The Learning Center

If you need help with Google AdWords in order to achieve a return on investment (ROI), then you’ve come to the right place. While managing a successful Adwords campaign can be tricky, there are many things you can do as a business owner to make sure your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is bringing in revenue. An important part of running a successful campaign is having a basic understanding of Google Adwords and its elements. Read on to learn all about the parts of a Google Adwords PPC campaign.

Do Your Keyword Research

As with most online campaigns, keyword research is the first step. The keywords you choose are arguably the most important part of your PPC ad. There are many existing businesses targeting the wrong audience or missing opportunities due to poor keyword research. Comprehensive keyword research often means the difference between achieving an ROI and a campaign that costs more to run than it generates.

Finding the right keywords doesn’t have to be a daunting process. There are many existing tools available that will help you find the proper keywords for your AdWords campaign. These tools reveal the most popular keywords and search terms. The free option is Google’s Keyword Planer which is accessible if you have an AdWords account. Some paid alternatives to perform effective keyword research include SEMrush.com, KeywordTool.io, and BuzzSumo, just to name a few. Need help with performing effective keyword research? Read this keyword research guide.

Utilize AdWords Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are exactly what they sound like. They are an expansion of the PPC ad that you are running. Google encourages advertisers to utilize all relevant ad extensions because it helps the user and grants the advertiser a higher quality score. Ad extensions are free, but not guaranteed to show up on the page every time. Their visibility is dependent upon the interactions your ad is already receiving. With Google AdWords, you are able to see interactions with each different extension in order to determine which ones are performing best. You are then able to remove the ones that are under-performing, as they may distract from the extensions that are actually getting your website traffic.

Types of Adwords Extensions

Call – The call extension will display a phone number within the ad. Adding a phone number helps your ad stand out from the rest and achieve a better click-through rate. Users on their mobile device can click the phone number to call you directly. This extension can be very effective depending on the nature of the business.

Sitelink – The sitelink extension allows the advertiser to add up to six additional links to pages on their website. This gives customers quick access to the services they’re most interested in.

Callout – The callout extension displays additional text information about your company, product or service. Many use callout extensions to expand on why the user should choose their company over a competitor’s. 

Location – The location extension allows users to see your business’ phone number and get directions to its physical location. This is one of the most useful ad extensions for a business with a physical location.

App – The app extension provides a link to your mobile or tablet app within the text ad. This is great for scoring more app installations!

Review – The review extension is a great way to showcase a short quote from a testimonial that is published and linked from a reputable source.

Snippets – The snippet extension displays relevant pages on your website determined by what a potential consumer is searching for. 

Price – The price extension allows you to show pricing for different products, packages, or services. 

Utilize Negative Keywords

As mentioned above, there are so many existing advertisements today that are using the wrong keywords for their PPC marketing. Don’t try and rank your ads for every little word that can slightly relate back to your business. Be sure to choose strong keywords and phrases in order to be seen. Remember, some terms may be great when it comes to their search volume, but have a large amount of competition. It’s important to find a balance between a high search volume and a low amount of existing pages to compete with.

Search VS Display Ads

Search ads – Search ads are the traditional text ads that a user sees on Google after performing a search. These ads are the most commonly utilized on the AdWords platform.

Display ads – These show up on websites that are running AdSense. AdSense is a code that webmasters embed into their website in order to show different ads to different people based on their search history. AdSense is currently utilized by over 2 million websites.

Help With AdWords Settings Optimization

Locations – Geographical targeting is imperative to the success of your campaign. Only target users in geographical locations that are likely to convert into customers.

Location Options – This is often overlooked in AdWords. By default, your ads could show could show in another country if a user includes a city, state, or region name in their search. For the best results, utilize the “People in my targeted location” option under targeting. This ensures that your ads only run in the locations that are targeted in your geographical settings.

Bid Strategies – There are multiple options for this setting, but Manual CPC (Cost Per Click) is often the best option for new advertisers. Manual CPC means that you have 100% control over the maximum Cost Per Click you pay for an ad. Another effective option is Target Search Page Location. This option is best when your primary goal is to rank above competing ads. 

Delivery Method – There are currently two options for the delivery method displaying your ads. By default, the “standard” option will spread out your daily budget to show ads evenly throughout the day. This means that your ad will not show each and every time a keyword is searched. To increase your ad visibility, use the “accelerated” option. Be weary that an accelerated campaign may result in your ads maxing their daily budget before the end of the day, therefore not showing later in the day.

Scheduling – Ad scheduling simply means which days and hours that you want the ads to display. In some industries, advertisers will only want to show ads on days and hours that someone is available to answer customer questions. 

Ad Delivery – Do not confuse this with Delivery Method. Ad Delivery settings give the advertiser the ability to A/B test different ad copy. It is a standard best practice to create multiple versions of each ad and test them against one another to determine which is most effective.

Device Targeting – Advertisers can choose which devices (Desktop, Mobile or Tablet) to show their ads on. For instance, a towing company would favor mobile phone searches because when a user’s car breaks down, they will most likely only have their mobile device available to them.

Landing Pages and Conversion Optimization

A landing page is any page that someone is directed to once they click on a call-to-action, these being the titles on your on your AdWords campaign. When creating an Adwords campaign you want to make sure that the ad extensions you’re using have clear titles that will entice people to click on them. While the definition of a landing page is broad, there are two types that differentiate themselves from the rest of a website. These landing pages have no connection to your business’ main website, but rather exist as separate entities to gain more leads and increase sales.

Lead generation pages – These pages provide a place for the audience to share their email and other information. This will lead to them being included in an email marketing campaign to further entice them to purchase a product or service and to learn about the company.

Click-through pages – A click-through page gives the consumer a little push before taking them to a final page (where the sale is actually made). This page is put in place to convince them why they should make a purchase.