This is a 99 second read and you’re already down to 97 seconds… so lets get started.

The key to Google Adwords is to:

1) Research Keywords
2) Target Correct Geo-Location
3) Create Multiple Ad Groups
4) Create Multiple Ads
5) Set-up your Goals, Measure and Tweak.

This is an abbreviated list, but will give you enough information to talk intelligently with most so called “Adwords Experts”.

Research Keywords

Using Google’s Keyword tools for your initial list of keywords gives you a good start.  You should also look at other keyword research tools that let you look at synonyms, or even consult a thesaurus.  Don’t forget to use that common sense of yours. You should know your product / service and your industry. Get with co-workers and brainstorm over lunch — it will make for a fun conversation and you are sure to come up with some good terms.

Target Correct Geo-Locations

Depending on your target customer or desired web visitor,  make sure you use the Geo-Locations feature when setting up your campaign. A common mistake and one that could cost you thousands of dollars is for local service businesses to “target” the United States for their service. The web marketing or web development industry works well from a far, but there’s plenty of dry cleaning companies that only serve the local area.

Creating Multiple Ad Groups

This is an area where the untrained person usually starts to miss out on some of the best reasons to run an adwords campaign. Segment your keywords into multiple ad groups to allow you to target specific users with specific needs. If somebody is looking to buy a Ford car it does’t make any sense to serve them an ad showing information about a Chevy truck. Using multiple ad groups will ensure  you target the right people with the right message.

Creating Multiple Ads

Now that we are this far lets do another “expert” type of thing that’s real easy. Set-up multiple ads for each ad group. This allows you to do A/B testing on your ads to find the ads that are working best. Weekly, dump the least performing ad and try to “improve” upon your top performing ad. You’ll continually improve your ads performance.

Set-up Your  Goals… Measure and Tweak

We are getting into a more technical area now, but still essential for ultimate google adwords success. Depending on what your goal is you’ll need to put a snippet of tracking code on one of your web pages (or a couple of pages).  Why this last step? The most obvious reason of course is to judge how many people buy something or fill out a contact form after clicking on one of your ads. But, it goes a bit deeper. You can determine what “keyword phrases” convert into sales or leads. Over time you can stop paying for visitors that don’t convert.  You can just pay for traffic that converts and becomes a paying customer.

Setting up a PPC campaign the right way can be a fun and a rewarding experience. Following the above steps has worked well for me and for countless professionals. 

Don’t be afraid to try something different to see if you can make improvements. Adword management is all about making calculated tweaks to squeeze out a little more performance when you can.

About Eric Fransen
Eric Fransen is President of Klik Marketing and has been involved with the Internet Marketing industry since it’s birth in the late 1990’s. When Mr. Fransen isn’t managing the day-to-day operations of Klik Marketing he enjoys spending time with his family. He is also a part-owner in a few other business ventures, namely the  Carolina Stingers Baseball Club and Were Talking Golf.

About Klik Marketing

Klik Marketing is a small firm with team members scattered throughout the world. Our corporate office is based in Fort Mill, SC (a few minutes from downtown Charlotte, NC). We like being small and nimble and are quick to change with the times. Besides our corporate office we use the franchise/agency model to place Managing Partners in the area of our clients. Our agencies are currently located in Duluth, MN and Charlotte, NC.