There’s something a little scary about putting together your first AdWords campaign. Why? Well, depending on what business you’re in, there’s time and money on the line. Have no fear! It’s not as scary as you think.

Whether you are working with a large corporation or setting up a campaign for a small, local business, you can build a campaign that works for you and puts the money where it matters.

What is AdWords

You may be wondering, “where do these AdWords advertisements show up?” You know when you type in a search in Google and you see those first few search results that have the “Ad” below them and those other results that pop up on the right-hand side of your screen? Those are paid ads from Google AdWords. You can also have your ads display on specific content networks.

Establish Your Goals

You wouldn’t go to the grocery store without a list, or maybe you would. Well, with any marketing campaign, whether it’s digital or print, you should seriously consider what your goals are. For some, the goal of an Adwords campaign may be to just get for website traffic, for others, it could be to see and track purchases. I like to make sure I have a clear understanding of the true goals before I begin setting up a campaign.

When you set this type of campaign up, you are able to cater to the action that you want consumers to take. Maybe you’re hoping to get people to click on your ad and buy those shoes that you’re advertising, or maybe you want them to fill out a form for an event that you’re hosting. Once you’ve sat down and figured this out, you can pinpoint the ways that you’ll be able to measure this type of success.

PPC: A Quick Overview

AdWords are a PPC (pay-per-click) form of advertising. This means that you don’t pay for your ad until someone actually clicks on it. Makes sense, right? Obviously you want people to click on your ads and travel to your landing pages, but you get to see the true ROI on your campaign, by watching how many people actually click on your ads and only paying for those interactions.

Understand Your Budget

As much as I would love to be able to set up campaigns with limitless budgets, that’s not typically an option for most businesses, unless you’re Google. You should always have a clear understanding of what your budget actually is, and build a campaign that is built with that in mind. This is why setting a daily limit on ad spend and taking advantage of CPC (cost-per-click) is a great way to set yourself up for success.

AdWords Advertisement Break-Down

There’s a formula to each AdWords advertisement. Understanding the components of these ads can help you optimize and craft your content.

Keywords, Anyone?

I LOVE keywords. These fun words and phrases aren’t just for blog posts, oh no, they aso key to any AdWords campaign. The ads that you craft should include keywords and phrases that are related to your product, service, or event.

There’s a definite method for finding and utilizing keywords and phrases. I’ve outlined a process in “Capturing Keywords & Amping-Up Your SEO.”

Why do they matter so much? When people go to Google and type in a query for “pet stores toys” and you are a pet store that has a brand new kitty toy that you are promoting through AdWords, if you sprinkle in relevant keywords and phrases like “pet store,” “pet, “pet toys,” “cat toys,” and more, your paid ads are more likely to show up for this customer. You want to match your keywords to the terms and phrases that your ideal customers are typing into their search engines.

Create a Clear Message

Have you ever read an ad and wondered, “what does it even mean?” I have. Your readers should never be left scratching their heads after they read your ads. Try to create a clear call-to-action (CTA) for your readers. If you are promoting a new piece of jewelry, make sure you tell viewers to “check out your new styles” or “ BUY our newest piece.”

Know Your Buyer Personas

You also need to have an understanding of your ideal buyer personas, so you can craft your messaging for this type of consumer. Maybe your product is more appealing to housewives or maybe you are writing to those lovable “Millennials.” The voice that you use, language, and overall tone should be framed with your customers in mind.

Having a grasp of who your customer are can help you dig into the wants and needs of your buyers. You can craft messages that are not only persuasive and convince your readers that they need what you have, but you also develop a relationship with those readers who feel like you actually “get them.”

Not sure how to outline your ideal consumers? Check out my article from last month, “Understanding Your Audience: SEO Marketing.”

Keep it Real

You don’t like it when you feel like someone is lying to you and completely misleading you. Make sure your ads aren’t doing this. Don’t offer apples and then lead someone to an orange tree. Like that analogy?

When you are writing your ads, make sure that the message you are sending corresponds with the landing page that you are sending your readers to. If you’re not sure how to develop landing pages, our team at HammockWeb can practically do this with our eyes closed (not really).

When you focus on specific keywords in your ads, make sure that the landing page that you are leading readers to has those keywords, and that the product/service that you are advertising is represented by those keywords. This can help get your awesome products/services in front of more people.

Once you launch your AdWords campaign, you can begin to see your goals are being met and your boss will start doing a happy dance. But be careful that you don’t just let your campaign run wild. What I mean is, I always watch my campaigns to make sure that I am using the right keywords, trending key phrases, negative keywords, and updating my copy to really speak to my ideal audience.

There’s so much more to AdWords, stay tuned for more of my sage advice.