Mike_PM
Member
I've been running Adwords campaigns since 2003, shortly after Adwords started. In that time I've witnessed many changes and spent millions on these ads. It has resulted in some of the most frustrating and rewarding times of my life.
Over the years I've learned how to 'game' the system a little bit and make those all important gains on adwords/Bing that give you an advantage over all of the competition. Here are some of the things I've picked up, hopefully it will help you:
1) Ignore G's advice
They want more clicks, you want more conversions cheaper. There is a conflict of interest here. They will never give you advice that doesn't encourage you to spend more money on clicks whether relevant or not, so don't listen to it. What they deem relevant is probably not.
I will never forget letting a 'specialist' Google rep loose on my 'homeowner-only' loans campaign only to see them flood my keyword list with 'tenants' and similar keywords which, if I put live, would have bankrupted me within a week.
YOU know your target audience better than anybody. These people are not specialists in your particular niches, so don't expect them to do a better job. If you're looking for some help and guidance you're better off asking on a forum like this than allowing Google anywhere near your campaigns.
2) Embrace their tech but be wary
Some things, like setting up rules for when keywords become too expensive and automatically reducing bids, are useful. But other factors are at play here so keep the human touch - we are about to have a bank holiday weekend in the UK and people's browsing habits are different as many people go away for this period, the last holiday of summer before schools restart. Google's automated bidding strategies do not take this into account.
3) Advanced location settings
Usually a campaign will be limited to a certain country or territory. By default, Google will show your ads to 'people in, or searching for things in your location'. Changing this will immediately save you loads of money by eliminating clicks from areas that even if they converted, wouldn't be a valid conversion as they are out of the required area.
4) Long-tail is your friend
Don't attempt to go head to head with the big boys on the most popular generic keywords - your wallet will lose. Go for terms with more niche keywords and brand bidding if you can get away with it. Also think outside the box: instead of 'chainsaw', how about 'how to chop down a tree'.
5) Bidding strategy
If you're generating leads, use the 10% rule. Assume you can get 10% of your clicks to convert into a valid lead, and base your bid amounts on this. Avoid enhanced bidding as this allows G to make more money from you with no regard to conversions.
6) Not all conversions are equal.
It maybe that you get more conversions at 2am, but you should be constantly looking for feedback on quality of conversion as it may be terrible at 2am, but great at 9am.
7) Use click to call
More people are searching on mobiles, and older people are more likely to want to speak to someone about funeral plans, life insurance etc. Just saying...
8) Use Bing wisely
I've been invited to dinners hosted by Microsoft and sat next to their European Search Director on a couple of occasions. They have big plans for expansion in Europe and this is great news - they already power Siri results and have other huge deals in the pipeline. The best thing about Bing is that their traffic is cheaper due to less competition, as many people simply don't want the hassle of using it.
One word of warning about Bing - don't do a straight Adwords import and leave it - check that negatives are all transferred across and they haven't done some clever trick to change the match type and leave you open to wasted clicks.
9) CRO is vital
You can have the best PPC campaign in the world but if your landers are terrible it's all for nothing. Use things like time restraint and USPs to capture that data.
10)
Can't think of any more, so I will just say that we are looking for PPC affiliates to generate leads for us in several niches - if you are interested please get in touch with me.
Thanks for reading, hope it's helpful
Mike
Over the years I've learned how to 'game' the system a little bit and make those all important gains on adwords/Bing that give you an advantage over all of the competition. Here are some of the things I've picked up, hopefully it will help you:
1) Ignore G's advice
They want more clicks, you want more conversions cheaper. There is a conflict of interest here. They will never give you advice that doesn't encourage you to spend more money on clicks whether relevant or not, so don't listen to it. What they deem relevant is probably not.
I will never forget letting a 'specialist' Google rep loose on my 'homeowner-only' loans campaign only to see them flood my keyword list with 'tenants' and similar keywords which, if I put live, would have bankrupted me within a week.
YOU know your target audience better than anybody. These people are not specialists in your particular niches, so don't expect them to do a better job. If you're looking for some help and guidance you're better off asking on a forum like this than allowing Google anywhere near your campaigns.
2) Embrace their tech but be wary
Some things, like setting up rules for when keywords become too expensive and automatically reducing bids, are useful. But other factors are at play here so keep the human touch - we are about to have a bank holiday weekend in the UK and people's browsing habits are different as many people go away for this period, the last holiday of summer before schools restart. Google's automated bidding strategies do not take this into account.
3) Advanced location settings
Usually a campaign will be limited to a certain country or territory. By default, Google will show your ads to 'people in, or searching for things in your location'. Changing this will immediately save you loads of money by eliminating clicks from areas that even if they converted, wouldn't be a valid conversion as they are out of the required area.
4) Long-tail is your friend
Don't attempt to go head to head with the big boys on the most popular generic keywords - your wallet will lose. Go for terms with more niche keywords and brand bidding if you can get away with it. Also think outside the box: instead of 'chainsaw', how about 'how to chop down a tree'.
5) Bidding strategy
If you're generating leads, use the 10% rule. Assume you can get 10% of your clicks to convert into a valid lead, and base your bid amounts on this. Avoid enhanced bidding as this allows G to make more money from you with no regard to conversions.
6) Not all conversions are equal.
It maybe that you get more conversions at 2am, but you should be constantly looking for feedback on quality of conversion as it may be terrible at 2am, but great at 9am.
7) Use click to call
More people are searching on mobiles, and older people are more likely to want to speak to someone about funeral plans, life insurance etc. Just saying...
8) Use Bing wisely
I've been invited to dinners hosted by Microsoft and sat next to their European Search Director on a couple of occasions. They have big plans for expansion in Europe and this is great news - they already power Siri results and have other huge deals in the pipeline. The best thing about Bing is that their traffic is cheaper due to less competition, as many people simply don't want the hassle of using it.
One word of warning about Bing - don't do a straight Adwords import and leave it - check that negatives are all transferred across and they haven't done some clever trick to change the match type and leave you open to wasted clicks.
9) CRO is vital
You can have the best PPC campaign in the world but if your landers are terrible it's all for nothing. Use things like time restraint and USPs to capture that data.
10)
Can't think of any more, so I will just say that we are looking for PPC affiliates to generate leads for us in several niches - if you are interested please get in touch with me.
Thanks for reading, hope it's helpful
Mike
