The Easy Guide to Maximizing Your AdWords ROI-Tracking and improving results

Refining your keywords and bids :

Invest in keywords that produce results:

Choosing high quality, relevant keywords for your advertising campaign can help you reach the customers you want.

1. Are your keywords specific and targeted to the right people?

Your keywords should be closely related to what you're advertising. The more relevant and specific your keywords are to what you offer, the more likely they'll be to bring in customers for you.

Keywords of 2 or 3 words (a phrase) tend to work most effectively.

Let's say that you're advertising kids basketball shoes. How would you assess each of these potential keywords?

Keyword: Basketball

Keyword: Basketball shoes

Keyword: Kids basketball shoes

Keyword: Cheap kids basketball shoes

2. Are you capturing the different ways people search?

To help you reach more customers, think of other terms and phrases people might search for to find your business. It's a good idea to include other commonly used terms and word variations in your keyword list.

For example, customers looking for kids basketball shoes may be using words similar to kids, such as youth, boys, or girls—so you might consider adding keywords like:

·        youth basketball shoes

·        boys basketball shoes

·        girls basketball shoes

Or, customers may be searching for athletic shoes or sneakers instead of basketball shoes, in which case you could add keywords like:

·        kids athletic shoes

·        kids sports shoes

·        kids sneakers

3. Are you filtering out irrelevant terms?

You can filter out specific terms people might search for that aren't related to your business. Adding a keyword as a negative keyword prevents your ad from being triggered when someone searches using that word or phrase.

For example, if you're using the keyword basketball shoes, but you don't sell adult basketball shoes, you probably don't want your ad to appear when someone searches for men's basketball shoes or women's basketball shoes. In this case, you could add men and women as negative keywords.

We recommend having at least 3 negative keywords in each ad group. (You can also have negative keywords at the campaign level.) By filtering out searches that aren't relevant or specific enough, you ensure that you're only paying for clicks that bring in business for you.

Automate your bidding to get more clicks and conversions:

Managing your bids effectively is a big part of maximizing your return on investment.

If you're new to online advertising, we recommend letting AdWords manage your bids automatically to help bring you the most possible clicks within your budget. The automated Maximize Clicks bid strategy is the simplest bid strategy. It's ideal for advertisers who want to maximize clicks to their website but don't want to spend a lot of time setting bids.

Better yet, once you've set up conversion tracking, you can use automated bidding that uses your conversion data to bid even more effectively. AdWords will adjust your bids to get you the most conversions, while still staying within your budget. This can help you maximize your ROI even further.

I want to get the most possible conversions for my budget

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To help drive more conversions, consider using Target CPA bidding, an automated bid strategy that sets bids to help you get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) you set. Based on your conversion history, it adjusts your bid to get you as many profitable clicks as possible. It sets higher bids for more valuable clicks and lower bids for less valuable clicks, while still staying within your budget.

With Target CPA bidding, you set a target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) — the average amount you'd like to pay for a conversion.

I want to get more conversions, but still control my CPC

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To help drive more conversions, consider using Enhanced CPC, a bidding feature designed to get you more conversions at a lower cost. It raises or lowers your max CPC bid, based on how likely that click is to lead to a conversion.

If you'd like to increase your conversions, but still have control over your manual CPC bid, then Enhanced CPC is a good choice for you.

 

Optimizing your ad and landing page:

Write ads that appeal to customers

Your ads are the voice of your products and services. The more relevant and engaging they are to your customers, the more likely they'll generate results for you.

5 tips for creating effective text ads :

To quickly gauge your ad performance, you can sort by clickthrough rate or conversion statistics the same way you might with keywords. This way, you can easily see which ads:

·        Get clicked on most often

·        Generate the most conversions

·        Have the best conversion rates

·        Bring in conversions at the lowest cost

You'll want your ads to appeal to customers and accurately describe what you have to offer. Answer these questions to see if your ads are sending the right message:

1. Does your ad match your keywords?

Consumers tend to be drawn to ads that seem more relevant to their search. So make sure that your ad text (especially the headline) is closely related to your keywords. This can catch the attention of people who searched for those words, and show that your ad is related to what they want.

It's important to group your keywords by theme or product, instead of putting all your keywords in the same ad group. This way, you can write an ad that's directly tailored to that specific theme. And the more closely paired your ads and keywords are, the more likely someone will be interested.

For example, if you're advertising group fitness classes, your ad group might look like this:

Ad:	Keywords:
Group Fitness Classes - First 2 Weeks Free Ad www.example.com Yoga, Cardio, Strength Training Available. All Ages Welcome! Book Now.	fitness classes exercise classes group fitness classes group exercise classes

2. Do you have different versions of your ad?

It can be hard to capture everything you want to say about your business in a single text ad. That's why you'll want to write different versions of your ad.

It's a good idea to have 3 to 5 different ads in an ad group. If you have more than one ad in an ad group, AdWords will automatically start showing the better-performing ones by default.

In each ad, try using different headlines or description text. For example, you could experiment with:

·        Trying different headlines or calls-to-action

·        Including certain keywords or brands

·        Including specific prices or promotions

For example, if you were advertising for your gym, you could try ad variations like these:

Join Our Local Gym - Top Trainers, Great Prices Ad www.example.com Fitness Classes and More. Sign Up for a Free Trial!

Fitness Classes For All - Top Trainers, Great Prices Ad www.example.com Yoga, Cardio, Strength. Become a Member Today!

Gym Membership - Top Trainers, Great Prices Ad www.example.com Try Us Free for 2 Weeks. Get in Shape, Have Fun!

3. Are you using a strong call-to-action?

In your ad text, you'll want to encourage customers to perform the action that you want them to take on your site. A strong, clear call-to-action tells customers what they can expect and nudges them toward your desired action.

The more specific your call-to-action (that is, the closer it matches your keywords and landing page), the better your chances of a conversion. By choosing the right action phrase, you'll avoid having to pay for clicks that are less likely to result in business for you.

Kids Soccer Shoes - Huge Selection At Low Prices Ad www.example.com Buy Shoes at 20% Off. Top Brands Your Kids Will Love! Free Nationwide Shipping.

Seafood Restaurant - Locally Sourced, Caught Fresh Ad www.example.com Award-Winning Chef. Great For Groups And Families. Reserve a Table Now!

Local Gym - Top Trainers, Great Prices Ad www.example.com Fitness Classes To Fit Your Schedule. Clean Facilities. Sign Up for a Free Trial!

4. Are you highlighting a special offer or promotion?

If you have something special to offer, make sure your customers see it. For example, you might be offering a 10% summer discount, an instant rebate, or a free gift with purchase. Calling attention to specific prices or promotions can help influence someone's decision to click on your ad. The more you can set yourself apart from competitors, the more likely you'll appeal to potential customers.

5. Are you using ad extensions?

One way of attracting more customers to your ad is by using ad extensions—a feature that shows extra business information with your ad, like an address, phone number, store rating, or more webpage links. Adding ad extensions can help improve your ad's visibility and CTR.

Make sure you have the right landing page:

Your landing page plays a big part in turning clicks into customers. When someone clicks on your ad, they expect to land on a page that's relevant to what they saw in your ad. If they don't immediately find what they expect, they're more likely to leave.

Answer these questions to see if your landing page is sending the right message to your customers:

1. Does your landing page match your ad and keywords?

Choose a landing page that closely matches your ad and keywords. For example, if your keyword is discount shoes and your ad promises shoes at 20% off, then customers should be able to find and buy shoes at that discounted price on your landing page.

Your landing page should also mirror the call-to-action in your ad text. For example, if your ad encourages customers to sign up for a free tour, then you might prominently feature a sign-up form on your landing page.

Think of it this way: The connection between your ad and landing page is the bridge between a potential customer and a purchase. The stronger they're connected (the more directly relevant they are), the better your chances of a conversion.

2. Is your website mobile-friendly?

Many of your customers will be visiting your website on a mobile device. On a smaller screen, it can be hard for people to find what they want.

See if the speed of your mobile site is costing you customers, and get quick fixes to improve it. Test your site.

Here are just a few ways to build an effective mobile site:

Keep it quick

·        Avoid too much text; use bullet points instead.

·        Compress images into smaller sizes for faster loading on your site.

Make it easy to contact you

·        Minimize the number of steps needed to complete a form or transaction.

·        For phone calls, use a "click-to-call" button that a customer can click to dial you directly.

Use simple navigation

·        Minimize links, rollovers, and scrolling.

·        Have clear menus, and back and home buttons.

3. Is your landing page easy to navigate?

Make it quick and easy for customers to perform the action you want them to take—order your product, call your phone number, or submit an inquiry. Don't make people hunt around for information they might need. Avoid cluttering your site with too many ads or pop-ups.

It's a good idea to put important information towards the top of the page. This way, it'll be immediately visible to customers when they arrive on the page, and they don't have to scroll down to see it.

4. Are you providing useful, unique content?

Try to provide useful, original information on your landing page about whatever you're advertising. Be clear about your product or service and what it does. For example, you might consider adding reviews that show real opinions from other customers.

Nice work! You've completed this guide to tracking and improving your AdWords results. But managing your campaign doesn't stop here. Don't forget to sign in to your account regularly to make sure your campaign is driving business for you.

Want to go deeper? Check out our Tips for tracking and improving online sales.

Still have questions? Contactus for free help from an AdWords expert.

Measure what clicks are leading to:

To see if your ads are reaching the right customers, make sure to measure your conversions using the free conversion tracking tool in AdWords. A "conversion" is when a customer clicks your ad and takes a specific action that you deem valuable, such as purchasing your product, filling out a contact form, or making a phone call.

Set up conversion tracking to measure the conversions generated by your ad campaign, including how much they cost you. This data will tell you which ads and keywords bring you business, and which ones are more profitable than others. Then you can use this information to make adjustments and get more value out of your campaign.

How you set up conversion tracking depends on what you consider a conversion—whether it's online sales, online leads, phone calls, or some other customer action.

Once you've set up conversion tracking, you'll be able to see how your campaign is performing in a whole new way. This can help you compare ads and keywords to see how cost-effective they are.

First, you'll need to know the basic conversion statistics to help you measure your campaign's success:

	Definition	Why it's useful
Conversions	The total number of conversions made within your chosen conversion window after an ad click or other ad interaction.	See if your campaign is generating results for you.
Conversion rate	How often, on average, an ad click or other ad interaction leads to a conversion.	Measure how often a click leads to a conversion, on average.
Cost-per-conversion	Your total cost divided by your total conversions.	See how much, on average, each of your conversions cost.

Assessing your performance:

Find out which keywords are working for you

Keywords are the engine of your advertising campaign—choose the right ones, and they'll drive the right people to your ad. Be sure to regularly review your keywords' performance to see which ones are helping you meet your advertising goals.

How do you know which keywords are working for you? There are a couple good places to start.

1. Sort by conversion data to see your most productive keywords.

One way to check your keyword performance at a glance is to sort by basic conversion statistics. For instance:

• Sort by conversions to see which keywords bring in the most conversions.
• Sort by conversion rate to see which keywords are most effective at generating conversions.
• Sort by cost-per-conversion to see how much, on average, each of your conversions cost.

Conversion data gives you a better understanding of which keywords are more productive. Generally, if you have keywords with high conversion rates and low costs, you'll want to continue investing in them. On the other hand, you might want to refine with low conversion rates and high costs.

Let's say that you're advertising handmade chocolate candies. Review the conversion statistics for the keywords below. Based on their performance (and assuming all conversions have the same value), what would you do with each keyword?

 

Keyword	Conversions	Conversion rate	Cost-per-conversion
fine chocolates	10	2%	$10
chocolate shop	5	0.5%	$20
chocolate gifts	5	5%	$5

2. Check your Quality Score to assess relevance

Every time someone does a search that triggers your ad, AdWords calculates the quality of your ad for that search. Quality Score is a useful summary of our calculations—an estimate of how relevant your ads, keywords, and landing page are. It's one way to tell whether your ads and keywords are delivering a good experience for customers.

Here are some the main factors that affect your Quality Score:

• Expected clickthrough rate: The likelihood that your ads will get clicked when shown for that keyword, regardless of your ad's position.
• Ad relevance: How closely related your keyword is to your ads.
• Landing page experience: How relevant and useful your website's landing page will be to people who click on your ad.

All things being equal, the higher your keyword's Quality Score, the less you're likely to pay for clicks and the better your ad position. So by improving the quality of your ads, you can increase exposure and get more clicks for your advertising budget—in other words, a better return on your investment.

You can review your Quality Score for any of the keywords in your account.

Reveal searches that triggered your ad

Monitoring your keywords is just one way of evaluating your campaign, but it doesn't end there. You can go even further by looking at what your customers are searching for.

Discover the most popular words that your customers searched for when they clicked your ad with the search terms report. This report can give you a better sense of what people were looking for when they found your business.

Let's review the difference between search terms and keywords:

• Keywords are the phrases that you list in your account to help determine when and where your ad can appear.
• Search terms are the actual words or phrases someone searched for that triggered your ad. For example, if you have the keyword soccer shoes in your campaign, then your ad might show when a customer searches for youth soccer shoes. In this case, the search term is youth soccer shoes.

Here are some questions to keep in mind when you look at the search terms report:

1. Is your ad showing for the search terms you want?

Check to see if your keywords are triggering your ad on search terms that fit your business. If your ad is showing on searches that are relevant and producing conversions, then it's a good sign that you're spending money on the right keywords. If not, you might want to look for different keywords to invest in.

The "Added/Excluded" column indicates whether a search term in your report is also one of your keywords (Added) or negative keywords (Excluded).

2. Are the search terms relevant?

Your search terms report can reveal new keywords that you hadn't thought of before. These can be opportunities to reach more customers with different keyword variations.

If a search term isn't relevant or profitable enough for your business, add it as a negative keyword. This will help make your campaign more cost-effective by filtering out people who are looking for something you don't offer. For example, if you only sell youth soccer shoes, and you see that the search term adult soccer shoes is triggering your ads, you might want to add adult as a negative keyword.

3. Are you using the right keyword match types?

The "Match type" column in your search terms report tells you how closely the search terms that triggered your ads on Google are related to the actual keywords in your account. For example, if you see the search term soccer shoes listed as "Exact match," that means the search term matched your keyword soccer shoes exactly.

Let's say that you're advertising handmade chocolate candies. Review the sample search terms data below. What might you do with your keywords based on this information?

 

Search term	Keyword	Match type	Added/Excluded
fine chocolate gifts	chocolate gifts	Broad match	None
chocolate shop	chocolate shop	Exact match	Added
chocolate ice cream	chocolate	Broad match	None

Measure your return on investment:

Do you know if the money you're spending on AdWords advertising is resulting in profits for your business? Measure your return on investment (ROI) to understand how much you're spending compared to how much you're gaining in return.

When you invest money in an ad campaign, you expect to gain back that amount and more. ROI is typically the most important measurement for advertisers because it shows the real effect that AdWords has on your business. While it's helpful to know the number of clicks and impressions you're getting, it's even more meaningful to know how your campaign impacts your bottom line.

Measuring ROI for online sales or leads

There's a simple way to calculate your ROI for online sales or leads. We'll walk you through it step-by-step.

1. To start, you'll need a few key numbers:

In the last 30 days...	Let's say it was...
How many sales (or new customers) did you generate via AdWords?	30
What was your average revenue per sale (or new customer)?	$50
How much did you spend on AdWords?	$300
What were your other business costs related to the products or services being sold?	$1125

2. From there, you can calculate your total revenue:

Total sales (or new customers): 30
x Average revenue per sale (or new customer): $50

= Total revenue: $1500

3. Next, add your AdWords costs and your business costs to determine your total cost:

AdWords cost: $300
+ Business cost: $1125

= Total cost: $1425

4. Once you know your total revenue and costs, it's easy to determine your total profit:

Total revenue: $1500
- Total cost: $1425

= Total profit: $75

5. And once you know your total profit, you can calculate your return on investment for AdWords:

Total profit: $75
÷ AdWords cost: $300

= Return on AdWords investment: 25%

In this example, this means that for every $1.00 you spent on AdWords, you made $1.25 in return.

By: OM MAURYA SIR On October 18, 2017

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