The biggest advantages of Google adwords is its cost effectiveness, reach and measurability.   It’s cost effective by offering a cost per click option, meaning you’ll only pay if someone clicks on your ad.  The reach into your online audience is huge and it is one of the most accountable and measurable forms of marketing online (if you believe the stats).

Although too often it’s used to get visitors to sites with no goal behind what the visitors should do when they get there.  Ultimately you want to convert your visitors into customers.  This is where the full potential lies with Google adwords.

Before signing up to Google adwords, complete the following checklist;

1. What’s your conversion goal?
2. Understand your sales breakdown
3. Target your audience
4. Consider your Keywords
5. Write effective Google ads

What’s your conversion goal?

A conversion is a desired action you want your visitors to do.  Do you want your visitors to purchase through an online shop, make a booking, sign up through a form, or call a representative?  There needs to be a goal on your site to identify its success.

Sales breakdown

At this point, targets need to be set for Google Adwords to work towards.  A couple of key questions to ask:

1.       How much does it cost your business to attract one customer?

2.       What would your forecast of sales be in the month ahead?

3.       Apply the sales targets against the marketing spend of each channel? For example if you spend $2,000 on brochures and your cost per customer is $20.  Brochures should bring in 100 signups.

Target your audience

Now it’s time to indicate who will see your ads.

1.       Location – Do you have a local business that serves only a small geographical area in your town? No problem. With these selections, you can select either a country, city, or a custom location that is within a specified distance from a location you choose

2.       Languages – This is fairly self-explanatory.  If your targeting English speaking audience use English.  If you ever need to target other languages you need to that language in the ad text.

Keywords

Now you need to develop a robust keyword list to target.  What are the likely terms your target audience would be searching? Could your website satify their query with relevant content?

There are a few steps to approach keyword research:

1.       Brainstorm – Use colleagues, friends and family to determine what keywords customers would search;

2.       Use the Google Keyword Tool – Google provides a tool to expand keyword lists.  It lists alternatives, competition levels, monthly search volumes;

3.       Use the Google Wonder Wheel – The wheel is a tool allows you to see relevant search results to your query.

Write an effective Google ad

To ensure people will click on your ad you need to make it worth their while.  Google does not make it easy to write an effective ad.  The ad copy space is minimal, there’s 35 characters for the headline, 710 characters for body copy and the displayed website link 35 characters.

There’s a few steps to writing a good ad;

1.       Use keywords in your ad

2.       Promote an offer

3.       Have a clear call to action

4.       Link to relevant pages on your website

We always follow these steps when planning a campaign in Google adwords.  It’s the best way to use the system to its fullest potential and achieve your business goals.

…and if this list seems a bit daunting, see professional help – as the saying goes “If pain persists, see your doctor (or Threesides)”.

Wait till you see what it is for and how they get you to pay attention. Think about the budget and how many people are watching it right now. Two thumbs up!