GOOGLE REVIEWS
PLEASE BE AWARE: This is an old article, and while we think there are still nuggets of good advice included here, it may be out of date. Things move very quickly in the world of Digital Marketing, Lead Generation and Conversion Rate Optimisation - so please see our latest news for the most recent advice on how to get more out of your website and online marketing.
A recent survey conducted by Wordbook.com with SME’s around the UK came to the conclusion that 18% of those using Google Adwords currently, actually managed to a return on investment on the easy, targeted advert system.
The program which sells itself as a “direct and cost effective way of boosting brand awareness” has left a lot of business managers stumped.
The other 82% in the nationwide survey were far from seeing positive results, when questioned they were either not recuperating their costs in online sales, or genuinely didn’t know.
As Google Adwords has secured its position as the world’s leading advertising media, offering potential to level the playing field for smaller SME’s, it seems wrong that just 10% of the Wordbook.com respondents said that Google Adwords had lead directly to sales and new clients.
With all of the possibilities open to SMEs from Google Adwords, it is important that SMEs have access to the information that can help them to take full advantage of the opportunities open to them.
This post will give you the tips you need to create a successful and effective Google Adwords campaign.
The first thing you need to consider, when starting your Google Adwords campaign, is what your audience search for to find you. These words will form the basis of the keywords that you need for your campaign. Google offers different types of searches for advertisers, broad match, phrase match, exact match and negative match. If you choose your keywords carefully and effectively this can positively effect your ad impressions.
Google are there to help you with your selection through their provision of “keyword selection tool” and “google’s keyword help”.
Make sure that the advertisement intended for display when your keywords are used, is compelling, short and exciting. This is not a time for you to demonstrate your command of the English language with the use of as many authoritative, polysyllabic, lexicon as you can. Merely give an accurate, clear and concise description in the 70 characters allocated to you and watch the click count grow.
Once you have your advertisement in place, you need to think about where it is going to take people who click on it. It is a good idea at this point to have a landing page prepared that is tailored to the advertisement clicked on. If the page that links to the advert isn’t relevant or it takes more than one click to become relevant then people will lose interest and move on.
Dependent upon what kind of business you run, but as this article is aimed at SME’s who generally focus on businesses within the locality, make sure that you click on an area that you would like your advertisements to show in. This kind of specification will save your advertisement from being shown on irrelevant searches and will help you to stop any unnecessary clicks happening, incurring you costs that are irrelevant.
Before you are beginning any element of your campaign make sure that you fully understand what it is you need to do so that you don’t end up wasting more money than you can afford.
Here are some Xposure Top tips:
Tip One: Remember Adwords is not necessarily the be all and end all of advertisements
Tip Two: Try adding “buy” in front of the keywords to get customers who are already there to purchase.
Tip Three: Set a budget, Adwords allows you to set a weekly and daily budget so that you don’t spend more than you can afford.
Tip Four: Do extensive research to get the best keywords that you can.
Tip Five: Opt for exact match or phrase search terms, to avoid your advertisement being shown on irrelevant searches.
Tip Six: Do not use content network, unless your search terms are relatively inexpensive.
Tip Seven: Select only a few specific keywords.
Tip Eight: Group the keywords you are going to use dependent upon context, one list for customers who are merely researching your services, and one for those who are ready to buy.
Once you have followed these tips you should be well on the way to an effective Google Adwords campaign. Let us know how yours is going, and show us you aren’t in the fifth not taking advantage of this vital advertising source.
