Google AdWords Optimisation Checklist

Who here is a ‘to-do list’ writer? I love them because having a list I can refer back to helps to keep me on track with whatever I’m doing, and your Google AdWords account is absolutely no different. So when you ask yourself, “Have I done everything I need to do to have a successful AdWords campaign,” you surely need to ascertain what a successful Google AdWords campaign is in the first place!

That may sound like an overly simple remark but it’s still worth thinking about. Firstly, what do you want to achieve with your AdWords campaign? Sure enough you’ll want Return on Investment (ROI), Brand Awareness, and greater Engagement, but to start you must ensure the basics are covered.

Here a few optimisation checkpoints you should be aware of when it comes to optimising your Google AdWords campaign.

Budgets

Are you using your daily budgets each day? If you are using your entire budget and getting good results now would be the time to look at increasing budgets. If you are not hitting your budget look at adding more keywords and Ad groups to the campaign. There is the other side of budget consideration where you can come across Google’s limited by budget protocol. Basically Google does an equation, taking into consideration the number of keywords in your campaign, the average Cost per Click and your allotted daily budget. If they think you are not spending enough, Google will attempt to show your ad evenly across the day, meaning that you will lose ad view density.

Targeting

Is your location targeting accurate? It sounds like a simple question but you will be surprised at how many people get this wrong. When using the target areas tab in Google, be mindful of what we are actually targeting.  Sometimes being so specific can cut off the traffic to the campaign. For example, targeting ‘Springfield Lakes Brisbane’ may be too specific to get viable amounts of traffic. Opening it up to just ‘Brisbane’ and then adding negative keywords around irrelevant suburbs, traffic volume can suddenly become viable!

Keywords and Negative Keywords

Keywords are the back bone of an AdWords campaign. They match Google search terms with relevant ads. Studies prove that certain keywords establish where a consumer is within their buying cycle. For example search terms around costs and prices indicate the consumer is still in research mode and not ready to make their final decision. Google rewards relevancy so it is really important to ensure that your keywords represent who you are and who you are trying to target. Now is a good time to also look into your negative keyword list. A negative keyword prevents your ads from being shown to irrelevant searchers and improves your Click-through Rate.

Negative Keywords

Ensure your keywords are only attracting searches that a qualified lead would perform. At the beginning of an AdWords build it is likely that you have added some negative keywords that you know are going to show your ads but not work as a conversion. However, you may come to realise that over a period of time there are still a huge amount of other keywords that show your ads as well, that are not relevant to the conversions you are wanting. It is important that you check the Search terms report to show what your ads are showing for. Importantly you are also limiting wasted spend.

Schedule

If you are a florist, how likely is it that you have genuine searches at 3 am? When should you use ad scheduling? Schedule your ads to show when you want to make the most of your budget. Sometimes AdWords accounts that are limited by budget are generally good accounts to begin with; they just need to be focused into the right time period. As written about in the Official Google AdWords Community, think about the market or industry you are in and the behaviours around the searches. Ad scheduling allows you to customise your ads to match the search traffic you’re after and use your resources in the best possible way. Using ad scheduling can add significant value to your AdWords performance and lead to a much higher ROI on your AdWords spend.

Analytics & Tracking

Finally and without a doubt one of the most important things to have set up with any Pay-per-Click advertising is tracking. Google Analytics doesn’t just provide you with insights from your website but is a valuable tool in the success of your business.

Basing your business decisions on data is crucial to ensure you have enough evidence to support what you are spending your money on. The optimisation of AdWords marketing campaigns is an ongoing process but you need to ensure you are taking steps in the right direction. There is a possibility that you could be making changes that will negatively affect the performance of the campaign compared to what was done previously. This is where Google Analytics Data is precious. By understanding what works from the changes you have made you can be sure to invest your time optimising in the right areas of the campaigns and getting rid of the areas that are not performing.

In all there are many elements to the creation, optimisation and success of your online marketing. Getting the basics right to begin with will set you on your way towards measured success and ROI.

Speak to our SponsoredLinX Digital Strategy team today on 1300 859 600 about optimising your Google AdWords budget efficiently.