When setting up a Google AdWords account there is always some basic guidelines to follow. They might seem very straightforward but you’d be surprised how many people don’t follow these steps in their own AdWords accounts.
- Decide on a maximum cost per acquisition. In other words decide what is the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for one quality lead.
- Install conversion tracking and Google Analytics. Without this you won’t be able to assess whether your AdWords account is bringing in business at a profitable rate or not.
- Make sure you keep your keyword lists very targeted! Put yourself in the shoes of your clients and think about keywords and phrases they might use to find your business. Many business owners feel that by targeting something that is vaguely relevant to their business that a user might see their ad and decide to click on it. Getting the click is one thing but getting the conversion is quite another. By using very targeted keywords you increase the likelihood of that click turning into a customer.
- If you’re working with a limited budget – reduce your geographical target area. In other words target users that are closest to your business first and once you’re getting leads at your target CPA then you can think about expanding your target area. Pick the closest apples first so to speak.
- Keep optimizing! You have to constantly add new keywords and negative keywords to your account based on data in both your AdWords and Analytics accounts. This is crucial if the end goal of your AdWords account is a lean mean lead generating machine!
- Landing page optimisation is also a crucial cog in the AdWords process. What good is a fully targeted AdWords account if you’re linking your ads to a website that doesn’t convert. Keep testing different landing pages for different products and services and keep track of this in your Google Analytics account.
Obviously there are more points to consider but I’d say these are some of the most important ones. It does take a lot of time to manage an AdWords account successfully so if you’d rather be focusing on your business then rather outsource your AdWords management to a company that specialises in it.