouldn’t be run again. So when testing ads, what should you change?

Headlines

You can swap the headlines around or create new ones altogether. Remember that the headline is the first thing customers and leads will see, and it needs to grab their attention. Maybe you did that the first time around, but maybe you didn’t. Change the headline and see if it gets you better results.

Ad copy

Of course, after the headline, the ad copy is the next most important part of your ad. Change the copy, describing different things about your product or service, telling customers what makes you unique, or finding a different way to do that. This simple change could be all your ad needs.

Call to action

Maybe customers don’t want to call your business, as you’re urging them to do. Or maybe you’ve included the simple “Visit our website”, which is one of the least effective calls to action you could use (along with “order our product now!”) Change the call to action and be sure that it’s persuasive enough that customers want to do it. In addition to changing the actual call

to action, you can also change where it appears in the ad; sometimes that’s all an ad needs.

Your landing page

Maybe you didn’t realize that your landing page was lowering your overall quality score, and so your ad isn’t appearing as often as it should be. Change the landing page, make sure it’s relevant, and that it’s enticing to customers and leads. Your landing page is part of your ad after all, so this should be tested too.

Your bid

Maybe you simply haven’t bid enough on a certain keyword to ensure that customers and potential leads will actually see your ad. In that case, it’s not going to perform at all. Increase the bid by a small amount and see if that makes any difference.

Even if your ad is performing fairly well, you should still test the different aspects of it. After all, you could be getting even more new customers and potential leads, and that’s always better than remaining stagnant where you currently are. Stay on top of ad testing, making sure to make regular changes and compare them with older results so you can see what works and what isn’t working as well.

ConclusionThe very mention of Google AdWords is often enough to have business owners breaking out in a sweat. But truthfully, it’s just another form of advertising, and it’s a very effective one. Business owners just need to learn the basics and know how to make the very most of them.

It can take a lot of time and effort; that’s something that’s inevitable when starting any advertising campaign and it remains true with Google AdWords, too. A consultant that is proficient in online marketing and is as familiar with Google AdWords as you are with your own business can be a great help. They can have your AdWords account set up within mere minutes and can create great campaigns that will yield results. Once those are up and running, they’ll even be able to stay on top of that testing and make it a regular part of their monthly routine.

There’s no reason any business owner can’t create advertising in Google AdWords themselves, but there’s also no reason they should if they don’t want to spend the time and energy on it. If, after reading through this report, you simply don’t think you have the time to devote to Google AdWords and your business, contact a consultant that can help. The important thing is that your business is active in AdWords, not who runs the campaigns.

Next StepsThank you again for downloading this free report. We hope that you found it useful and it has given you the information you need to use Google AdWords to market your business.

If you would like additional assistance, please contact me at:

860.659.7135

bobstein@gmail.com

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