Adwords Campaigns - Five Devastating Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
By Robert Walter1. Bidding too high 2. Theme Your Adgroups 3. Bidding On To Many General Keywords 4. Bad Ad 5. Bad Landing Page
1. Biding Too High
When testing a campaign keep your initial bids low - start as low as you can. You don't want to compete with the top listings in a bid war. If you find you are buried from bidding too low raise your bids a little at a time. If Adwords has set your minimum bid high and it is not possible to get listed for less than 35 cents a click than you might need to look into optimizing your landing page for Adwords.
2. Theme Your Adgroups
When naming your adgroups make sure that the name is themed around your keywords. If you were selling flowers you would break your Adgroups into the types of flowers you are selling.
E.g. Adgroup Name Roses
Keywords: roses, roses online, red roses, roses for sale
Try not to have too many keywords per adgroup. Try to keep under 75 keywords. If your adgroup requires more than that create more adgroups with the same name number them chronologically.
Theming Adgroups is important. It will save you a lot of time working your campaigns because you will find everything easy and it also helps to target your ads and split test ads for the specific keyword.
3. Bidding on Too Many General Keyword Terms
Be careful when bidding on general keyword terms. Typically you will have more success being very specific to your product/service. What are some general keyword terms?
Flowers Flower Daffodils Yellow flowers
These words are too general because the majority of searchers typing these words in probably won't be looking to buy flowers from an online flower shop.
Here is an example of specific keyword terms:
Red roses online Online flower store Online flower store Toronto Buy roses online
The people searching on these keyword terms are much better prospects! They are looking for flowers online. The rule of thumb is the better you target your campaign the better results you will get with a lower adspend, you will be reducing costs by limiting your spend on general keyword terms.
Don't bid on general keyword terms until you've had some experience with Adwords. The traffic flow is high but the quality usually isn't as good and you are paying for every visitor to your website.
4. Bad Ad
A good Ad Can do wonders. A bad will produce bad results, or at best mediocre results. Here is a bad ad:
Johns Flower Shop Come see the flowers in my flower shop example.com
That is a hell of a boring ad. Those prospects at home finding John's ad will most likely skim that ad and go to John’s competitors.
Here is an example of a good ad:
Save Huge On Flowers Thousands of flowers - Low prices Free delivery on orders over $25! example.com
This ad promises low prices, and free delivery and a great selection. This will appeal to the audience. Always follow through with what you promise in an ad.
5. Bad Landing Page
You want to keep your landing page relevant to your keywords. Focus on content that your visitors will find engaging. Give them a reason to come back. If your visitor finds you on a keyword term, make sure your site has specific information for that visitor. Make sure your site is easy to navigate and appealing to look at. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary and fancy. Just focus the graphics and content around your keywords. Too many bells and whistles can hurt sales. Offer competitive prices, if you can afford it, offer free shipping.
Robert Walter has been successfully marketing online for over 6 years. Learn the guerrilla marketing tactics for Adwords with these Killer Adwords Guides