Google AdWords Strategy - Part 3: Other Google AdWords Strategies
With permission from the Google AdWords Guide: Novice to Expert to Superhuman - www.AdwordsCampaign.net
Most AdWords campaigns are managed poorly, through either lack of knowledge or an aversion to tedious work. This makes it possible for you to get targeted traffic extremely quickly and easily, using clever strategy together with automated tools.
3. Other Google AdWords Strategies
Google AdWords Ad Positioning
Although the profit margin on the product or service offered is a large factor, tests have proved that the first ad position on the first page is, generally, not the most profitable. Yes, it gets the most clicks, but it's often a spontaneous action by the surfer before studying the ad. Sometimes the surfer is merely browsing the subject and is not ready to buy (commonly known as "tyre-kickers").
Tests show that the further down the page an ad is, or, occasionally, even on the second page, the greater is its conversion rate. The surfer has taken the time to read the ad carefully because he is ready to buy. Furthermore, the clicks are fewer; so, your overall pay-per-click bill is less than for a higher-positioned ad. The downside is that the click-through rate (CTR) of the lower-positioned ads is lower, which affects your Quality Score adversely and raises your cost per click.
A happy medium is to aim for positions 4 to 6 on Google's first page. (You can use the "Show Estimated Ad Position" and "Estimated Avg CPC" columns in the on-line Google AdWords Keyword Tool to determine the cost-per-click to bid for each of of your exact match keyword phrases, and then you can set those bids accordingly. These figures can, however, be notoriously inaccurate. Always check your keyword phrases' positions afterwards in the 'Avg Pos' column on the Ad Group's 'Keywords' index tab or by testing with a search on the main keyword phrases.)
You can specify different maximum bid amounts for these various types of advertising. Because the quality of their traffic tends to be lower, bids for the Content Network ("entire network" option) and Search Network (Search Partners) (see Tactics > Search Network) should be kept lower and be more tightly controlled than those for Google Search traffic and the Content Network ("Placement ads" option). In the early stages of a new Google AdWords campaign, it is advisable to go with only Google Search traffic and switch other options off, to help you to control costs. Once you've discovered the keywords that produce the highest return on investment (ROI), you can enable other options for those keywords to see what results they produce.
If you find that a Google Search traffic campaign is too competitive, don't just abandon Google AdWords altogether; try a Content Network Placement ad (see Tactics > Placement Ads), bidding either CPC or CPM (q.v.).
Testing and Tracking
Ad Variations
Despite what you may think of your copywriting prowess, you will not write the perfect ad at the first attempt. You may need ten attempts before you find the best formula. Although you may hazard a reasonable guess at the advertisement text that would attract visitors, the ONLY way to KNOW what ad text achieves the highest click-through rate (CTR) is split-test two ads simultaneously.
Although changing just a single word can make a difference, do not split-test two ads that resemble each other that closely; Split-test two radically different ads. (Switch off Google's option to show the better-performing ad more often than the other, as that would distort the test results.) After between 20 and 50 clicks it should become apparent which of the two ads is out-performing the other. Then replace the inferior ad with another and split-test again. Repeat this process again and again, each time reducing the textual differences between the two ads until you arrive at the one that performs best of all.
To track the click-through rate (CTR) of your ads, go to your Google AdWords campaign web page, click on the Campaign name; click on the Ad Group name; click the 'Ad Variations' index tab; check the 'CTR' column.
Always keep all the Ad Variations that you create, to check that you don't repeat any inadvertently.
Landing Pages
Split-test your landing pages in a similar way, to discover which style, layout, text, call to action, etc. achieves the highest conversion rate. To track the conversion rates of your web pages for various keywords, go to your Google AdWords campaign web page and click on the 'Conversion Tracking' item on the 'Campaign Management' index tab.
Always save all the landing pages that you create, to check that you don't repeat any inadvertently.
Keywords
After a new campaign has been running for about a month, check the click-through rate (CTR) of all the keyword phrases in each Ad Group on its