Google AdWords is the leading Pay-Per-Click marketing method today. Thousands of small and medium businesses use it to reach their target audience. Despite the many free tools that business owners have access to, paid traffic through ads is sometimes the best way to drive new, targeted traffic to your website.
The biggest challenge is that other businesses and even competitors are using the same keywords and search terms. Faced with increasing competition, small business owners need to learn how to make the best out of the marketing methods available to them to achieve growth and stay one step ahead in the market.
Use these tips to create a successful Google AdWords campaign for your small business.
Select Compelling and Highly Relevant Keywords
Keyword selection is the most important factor when it comes to creating Google AdWords campaigns. It’s crucial to select the most compelling and relevant keywords related to your business products or services.
Keep in mind that you’re competing against many other businesses for the same audience. Take your time to think of the most suitable keywords that will target people who are ready to buy. For instance, instead of using “luxury clothes” in your Adwords ads, use more specific keywords like “Black men’s leather jackets.”
This way, you’ll be targeting men who are looking for a specific type of menswear. Such an audience is more likely to purchase from you if the ad leads to a landing page with black men’s leather jackets. You can also set up a list of negative keywords that tell Google Adwords not to show your ads for specific keyword searches.
If you’re having problems coming up with relevant keywords for your business, use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to get some ideas. There are other paid and free tools you can also use. The most important thing is getting helpful analytics like the popularity or the average cost of specific keywords before committing to your bid strategy.
Consider these points when selecting the most effective and suitable keywords for your ad campaign:
- Keep your target audience in mind. Keywords must match the purpose of your business.
- Make use of keyword planner tools to create popular and in-demand keywords.
- Be sure to compare your list of keywords with those that top competitors are using.
Research your initial search queries
Once you have a list of relevant keywords, ask yourself these questions:
- Are the keywords searched in Google? If they are not, there is no point in advertising on keywords that nobody is searching.
- Are the people searching your chosen keywords likely to buy your product or service? What’s the intention of the people searching for these keywords? Focus on keywords where people are clearly looking to make a purchase.
- What about competitors? Yes, analyze Google Adwords ads from competitors who run successful ad campaigns to have an idea of what keywords they are using. You could possibly learn a thing or two from their ad campaigns.
Create an Ad Campaign That Appeals to the Target Audience
The purpose of any marketing campaign is to appeal to the target audience, no matter the marketing platform you use. Creating keywords alone will not be enough for your AdWords campaign. You need to be sure that your ad copy is clear, specific and attractive enough to compel potential buyers to click.
While your goal is to create an ad that attracts many people, you also want them to buy. If they don’t buy, you still pay for the ads. Your ad copy is everything, so start with a great headline that uses keywords or search terms specific to your niche. Point out the benefits and features of your product or service and how it will be of value to your buyers.
Remember not to mislead your customers. Your Google Adwords ads need to be entirely accurate and relevant for the landing page you’re promoting. To make your ad campaign more effective, take these simple steps:
- Use clear customer Unique Selling Proposition to stand out from competitors.
- Include a simple, strong and easy to understand Call-to-Action in your ads.
- Make use of negative keywords and phrases to achieve a more streamlined ad.
Your ad copy must be appealing to customers so you can achieve a higher quality score. Every business owner wants a Google AdWords campaign that helps generate more traffic and improve sales conversion rates.
Target Your Ads Carefully
A successful Google AdWords campaign should incorporate different types of targeting in the bidding strategy: Exact match, phrase match and broad match. Focus your ad campaigns more on the exact match keywords. You should also separate your ads by keyword type and category to keep your campaigns more organized.
Make use of Google’s targeting criteria to further help you reach your target audience. For instance, you can incorporate geo-targeting to have your ads run in a specific geographical location or target ads based on certain web/user behavior and type of website.
Creating a perfect ad to simply attract customers to your business will not produce results. You need to target your ads to the right audience at the right time by considering different options depending on your business goals. A combination of these steps will help you target your ads on Google search, Google Search Network and Google Display Network.
- Keyword targeting – Show relevant keywords on relevant websites, apps & videos.
- Topic targeting – Place ads on multiple pages about different topics at once.
- Audience targeting – Show ads to specific groups of people.
- Placement targeting – Place ads on websites that your customers visit.
- Device targeting – Choose to show ads on specific or all types of devices.
- Location & language targeting – Define the language or location where your customers are located.
Don’t ignore the growing mobile market. Over 80% of web users today search for products or solutions online using their phones. To take advantage of this huge market, use mobile-friendly ads within your enhanced ad campaigns. Incorporate custom messages and mobile-specific CTA (Calls-to-actions) to speak directly to mobile users.
Monitor and Optimize Your Ad Campaign
The biggest mistake that many small business owners make is not monitoring their ad campaigns and making necessary changes as required. The only way to achieve success and improve the performance of your Google AdWords campaigns is by constantly monitoring and optimizing your ads.
As part of the initial optimization of your ad campaigns, it’s important to plan several tests to maximize your outcome. The tests should be focused on your entire funnel, starting with rechecking keywords, ad copy and the design of the landing page.They will help you identify what your target market considers the most appealing.
You should also rotate your ads evenly for a set amount of time to see what results they will bring in and then optimize them based on the analytics you get. Rotating ads for a specific period of time allows for ample testing of ad campaigns to see what ads are producing the desired results.
Create a few variations of your ads and closely monitor which ones get the best click-through rate, the highest number of conversions and the lowest cost per click. Optimizing and tracking how your ad campaigns are performing gives you a clear picture of what is working and what changes you need to make to improve the conversions.
Google AdWords offers numerous tools that enable you to check critical data like CTRs, the impact of ads, sales and conversions, and higher cost-per-click keywords. While you don’t want to be checking the results every day, reviewing reports and making changes based on a set period is critical in achieving the desired results for any pay-per-click ad campaign.
Business owners must also understand the importance of setting up conversion tracking. A conversion could be a lead, a sign-up or purchase. These are the actions you want visitors to your website to take. Without proper tracking of your conversions, you can’t identify the specific keywords, phrases or ads that are producing results. In the end, you need greater insight into ROI for your efforts, and conversion tracking offers just that.
Review Your Results Regularly
It’s important to understand that pay-per-click advertising methods like Google AdWords are not quick-fix solutions. You need to review results regularly, maybe weekly or monthly. This will help you pick up specific trends and information that will help you make the necessary improvements to your ad campaigns.
Be prepared to get rid of keywords that are underperforming. Remember that conversion rates are your most important statistics in your ad campaigns, but not clicks. Like with all paid advertising methods, the longer you run your Adwords ads, the better your rates and quality score will be. They key to ensuring successful ad campaigns is to constantly refine your ads.
The Bottom Line
Google Adwords offers one of the best advertising platforms for small businesses looking to establish themselves as worthy competitors in the market. Like any other paid advertising method, you need to set a budget and plan your work ahead. Give yourself enough time to perfect your ad plan to get the best results possible.