Added Visibility, Added Reach, Added Business Boost with AdWords
Online marketing has caught on like wild fire and as an online business; you want your fair share of the limelight. So, you hire an SEO professional and wait for the flood of enquiries and orders to come pouring in- but nothing earthshaking happens. Your business is showing up there at the top of Google’s search results, but the conversions are not taking place at the rate you had expected them to.
Nothing like the tidal wave of relevant responses and queries that had been promised! So what is it that went wrong? Why is it that your killer SEO strategy failed? Did the SEO professional not do his job right? Before you get ready to clobber the poor guy, delve a little deeper into your broader marketing strategy.
The fact of the matter is that setting up an effective online strategy is not as simple as sprinkling a few Keywords across your website, articles and blogs. It’s always a mix-and-match of a number of different tools and strategies that will give you the results you need.Rocking the Online Marketing World
Running an AdWords or Pay Per Click Campaign is one of the most effective online magnets to keep that flow of customers going strong. So what is it that makes AdWords like a magic wand when it comes to attracting relevant traffic? Let’s start with the basics and then see what makes AdWords tick, tock and rock.
When a person types a word/ phrase into the Google search field, they are indicating their desire or need to look for a certain piece of information and they want it instantaneously. If they spot your AdWords advertisement at that exact moment, and are impressed enough with it to feel that you/ your business will be able to provide them with that service or product- you automatically have an interested and highly-qualified prospect heading your way.
How you Benefit
It is precisely this ability to attract interested prospective customers who are actively seeking out the service/ product you offer (QUALIFIED TRAFFIC), that is the key benefit of using Google AdWords. Since we are talking about benefits, take a look at a few more:
- You can switch on and off these AdWords, as and when you need them. This versatility makes it an extremely handy tool, especially if you are looking to gain a wider audience or are launching a new sale period etc
- It is possible to change your budget the very same day. This means, if you suddenly take the decision to switch-off spending during a slow period or up it at a certain point of time, Google AdWords is the best ad medium for you
- Measurability is one more factor that is crucial in judging how successful your strategy has been. AdWords provides you the functionality of seeing exactly how many people have clicked on your ad. But beyond that, it also allows you to see what they are doing once they have got to your website. You have visibility of whether they are signing up for a newsletter, buying from your Ecommerce cart, filling out a “Contact Us” form or converting into paying customers
- The transparency that this medium provides you with is truly amazing. You are able to track conversion and work out your cost per acquisition accordingly. You can then equate this to the actual profit as well as your ROI.
The Kernel
These are just a few of the benefits that Google AdWords offers you, but as with all tools, cranking it right is all important. You can have the best spanner in the world, but if you do not know how to use it, it will be of no use to you. The same is the case with AdWords. It’s a beast that can be tamed- you just need to know how. Google AdWords works on one very basic core principle:
Don’t focus on quantity, shine the spotlight on quality. Decoding that; don’t focus on getting your ads before the most people. Instead, work on getting them before the right people. The next logical question- Is that not a difficult task and how exactly am I going to filter out the chaff and get only the grain?
This is where things get better and better. AdWords has a very interesting built-in feature called the Quality Score. This has been specifically designed to ensure that you are rewarded for showing your business ads to a smaller group of people.
The key component of the Quality Score is CTR or the Click-Through-Rate. This is the percentage of viewers that actually click on your advertisement after they see it. Take a look at how you can increase your CTR simply and effectively. One of the simplest ways of boosting CTR is to narrow down your ad’s target range via better keyword targeting. Once you have entered your keywords in AdWords you have the option to choose from three different match types.
The Right Match
- Broad Match- This is indicated by 1/ more words without any punctuation like – laptop bags
- Phrase Match- This is indicated by 1/more words inside double quotes like-“ laptop bags”
- Exact Match- This is indicated by 1/more words in square brackets like-[laptop bags]
By bidding on these keywords you are actually bidding for a position on the results page when someone types them in the search field in Google, which are known as SERP’s or “search engine results pages”. A broad match simply wrecks your quality score. The thousands of queries you will get with it are of no value as they may be related to your specific business only tangentially (or not at all). On the other hand, exact match AdWords will bring in qualified traffic and increase your CTR.
Hone your Strategy
This is just one of the AdWords functions that you can tweak to get the results you want. Turbocharging AdWords with Google Analytics is a great way of boosting to your online marketing effort.
Even as you do all of this, understand that just as with any science, art or skill, there is a learning curve attached to getting your strategy right. Experiment, learn, grasp and then get the wheels of the Google AdWords wagon into motion.
