So you’ve setup your account properly, everything is looking good, so now we need to move onto the next crucial stage of your campaign which is keywords.
Keyword research is perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of running ads. If you’re not choosing the right keywords, you could be failing and wasting money on keywords that won’t convert to business.
You need to make sure you’re using keywords that people are actually searching for, don’t go by guesswork, as you might as well be throwing money at Google for nothing! Here is our method of finding the best keywords.
Google keyword planner
So you want to start by entering a few seed keywords into the product or service section, then click get ideas.
The keyword planner automatically defaults to ad group ideas, make sure you select keyword ideas instead. Now you’ll have a list of perhaps even 100 or so keywords on your list that are related to your key product or service. Now the hardest part is to narrow it down to between 5 and 10 of the best keywords.
You want to opt for keywords that have a high number of monthly searches, this way you have a higher chance of people clicking onto your services.
Bare in mind that if you are a local company, then you will want to include your locality in your keyword. For example, pest control Derby, or even more relevant would be pest control company Derby.
The important thing to note from choosing your keywords is to make sure that it’s specific to the product or service that people are looking for. Pest control may just be a term that people type in to gain some research on a particular matter, whereas people searching for pest control companies, are perhaps more likely to be searching for a company to call to come and solve their pest problem, think more in depth, and try and get into the mind of the buyer.
So now you have a great list of keywords, you now need to include them in your campaigns.
Organise Your Campaigns
What you don’t want to do with your keywords is just throw them into any campaign, it needs to have some sort of organisation about it.
Your ads need to match your keywords as much as possible, so that they’re relevant. For example if some one is looking for a pest control company, they want to see ads such as 10% off when you use our pest control services.
Because you can’t really create ads for each individual keyword, Adwords allows you to create Ad groups instead. Ad groups simply contain keywords that are closely related.
After you saved all your Campaign settings, you actually created your first Ad group. Now is the time to go back into it and have a look at Ad groups.
In the left sidebar in your Google AdWords account, click on the name of the Campaign you set up earlier…
Then click on the ad group just below that.
Group Your Keywords Together
So what you need to do now is to add some keywords to your new Ad group.
Remember the list of keywords that you gathered from the previous step? Well you’re going to need to divide them into related groups.
So if we’re taking the example of pest control, my groups may look something like this:
Group 1: pest control company, pest control companies,
Group 2: rat control, mice control, rodent control, how to get rid of rats
Group 3: wasp nest removal, wasp removal, bumble bee nest
This method just makes it easier for you to find and create highly targeted ads, and will help you specifically address exactly what the person searching is looking for.
Once you’ve established these groups of keywords, it’s time to add the first group of keywords to your first ad group. It’s always a wise idea to rename your ad group, so something like bees and wasps, would be ideal for any keywords that contain those words, that way they’re all grouped together in one ad group.
Understanding negative keywords
Using this function is great if you want to exclude certain phrases from being linked with your ads. For example if you’re a pest controller, you maybe don’t want your ads showing up for Rentokill pest control, as the person searching is specifically looking for that company, which means you could potentially be wasting your time by having your ads shown to those people.
Or if there is a certain element of pest control that you don’t do, they I would recommend that you add this to your list of negative keywords too.
Writing Your Ad
Now it’s time to get to the nitty gritty and start writing the content for your ads!
Your ad copy is so important as it will determine whether someone will actually click on your ad.
This part can be quite challenging as Google AdWords doesn’t give you many characters to play with.
- A headline – up to 25 characters long, including spaces.
- Two lines of additional text, up to 35 characters each (70 total characters) including spaces.
- A Display URL which is where your website address goes.
Split Testing
Before we go on to talk about writing your ads, it;s worth mentioning that you should always split test your ads, This involves create two ads under the same ad group, and change the text slightly on one of the ads, this way you can see which ad is more effective, and you can test the kind of language that your audience responds to.
So what does it take to write a good AdWords ad?
The easiest answer I can give you is to put yourself in the mindset of your ideal prospect. They have some need, some desire, some problem they need solved that’s making them sit down at their computer (or with their mobile device) and type a word or phrase into Google.
Think about that conversation they have going on in their head for a minute. Then think about, if you were in their shoes, what would you want to see in an ad that would you make you want to click on it?
- A special offer or discount?
- A unique promise to solve their problem?
- A free special report or download?
- Some other benefit you can offer?
Besides the searcher, you want to take into account the keywords in the Ad group you’re writing the ads for. In general, you want the ads in each Ad group to closely reflect the keywords in the Ad group.
Now, unfortunately, this course can’t write your ads for you so, instead, here are some general tips for writing effective AdWords ads that will help guide you as you write your ads.
How to Write Effective Copy
Know what your goal is – What action do you want people to take? Do you want them to download something, to fill out a form, buy something or visit your store? Your ad should be clear on what you want your potential customer to do.
Always include a call to action – I can’t stress enough how important this is. You need to tell your audience what you want them to do “download now” “call now” etc.
Use your keywords – This helps your quality score increase, which ultimately determines how much you pay for your ads. It also means your keyword will be highlighted in your ad when someone searches for that phrase, drawing more attention to your ad.
Try asking a question – Ask them a question that relates to their pain point. “Got a bed bug infestation?”
Tell them what the benefit is – They want to know how it’s going to benefit them. What are you going to offer them that will make them want to use you over the competition?
Offers and discounts – These always are an added bonus, offer 10% off, or get something for free, when you opt in for this service. These kinds of offers will appeal to people as they feel like they’re saving money, or better still, getting something for free.
Destination URL
When writing your ad, think about where you’re going to direct your potential customers to. Whatever your ad is about, needs to link to a page about that. If you write an ad about rat control and then link them to your homepage, they’re going to get impatient. If your ad is about rat control, make sure you take them to a page that is specifically about rat control.
Your display URL is simply what people will see when they view your ad, it does have to be the same as your destination URL to a certain degree, but it can have any extension such as pestcontrol.com/15%offtoday, this is a great marketing trick to try and tempt people to click on your ad.
Go to create a new ad within your ad group, and you’ll see where you can fill in all the elements of your ad.
Don’t forget to create two versions within the ad group, and then change the text ever so slightly so you can split test.
Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are a great addition to your ads. One of the main ones is sitelinks.
At the top you can see two ads that have a number of links below their ads, these are called sitelinks. They’re a great way to make your ad bigger, and to give people the option of getting to the page they need instantly.
To create these just go to the ad extensions section, and then onto sitelinks.
Easy!
There are some other great extension options, such as a call extension, or review extension. I would particular recommend these two. The call out extensions is great for mobile users, they don’t have to have the hassle of going to a website first, but can just call you straight from the ad. The review extensions shows social proof that your services are brilliant, which will always put you to an advantage.
Like this for example:
So now you’ve got some great tips and tricks on creating ads in Google AdWords, and how to use them to your full advantage so you’re not wasting money!
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