With over several million advertising accounts on Google Adwords, I’d guess that less than 30-40% of them are run by a professional (Google Partner). Given this, a lot of accounts are probably just kinda running and not measuring or seeing any positive results. With that in mind, here are three simple monthly Google Adwords tips the average account manager can use to optimize their campaign performance.
1) Measure Quality
Out of the box, Adwords contains standard metrics to measure keyword and ad performance. Adwords data only tell half the story however. You absolutely need to hook your Google Analytics account (and import metrics) to your Adwords account. Then you can see what kind of visits you’re generating.
Click the gear icon in Adwords and go to “Linked Accounts” to add Analytics (may need to create an analytics account first if you don’t have one already). Only then can you really make any judgments on what’s working. If you have enough data on a keyword and the quality (Ave. Visit Duration, Pages / Session) is very low, consider optimizing the content on the landing page or remove the keyword.
2) Check Actual Search Terms
There’s a difference between Keywords and Search Terms. Keyword triggers are what cause ad impressions. Keywords come in the form of broad, broad match, phrase, and exact match (more on match types from Google). Most people track keyword triggers and never look at Search Terms, but you can gain tremendous insight by looking at the Search Term report. Search Terms are the actual queries people use to trigger your ads. If you use phrase or a broad type you likely will have keywords you need to add to your negative keyword list. There may be opportunities to add keyword variations as exact match, and may even need new focused Ad Groups.
3) Optimize Ad Copy
Each Ad Group should have at least two ad copy variations. After the account has collected enough impressions and clicks, you should have enough information to determine which ads are performing better. Pause or remove ad copy that’s under-performing (low quality, low CTR) and create new variations to improve CTR, or with stronger emotional Calls to Action (CTA).
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With these essential Google Adwords tips, you’ll be on your way to generating quality targeted traffic. Understand that if you don’t keep up on the account performance you could be dumping away your advertising budget. Every month make a cleanup round of Adwords edits. Measuring quality is an essential part of advertising so at the very least make sure you have Analytics up and running and connected to your website.
