Thank you to Catherine Park for contributing today’s post.
In 2000, a story that was to take the world by a storm began. With only 350 advertisers, Google, a search engine company launched a version of AdWords for the first time. The move could only be considered as an overly ambitious one at the time.
Surprisingly, as of 2015, Google was making about $52 Billion in annual ad revenue. That is a market share of 77.8% in the US and 30 % in the global search ad earnings.
The company (now Alphabet) is valued at over $600 billion, much of which is attributed to the success of Google AdWords. This is further strengthened by Google AdWords’ ability to incorporate all manner of companies, big and small into one worthwhile advertising venture.
“Advertising with Google AdWords is more than investing some money and sitting back to watch it work for you;” said Richard Dean of Caffeinated. “It requires an in-depth understanding, strategy, and exploitation of all the available tools offered by the platform to work to your advantage.”
7 Steps to Run a Google Marketing Campaign
Below are seven steps to help you reap the maximum benefit out of Google AdWords advertisements. Your return on investment (ROI) indeed depends on them.
Step 1: Understand the Strengths and Limitations of AdWords
An ad campaign geared towards leads and sales generation will work best on the platform. This is due to the nature of its tools which provides fast results which are both measurable and specific to your clientele.
AdWords is a bit capital intensive in that an investment is required at every little step. This makes it unsuitable for brand awareness campaigns. Not only will such a campaign run into huge costs but the platform offers no effective way of measuring this kind of progress.
Step 2: Invest in Research to Understand your Target Audience
A successful ad campaign hinges on understanding your target audience. You should not invest anything into advertisement without this knowledge at your fingertips.
Research so you can better understand their preferred sites. Check the sites out to understand what appeals to them in the language used. Scrutinize them to see exactly what they see and pull your antennas to hear what the sites sound like.
While at it, get to know your competition and the kind of campaigns they mount. Google AdWords offers you a platform to research free of charge.
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Step 3: Set Definite a Goal for Every Campaign
Each AdWords campaign should be tailored towards a particular goal. You might be tempted to milk as much as possible from your investment and end up disappointed. If you have a substantial budget for this undertaking, then fragment the campaign.
This should ensure that you don’t use one ad for different objectives. The returns that you get will highly depend on your ability to channel all campaign efforts towards achieving that one goal.
Step 4: Ensure that each Ad has a Specific Landing Page
It’s not uncommon to find paid ads that direct clients to the company’s homepage. This should not be the case. The idea not only wastes the customer’s time but also gives the company the illusion that AdWords is not producing results worthy of the investment.
One click on your Ad should take the customer to a page that specifically addresses his Google inquiry. If you have several ads running then customize landing pages in a way that each handles only one ad.
Step 5: Invest in Different Versions of the Ad
It’s important to have several copies of your ad each with a minimal variation from each other. It is possible to make a significant difference with a small tweak in an ad, but you will never know unless you try.
Your ad budget can be distributed among the various versions. The traffic and conversions that each brings will then inform your decision on the one to eventually settle on.
Going about this successfully will require a sizable budget upfront, time and patience on your part. At least ten copies would be enough to gauge the suitability of your ad.
Once you have picked the one(s) which performs best, concentrate your resources and energy on developing your campaign around it (them).
Step 6: Evaluate if you are Getting a Return on Your Investment
The whole idea of having a Google ad in place is to generate more profits. This informs the bulk of the goals that you set out to achieve when establishing a campaign. You will not know if it is working until you verify it.
Calculate the cost payable per click against the percentage of clicks that lead to sales. Be it for a single customer or that of a particular item in your range; a successful ad campaign should lead to an increase in your profits.
Step 7: Continually Improve Your Ad
Keeping ROI on the positive side requires your constant input. Be appraised on the performance of your ad at all times. Remember there is stiff competition out there, and some changes might be necessary to keep your ad relevant.
Gauge the competitiveness of your ad where keywords are concerned. Consider making changes to the landing pages depending on the kind of traffic the ad generates. A constant review should also help you to make the necessary adjustments to the ad copy to keep in line with market expectations.
In conclusion, your success with Google marketing campaigns lies in knowing exactly how to make AdWords work for you; the above points have you covered.
Guest Author: Catherine is a content developer who works at BackOfficePro. A talented writer by day and a good reader by night, she expresses her feeling and thoughts through writing. She loathes discussing herself in the third person but can be persuaded to do so for the right blog.