Have you ever watched a horror movie and seen a character do something so counter-intuitive it makes your brain explode? The victim walks into a dark basement without a flashlight knowing the killer is in the house. You’re already thinking, “Turn around! Don’t go down there!” But it’s no use, it’s too late. The victim’s fate has been written.
An unmanaged AdWords account is a lot like a B-rated horror flick and every day thousands of business owners walk into their own dark basement. Without a flashlight they are subjecting themselves to the hidden horrors that lurk in the dark. These business owners are allowing themselves to get slaughtered, financially speaking, by setting up Pay Per Click campaigns without understanding Google’s rules.
Pay Per Click is a thousand tiny knives slicing open the throat of your business. A click is a click and they add up fast. This is especially true when you’re paying for clicks regardless of how relevant they are, whether those clicks convert to a sale, or how much your products cost. The results can be savage. Advertisers commonly complain about spending up to $60k on AdWords yet they still can’t make a sale.
When the Keyword Search Pros look inside an unmanaged AdWords account it’s like turning the lights on in that dark basement for the first time. What we find will rattle even the most seasoned bones.
Every week we manage new accounts that had no previous strategy whatsoever. We see the same keyword in 5 different ad groups, with 7 different ads, and 10 different landing pages. There’s no way to track who clicked on what, when, where, or why. It’s obvious our new client with the unmanaged account has just blown hundreds or thousands of dollars on visitors who had no intention of buying anything.
Survive the horror movie that is your AdWords account: Keep it simple. Use the keyword tool to discover what people are actually searching for and build out ad groups based on tight themes relating to your product.
The formula for a sale is easy: Relevant keywords trigger relevant ads. Relevant ads take customers to relevant landing pages. When relevant landing pages display relevant products to customers looking to make a purchase a conversion is made.
One of the biggest culprits in the AdWords financial slaughter-fest is Broad Match Keywords. This is the default setting for an AdWords Campaign. Broad Match brings volume which is important. Let’s say you’re using “office supplies” as a keyword for your office supply business, your ad will then be shown in any search for office humor, office jokes, and/or office suppliers. You may get 500 clicks from people looking for jokes about their boss, or the hit TV show “The Office”. If you’re a jeweler selling rings and put “Ring” or “Rings” in broad match, then you’ll get horror movie fans looking for “The Ring” and Guns N Roses fans looking for the controversial rock anthem “Get in the Ring”. Make sure to use the Match Search Query tool to discover what people are actually typing in to find your ad. Don’t just assume broad match clicks come from a relative term.
Next in the line-up of suspects are the moochers. The web is chock full of information- some good, some bad, and most free. If you’re trying to sell your product you’ll want to make sure to add “free” and “no cost” as Negative Keywords otherwise you’re getting clicks from people looking for freebies. Make it clear in your ad that you are selling a product or service, even better is to indicate the price point in the ad. This pre-qualifies your traffic to make sure you don’t get window shoppers wasting your ad spend. If you forget this you may end up subsidizing thousands of idle web surfers.
Consistently monitor your AdWords account every day and track which keywords are performing and which aren’t. As a business owner it’s your responsibility to ensure your money is spent wisely. Optimize your advertising dollars to avoid a financial bloodbath.
Keyword Search Pros saves clients huge sums of money by analyzing all the data relevant to their online business. We keep you safe by creating AdWords campaigns that offer you a positive ROI with no wasteful spend. We’re the shotgun toting Sherriff that saves the day at the end of the horror flick. When we roll into town and save you from your Adwords Campaign you’ll be thanking us. But that’s okay; that’s what good guys do.
