Tips for Enhancing Google AdWords Campaigns

enhancing Google AdWords

So you’ve built a website that helps you get found online and you’ve mastered the B2B blog. Now what? How about conquering Google AdWords? I know, simply setting up AdWords can seem daunting, let alone figuring out ways to go about enhancing Google AdWords campaigns. Does AdWords scare you? It’s OK, it scared me, too when I first started out. It just seemed so big and unwieldy and, well, scary.

Yes, there is A LOT you can do with AdWords. And at first glance, it can be very confusing. But once you understand where, when, and why to use them, enhancing Google AdWords becomes a much easier, smoother, and, dare I say, enjoyable process.

Whether you’re drowning in the AdWords sea, or just dipping your toes in the water, becoming AdWords certified will help — but it’s a long and sometimes arduous process. So, to fast-track your learning, here are some tips I was able to glean as I went through the certification process.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to enhancing Google AdWords! And if you still need more help, we’ve got your back.

1. Choose the Right Keywords — and Then Set a Budget to Support Them

choose the right keywords

One trap many companies fall into when enhancing Google AdWords is creating several ads based on different keywords and then setting an equal budget for each of them. This is a mistake. When it comes to keywords, you’re going for quality, not quantity. Invest in figuring out which ones are your top converters and put them into your ad campaigns. Make sure you devote enough money to really boost these campaigns. It’s important to focus your budget on the keywords that are most likely to work before spending more cash to test additional keywords.

2. Accelerate Your Delivery

accelerate your delivery

Speaking of focusing your budget on top-converting keywords, consider forgoing the AdWords Standard Delivery option in favor of Accelerated Delivery. The former takes your budget into consideration and conservatively distributes your ads throughout the day. This may mean that you won’t show up on certain searches that happen in the morning, for instance, because AdWords is trying to stretch your budget out through the end of the day.

Accelerated delivery ensures that your ads will show up in every eligible search until your budget is used up for the day. It’s a hard-hitting way to put your company at the top of the search results in order to connect with potential customers at the start of the business day.

3. Keyword Placement Matters

keyword placement matters

Google will rank your ad according to its perceived relevance to the audience. There are ways you can increase your ad’s relevance, and one of them is to make sure your keyword is in the ad headline instead of its body. This will bump your ad up the list, increasing the likelihood that searchers will find it, click, and find you.

4. Use Ad Extensions

use ad extensions

When you’re working to appeal to other businesses, looking polished is important. Keep this in mind as you’re enhancing Google AdWords. Ad extensions can make your ads look more professional. You can choose app extensions like a download button, a call button, or a directions icon as a location extension, among others. They’ll make your ad more prominent, improve its visibility, and increase your number of clicks. In fact, Google reports that ads with extensions receive a 10 to 15% increase in their click-through rate. Ad extensions are an attractive option that can help bring more overall value to your campaign.

5. Avoid Broad Matching

avoid broad matching

On its face, Google’s Broad Match option sounds like a good idea. It “lets a keyword trigger your ad to show whenever someone searches for that phrase, similar phrases, singular or plural forms, misspellings, synonyms, stemmings (such as floor and flooring), related searches, and other relevant variations.”

Sure, your ad will pop up for more keywords, but they might not be keywords that will appeal to your customer base and score you conversions. AdWords will quickly run through your budget by showing the ad to people who aren’t actually looking for a business like yours. Stick with AdWords’ other two options, Exact and Phrase match, to avoid wasting money and to get the best results.

6. Make Use of Bid Modifiers

bid modifiers

AdWords gives you an entire toolbox to customize and control your ad campaign, so make sure you’re using it. One of the most important tools in that box are bid adjustments that allow you to determine how frequently your ads will appear based on where, when, and how people search for your chosen keywords. Set positive bid adjustments to target specific locations, whether it’s a city, state, or the entire country. You can also use device bid adjustments to target tech-savvy potential clients who search from their mobile phones.

7. Dynamic Keyword Insertion

dynamic keyword insertion

This option helps customize your ad keywords according to different user searches. For instance, if your targeted keywords are “social media marketing,” “content marketing,” and “online marketing,” your ad will include the following DKI code: Find {KeyWord:Marketing}. If a potential client does a search for “business social media marketing,” then your ad will appear to them as “Find Social Media Marketing.” This is a useful tool to make your ads appear more relevant to the person doing the search, which means (of course) more click-throughs and more business.

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Troy Sympson

Troy Sympson

Troy is a Content Writer for NgageContent. Troy is an experienced journalist, and has a strong understanding of how content and social media work together to form relationships with your brand’s audience.



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