Do you want to do a Google AdWords campaign like a professional, but you don’t know how? In the following article, we will show you, step by step, what are the steps you are going to take and we assure you that, if you follow these tips, you will generate more leads and subsequently more sales/customers.

To get a more concrete idea, when you want to start your first journey in managing a promotion campaign, you must start with a keyword checklist. It’s like you want to bake a delicious cake and the first thing you do is make a list of the necessary ingredients.

Now let’s go step by step through the process of creating a profitable Google Adwords campaign from scratch.

Step 1: Audience Requirements

The online audience is often very different from what we suspect they are looking for on the net. So, it is necessary to do a research in this regard. If your customers aren’t looking for your product or services online, then it’s obvious that search advertising won’t work for you. So, before you start creating your first AdWords campaign, you need to check if there is a search volume for what you offer.

The useful tool to do this check is the Keyword Planner Tool in the AdWords interface. The method of use is extremely simple: you enter phrases that you think your potential customers are looking for, and Google will give you similar and relevant phrases or words.

At the same time, you will find important information about the search frequency of keywords, how competitive they are and how much it costs to advertise for each keyword.

Before starting to use this tool, it is good to make sure that you have selected the advanced options. If you are in Romania, set the location and the Romanian language. The device should be preset for desktops and laptops, but you can also choose the version for mobile only.

Then, select the Columns section from the menu and make sure that the boxes are selected:

• Average number of monthly searches
• The percentage of ad impressions
• Competition
• Suggested bid amount

You will be able to see the competition and the cost per click for each keyword. In this way, you will be able to analyze the opportunities for each individual case.

It is very important to be able to answer three questions when choosing a keyword:

1. Is the keyword searched in Google? If there is no search volume, it means that no one, or very few people, are looking for that product or service online.
2. Does the person looking for that product/service intend to purchase my product/service? Or does that person just want to be informed, without making a purchase? In other words, what is the buying intent of the keyword, when the person obviously wants to buy.
3. Can I afford to advertise on this keyword? This question is important, but you have to do a calculation.

Step 2: Mathematical calculations

A little mathematical calculation will help you not to spend money in an AdWords campaign destined to fail, that is, not to choose those keywords that are not profitable. To be able to answer the question: “Can I afford to advertise on this keyword?”, you need to calculate the maximum cost per click (CPC), which you will compare with the CPC estimated by the keyword tool. For example, if your maximum CPC is 5 RON, and the estimated CPC amount is 4 RON, then you know that there is a good chance to run a profitable campaign for that keyword.

Step 3: Unique selling proposition

A unique selling proposition can mean the difference between a successful business and a bankrupt one. The unique selling proposition must answer the question: “Why should I do this business with you and not with your competition?”

A unique message will generate more traffic from relevant customers and turn away customers who don’t want to buy. In other words, the sales conversion rate will increase. In order to create a unique sales approach, it is necessary to analyze the competition, study the ads, websites and marketing materials, then find a way to distinguish yourself from them.

Step 4: Compelling ads

With the help of an AdWords search campaign, you only pay when users click on your ads.

There are four important fields of an AdWords ad:

1. The title
2. Description line 1
3. Description line 2
4. Displayed URL

The title

The title is the most important component, because it is the first thing read. It is important to include the keyword in the title of the ad, because this will make your ad 100% relevant for that search.

A good strategy is to put a question in the title, for example: “Do you need a photographer in Timisoara?” and thus you will get a convincing message, which will suggest a positive answer to the reader, which will ultimately lead to the sale.

Description line 1 and 2

In the two lines of description, detail the benefits of your service or product. Also included here is the Call To Action, that is, the suggestion to take a concrete action.

Displayed URL

The display URL is an easily ignored area of ​​your ads. It is not good to just copy and paste the domain name, but include the offer, the call to action, or the right keyword. Here are three examples of a photographer completing their display URL:

• www.domeniu.ro/Professional_photographer
• www.domeniu.ro/Foto-Dubai
• www.domeniu.ro/Professional-photos

Step 5: Relevant landing pages

At this moment, your potential client has decided that your ad is convincing and decided to click to find out more details.

The biggest mistake is to put the destination page as the Home Page, because there you will not find the details about your product or services, but you will find some general information. In other words, the Home page could never be 100% relevant for the searched keyword.

Instead, create a dedicated landing page that corresponds to the keyword and the ad. The most important component of the landing page is the title, which is the first thing the user will read.

Step 6: Tracking conversions

There is one more ingredient to consider before setting up your AdWords campaign: conversion tracking. Thus, you will be able to know which keywords and which ads generate sales and which lose money. Without taking this step, you will not be able to effectively optimize the campaign after it is active.

If the landing page is an e-commerce one, then tracking conversions is quite simple. Just use the built-in Google AdWords conversion tracking. From your AdWords account choose Tools>Conversions.

To create a new conversion, press the button: [+Conversion] and follow the steps to define a new conversion. Then add the code fragment in the order form, or in the “thank you” or “contact” page or the one where the payment confirmation for your product or service was made, after the customer completes his order.

Once the conversion tracking system is active, then it’s time to start configuring your first AdWords campaign.

Step 7: Setting up a Successful AdWords Campaign

The campaign is very easy to configure. Simply click the [+Campaign] button and follow the steps to add your ads and keywords.

The process is quite simple, but it is not good that some settings remain default. Here are the most important settings you must follow:

• Search vs. Display
• Available for devices
• Keyword match types
• Negative keywords

Search vs. Display

First, select the Search Network only to target Google searches and not the Display Network.

The Display Network is a completely different approach than the Search Network and requires a different set of keywords, ads and landing pages. It is good to select different campaigns for each individual network.

Available for devices

If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, then it is obvious that it does not make sense to waste your advertising money on mobile devices.

Keyword match types

There are different types of keyword matching that will help you not to waste money on irrelevant searches within the campaign. There are three main types of keyword matching:

• Broad match
• Expression matching
• Exact match

• Broad match is the default match type. If you leave broad match keywords, then Google will display ads for any relevant search phrase. This means that your ads will get more impressions, but you will probably show ads for irrelevant search phrases that will waste your budget. So I don’t recommend broad recommendation.
• Phrase matching will trigger ads when that phrase is part of a longer phrase. For example, if your keyword matching the phrase is “office space”, then your ad will also be displayed for searches for “office space in Timisoara” or “office space in Arad”.
• Exact match will only show your ad when that keyword is entered into the search, so you’ll get more control over an exact phrase, but your exposure will be limited.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords will give you the opportunity to block the display of ads that contain those keywords. This will help you to eliminate, from the start, those searches that you do not want.

Step 8: Optimizing the campaign

As soon as you have set up and activated the AdWords campaign and the ads have been published, you can breathe easy. Don’t relax yet, because most campaigns are not profitable from the start and require continuous optimization to become profitable. There are 3 steps in optimizing an AdWords campaign:

1. Keyword bids. After you start generating clicks and sales, you need to adjust your bids accordingly. If your keywords generate profits and you are not ranked 1, it is good to increase the bids. If your keywords aren’t generating profits, then it’s obvious that you’ll need to lower your bids or delete that keyword.
2. The click-through rate (CTR) of the ad. The CTR value of the ad directly affects your quality score, which, in turn, determines how much you pay per click. To optimize CTR, test different ads to see which version gets the most clicks.
3. Conversion rate. There are many tools that help you test different versions of landing pages. Go to http://analytics.google.com to set up your free account. Then create an experiment to test two different versions of your landing page and analyze to see which one generates the most conversions.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vEITPOaeZZw%3Fwmode%3Dopaque

From now on, all you have to do is focus on optimizing your campaign, keyword bids, ad click-through rates, and landing page conversion rates.

Now you have all the necessary ingredients to run a profitable AdWords campaign. Even if it seems simple, sometimes it’s better to call on a team of professionals, to help you save a lot of your business promotion budget. Good luck!