Optimize Ad Spend and Conversions on Google AdWords

In order to optimize ad spend and conversions on AdWords, you need to track your site information regularly. Google Analytics has some great tools for this, if you choose to go through Adwords — which makes sense, since Google has about seventy percent of the market. But the important thing is that you track your site’s statistics, no matter how you do it.

Check to see which keywords are getting the highest click-through rates. How much traffic is entering your site via alternate sources, and what sources are they?

You can use this type of information to really get inside the head of your customer, figure out what draws him or her to your site, and promotes a higher conversion rate. Take the time to examine page views, ad views, revenue to ad-spend ratio, and other information critical to understanding your advertising successes and failures.

Don’t hesitate to (after careful study) change keywords as necessary to make your advertising campaign ever more successful and cost-efficient. Don’t forget, this doesn’t just mean deleting terms that don’t work; you can also increase / transfer your spending to those that work very well.

You can even target ads to specific keywords, to drive up that click-through rate, bringing your site the customers you need.

The importance of keyword selection simply cannot be overstated here. If you have selected poor keywords, then your online ads are less likely to be seen by your customer base. Definitely keep in mind that the more specific your keywords are, the more likely you are to bring ready-to-engage customers to your site.

Interestingly enough, given that information, recent studies have shown that many conversions occur after a site has been accessed via non-related keywords. It is definitely worth looking into how a better understanding of the typical use-patterns of your site can improve design, so that you can take advantage of it more directly.

Remember when examining the utility of current advertising expenditure, to weigh it against the incoming revenue that is directly related to online advertising. If your investment is not paying off, it may be time to come up with a new strategy for attracting the customer’s attention i.e. new keywords, and maybe even new ads.

What time of day seems to work best for your ads? Take the time to experiment and test to see what works best for you. Also select location appropriately, as this can also be identified in paid search ads. You can even select how often your ads appear.

With many paid search ads, it’s necessary to bid for a specific spot, whether at the very top of the page or further down. Ensure that you’re not in a spot that isn’t effective enough to make up for the cost. Once you’ve seen how well your campaign is performing, you can tweak your bid as necessary.

Quality Score is something you need to pay attention to.  The higher your Quality Score, the more your ad will be displayed, even if your bid is not as high as others.  Quality Score is mainly dependent on the Click Through Rate (CTR).  Google is interested in making the most money and they make money when ads are clicked and they make the most money when they are only displaying the best performing ads.  So, an ad with a high Quality Score becomes beneficial for Google and ultimately for those advertisers that achieve high Quality Score.  Quality Score is one of the key ways you can you optimize your Adspend dollars.

Optimizing Conversions is no different than optimizing your conversions on your website.  The landing pages need to be highly relevant with a clear call to action with the proper offers, incentives or emotional impetus to buy, subscribe et al.

Contact us if you are seeking to optimize the performance and ROI of your Adwords Campaign; we will provide you with a no-obligation initial consultation.