Interview : Using AdWords to Promote Your Site or For Conversions
Jeremy (aka GuyFromChicago) started using AdWords for his technology solutions company to help find new customers. They were a brand new company with only 3 clients and he saw 
AdWords as a way to reach a new audience for a low cost, especially in comparison to the other options (yellow pages for example) that are available to small businesses. Due primarily to their AdWords marketing, their business grew by over 3000% in its first two years.
Due to the success they were able to see in their own business, he started accepting clients and managing their AdWords campaigns. According to Jeremy “It’s been a great experience getting to work with AdWords in a number of different markets and helping other businesses realize incredible growth for a fraction of what they were accustomed to spending for marketing”. In 2005 he was approached with an offer for a full time search marketing position that he couldn’t refuse. Jeremy accepted and has since been serving as Director of Search Marketing for JDV Online. He still does some very limited AdWords campaign management for clients but has devoted the majority of his time and effort to promoting JDV Online Internet properties.
His annual AdWords spending range is 1 million US
What is AdWords?
AdWords is an advertising system designed by Google that allows anyone with a credit card and an Internet connection to position their business in front of consumers who are looking for the products or services they offer. Advertisers can bid on keywords or phrases and when users search for those keywords or phrases one of the results they see will be the advertiser’s ad.
How Do They Determine Where Your Ad is Placed?
Ad placement is determined by a number of factors that make up what’s known as a “quality score”. Your keyword’s quality score is the primary factor used in ad placement. Google does not disclose actual quality scores, but, they have disclosed that the quality score is arrived by looking at certain factors. Google sums it up as well as anyone could:
“Quality Score is determined by your keyword’s clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, the quality of your ad’s landing page, and other relevancy factors.”
My experience has shown that your keyword’s CTR is the most important element in determining your quality score.
What Do You Believe is the Most Important Aspect or Aspects When Setting Up an AdWords Campaign?
Planning, research and planning. As tempting as it is to just jump right in and start bidding on keywords that’s a sure fire formula for failure. I spend, on average, an hour or more researching and planning every ad group that I create.
Is Fraud an Issue?
Yes, but not to the extent the doom and gloom crowd would lead you to believe. Google has a better handle on click fraud than most people realize and as advertisers are becoming more sophisticated it’s getting easier and easier to track fraudulent clicks. It’s a bigger problem in some markets than in others but smart marketers can take steps to minimize its impact and build it into the equation ahead of time. I often compare the click fraud issue to sending out direct mail via the United State Postal Service….which I did for 10+ years in my previous profession. Even the USPS will admit that a certain % of standard class (bulk) mail will not get delivered, yet it’s the one segment of their business that continues to grow. Why? Because despite a certain percentage of the mail not getting delivered (which I consider the equivalent of click fraud in the CPC world) the advertisers are still seeing a positive ROI. All forms of advertising have some level of risk associated with them – AdWords is no different. When it’s all said and done though it comes down to the bottom line. If people can make money using AdWords a certain level of fraud or deceptive clicks will be tolerated.
How Do You Address It?
Simply put, know what you’re getting into ahead of time, analyze your traffic and traffic patterns and adjust accordingly. If the whole concept of click fraud seems too risky for your liking opt out of the content network, or, use site targeted CPM campaigns. There are still a certain percentage of fraudulent clicks that occur in the Google Search Network but it’s miniscule in comparison to the potential for fraud on the content network.
What are Some Common Mistakes that AdWords Advertisers Make?
I see the following mistakes quite frequently;
- Lack of planning and research
- Lack of account monitoring. If you are not making consistent improvements to your account based on the data you’ve gathered in the past your competition will crush you.
- Not using matching options (especially negative match) to their fullest extent.
- Thinking like an “insider” instead of a potential customer. What you would search for to find your product or service is completely irrelevant. All that matters is what the potential customer will be searching for. Think like a customer, not a business owner.
- Giving up to quickly. I’ve interacted with many people who cancel campaigns after a small sampling of data. You can’t pick up trends with 100 impressions over 1 hour. If you’re not willing to let a campaign run for a few thousand impressions (at minimum) you probably shouldn’t start it to begin with.
- Not testing multiple forms of ad copy. As a rule of thumb I create 3 – 5 ads right away for every new ad group. I build on what works and shut down what doesn’t.
Are There Any Tools Within AdWords That are Especially Useful for Your Campaign?
My Client Center is awesome for managing multiple accounts. Inside of AdWords itself the “Find and Edit Keywords” tool has saved me hours and hours of time. Google has made huge improvements to the keyword tool over the last year as well. I find myself using it considerably more often than have in the past.
Are There Any Tools Outside of AdWords That are Especially Useful for Your Campaign?
Above and beyond everything else make sure you have an analytics package that can play nicely with your AdWords campaigns. You don’t necessarily need to use 3rd party bid management tools but at bare minimum should be able to track your AdWords visitors as a separate segment of your traffic. When creating new campaigns I like to use 3rd party keyword tools (Wordtracker for example) in addition to Google’s keyword tool. Google has really improved their Keyword tool in the last year though and I’ve found myself using 3rd party applications less and less.
If You Only Had $50 a Month for a Budget, How Would You Use it Effectively?
This is another area where keyword research is critical. Don’t immediately go after the primary term in your market – look for lesser searched terms with fewer competitors and work on maximizing the conversions from that traffic.
What is a Good Conversion Rate?
CTR is relative. I’ve managed campaigns with CTR’s ranging from 1% - 60%. Based on CTR, obviously the 60% looks like it would be the winner. That’s not always the case as I’ve seen campaigns with a low CTR outperform (ROI) campaigns with a higher CTR. Focus on conversions (ROI). As the business/site owner you have better insights into what you need in terms of conversion rates to make a campaign profitable. There’s no cookie cutter formula or public industry benchmark for measuring what constitutes a successful campaign.
How does AdWords Compare to Other Programs Such as Overture?
There is no comparison in my opinion – AdWords is far away the better of the two systems. Better interface, better prices, better support, better conversions. I’m more impressed with MSN’s AdCenter (still beta) product than I am with Overture.
yfs1, Owner and webmaster of ArticleDepot.co.uk - yfs1 is an experienced webmaster and prolific forum poster who has recently started a new article submission site, ArticleDepot.