AdWords consistently ranks as one of the top digital marketing channels for small businesses. Using a cost-per-click (CPC) format, it allows small businesses to drive high-quality traffic to their websites while paying only when someone clicks their ad. If you’re thinking about advertising your business on AdWords, though, you should follow this recipe to increase your chances of success.
Exact Match Keywords
When creating a new AdWords campaign, you’ll have to choose a keyword match type. The platform supports several different match types, including broad, phrase and exact. The latter, however, typically yields the highest return on investment (ROI). With exact match type, only the keywords on which you bid and close variations thereof will trigger your ads. This means fewer impressions but higher quality traffic, thus boosting your ROI.
Small Ad Groups
The smaller you ad groups, the better. Don’t attempt to create large ad groups with hundreds of different keywords for the same ad. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to connect with users and convince them to click your ads. Your ad groups should contain just a few ads with a handful or highly relevant keywords.
Split Testing
Split testing is essential to the success of your AdWords campaign. Even if your campaign currently generates a positive ROI, there’s probably room for improvement. The only way you’ll know, however, is by split testing different creatives. Rather than running a single ad, for instance, consider running two or three ads. This will allow you to see which ad performs the best, and with this information in hand, you can optimize your campaign for a higher ROI. The bottom line is that you should always be split testing when running an AdWords campaign, as it provides insight into which tactics work and which ones don’t.
Negative Keywords
Don’t forget to include negative keywords in your AdWords campaign. As you may already know, a negative keyword prevents your ad from displaying to users who search for phrases containing the specified keyword. If you sell antivirus software, for example, you may want to include the negative keyword “free” to prevent your ad from displaying to users who search for “free antivirus software.”
Landing Page
One of the most common pay-per-click (PPC) marketing mistakes that business make is sending traffic to their primary website. While this may seem harmless enough, it usually results in a low conversion rate and an equally low ROI. You’ll achieve greater success with AdWords by sending traffic to a landing page with a prominent call to action and clean, simple design.
