I've been receiving a lot of advice all you guys - it's all been great! Let me pose a few questions for the group about some strategies:
1. I've heard it's important to use the search words in your titles (headings). Would it be best to create many different adgroups with different headings? or a catch-all {keyword:Widgets}? (if your selling widgets)
2. Is it better to use "" or []? Or both? Does it matter what order you list keywords if you enter both?
3. Content - Should you put price in description? % of savings? Or just the call to action "buy now"?
4. Testing content - What are your strategies for testing different ads? How many ads do you rotate to determine best results?
5. URL - is it best to list your home page URL? (not where it takes the user, but what shows up on the ad) Or is it best to use a longer more specific URL ex. www.espn.com or www.espn.com/golf
Looking forward to replies from the best adwords strategists - the members of webmasterworld!
1. I've heard it's important to use the search words in your titles (headings). Would it be best to create many different adgroups with different headings? or a catch-all {keyword:Widgets}? (if your selling widgets)
I would say using the search words in your title/heading is imperative, as it is what the user is actually looking for. your add will be instantly of interest to the searcher (it is also bolded so is more visible).
2. Is it better to use "" or []? Or both? Does it matter what order you list keywords if you enter both?
I try and use both depending on the term. It can be obvious that some terms will most certainly require [] i.e if you are selling widgets(sorry), you do not want the add to show when someone searches for free widgets, repairers of widgets etc. So you use the [] and target your exact phrases. It can be good practice to add the term in on a general search and just make sure you set the cpc low using the **rule
3. Content - Should you put price in description? % of savings? Or just the call to action "buy now"?
Again this varies a great deal but generaly i do put in costs, as it gives the searcher the answer to the question they where asking without wasting your money by clicking through (obviously 100 various reason why you shouldnt i.e you have special promotions that run alongside etc). If the product is too much for them the user will not click through
4. Testing content - What are your strategies for testing different ads? How many ads do you rotate to determine best results?
Generaly i use a couple on rotation and see what works best.
5. URL - is it best to list your home page URL? (not where it takes the user, but what shows up on the ad) Or is it best to use a longer more specific URL ex. www.espn.com or www.espn.com/golf
Generaly as a rule of thumb i use the home page url. Purely because i feel it makes the add look neater. If i am struggling to achive a high enough ctr i do sometimes add the keyword to the end www.espn.com/golf. This has mixed results but can sometimes work v well
Hope this has helped
Jamie "best adwords strategist" not quite.. lol
[edited by: Shak at 7:00 am (utc) on July 3, 2003]
It can be good practice to add the term in on a general search and just make sure you set the cpc low using the **rule
What is this rule?
1. I've heard it's important to use the search words in your titles (headings). Would it be best to create many different adgroups with different headings? or a catch-all {keyword:Widgets}? (if your selling widgets)
This depends on the advertiser. For major brands, and well known sites, this can go either way as people know the company name. For smaller companies, the search term is definately better. You already get to name the company in the URL, (I do use a url like: BlueWidgetsInc.com so the company name is seen).
2. Is it better to use "" or []? Or both? Does it matter what order you list keywords if you enter both?
3. Content - Should you put price in description? % of savings? Or just the call to action "buy now"?
Questions about Widgets?
Read our Widget FAQ
involves both call to action, and showing there is information on the site.
4. Testing content - What are your strategies for testing different ads? How many ads do you rotate to determine best results?
5. URL - is it best to list your home page URL? (not where it takes the user, but what shows up on the ad) Or is it best to use a longer more specific URL ex. www.espn.com or www.espn.com/golf
I almost exclusively use /golf for specific keywords. If it's a very broad keyword, then I don't use specific files. Due to TV ads now showing the /tv, people are becoming more educated about different folders within a homepage. When people do a search, they often glance at the url and a homepage is less attractive than a page that's relevant to them. Using /something increases my CTR for about 75% of my ads by a decent number.
My URLs generally look like: www.BlueWidgetsInc/FAQs
One last stratedgy I employ, if a keyword is not doing as well as I'd hoped and it's in a group of 3+ keywords for ads, I remove it from that ad group and make a specific set of ads for that exact keyword.
Hope this helps a little.
It can be good practice to add the term in on a general search and just make sure you set the cpc low using the **rule
What is this rule?
Check out the Power Posting feature - you can read about it in the help section of your campaign.
Using Power Posting, you can set seperate URL's and Max CPC for keywords in the same adgroup.
Ie:
widgets ** 2.50 ** [example.com...]
Make sense?
As far as specific advice, I'd just add that the strategy will never be 100% the same from one advertiser to the next.
The only extra thing I'd add is to work on a 3 X 3 or 4 X 4 matrix of titles/descriptions, run them for a prolonged period of time and then mix and match, that will tell you if your better off having the keyword in the title, the price in the ad, some schmoozy sales call to action or something more subtle.
But I repeat, no two campaigns will have the same strategy, so learn all of the things you need to know to make adwords work for you.
Exact []
Phrase ""
Broad (with nothing)
That's how they filter, so someone instigates a search, if you have it exact matched you get the impression, you get the click, 100% CTR, you don't have an exact you have the phrase, you get the click 100% CTR, you don't have exact, you don't have phrase, you have the broad (metaphorically speaking), you get the click 100% CTR.
Obviously, more will slip through to the phrase and broad, but if you are struggling with volume consider phrase, and/or broad, but be prepared to waste money on traffic you don't want.
Last advice would be to keep the keyword lists small. You can have 25 campaigns, with 200 ad groups in each campaign, with 2000 keywords in each ad group, so there's no need to cram 100 keywords into one ad group if having 50 ad groups would be better, so if you sell something that could be bought regionally, then think regionally with your keywords.
That last one is a killer.
Exact []
Phrase ""
Broad (with nothing)That's how they filter, so someone instigates a search, if you have it exact matched you get the impression, you get the click, 100% CTR, you don't have an exact you have the phrase, you get the click 100% CTR, you don't have exact, you don't have phrase, you have the broad (metaphorically speaking), you get the click 100% CTR.
Lets's say I bid on a phrase "blue widgets" and somebody else has the broad term widgets.
Do we both get the impression of somebody searches for "blue widgets"? Is the rank determined by the CPC X CTR formula?
The bonus in phrase and exact is that you will be able to have much more control over your ad. You competitor, who is just bidding on widgets, will have no idea which keywords work for him or where trouble might be if his ad gets shut down. If you have everything broken out, you may see that blue widgets has a high CTR but red widgets is very low. From this information, you could decide to lower your bid on red or break it out into it's own, more focused ad. With blue, you might break it out into it's own ad, with its own landing page to increase CTR and conversion even more.
Not to mention that your competitor will probably be appearing for everything from "information about widgets" to "free widgets" to "Widgets: The Movie", which is probably not traffic you want if you are selling widgets. These count as immpressions and if/when his ad is shut down for low CTR, he can only scratch his head and say - "Well, I thought it was a good ad..."
These count as immpressions and if/when his ad is shut down for low CTR, he can only scratch his head and say - "Well, I thought it was a good ad..."
That just happened to me. I was bidding on the broad term widgets. My ad was very clear that I was selling a product and my CTR was .8%, good enough for me.
I wish I could pinpoint what the problem was.
I tested with more vague ads and still had a high CTR, but the conversion after they hit my site was pathetic.
