8 Tips To Get Started With Google Adwords

1. Only Use One Set Of Keywords For Each Ad

You should try and limit your list of keywords for one particular ad to about 10 – 15 keywords. Each keyword or keyword phrase should be related to the main keyword you’re targeting.

For example if your keyword is “Guitar Lessons” then you would use terms such as

Guitar Lessons,
Guitar Lesson,
Online Guitar Lessons,
Online Guitar lesson,
Guitar Lessons for Beginners,
Beginners Guitar lessons

Also include your main keyword phrase in the headline and description of the ad, as this will also help to target your ad more effectively.

2. Split Test Your Ads

Google allows you to test 2 or more ads at the same time. You should always run at least two ads together, then you can work out which one has a higher click through ratio. Click through ratio is how many people click on your ad and go through to your landing page. Once you’ve determined that, remove the lower performing ad and replace it with a new ad and then start the testing again.

Your objective is to continually split test until you have an ad with the highest lick through ratio possible.

3. Don’t Use Broad Match

Broad Match is where your ad will show for any search where any of your keywords are in the title. For example “Guitar Lessons” would appear in

Guitar Lessons,
Lessons, Guitar,
Electric Guitar,
Music Lessons etc.

Exact Match however is much more targeted and will only appear on search results that contain Guitar Lessons in that order as part of the search term. For example
Free Guitar Lessons,
Guitar Lessons for beginners,
Advanced Guitar Lessons etc.

To Use Exact match you need to put square brackets around your keyword; i.e. [guitar lessons]

4. Use Attention Grabbing Words In Your Headline

Your headline should start with something that grabs attention. For example Buy, Free, Cheap…

You do need to ensure however you stay within Google's guidelines

5. Don’t Waste Words In Your Ads

As you’re limited by the number of words you can use in an ad, try and remove any common words like, a, an in, of, it etc. You need to make every word count.

6. Stop Tyre Kickers Clicking On Your Ad

A good way to get more targeted visitors is to include the price of your product in the ad. This will drop your click through ratio, but it will mean that someone has seen your price and they still want to look at what you’re offering. This makes them a far more targeted buyer than a tyre-kicker who is only curious about your ad.

7. Set Your Daily Budget Or You’ll Regret It

When you start an Adword campaign, make sure to set a daily limit on your budget.

As you should be split testing until you find your optimum ad, it’s a good idea to keep your budget very low until you’ve found a good ad, and then start gradually increasing your budget (All the while split testing of course!). You should split test two ads until you’ve had a sizable number of people clicking your ads. I would suggest at least 100 people, but you will get more accurate results if you wait until at least 500.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking you’ve written a great ad that will attract thousands of customers.
You then set a high daily budget and assume you’ll get tons of targeted visitors instantly, but all that happens is your cash dissappears down the plughole! This will very quickly sell you on the idea of split testing.

8. Optimise Your Landing Page

It sounds pretty obvious, but your landing page (where someone who clicked on your ad is directed), should be all about your product. Don’t just send visitors to your homepage unless it’s solely designed to sell what you’re advertising. It’s always a good idea anyway to have a separate site or landing page for each product you’re selling.

These are a few pointers to get you started. There’s a lot more to Adwords but you now know enough to get started and get your feet wet. Time to start generating your list of targeted prospective customers 🙂