The end of the workday rolls around, and all you can think about is slipping into those comfy slippers, taking a deep breath and attempting to wrangle the beast, otherwise known as your Google AdWords account. Although the task of keeping up with your campaigns may be daunting, AdWords can be a great tool to grow your business, so it’s imperative not to ignore it.
The key to approaching your AdWords account management is to understand the concepts behind the cluster of numbers and letters within the actual account. To make things simple, let’s deconstruct the essential steps necessary to launching and maintaining an efficient AdWords account. Next time you approach your campaigns, have a good laugh and show that beast who’s boss.
1. Establish your Goal
Step one is to create a vision of where you want your AdWords to take you. What are you expecting to get out of your campaign? Do you want more phone calls? Leads? Sales? Forms submitted? Figure out what direction you want people to take when they land on your website.
2. Do some Digging
Don’t think you can just dive right in to AdWords without a solid foundation to build upon. Dedicate time to explore the areas that directly affect your campaigns. You’ll want to cover three areas when conducting your research:
- Keyword research
Try putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, and come up with relevant keywords they might use when searching for your product or service. Take advantage of helpful tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to help simplify the process. - Competitive research
Be a detective! Study the companies that are placing bids on the keywords you’re researching. Examine the approach these companies are taking, and use that knowledge to sculpt your approach. Notice their ad copy and offers, as well as landing page experience. How can your approach be more effective? - Understanding your audience
Observe your customers’ habits. Where are they buying products and services that are similar to yours? Discover what your audience is looking for, and tailor your ads to fit your customers’ desires.
3. Landing Page
Now take your research and establish what sets you apart from your competition. Take that unique quality and make it visible on your landing page for your customers to ogle. What does your company offer that your competitors don’t?
4. Give it Structure
Use your website as an outline for the basic structure within your AdWords account. Break up themes or products on your website into campaigns and ad groups, then give those ad groups a unique list of keywords that relate to corresponding ad text. Match up the ads being triggered by linking them directly to the related pages on your website.
5. Segment
Tailor your campaigns to reach the exact audience you wish to target. Create custom budgets for each campaign and segment by geographic location, time-of-day, day-of-week, demographic, the possibilities are endless! Take notice of patterns among your desired segmentations and tweak your bids based on what is and isn’t working.
6. Ad Copy
Create clear, concise ad copy that is relevant to the keywords triggering the ad. Be sure to highlight offers to make your ad stand out. Rotate between at least two ads with varying ad copy. See how people respond to each ad and make necessary changes depending on your findings.
7. Track Conversions
Think back on the initial goals you created for you AdWords campaigns. In order to gauge our success and see physical data, we need to track these goals through conversion tracking. Conversion tracking will let you track downloads, form submissions, sales and beyond. If you want more phone calls, set up call tracking and use the data to optimize your account to meet your goals.
8. Keep the Beast in Check
Dedicate a few days during the week to log into your account and monitor its performance. Keep your campaigns relevant by making necessary improvements based on results you see within the account. If you notice people aren’t clicking on a certain ad, try changing up the ad copy. If you see an irrelevant keyword in your search terms report, make it a negative keyword.
Now that you have a basic understanding of what it takes to lay the foundation of a successful AdWords account, it’s time to take your AdWords beast head-on. As long as your account is active it will be tugging on your pant leg, begging for attention so, take control of your campaigns and guide your business in the direction you want it to go.
