Posted on Thursday, 14th August 2008 by Jeff
One problem that most people have when using Google Adwords is maintaining their CTR and getting a good return on their advertising dollar. Without a good CTR your minimum bid will usually cost $1.00 or more which is a complete waste of money in my opinion. Some Adwords experts will tell you otherwise but chances are they’re not factoring in your conversion rate. The key to maintaining a good CTR to get you $.10 to $.20 clicks really has to do with “niche keywords”. When somebody types in a niche keyword or phrase they’re looking for something specific which has huge benefits on your part. Not only is it possible to get a lower cost-per-click, but you’re also generating more targeted traffic than you usually would if you chose the general keywords.
The first thing you need to do is find niche keywords that people are actually searching for. Most people use the Adwords Keyword Tool when choosing their keywords and basically just load them in by the hundreds into one ad group which is an improper technique. I feel that the best way to choose your keywords is to actually use a tool such as Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker that estimates how many people are actually searching for that keyword on a daily basis if any. Find up to 50 niche keywords that people are searching for that you can relate to certain parts of your website. Let’s say I started a website selling Honda parts and you carried items such as exhaust kits, body kits, and spoilers. Niche keywords that I can use are honda exhaust kit, honda body kit, and honda spoilers. If I had parts for specific Honda models, brands of parts, or part models that people are searching for I could also use various keywords relating to those which would be even more targeted. The deeper your niche is the better the conversion rate.
Login to your Adwords account and create your campaign for your Honda parts shop. Now here’s the secret that most people don’t even consider. When setting up your campaign use 1 ad group for each of your keywords. You’re probably wondering why you shouldn’t just jam them all into 1 ad group called “Honda Parts”. Because using 1 ad group per keyword allows you to create an ad specifically for each keyword and also allows you to direct your visitor to the specific area on your website where each product is. Let’s say I was setting up an ad group for the keyword 99 honda civic spoiler. I could name that ad group 99 Honda Spoiler and would move on to creating my ad. For the ad I would use the title 99 Honda Civic Spoiler since that’s the keyword they typed in. If the keyword or phrase is longer than 25 characters try to shorten it to where it’s still relevant. For the description I could use High performance Honda spoilers. The cheapest prices in town!. For the destination URL I would use the link to the area on my website that lists all the 99 Honda Civic spoilers I carry. You don’t want to direct your visitor to your homepage unless the information they need is on your homepage. After you’re done creating your ad include the keyword that you want to use for that ad group which in this case is 99 honda civic spoiler. The only other keywords you would want to add are alternatives to the phrase you’re using, but I always prefer to have the exact keyword or phrase that’s in my ad title. Set your bidding to $.20 a click to complete the ad group. Chances are you’ll pay a little bit less if there’s not that much competition. To make your ads appear more often go to your main campaign page and click on Edit campaign settings. Choose your delivery method to Accelerated and only allow your ads to appear on Google Search and Search Partners.
Now this concept is circumstantial and may not work for some websites. If you plan on starting a new website and Adwords is part of your advertising campaign then you should do your keyword research prior to starting the site to make sure there are enough niche keywords that would be relevant to parts of your site. Keep away from “general keywords” unless the keyword is 100% targeted because those are usually the most competitive. Unless you have extremely high profit margins the cost of advertising will probably exceed your earnings.
Posted in Paid Marketing | Comments (1)
August 16th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Hi been surfing the net for Adwords Profits and found your blog reg ng your CTR and conversition rate when using Adwords. You relly know your stuff! I\’d like to see more posts here. Will definitely bookmark this one and come back.