Eric HammisIf you’ve got a digital marketing plan, you should be using Google Adwords. Driving traffic to your site can be tough at times, if not, at all times. We can thank Google for handing us traffic on a platter through the use of Google Adwords.
Google Adwords is an online service that places your advertising copy somewhere —typically above, below or beside — a list of search results. Obviously that is going to drive traffic to your site…if done properly. If not constructed properly, it might not doing anything for your site, and that will cost you money. So rather than discussing what you should be doing, we went the other direction and created a what-not-to-do list. So let’s take a look.
One Big Group
Chances are you’ve got a product or service that is complex and is broken down into several categories. One of the biggest mistakes we see online is companies lumping all of their categories and keywords into one group. This basically shows everyone who is online the same ad. Now why the heck would you want to do that?
Instead, us Google Adwords ability to create specific campaign ad groups so you can place different ads online that are geared towards specific keywords. This will not only help you reach more people, but it will help you reach the right people.
Ignoring Negative Keywords
Most everyone knows how keywords work. You include keywords that you think people would type in their search engine to find your company. But what about negative keywords? Not many people use negative keywords, and that’s a mistake.
When it comes to Adwords, you want to be attracting the right traffic. Obviously if you sell in-ground pools, you don’t want someone coming to your site who is looking for a hot tub. So by entering a negative keyword of hot tub, you save yourself the time and hassle of having to explain to people that you don’t sell hot tubs. Trust us, after the 100th customer calls in wanting a hot tub, you might be ready to snap on the next person that says hot tub.
You’re Not Studying Abroad
Unless you have a product you are trying to reach out to every corner of the world, chances are you’re going to want to select a specific location. A mistake we often see is when a business quickly selects their location as the US and moves on. By doing this, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Instead, separate the geographic locations by state. Once your Adwords campaign is up and running, you can then go back and view each state to determine which ones you want to bid the most.
Don’t Neglect Your Schedule
There’s so many little tricks you can use to improve your Adwords campaign that you probably won’t hit them all. But if you miss this little trick, you might be spending money at the wrong time. A lot of people neglect to take into consideration their timing. Figure out when your high- and low-response times are with your ads. Once you figure this out, it’s quite obvious what you’re supposed to do: bid more during the high times and lower your bids during the low time! This is something that will separate the men from the boys, or women from the girls, depending on who is currently reading this.
Biggest Mistake Of All!
So now that we’ve discussed some mistakes that we see, we want to address one final mistake that we can’t believe exists. And that is not having an Adword campaign at all! If you’re trying to sell a product online, you better be using Adwords. Yes it costs money, but you don’t have to spend much. You determine how much you want to bid, and in the end, if you’re doing things right, it will pay off.
(204)
