So you’re thinking about setting up a Google Adwords Campaign to drive more traffic to your site? Or maybe you’ve recently been asked to look into it in an attempt to pad out those thin website traffic numbers? No matter the reason, it’s important that your campaign is setup correctly to maximize its effectiveness. You don’t want to have another meeting in 2 months’ time only to discover that you’ve thrown good money away chasing the wrong clicks. Instead, why not put in the time now to effectively strategise your campaign?
Let’s break it down into manageable chunks. It’s important to understand these three components of your Adwords campaign so that you can effectively plan out the finer details.
1. Who is your target market?
No one knows your target audience quite like you do, so use that knowledge as you work through this process. It may also be possible that your online audience is different to your in-store audience; in this case, you can use Google Analytics to delve into the demographical information of those who are visiting your site. All of this information will help you form the basis for your Ad campaign.
It is entirely possible that you will create Buyer Personas for the different types of clients you have, this will allow you to target your audience in even greater detail with potentially improved results. One of the more important things to remember here is the geographical location of your audience. Quite regularly this will factor into the decision of your ideal target client/audience.
2. Understanding your goals
So you know who your audience is now, what’s next? I would like you to think about what it is you REALLY want to achieve with your campaign. Are you simply trying to get more eyes on your website/offer, thinking it will be the hero of the day? It’s a cautionary tale and one that is commonly heard but also easily avoided. By thinking about your real end goals, and how they can be measured and monitored, you can easily avoid falling into the trap that so many marketers have stumbled into in the past.
It’s certainly not rocket science, there is an old quote that says ‘If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.’ by Lawrence J. Peter; which holds true even here. Think about where you want your user to end up when they click on your advertisement, does it match their expectation? Are they likely to continue with your Call to Action? And finally, with your call to action, does it benefit both your business and the user? If you can ensure that this step has been thought through, you’ll be well on your way to a successful campaign.
3. Relevance of Keywords and Ad Copy
The last point I want to leave with you today is understanding what it is that your clients/users are searching for. Sure it’s easy just to list your client offerings/products but this doesn’t really address your client directly. Some of this information can be found through Google Analytics or Google Search Console if it has been setup, but nothing beats a little bit of extra legwork to ensure you cover all your bases. Put yourself in your client’s shoes; what would you search for in Google, ask a friend, ask your clients, look for yourself to see what current trends are in the market.
You may find the results a little surprising and it’s not all about chasing after keywords with high volumes of searches per month; quite often these are highly competitive and yield few valuable results. Better to focus on keywords with less competition and more relevance to what your client is actually looking for.
We won’t go into detail on keyword research here, though if you’re interested, we covered how to use the Google Keyword planner in a previous blog. Needless to say, it is critical to get it right. This coupled with relevant Ad Copy will be the backbone of your Adwords campaign. I mention the Ad Copy because it’s important to match the copy of the ad with the keyword you are targeting. Get this step wrong and all you’ll do is increase your site’s bounce rate (people hitting the page and leaving immediately), this generally occurs when what they find on the page differs from the expectation they had, and this is heavily influenced by the words you use in your ad copy and on your landing page.
In conclusion, while these are only three steps in a larger process, they are probably some of the most important. If you feel you are struggling to understand how it all works and how you can turn your Google Adwords campaign into a lead generation tool, why not drop us a line here and see how we can help you setup your campaign for continued success.
