ESWC06: Taming Google Adwords, Dave Collins

Dave Collins (Shareware Promotions) on how to get your Adwords account under control. I took a lot of notes, and I really enjoyed this presentation, but I'm not sure how to summarize it in the best way. It's probably worth also checking out Dave Talks for Dave's own version.

• Google Adwords is configured to help Google. As a certified Adwords professional, Dave has a love-hate relationship with the system.
• Most people don't know how to use it, and they are throwing money away. They have poor campaigns, inaccurate keywords, they are mixing content and search in the same campaign, and they are trusting Google to select the best options for them.
• The goal of this presentation is to help you get control, write good ads, beat Google, and spend less.

The Golden Rules

• Never forget how the system works.
• One size doesn't fit all.
• Control is Vital.
• Don't overcomplicate.
• Balance is Vital.
• Google likes it when you do things right, you get rewarded with lower bid thresholds.
• Quantity is good.
• Experiment and Purge.
• The defaults are for Google.

Basic Principles

• Remember it's not for everyone.
• Know the Google 80:20 rule. 20% of your ad spend will be generating 100% of your revenue, the other 80% will be easy money for Google.
• Dave's conspiracy theories: Broadmatching is enabled by default, Campaign negative keywords are hidden, you can't see when or where your ads are displayed, it's complex by design, there's no what's new list, the info from the content network is useless. Basically, the system keeps getting harder and harder to keep on top of.

Understanding the System

• Look at campaign settings. Take control over the different networks by using Campaigns to split your keywords instead of AdGroups. Don't use your search bids on the content network. Bid different amounts for different countries. Understand the difference between Google Search and the Search Network. Look at your budget, you need to get a balance between playing it safe and limiting your ads. Know that the keyword traffic prediction tools are practically useless.
• Quality Score. It's an abstract concept, no-one knows everything that's involved. Think of it as the Adwords equivalent of PageRank. Why should you care? Because it's Google's opinion of you. Your Quality Score can have a massive impact on the performance of your account.

Improving Quality Score

• Having Keywords with no impressions might be bad.
• Having a high Click Through Rate (CTR), is good.
• High Impressions and low CTR is definitely bad.
• High Clicks with a low Bounce Rate is a good thing. The Bounce Rate is the number of visitors who spend very little time on your page, before returning to Google.
• Too many Keywords can be a bad thing, but make the most of the good ones. Use all three matching options (add phrase and exact matching versions), as you might get lower bids or better performance for exact/phrase matching compared to broad matching. Use single and plural versions of your keywords, vary verb forms.
• Having only one Ad is a mistake. You need variety to learn what works. Include your keywords, look at competing ads, appeal directly to your customers interests. Try using rhythm or alliteration, try something short and snappy. Speak their language. Give new ads at least a week, use url parameters to track ads yourself, and don't reuse tracking when you change ads. Filter out invalid customers with your ad. Eg, specify Windows only. Always have at least two ads, and change the worst performing ad regularly.
• Your Landing Page should be a extension of your Ad. The relevance of these is becoming increasingly important to the Quality Score.
• Reports. There are useful reports in the system, but it's slow and inflexible. You can set it up so that Google will email you a report on a regular basis, this is very good. It reminds you to check your account and keep it under control. Dave recommended Thomas Wetzel's Adwords Reporter.

Getting down to business

• ROI. Perry Marshall says that P1 is for losers, because you're paying too much for the click, and can get similar results at P2-4. Dave has an example: You're 1st for $1, and you get $1000 clicks. You have a 5% conversion rate on a $30 service. You will get $1500 back from your $1000 investment, a $500 profit. At 4th for 40c, you get 300 clicks. Assuming the same conversion rate, you will get back $510 profit on $120 spent. This is a profit of $390. Which do you choose?
  Dave suggests you chose 1st place, despite the better ROI on 4th, because ROI isn't your primary goal, you are using adwords to make sales. Adwords isn't just an investment, it's about getting more customers.
  Another example, you have a $500 service. Would you buy 1 guaranteed customer per month for $10, 2 for $100, or 3 for $500? The fall in the ROI doesn't matter as much as the overall increase in sales.
• Peel+Stick. When you have good keywords, take them and create a new group. Tailor the ads and the landing page. Build on your strengths.
• Give new groups or Ads time.
• What to do about inactive keywords? Keeping them in your account will affect your Quality Score. You don't have to raise the bid. Improve the relevance on the landing page, or create a new ad which includes the keyword.
• Monitor. Don't ever leave your account unattended, you will definitely be throwing money away.

Q: Any advice for choosing keywords? Wordtracker.com and Keyword Discovery.
Q: How to prioritize all this work on Adwords, is there anything we should spend the most time on? It should be rough equal between writing ads, honing keywords, and tracking logs.

Tags: micro isv shareware eswc06 adwords