Google has such a dominant position within the search engine arena that anyone who wants to use the internet to promote their business, needs to know how to rank highly within its search results. The problem is doing it the free way via SEO can take months with no guarantee that your website will ever get close to the first page. The second way is to use Google Adwords which is quicker, and sometimes instant, but which also costs money.
To make the most effective use of Google Adwords and to also get the monetary returns you want for your investment there are some basic criteria you need to follow. By following these 5 tips your ads will perform better, get more clicks and thereafter get more sales.
#1 Competition Research
There are businesses large and small who have lost thousands of dollars by setting up Adwords campaigns without proper research. The research should definitely cover your competition to see what sorts of ads they are posting. Never copy them but at least ’emulate’ what the top ads are doing.
#2 Keyword Research
This is another aspect of Google Adwords that so many fail to do and then wonder they are not getting any clicks, or when they do the clicks they never turn into sales. First, they choose very broad keywords like ‘writer’ when offering a copy writing service. Think about how many different writer types there are and why an ad targeting just ‘writer’ may get lots of clicks but many of those clicks are going to be from people looking for a will writer, or a software writer.
#3 Use Geographical Targeting For A Local Business
It’s not every business that wants or indeed could sell its products or services to customers across the entire world. For example, a legal services agency in Sydney could be paying for clicks from people in New York without a hope of ever gaining any business from them.
If your business is limited in terms of the location of the customers you can serve, then use the Geographical Targeting option in Adwords so your ads only appear to those online who live in those locations. Your ads will have less competition and will be far more cost effective.
#4 Proofread Everything
This applies not just to the spelling and grammar but also to the sales copy used in the ad. First, it beggars belief that some ads get published with stupid spelling mistakes. How likely are people likely to want to do business with a company that can’t even spell correctly?
More crucially read through your sales copy and make sure it gets across the message you want it to. The number of characters you have is limited so make every single word work for you.
#5 Test, Test Test
This is the key to having highly successful ad campaigns and getting a huge return on your ad spend investment. Adwords gives you the means to test every element of your ad, even word by word. Split test two ads with just one minor difference to see which performs best. Continue with the winner, then test another word. Every time you find a winner, ditch the loser and move on to the next.