Adwords Kiss Of Death

G'day campers, I've been yarning with a couple of PPC mates about the things that kill an Adwords Campaign. It's never just one thing is it? It's usually a combination of things. Let's have a look at them shall we?

Google is constantly evolving. Both the Search Division and the Adwords Division. You can't just set up a campaign and let it run. It doesn't work like that - contrary to what some scammers will tell you. You need to be constantly tweaking and keeping an eye on things. If you're new at PayPerClick marketing - specifically Google Adwords Pay Per Click Marketing there are a few things that you need to be on top of. Some common mistakes are (in no particular order) -

Long list of less than targeted keywords

Not identifying unique aspects of your product or service

Lack of keywords in your ad text

Directing users solely to your home page

Creating just a single Ad Group

Using broad match only

Not tracking results

Entering the content network without modifying bids

Sending traffic to a Landing Page that doesn't convert

Having a Low Quality Score from Google as a result of some of the above

Long List of Less Than Targeted Keywords

You know all those Keyword Tools that are on the market? Offering to find you all sorts of nebulous keywords that will boost your earnings? Thousands of the bastards. That might have worked a few years back but it's largely irrelevant now. Some people use those tools and go completely manic on keywords. That's not going to work. What you need is a short list of highly targeted keywords - what marketers call long-tail keywords - keywords and phrases that people enter into a search engine when they are about to buy. For instance, if someone is looking to buy a sailing dinghy to teach their children how to sail, they might enter something like "childrens sailing dinghy" or "cheap childrens sailing dinghy" or "fibreglass childrens sailing dinghy" - something like that rather than just the generic "sailing dinghy". What you're trying to target is the words or phrases that someone might enter When they are about to buy. And then you need to put these keywords into small, tight groups - not just dump 1,000 generic keywords into a single group - that's the Kiss of Death right there.

Not Identifying Unique Aspects of Your Product or Service

Old-school marketers and copywriters call this the USP - Unique Selling Proposition - the thing that stands you apart from your competitors. Have a look at your competitors sites and/or advertising. What have they hung their hat on? Why is your product or service better? Sometimes its not. But maybe the way you advertise will set you apart.

Lack of Keywords in Your Ad Text

It's kinda the done thing to use your keywords in the headline at least. That can be hard. With Adwords you only have 25 words to do it. If you can squeeze it into the descriptive lines below as well, it's a good thing. You have 35 words per line. And if you can work your keywords into your Landing Page URL, even better. Adwords copywriting won't win any creative awards at Cannes. Its simple and tight and goes for the jugular. Your Sailing Dinghy spot might read -

Childrens Sailing Dinghy
Easy-to-rig Childs Sailing Dinghy.
Buy now and get free life-jackets.
www.ChildrensSailingDinghy.com

And of course Google will bold the keywords in the ad. Some people say the first line of description should be the benefits and the second the features as I've done here. You'll notice I've used a derivative of the main keywords in the first line of description with "Childs Sailing Dinghy" . That's cool - Google likes that.

Directing Users Solely to Your Home Page

So instead of sending visitors (clickers) to my homepage I should send them to a landing page which is headed with my keywords - Childrens Sailing Dinghy. Again, Google loves this and it adds to your Quality Score (more on this later).

Creation of Single Ad Groups

As talked about before, the idea is not to have a single ad group with a million generic keywords but a bunch of different ad groups with relevant keywords. And some of these ad groups may only have a handful of keywords. For instance , "Childrens Sailing Dinghy" and "Fireball Racing Dinghy" are hardly the same.

Using Broad Match Only

Broad matches are less targeted than exact and phrase matching. The default on Google Adwords is Broad Match. This means your "Childrens Sailing Dinghy" keywords will be served up with all sorts of shit you don't want - like "racing dinghy", "rowing dinghy", "fishing dinghy" etcetera etcetera. You're better off using Exact Match - put your keywords in inverted commas to match the phrase or square brackets to exactly match the word. Good idea to use Negative keyword option as well (and more on this later).

Broad match-
Default option:
Childrens Sailing Dinghy

Phrase match-
Surround the keyword in quotes:
"Childrens Sailing Dinghy"

Exact match-
Surround the keyword in square brackets:
[Childrens Sailing Dinghy]

Negative match-
Place a negative character before the keyword:
-Racing Dinghy

Not Tracking Results

You must track your results. Get rid of the ads that don't work and stick with the higher CTR ones. Use the tools that Google provides. Use Google Analytics.

Entering The Content Network Without Modifying Bids

Generally, set lower bids for the content network compared to that of the search network.

I've only really touched on how to make money from Google Adwords here. To learn more...to become a master of the art...you need to go read this book...this Bible of Google Adwords - Perry Mason's...uh...I mean Perry Marshall's "The Definitive Guide To Google Adwords".