Google AdWords is a great way to increase traffic to your website, particularly if it is competitive to get your website to appear high up in the organic results.
A lot of business owners set up and run their own AdWords campaigns, which is relatively easy to do. The hard part is optimising your Ads over time to make sure you’re getting the best possible Return On Investment from your AdWords spend.
Getting a few details wrong can cost you a lot of money!
I work with lot of clients either managing their AdWords campaigns or coaching them on how to optimise their own campaigns.
Here are some of the mistakes that are made regularly, plus easy ways to fix them.
1. Not Linking Your AdWords and Google Analytics Accounts
Google Analytics shows how each web visitor behaves once they reach your website.
By linking your AdWords and Analytics accounts, you’ll get information like the number of pages viewed and the time spent on your website, broken down to the keyword that the visitor typed into Google before clicking through to your website from your Ad.
In the long term, having access to this information means that you can pause keywords that bounce and keep paying for those where the web traffic performs better.
To link your accounts:
- Use the same email to log in to your AdWords and Analytics account
- Check that you have Administrator level access to your Google Analytics
- In AdWords, go to the Green “Reporting and Tools” tab, pull down to “Google Analytics”, select “I already have an account” and follow the steps to do the linking.
2. Targeting the Wrong Location
One of the great features of AdWords is the ability to target a specific area. This can be set at the level of Country, State, City, specified radius around an address or a custom area marked on a map.
Setting the target area means that only people in your target location will see your Ad and therefore you will only pay for clicks from people within your target area.
To set your target location:
- Go to the Settings tab
- Under “Locations and Languages”, where it says “In what geographical locations do you want your ads to appear?” click Edit.
- There are 4 tabs on the next screen. Generally I go to the “Search” tab, type in the name of the city, state or country I want to target, click “Find” and then select the appropriate place from the selections that Google gives you.
- If you want to target a specified area around an address, go to the “Custom” tab, type in the address, select if you would like the address to show in your ads, add the number of kilometres where you’d like your ad to show and then “View on Map” to see if you’ve covered the suburbs that are in your target area.
The “Custom” targeting feature is particularly useful if you are a business that targets clients from your local area. Often though, because the number of searches for your keywords in your target area can be relatively low, you might need your ads to show in a high position in order to capture the clicks that are available.
3. Directing Ads to your Home Page
If your ads are directed to your Home Page (which often includes a lot of information), your visitors from AdWords might bounce if they can’t immediately find what they are looking for.
Ideally, direct your Ads to a targeted landing page that:
- Includes relevant keywords prominently. That is, the same or closely related keywords that are used in your AdWords account are used in the headline
- Has key messages high up
- Has a Call to Action that makes it clear and easy for people to know what to do next
- Follows through from the Ad Copy.
All you need to do is copy and paste the link of your landing page to the “Destination URL” as part of your Ad Copy.
4. Aiming for the Top Ad Positions
Aiming for your Ads to be shown at the top of the right hand column on Google, or ideally at the top of the Left Hand results, (where ads sometimes appear if the quality is high enough), is a good strategy if you want to achieve maximum awareness and have a big daily budget or if the impressions (number of searches) in your target area is low.
However, the ads at the top of the search results cost the most per click so your daily budget will be used up quicker than if your ads were in a lower position.
Provided there is adequate search volume, the ads in lower positions will get enough clicks to use up their daily budget but the Cost Per Click will be lower which means you get more clicks for your budget.
To get this right you need to do some experimenting.
Move your ads up or down by changing your Maximum CPC Bid (while keeping an eye on your Click Through Rate).
It takes some testing to find the right position for your ads where you are paying a lower Cost Per Click than the top spot, but still getting enough clicks per day. After keeping an eye on your ads for a while you’ll get a feel for the right spot.
5. Not Using Conversion Tracking
- Confirmed Orders
- Email Newsletter Sign Ups
- Contact Us forms submitted
If you don’t set up Conversion Tracking it is harder to evaluate the return from your AdWords spend.
Also, you won’t be able to optimise your campaign by adjusting the high converting keywords and pausing the keywords that don’t convert well.
To set up Conversion Tracking:
- Go to the green “Reporting and Tools” tab and select “Conversion Tracking”.
- Follow the steps to add a new conversion
- Conversion Tracking is easiest to set up if everyone that completes a specified action is directed to the same page of your website. For example, everyone that completes an order on website www.buyme.com.au is directed to the page www.buyme.com.au/order-success Your web developer can add a Conversion Tracking code to that page.Conversions can then be linked to the keyword that was typed into Google before someone clicked on your ad and followed through to making a purchase.
- Conversion Tracking lets you see how much you pay in AdWords spend to get an order (or whatever type of conversion you have selected).
Make Sure You Work with a Google Qualified Partner
If you choose to outsource your AdWords management you can avoid another common mistake by making sure that you work with a Google Qualified Partner. Otherwise, you may be paying someone who doesn’t have a full understanding of all the different aspects of AdWords.
Google AdWords partners need to pass exams, which means you know that they know what they are doing. 
If you get contacted by a telemarketer about AdWords, use the Google Partner Search to check if the company is listed.
AdWords is a great way to promote your business in Google but it also requires skill and regular monitoring to make sure you’re getting the best possible return from your spend.
Google AdWords No-Risk $279 Trial
If you would like to try Google AdWords to see whether or it will lead to more sales or enquiries from your website, this is the perfect, no-risk way to start.
Find out more about the Google AdWords Trial
I also offer Google AdWords Coaching, to teach you how to optimise your own campaigns, and Google AdWords Management, if you’d prefer to leave it to someone else.
Give me a call on 03 9340 9018 to discuss the options. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by my pricing.
Until next time
One of my favs Melinda – I got a lot from this, thank you
jo
Cheers Jo, glad it was helpful
Hi Melinda,
I especially agree with your third point about not taking visitors to the homepage.
I recently looked at the pros an cons of taking visitors to a deep-linked landing page versus a more generic category page, which yourself and your readers might find of interest:
http://www.calculatemarketing.com/blog/techniques/to-deep-link-or-not-to-deep-link/
You’re also spot on with conversion tracking and linking AdWords to Analytics. So easy to too, and so much insight, but all too often ignored.
Cheers,
Alan
Thanks Alan for stopping by and commenting. Here’s to spreading the word about good AdWords practices!
Cheers
Melinda