Even if you’re satisfied with your account’s performance, it’s a good idea to fine-tune. Here are some tips to help get you started.

First Things First

• Identify your ad/optimization objectives. Is your goal to increase clicks, conversions or both?
• Know your audience (Teenagers? Business owners? Shoppers? Men? Women?)
• Are the products/services you offer organized in a concise & clear manner on your website?

Once you have answered these questions, read the tips below for “Keyword Selection”, “Ad Copy”, “Landing Page”, “Targeting” & “Bid Management” optimization ideas.

1.    Keyword Selection

• Make sure the keywords are relevant to your site. Selecting the right keywords is key to attracting customers as they are more likely to spend more time and money on your site if they find what they are looking for right away.
• Know your niche and the keywords/phrases associated to your products and services. Make sure you have a good balance between general and specific keywords and phrases that relate the content of your pages.
• General keywords will drive volume to your site as well as customers that don’t have a specific product in mind or that are open to various product offerings. Specific keywords drive highly qualified customers that have a specific product, service or offering in mind. *This would be your Niche
• Avoid selecting keywords that are too general. These may drive users that are looking for entirely different products or markets that are not part of your website.
• Use the following strategy to select keywords:
  • General & specific terms related to your website
  • General & specific terms used by competitor websites
  • General & specific terms related to your niche market
  • For product keywords, be sure to also include model numbers/letters if applicable
• Example Campaign: Online Job Site
  • Select general terms: ?jobs, career, employment, resume
  • Avoid too general terms: ?education, health, sales, engineering, nursing
  • Select targeted terms: ?job listings, job search, online jobs, online job search, job opportunities, employment opportunities, job postings, online job search
  • Select highly targeted terms: ?nursing careers, careers in healthcare, sales jobs new york, nursing jobs new york, advertising jobs seattle, engineering jobs, accounting careers, jobs in education, teaching positions, job listings los angeles, job listings Chicago
  • Include negative terms to avoid irrelevant terms associated with a particular keyword: ?For “job”, include negative terms such as “blow”, “hand”, “nose”, “discrimination”

2.    Ad Copy

• Include the keyword in the title and description. Users are more likely to click on listings in which the keyword is included in the title and description.
• Include call to action terms in your ad copy: “Buy”, “Send”, “Order”, “Save”, “Purchase”
• Include special offers or promotions: “Free Shipping”, “25% Off”, “Get Rebate”
• Highlight seasonal events: Holidays, Valentine’s Day, Back-To-School, Halloween
• Ad Copy Example: Valentine’s Day
  • Save On Valentine’s Gifts?
    Shop Jewelry, Candy, Flowers & More
    Save 30% On All Valentines Gifts!
    www.AskFlowers.com/Valentines

3.    Landing Page

• Make sure the landing page is relevant to the keyword. Avoid sending users to general pages or to your site’s homepage. As previously mentioned, customers are more likely to spend more time and money on your site if they find what they are looking for right away.
• The best practice is to have each ad group lead to a unique landing page, which is tied conceptually to the keywords. Grouping like keywords and tying these groups to a unique landing page is a good alternative strategy.
• Avoid sending users to pages with search results. Sending the user from one group of search results to another group of search results hurts performance as it creates an unnecessary burden on the user and as it increases the chances that non-relevant search results may appear.

4.    Targeting

Broad vs Exact Match:

• Broad matching pluses:? Allows for more comprehensive targeting; increases click volume and allows the advertiser to capture search combinations not captured by their keyword list.
• Broad matching minuses:? Increases chances of capturing clicks from an unintended audience and lowering CTR by serving listings to non-relevant search results. Recommended to be used with 2+ keyword combinations, unless single term is highly targeted.
• Exact matching pluses:? Allows for more limited targeting; reduces chances of capturing clicks from an unintended audience and lowering CTR by serving listings to non-relevant search results.
• Exact matching minuses:? May be too limiting; majority of searches on Google.com search using 2+ keywords in their query string. Recommended only for keywords that are too general.
• Negative matching (Using Keyword Negatives with Broad matching):? Negative keywords stop listings from being displayed on selected non-relevant search results.

5.    Bid Management

• Bid into the top 3 positions to maximize exposure. Sometimes #3 spot is better than #1, you have to test them both and see which has the higher ROI.
• Group listings into categories/groupings in order of importance.
• Bid high on keywords with high performance or with main business drivers.
• Adjust bids regularly depending on bid landscape to retain top position and desired ROI metrics. (Note: do not change to often as you will want atleast 5 days of data to evaluate the performance.)
• Set and adjust your maximum bids and your daily budget according to desired ROI metrics. Adjust these to increase/decrease click volume to maintain ROI performance.

If you would like to have me give your Google Adwords account a honest evaluation, sign up for my FREE 15 minute coaching call.

In addition, if you are looking for someone to manage your account and fine-tune the settings listed above contact me directly at info [at] jasontrump.com.