Some insights for new and/or non-professional users of Adwords. These are the slides from an presentation at VIATeC in the summer of 2015.

2.  Google makes Adwords very accessible to set up, which masks
the fact that it’s incredibly complex.
 After looking under the hood at 100’s of Adwords accounts,
I’ve seen a number of extremely common mistakes that can be
avoided by being a bit more knowledgeable and proactive.
 This is by no means a complete “how-to” but will highlight a
few of the areas that can make a big difference.
 Rather than a formal presentation, we’ll dig right into the
topics we’re talking about…

3.  Leveraging the Keyword Tool
 Intent based Keywords
 Ad Group Strategies
 Modified Broad Match as a research tool
 The Search Query Report
 Negative Keywords
 Phrase & Exact Match
 Quality Score, Average Position & Clickthrough Rates
 Landing Pages
 Conversion Tracking
 Month Over Month Tracking
 Common Sense!

5.  Find relevant keywords
 Narrow them down by intent
 Group them strategically

6.  Broad match can kill campaigns!
 Modified broad match gives keyword variety but great focus
and can migrate towards other matches (we’ll cover this
shortly).
 With modified broad, any keyword with a + before it MUST be
in the search query, allowing you to ensure relevant matches.

7.  The most valuable report in Adwords (that nobody uses).
 Shows what people are actually typing into Google to trigger
your ads (similar, but can be vastly different than what you’re
bidding on).

8.  Just what they sound like.
 You can add anything irrelevant that turns up in your Search
Query report or proactively add them.

10.  Having a higher quality score and higher clickthrough rate
(CTR) can raise your position and reduce click costs (Google
rewards relevance and performance). Focus on:
◦ Narrow ad groups.
◦ Relevant, compelling ads (keep your ad groups narrow enough that you can
include your keywords in your ads.
◦ Ad testing to boost clickthrough.

11.  Targeting a page to
exactly what a visitor
wants and needs (as
determined by their
search query)
through landing
pages is a tactic
used by almost all
successful
advertisers in
competitive markets.

12.  Track what it is you want the ad to accomplish, by ad &
keyword!
 Compare it month over month to identify what’s working (and
not working)
 Ridiculously powerful tool for long term improvement.
Hidden for
client privacy
reasons

13.  You need to take responsibility for the end to end process and
use common sense to make things work:
◦ Does the offer match the audience
◦ Is your landing page or website set up to convert?
◦ You can’t leave anything to chance!
 Important but not covered:
◦ Ads & ad testing
◦ Landing page testing
 Questions, Comments? Get me at Rob@PlusROI.com