the most entertaining google adwords guide you will ever read
TRANSCRIPT
THE MOST ENTERTAINING
GOOGLE ADWORDS GUIDE(PART 1)
MEENU JOSHIMarketing Manager, LeadSquared
Written by
This is Bob
Bob is cool
Bob is also the only marketer in a small, fast-growing education companyA one man army, the unsung superhero, living in the sales star’s shadows, almost the dark knight
He is always doing things!Finding new lead generation channels, setting up email campaigns, creating the social
strategy, running webinars to recruit and educate potential students
But, that wasn’t enough!They needed more leads, more paying students. So, they brainstormed
THAT’S WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!Bob loved the new challenge
But, soon enough, he realized that running paid search campaigns wasn’t
all rainbows and butterflies – there’s a lot of work involved
Data ScienceHadoop
Android
JavaPythonApache
Like, detailed keyword research
Let’s bid of broad matched keywords
Getting enough impressions
I should test these ad copies
Testing ad copies
I should test these landing
pages
Testing landing pages
AND MORE…
In the beginning, as is the case with all beginnings, things were smoothLeads came in. Everyone was happy!
But, what’s a good story without at least a few villainsSlowly, things start going downhill, like they always do
A week in, Bob’s superstar status has started to fade
Sales team is now blaming him for not getting them high quality leads
Why, you must wonder!Very few of the leads he generated became customers
CEO questions him daily about wasting money without any sales to show
He doesn’t even get invited to office parties, anymore
IT DIDN’T MATTER THAT HE
WAS ALSO JUST LEARNINGWhat mattered was that he wasn’t saving the day anymore
Bob was devastated
For a while…
But, Bob is coolHe knows that a problem is only a problem till it’s solved
Instead of complaining about it, and wallowing in self-pity, he decides to take charge
.Google Adwords might be a beast, but it IS a beast waiting to be conquered.
BUT, HOW DO YOU TAME A BEAST
THE SIZE OF ADWORDS?
“You take your learnings, and implement them”
Bob has tons of data – from the campaigns he has run
He finally sits down to analyze it
The key problem immediately shows
Like many marketers, he was judging the campaigns by the number of leads generated, not their quality!
THAT’S WHY ALL THE NON-CONVERSIONSSo, before looking any further, he changes his success metric – quality over quantity!
LEARNING #1Focus on quality, not on quantity of leads
LEARNING #1Focus on quality, not on quantity of leads
Bob has his way forward nowAs he digs deeper into the data, he realizes that majority of the revenue comes from one course – Hadoop
But, in his campaigns, he was allocating similar budgets to all the courses
Bob thinks the higher revenue from Hadoop might be because of higher demand
But, Bob has enough leads looking for Python courses as well. Just that, they never seem to convert
Now, he decides to change the strategyand give more weightage to more profitable courses
When the spend was equally divided between Hadoop and Python
When the spend increased on Hadoop and reduced on Python
LEARNING #1Focus on quality, not on quantity of leads
LEARNING #2Spend wisely, based on your most profitable offerings
THINGS ARE LOOKING BETTER ALREADY…
But, it’s far from over! Bob’s back at work
Hadoop jobs
Search Terms
Android Phone
Bob’s ad
“Why”
He finds irrelevant search terms still triggering his ads
These search terms are irrelevant, because Bob’s company doesn’t sell Android phones and they don’t provide jobs either
To control this, he starts marking negative keywords
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, IRRELEVANT CLICKS
BECOME LESS FREQUENTBut, they were still there
Reason: The overuse of broad matched keywords
That trigger the ad for irrelevant search termsThis, of course, can be countered by adding negative keywords regularly, but there IS a better fix
Free Hadoop training
Search Terms
Android internships
Bob’s ad
Stupid search
terms!
BIDDING MORE ON “PHRASE,” “BMM” AND
“EXACT” KEYWORDS, AND LESS ON BROAD
Putting all your money on broad match is like selling blues music to everyone who likes music, irrespective of the genre(by using “buy blues music CDs” as a broad keyword)
Or, even to people who are trying to sell their own music
And, trying to sell “blues” to “metal-heads” is never a good idea
INSTEAD, USE
+BUY +BLUES +MUSIC (BMM), OR “BUY BLUES MUSIC”
(PHRASE) AND [BUY BLUES MUSIC] (EXACT)You’ll eliminate people who are trying to sell their own music, and who are looking for other music genres
LEARNING #1Focus on quality, not on quantity of leads
LEARNING #3Focus on high-quality impressions – Mark negative keywords and limit the use of broad keywords
The impressions are really relevant now
BOB IS ALMOST DONE
GETTING RID OF BAD IMPRESSIONSHe still checks the report to see if he missed something
Guess what! He didCertain relevant keywords with good search volume, like “Hadoop crash courses,” were going unclicked
Hadoop course Hadoop crash courseLearn Hadoop
Ad copy in common Ad Group
Reason: The ad copy advertised only full time coursesNot crash courses
Hadoop course Hadoop crash courseLearn Hadoop
Highly relevant to Hadoop course and Learn Hadoop
But not to Hadoop Crash course
Ad copy in common Ad group
He creates another ad group for crash courses specifically Now there is perfect “search term + keyword + ad copy + landing page” match
HE ALSO SUPPRESSES “CRASH COURSES”
IN OTHER AD GROUPS, SO THAT THE
KEYWORDS DON’T COMPETE
LEARNING #1Focus on quality, not on quantity of leads
LEARNING #4Take care of non-performing keywords – create new ad groups, if there’s a chance
ONE WEEK IN...
The changes in Bob’s campaigns are insane
Impressions High Quality Leads Cost per High Quality Lead
Before Change After Change
Sales numbers were up. So were Bob’s spirits
MORE IMPORTANTLY, HE WAS SAVING THE DAY… AGAIN
BUT IT’S FAR FROM OVERWant to know what happens next?
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