PPC Adwords Tutorial for Beginners

 

Keyword Research

Once you’re account is set up here – http://www.google.co.uk/adwords/

You should perform keyword research; using the Google Keyword Planner

You will need a Google account to use the Keyword Planner.

Click on the top option of “Search for new keyword and ad group ideas”

Next, put in one or more keywords into the top box, and (optionally) put in your landing page and product category:

Then click “Get ideas”

Click on the “keyword ideas” tab, and look at the keyword traffic and the keyword competition.
Are there any keywords that can be bid upon, that aren’t high in competition?

If you product is specific to location, then you can filter for this:

 

In fact, the left hand column, is full of filters. You can add negative keywords, or just show keywords with a certain number of searches.

The far right hand column allows you to change your price range in terms of bids, and export or save your plan. You will need to name the ad group/plan first.

From the keyword planner homepage. The top and second option that you can click, are basically the same but the top one gives KW suggestions.

If you were to click on the 3rd option, or “review estimates” in the right hand column; you’ll get traffic estimates, based on different bid amounts.

 

 

3rd option from homepage – or clicking review estimates will bring you here:

 

The fourth option “multiply keyword lists…”

This tool helps you create a whole bunch of new keywords, from a list.
You use it to take individual words, different names of your products for example, and singular and plurals etc, and get keyword lists.
This video explains it better than I can:

 

 

If you are looking for a comprehensive keyword list. UberSuggest is also very good.

Once you have some keyword ideas, you can re-run the Keyword tool, entering your ideas in the top box of the planner, where it says “Enter one of more of the following:”

 

Re-run the planner and get more keywords.

You can also use permutationer.com to get different variations of phrases.

 

Match Types

Ideally, you should experiment with Exact, Phrase and Broad match keywords.
Broad match gives the most ‘reach’ but may give a lot of irrelevant traffic
Exact match gives less reach, but gives the most relevant traffic

Exact Match – [Whey Protein] only includes “whey protein”, no words in between, before or after.
Phrase Match -“Whey Protein” Google will serve your ad for searches that contain the keyword phrase and close variations. The keyword “Whey protein” in this example, has to appear somewhere in the search query.
Broad Match – Whey Protein – Displays your ads for keywords that are variations of, and also plurals of and related to the keywords in your account
Modified Broad Match – +Whey +protein – this applies to Google adwords/PPC only. It will serve your ad when somebody searches for close variations of your keyword, but not synonyms or related searches.

With the example +Whey protein

The word “whey” must show in the search term.  If the example was whey +protein then the word “protein” would have to be in the search

+whey +protein would mean that “whey” and “protein” (or a very close synonym) must be in the user’s search term for it to trigger your ad.

 

Negative Match – -Whey protein (-keyword) – by using negative match, you are telling the search engine not to display your adds when certain searches are conducted. For example, you might not want to serve an add when somebody searches for “Free whey protein”

 

Best practice appears to be – implement all match types initially, then find which type performs best for your own adwords groups.

 

Quality Score

 Quality score is a fundamental aspect that can determine the success or failure of a campaign, but also something that is, kind of, within your control.
The score is out of 10. 1 being the lowest score and 10 the highest. It is a combined estimate of the quality and relevance of both your ads and your landing pages.
Relevant ads get more clicks, and so Google earns more money. But it is also important to have relevant ads to give the customer or searcher a great experience. It would be annoying if you couldn’t find what you were looking for on Google.

Checking quality score can be done in the Campaigns tab, at the top. Click this then select the Keywords tab.
Click the speech bubble next to the keyword’s status – this should show you the quality score.

See the official Google page for more info on how to find the actual score

Having higher quality adwords (and better performing landing pages) can often lead to lower cost per click, and can improve the ad’s position.

To increase quality score – group keywords by specific themes, make sure the ads are relevant and the landing page is also as relevant as possible.  If you are advertising for a product, make sure that product has a specific landing page.
Google also says on their tutorial page that you should make the keywords as specific as possible, using ones that are often several words in length.
Other tips include:
Include keywords in your advert text
Include a call to action such as “Buy now” “click now for more info” etc.
Highlight what’s unique about your product/offer “click now for 25% off”
Test out multiple adverts and regularly review

 

Click Through Rate (CTR)
Increasing your click through rate not only increases traffic to your website, it also increases your quality score.  You need to ensure that you known what you target audience actually looks like (age, gender, location) and do your keyword research. 

When you are attempting to increase CTR, remember that ultimately you are looking to increase your conversion rate (amount of times a click results in a sale).   If an ad has a high CTR, then great, but does it convert well?  Make sure you are getting the correct traffic, experiment with ads and make sure that CTR is focused upon, but not the detriment of conversion percentage.

– Negative keywords – exclude locations that you don’t sell it, words like “free”
– To increase click through rate however, you can look to keep ad groups very specific.
– Use ad extensions – including sitelinks extensions and location extensions.
– When relevant, you can also use symbols
– Make the first letter, or experiment with making the first letter a capital
– Experiment and test different add copy
– Increasing bids, will almost definitely increase CTR

Campaign Management & Optimisation
Download the adwords editor

The tool will then manage your bidding and generate keyword suggestions.
You can add in negative keywords easily, split test ads, etc.
Some quick things to look for to manage your campaigns:
– focus on conversions, not CTR
– If you have no impressions for a certain keyword after a week, then delete the ad
– If you have no clicks after a month or two, then delete the ad
– If you quality score is low, think about giving the ad its own ad group and landing page.
– If you have no profit after 500 clicks or so, delete the ad.
– Once the campaign is profitable and running smoothly with a good ROI, think about increasing your budget.