18 Great Tactics To Dramatically Improve

Your Google AdWords Campaign

A question I am often asked is "how can I improve my Google AdWords campaign?" There are many factors that go into a successful Google AdWords campaign and so I thought I would list the top ones that I regularly advise people to implement. These are the same tactics 1stPageProphets uses when designing a high-performing professional Google AdWords campaign so you can use them with confidence!

Tactic	Wrong	Right
You must have a sufficiently large number of keywords. Everyone searchs differently remember!	10s - 100s keywords	100s - 1000s keywords
Use URLs in your keyword group. People will search for flights.com for example	Not using URLs in your keyword list.	Using URLs in your keyword list.
Add locations to keywords as people search for better relevancy by including the location they are thinking about.	Keywords: plumber plumbers	Keywords: plumber plumbers plumber London plumber NW London plumber Marylebone
Add spelling mistakes as keywords.	Keywords: plumber	Keywords: plumber plummer
Add questions as keywords.	Keywords: plumber	Keywords: plumber how to fix leaking tap
Add plurals and synonyms as keywords	Keywords: plumber	Keywords: plumber plumbers plumbing services plumber company
The keywords MUST be grouped into tight categories. These small, tight groups of keywords then go into their own AdGroups.	All keywords going into 1 adgroup	Tight groupings of keywords going into multiple adgroups.
Logical organisation of campaigns and adgroups. This enables much more precise targetting and RELEVANCE for the searcher.	1 campaign for multiple product or service lines and locations.	Multiple campaigns splitting out product/service lines and geographic location.
Use the available matching options to more accurately target the searcher.	broad matching	phrase matching exact matching negative matching
Keywords must be grouped into "like" groups so that the core keyphrases match the ad text as closely as possible. This makes the ads more relevant to what the searcher typed in and thus more likely to get the click from the searcher, as well as get better placement.	An adgroup with these keywords: plasma TVs flatscreen TVs LCD TVs	3 adgroups, one for plasma TVs, one for flatscreen TVs, one for LCD TVs
Make your ad headlines match the keywords of that adgroup as closely as possible. You will be rewarded with higher placement without having to pay any extra and also more clicks because the headline will be bolded because it contains the search phrase!	Using above example, ad headline of that adgroup is Get Your TVs Here	Using the above example, each respective adgroup ad headline is: Plasma TVs - Big Range Flatscreen TVs - Big Range LCD TVs - Big Range
Include benefits and features in the ad text. Don't expect a searcher to have to translate the feature into the corresponding benefit!	Only features mentioned.	Combination of features and benefits.
Send the searcher from each ad to a specific page on your web site targeted to that ad's keywords. Be more relevant to the searcher and you will be rewarded with better conversion rates and lower click costs!	All ads send searchers to the home page of the web site.	Each adgroup's ad sends the searcher to a specific page about the topic of the keywords in that particular adgroup.
Run two ads for each adgroup and see which one outperforms the other. Delete the underperforming one and write a new ad to try and beat the incumbent ad.	1 ad per adgroup.	2 ads per adgroup.
Don't run Google Search and Search Newtork at the same time as the Content Network - separate them into a Search campaign and a Content Network campaign. The results from each will be vastly different so separate them.	A campaign with Google & Search Network and Content Network all running at once.	2 campaigns - 1 for Google and Search Network and one for Content Network.
Don't bid high to get best placement, increase the relevance you are providing the searcher and you will be rewarded by higher placement without having to pay any extra.	Paying top $/£ for your keyword/ adgroup maximum cost-per-click.	Constructing the campaigns carefully and winning on relevancy rather than spending the most.
Track all clicks through the conversion cycle.	Not using Google AdWords conversion tracking and Google Analytics.	Using Google AdWords conversion tracking and Google Analytics!
Experiment with variances of ad text, such as capitalisation, URL, subdirectory, use of verbs and so on.	Using one ad and never testing it for changes.	Continuously testing changes of ad text for the best performing ad.

1stPageProphets is a Google AdWords qualified professional, has set up numerous professional Google AdWords campaigns from scratch and also resuscitated clients' DIT (do-it-themselves) Google AdWords campaigns that were failing miserably. We are very happy to give you advice on any of the above, to recommend further Google AdWords resources, or to construct a professional Google AdWords campaign for you so please contact us now.

This article may be freely reprinted as long as the resource box below remains intact (including the hyperlink) with the article.

Mike Bradley is founder of 1stPageProphets, who provide services to drive hungry, qualified buyers to your web site using natural and paid search engine results and ads. Find out what is holding your web site back from more buyers by going to http://www.1stpageprophets.com now.

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Neale - data backup and recovery

72.144.170.253 2008-05-23 12:46:48

Thanks Mike that is a great collection of useful tips,
separating search & content is something i have not been practicing I will give it a go.