Google AdWords can be a fantastic and immediate route to more sales, enquiries and conversions if you get it set up and running correctly, but if you lack a bit of experience or are just struggling to get the most from the platform, it can end up costing you money and attracting few to no results, which is actually very common as it does take time to get it right.
So, if your AdWords is not delivering upon your expectations and requirements, we offer 5 ways to save money and improve results.
Consider Your Budget –
A common mistake is to not plan your monthly budget, which in turn plans your daily budget, which means that if you set quite a highly monthly and daily budget, the money is quickly going to run away from you – a quick fire way to spend more than you can afford. You need to be realistic when it comes to how much you are going to be spending with AdWords, as if you spend too little then you are simply not going to get the results you need. Work out how much you can realistically afford to spend and set this as your first months budget, then if you’re getting results this is great, if not, you can then make your next decision, do you spend more or do you look at optimising the campaign and work it harder.
Check Your Keywords –
When you first set up an AdWords campaign, Google will often lead you down the line of the keywords that the system believes are the ones you need to or want to bid on, often using your website as a pointer or some existing keywords you have already entered. Whilst they do indeed often throw up some really relevant words that you might want, there will also be hundreds you do not, and sadly, the ones that you do not want are going to cost you money, as they are simply not going to be as relevant to your business. Therefore, if you are starting a new campaign, make sure you are really selective with your keywords and if you already have campaigns running, review the keywords you are bidding on to make sure they really are the right ones for your business.
Keyword Match Type –
If you have just started your campaign and all of your keywords are on Broad match, then within a few days you are going to end up with quite a bit of irrelevant traffic and a lot of money spent with few results. I am not saying Broad match will not get you sales and conversions, I am saying that it will also waste a lot of money on keywords that are just not relevant to your campaign objectives, which is why I recommend using either Phrase or Exact match and then trying out the newer Broad Match Modifier, which is an improvement on Broad match and can help with getting better results. No matter which way you decide to go, do not start a campaign using Broad match unless you are really willing to spend a lot of money and continually be working on your negative keywords, which we come to in a second.
Search Only Campaigns –
When starting a new campaign you will be lead into choosing a search campaign, but, it will quite often have the display option selected as well. In my experience of AdWords, display can be a sure fire way to burn a hole in your wallet unless you have the time and experience to exclude all of the display factors that just deliver rubbish traffic. Display can work, of course it can, but you do need to spend time micro managing things like placements, both inclusions and exclusions and it is something to try a bit later down the line when you have a bit more experience with the AdWords system and more importantly, you know how to track your conversions and results.
Look At Your Targeting –
A common but easy to make mistake is not getting your targeting spot on, in terms of location, which means that a Bristol based plumber could end up getting traffic from all over the UK (or the world) if they have not chosen the correct locations for their adverts to appear in. You can select specific locations or work on a radius basis, but if you have a local business and you only want local traffic, look at your targeting options and make sure they are spot on. Always make sure to select “target people in my chosen location only”, else your adverts can still end up appearing all over the world with people searching for your service plus your location. If you really do want UK traffic then it is ok to go general, but for most local businesses, they only want local customers, so you need to get this spot on and always consider reigning in the targeting if you find a lack of conversions.
