Did you know that 1 in 2 Kiwis who search Google contact a business as a result of their search? That’s why it’s crucial that your website can be found online. But there’s an art to getting your website ranking well on Google and in this webinar, we’d like to give you a few tips on how to increase your website’s visibility by using Google AdWords.

1. Today we’ll be looking at what Google AdWords is, how it works and what it can achieve
for your business. And we’ll try and debunk some of the mysteries and myths that you
may have heard about Google AdWords.
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2. Your business is already online which is great. Only around 50% of Kiwi businesses have
a website, so you’re already ahead of the game. But how do you think your website is
performing for you? Are people finding your site when they’re searching? Are you
measuring how effective it is as a referral or sales channel for you?
When we talk about your website getting found, Google is at the heart of your strategy –
whether it’s through organic or paid traffic.
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3. Now that you can see the huge volume of traffic that goes to Google each month, the
importance of being found ahead of your competitors becomes very clear.
Driving people to your website from Google can be done in a couple of ways:
1. Buying traffic with Cost Per Click campaigns, for leads that start straight away. There
are a variety of terms for what is essentially the same thing. You’ve probably heard
people talk about “Google AdWords” “Search Engine Marketing” or “Search
Marketing”. Essentially all of these terms relate to the same thing. You may also
sometimes hear this referred to as ‘paid’ online advertising. Google Display and
Facebook Ads are also included in this category.
2. The second way to drive people to your website is through what we call “building
traffic” through Search Engine Optimisation or SEO, for developing a sustainable leads
source. SEO is essentially the process of increasing the natural or organic ranking of your
website on a search result page by making improvements to your website and content.
This is often referred to as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ traffic.
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4. Search Engine Marketing is in essence a marketing strategy that you can use to help
customers find you online.
Your website is essentially an automated sales rep that is designed to turn potential
customers into actual customers. Google AdWords is an online advertising platform that
delivers potential customers to your website…in other words it generates leads for your
business.
How does Google AdWords do this? It’s the process of having your website listed in
search engines by paying to have ads displayed on search engines. These ads are
displayed on Search Engine Results Pages – or what we commonly refer to as SERPs.
This is a screenshot of a typical SERP. We can see there is a large amount of
competition, and that ads account for a large percentage of listings.
To understand how this all works you need to break down the anatomy of a Google
search page. It’s important to understand that Google is basically two search engines
-One for ‘Paid’ spots – which is AdWords
-One for ‘Organic’ spots – which is based solely on website relevance.
Today we’ll be focusing on the paid, Google AdWords spots.
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5. AdWords is essentially an auction model that works in real time, where competitors bid
against each other to show in competing positions on the search results page.
How visitors get to your website from Google AdWords is actually pretty simple:
When users have a requirement for a particular product e.g. ‘Hairdresser’, they are likely
to perform a Google Search either on their desktop, laptop, or phone.
It is at this stage that Google ads will be displayed. So, if you provide a rental service,
you are essentially advertising to someone that already has a need for that service.
Your Google AdWords ads appear beside relevant search results because Ads are
displayed on Google to users searching for products or services like yours, at the
exact moment they’re looking for them
People click on the ad to find out more (to drive this action ads need to be compelling
and contain relevant keywords)
Once consumers click on your ad they are taken to a relevant page on your website and
connect to your business!
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7. • With Google AdWords reach and relevance are key – that means you only pay for
qualified prospects, i.e. the ones who actually click on your ad.
• And you only advertise to people looking for your product or service because your ad
only appears to people who have entered a relevant search term on Google. What
other forms of advertising works in this way. You only advertise to people looking for
your product or service. Amazing!
• In AdWords we talk about Cost Per Click or CPC. It’s also sometimes called PPC – Pay
Per Click. The trick here is to pay less than people below you in the search results
page or to generate more clicks than the person above you. There are no set prices,
the cost you pay for each click is based on how relevant the search query is to your ad
and your website and how many people are actually clicking on your ad compared to
people clicking on your competitors’ ads.
• Managing Google AdWords campaigns is about getting what you paid for, so if you
can get more traffic for your limited budget on a lower position, then that’s a good
thing. The aim of the game is to drive down your cost per click and improve your
conversation rate from clicks to sales.
• ROI – The best thing about online is that everything is measurable. By using both
AdWords and Google Analytics you can optimise your campaign. E.g. if you have 100
keywords and 50 of them are converting into sales, we can focus your budget on the
50 keywords that are converting, and pause the rest.
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8. • The key to this is constant measurement and conversions tracking through Google
Analytics.
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9. Let’s unveil a few secrets about how to create a successful Google AdWords campaign.
There are many elements involved in Google AdWords so we’ll just focus on three of
these today:
- The importance of selecting the right keywords in your campaign
- How to write effective ad copy
- The secret of turning visitors into customers
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10. In Google AdWords we talk a lot about ‘keywords’. In the world of Google,
keywords are words or phases that are related or relevant to the product or
service your business offers. In essence, they are the words people will
search to find your business and they are the words Google AdWords will
use to decide whether to show your ad to someone when they’re
searching.
Firstly, you need to Select Keywords, and it is very important to try make
these as relevant as possible – Think about what customers are likely to
type into Google when looking for your product or service.
Then, you need to write relevant ads – and align them with your keywords.
If you’re a Hairdressing Business, ensure you say so it in your ad-copy.
Write more than one ad version. Best practice involves testing different
messages to discover which one performs the best.
Every business is trying to make their ads stand out with specials, deals or
unique selling points. So we try & use Offers & Promotions as often as
possible (for example “$20 Off” is likely to get more traction than a generic
brand ad).
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11. If we come across a business doesn’t have any current offers, it is perfectly
fine to promote their expertise, and mention their area of service.
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12. Getting your keywords right is one of the most important success factors in Google
AdWords. Because with Google AdWords you pay per click, you want to make sure your
keywords attract the right audience, so finding relevant keywords can be daunting. At
Yellow® we have our own proprietary system which has 10 years worth of historical data
and we can tell which keywords are most successful for specific industries and regions.
We recommend a budget based on your business, industry and region.
There are a few essentials when choosing keywords so you don’t eat up your budget on
unqualified leads.
- Starting small and targeted is the rule of thumb e.g. if you are a plumber, you don’t
want to bid on plumbing as big keywords will eat up your budget quickly. If you’re a
commercial plumber make that clear, if drain unblocking is your speciality, use that
- If you service a particular region, specifying relevant locations together with your
category can help make sure you’re getting the right kind of leads. After all, if you
serve Wellington Central, it’s unlikely that those in the Wairarapa will be calling you
- You are ideally looking for two things – be super targeted and super relevant
- Attention grabbing and urgent words are also important as they attract searchers’
attention. Certain words do a good job e.g. free, guaranteed, act fast and limited
time.
- And don’t forget to bid on your own business name!
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13. Once you’ve conquered the challenge of getting people to click on your ad, make every
click count by sending visitors to a landing page with relevant information.
What’s a landing page? It’s basically the page of your website that you want your
customers to land on once they click your ad. It can be a home page or a product specific
page. But there are a few rules of thumb here to make sure you’re getting customers to
take that next step i.e. conversion – that is, taking an action by either calling or emailing
you, walking into your shop or using your website’s ecommerce facility to make an
immediate sale.
The landing page should showcase what you’re advertising in the Google AdWords ad –
otherwise it’s just not relevant to the searcher. A good landing page is one that
addresses whatever the searcher was looking for. And if we think back to our keyword
strategy i.e. using highly targeted keywords, then you need to direct them to a highly
targeted page. The more relevant the landing page, the higher your conversions.
For example if you have a health food shop and your ad is promoting supplement to help
with winter chills, you want to take your customers straight to the page that promotes
those products, not just your generic home page where they have to hunt to find the
products they are looking for.
The best rule is to drive your traffic to deep linked pages within your site.
You may even want to set up a specific landing page that can’t be navigated to easily so
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14. you can test and learn.
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15. So, going back to the example of Hairdresser Auckland.
We can see a few different business options and a map to help find
business locations.
The trick to success with Google’s auction model is to pay less than people
below you or generate more clicks than the person above you. There are no
set prices, the cost you pay for each click is based on how relevant the
search query is to your ad and your website, and, how many people are
actually clicking on your ad compared to people clicking on your
competitors ads. That’s the performance element. Let me explain using an
overview of basic terminology
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16. AdWords is filled with performance metrics, and the most important of them all is a
metric called ‘Quality Score’. Quality score is a key factor in the Google Ad Rank
equation, which determines where your ad shows and how much you will pay per click.
Position & Ad Rank are determined by your bid and your quality score. Bid x Quality
Score = Ad Rank.
The higher the ad rank, the higher the position on the results page. So, if your
campaign is set up well, you can pay less per click than your competitors for a better
position on the SERP.
This is a good visual on how the auction side of AdWords actually works. Explain the
above example.
The most important thing to remember is that Quality Score has a huge impact on
position and cost efficiency - The business who bids the most doesn’t necessarily win
the highest ad position.
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17. Conversions are measurable objectives on your website.
Ideally, they are actions you would like your visitor to take once they’ve found what they
are looking for.
E.g. For Garret Hairdressing example, conversions could be – Phone Calls, Online
Enquiries or Online bookings
No quality control, dangerous situation to be in
- severely limits our optimisation options
- Impossible to show value when presenting reports
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18. So, time to bust some myths
The majority of feedback we receive from customers is about ensuring their
ads show in position 1.
The important thing to remember is that managing AdWords campaigns is
about ROI, so if you can get more traffic for your limited budget on a lower
position, then that is a good thing. Lots of people still click the side-runner
ads. The game is to drive down your cost per click and improve your
conversion rate from clicks into sales.
The next biggest complaint we receive is when our customers can’t see
their ads on the results page. This is usually the result of a limited budget
campaign, if the budget is limited, then Google will serve your ads
sporadically throughout the day.
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20. Ultimately the key to success is continuous testing and measurement. Make sure you
regularly click into your Google AdWords account to see how many people clicked on
your ads and went to your website. These insights will show you which keywords and
advertising copy work best for you. You’ll also be able to see how long people stayed on
your landing page, so you’ll know by the level of engagement whether it was the right
page to link to.
At Yellow®, we do all the work for you in terms of measurement. Not only do we product
a monthly report delivered to your in box giving you insights into your Google AdWords
campaign, Yellow® Google AdWords campaigns are reviewed regularly and we can tell
you how much of the market share your ads are attracting. We may recommend a
different price point or to change out your keywords and ad copy. Especially with
seasonal businesses it’s important to change your messaging – and even your budget-
depending on the season. For example we know that over Xmas the following categories
get a lot more search traffic – taxis, boarding kennels, liquor outlets and holiday parks,
so you need to structure your annual Google AdWords campaign to factor this in.
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22. Think about what 100 additional enquiries a month would mean for your business.
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23. This is the first in a series of two sessions around driving traffic to your website. Today
we’ve focused on buying traffic through Google AdWords. Next month we’ll look at
building traffic to your website through the art of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.
Together these are powerful, complementary tools that can transform your website into
a leading source of revenue for you and your business.
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24. At Yellow we can help with all your digital marketing needs and any of the solutions
we’ve talked about, including getting your website up and running, a website upgrade or
simply helping you figure out what your business needs. We work with a variety of
businesses – big and small, from Kaitaia to Invercargill.
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