I want to MASTER AdWords!!!

[WebProdigy]

Hello All,

In a couple days I'll be starting an adwords campaign for a client of mine..and to be honest..I've never had the pleasure of being able to spend so much of someone else's money. I ran a test campaign for the client and they received great results that they are happy with..Now I find myself jumping from the $100 test campaign to a $2,000/month- make-me-happy campaign. I want to make sure I'm doing something to improve the results at all times, although I know the client would be happy if I just re-ran my test and let it run for a year.

At what point do you alter your campaign tactics (keywords, adgroups, etc.)? What do I look for? I mean, I can deal with eliminating an ad that has a 15% CTR vs a 25% CTR. But at what point do I stop with the tweaks..what should I be shooting for? Is it worth looking into dynamically generated ads? Or are they just a waste of time.

Long story short..AdWords newbie. Need advice on some basic stats I should be looking for that will make me rest easy at night!

Sorry, I know this is pretty open-ended. I just want to do whats best for my client. Thanks!

[briggidere]

Using AdWords is all about results. Track and measure everything you do. Get conversion tracking set up. This lets you eliminate the poor performing terms and concentrate on the good ones.
Do not use dynamically generated ads. Write them yourself. Have at least 2 ads per group and once you have enough data, get rid of the worst one and try and improve on the better one.
You should never stop the tweaking of a campaign, it's an ongoing process

[stacy131]

I personally have found that sometimes one needs to alternate between several campaigns with different keywords. Many people don't realize it, but one can inflate the cost of their own target keywords. I usually let my strongest keywords run on weekends, but I do give them a breather during the less busy days to get the PPC costs down again. Also, check your SERPs for those keywords on a weekly basis. If you find yourself significantly up in SERP rankings for a particular keyword that you also use for the PPC campaign, it may not be worth to spend any further money on that keyword through Adsense.

Have you explained to your client that Adsense is a temporary solution to gain traffic while a site is being SEO-optimized and built up? Don't get me wrong, if your client's company is a big, successful business that already is ethically (and I emphasize, ethically) SEO-optimized, there is nothing wrong with having a PPC campaign as well. But if it is a small to medium business that is aiming to build a brand and establish itself, you need to tell them to not expect Adsense to be something that they are expected to do indefinitely.

[DennisBerc]

Have you explained to your client that Adsense is a temporary solution to gain traffic while a site is being SEO-optimized and built up?

Sometimes it become long term solution.. SEM is alays in a complex with SEO.

[miss.]

After years on AdWords (and a couple million dollars spent of not my money - yes its fun!) I have found a sort of rhythm that works well for me.

Brainstorm and come up with a fairly exhaustive list of keywords (no more than 100 per ad group - if you have more, break your campaigns up so they are more specific).

Let those keywords run for two weeks. Adjust bids as necessary for placement. After a month really analyze what keywords are attracting clicks, what keywords are converting and how much does all of this cost (for example, one keyword may be generating a TON of clicks at $.05 per click as an arbitrary number - but the number of conversions are so low that each conversion actually costs you $500). Conversion are more important than empty clicks.

After that month I delete the keywords that aren't performing to create a lean mean converting ad group machine!

Let that run for a couple weeks to a month.

Then, its back to the drawing board. Get creative. Try new keywords. Branch out.

Then repeat the testing and weaning.

In no time at all, you are going to create a highly optimized adwords campaign. More than that, it creates a habit that keeps you informed and intimate with how your industry performs and any changes in trends. The key to success here is to know what is performing, analyze and adapt.

Good luck!

[WebProdigy]

Thank you all for your responses. My campaign is underway, and I'm one step closer to changing it to make it better!

I have a couple questions that have come up during the creation of my campaign:

1. Ad Groups- I broke down all of my ad groups into keyword specific groups- For example- truck repair job, truck mechanic jobs, truck technician jobs. These three would represent 3 main ad groups with variations within each- truck repair career, truck repair job, truck repair training, etc. Within each group I have an add containing a main keywords for that group 'Truck Repair'.

After breaking everything down I have 5-15 words per ad group, with around 10 different ad groups. Thoughts?

2. Exact vs. Broad matches- any recommendations? I see advantages and disadvantages to both.

OK, that's it for now. I'm sure there will be more to come!

[danny boy]

Hi there, I would recommend you to use exact matches. Exact matches normally takes longer to give you clicks and results but in the long run, it converts better than broad matches that can give you a lot of clicks but no conversions.

[shoaeeb]

Originally Posted by DennisBerc

Sometimes it become long term solution.. SEM is alays in a complex with SEO.

I agree there.