Google AdWords Campaign Management: 7 tips to generate sales

Creating and managing a Google AdWords campaign may seem simple at first glance. However, precise and meticulous work must be performed during each campaign to ensure that profits are generated through online advertising.

This article aims to briefly explain the operation of a Google AdWords campaign on the research network and offer tips to successfully optimize your campaign to generate sales.

The basic principles of running a Google AdWords campaign

Google AdWords is the online paid advertising program from Google. Through a Google AdWords account, each company can create online ads to increase its visibility. The advertiser will only pay when a user clicks on one of his ads. AdWords ads appear at the top of Google search results with the term “ad” to differentiate them from natural results.

The structure of a Google AdWords campaign on the research network includes several levels to remember: campaign, ad group, ad and keyword.

Campaign

A campaign on your Google AdWords account includes ad groups and keywords. You can select the date and time of beginning of the campaign, the end date, ad scheduling, location targeting, language, the daily budget and the network you want to choose. In the context of this article, it will be “Search Network” or “Search Network with selective display”.

Ad Group

Ad Groups are available in every campaign on the account and include several announcements related to the chosen campaign. Generally ad groups are campaign subthemes. It is at this level that you can choose the bid keywords.

Ad

A Google AdWords ad is an advert that appears on your research engine, as shown in the copy screen above. The ad has a number of constraints that must be met such as a limit on the number of characters per line, prohibition to insert whole words in capital letter, or to put several exclamation points etc.

Keywords

A keyword is one of the most important concepts in the setting up and running of a Google AdWords campaign. Keywords are words or phrases that describe your products or services. These keywords allow your ads to be published when a user writes one of these terms on Google.

Optimizing a Google AdWords campaign

Let’s take the example of a stationary shop that wishes to optimize its AdWords campaign. We have at least 7 tips to offer to help you generate sales through online advertising.

1. Structuring the Google AdWords campaign

One of the common mistakes when creating a Google AdWords campaign is not structuring it enough. Google advises you to create a different campaign for each one of your objectives. If you have a stationary shop and you want to promote your greeting cards and your notepads, it’s best to create two different campaigns: “Greeting cards” and “Notepads”.

By differentiating these two campaigns, you will be able to create specific ad groups, related to greeting cards and notepads. Your campaign on greeting cards will bring together ad groups related to cards: birthday cards, greeting cards and valentine cards.

2. Pay attention to the quality level

Google indicates a quality level on each chosen keyword. This level quality going from 1 to 10 corresponds to an estimate of the quality of the ads and landing page. The higher the quality level, the higher Google deems that your ad is relevant. Improving the quality of each keyword has a direct impact on the ranking of your ads on Google.

3. Choosing the right keywords

As indicated above, the keywords are of utmost importance in Google AdWords campaigns, as these terms permit your ads to interest users.

Nevertheless, it is important to be specific when choosing your keywords. To promote your greeting cards, it is advisable to include keywords such as “handmade greeting card” and ” illustrated greeting card “. These keywords must then be included in the ad group (greeting card).

Prioritize the type of “exact” matches

When adding keywords, Google automatically broad matches these words. That means your ads may appear when your keywords are written in combination with other words. We recommend instead the use of keywords in phrase match or exact match. These criteria will ensure that your ads will be broadcasted only for your specific terms.

For example, if a person says he is seeking a “Montreal greeting card”, your ad may be broadcasted, as the term “greeting card” is present in the search. When a keyword is indicated in broad match, each term is likely to show the ads. Since the term “greeting card” is shown, Google will search all the sites offering this product. But if your keywords such as “hand-drawn greeting cards” match perfectly, you will not take the risk of publishing your ads to non-interested web users.

Negative Keywords

Google AdWords also allows for a selection of negative keywords. This feature is recommended because it avoids unnecessary clicks. Paying for each click forces you to think about an effective strategy. So avoid having a person clicking on your ad when it is looking for wedding invitations and not your greeting cards. This web user will go on your website, but the likelihood of him eventually buying one of your products is low. Thus, the quality level will drop and your ad ranking will be affected too.

4. Write compelling ads

When your ad eventually appears, you have to be ensured that the user clicks on the ad. How may we do this? Write a compelling and quality ad. Feel free to use a “call to action” such as “free shipping” or “20% discount”.

Each of your ads should prompt an interest to users. It is also recommended to include the main keyword in each of your ads to show the users that your ad is relevant. By following this procedure, a higher standard of quality will be obtained.

5. Optimize the Landing Page

The landing page is the page where the user will arrive on when he will click on your AdWords ad. It is therefore essential for this page to meet the expectations of the user. If your ad shows handmade greeting cards on promotion, the user link should only concern these specific products with the specified discount.

The quality of a landing page in Google AdWords campaigns depends heavily on the user experience. If multiple users leave your site quickly after clicking on the ad, Google will eventually find that your ad is not coherent and they will limit its spread (lowering your quality level again).

6. Calendar and diffusion zones

When creating a Google AdWords campaign, you have the option to show your ads at specific times of the day or the week. This parameter is to be considered if you do not want your ads to run day and night. If your stationery shop is open from Tuesday to Saturday, and your goal is to attract customers in the store, it is best to run your ads during these days in terms of opening hours.

With a limited daily budget, the ad calendar allows you to pay less for your advertising but also to attract the interest of users effectively. It is important to note that clicks in the middle of the night usually bring fewer conversions.

Targeting your diffusion zones is also recommended. Indeed, if you do not deliver greeting cards outside of Canada, it is not necessary for your ads to be broadcasted to the United States.

7. Remarketing

We told you in this article how to optimize a Google AdWords campaign on the search network, with the aim to generate sales. Even if you promote the research network, we strongly recommend you to create a Remarketing campaign on the display network.

Remarketing allows you to show your ads to people who have been to your website. This means that a user will see one of your written or imaged ads when navigating on Internet. This feature is very interesting and offers the opportunity for companies to have visibility and especially to encourage a user who has not bought anything on your website the first time to come back. You could for example offer 15% discount to a user who has already come to your site without making a purchase. This type of process is very incentive.

Contact our AdWords Specialists

There are still several features of an AdWords campaign that can help you generate sales. It is for this reason that a web-marketing agency such as My Little Big Web provides a service for creation and campaign management of Google AdWords.

If you think you need help, please contact us via our website or simply call Maxence at 514 572 7758, who will answer your questions.

Eugénie Delhaye

Cofondatrice et Spécialiste Marketing Internet et Référencement Naturel (SEO) Ma maîtrise des techniques de référencement, combinée à une analyse minutieuse des tendances du marché, me permet de créer des stratégies SEO sur mesure, efficaces et durables.