The Maine SEO Blog

Account Setup: Billing

We’ve come to the final steps of our AdWords account setup: showing Google the money, honey.

After choosing your country, you can either pick postpay/prepay billing. Understand that if you choose to prepay, your balance might run out before you want it to.

Although if you’re only willing to spend a set amount, then this option is perfect for you.

Read the terms of service, enter your credit card information, and…you’re all done!

Congratulations!

Nicki Hicks
9 Step Set-up

Create ad and keywords: Placements

Now that you’ve got your keywords in place; remember how when you chose to show your ads in the Content Network, I said you could choose which content networks later?

Later is now.

If you decided that Google couldn’t pick relevant content networks, or if you have website(s) or blog(s) in mind where you know you want your ad, this section is for you.

Or perhaps your know a content network where you don’t want your ad to populate. This section is also for you.

Simply list the website(s) and blog(s), as Google does. For those sites/blogs where you’d rather your ad not show up, put the (-) negative in front, similar to a negative keyword.

You might be saying to yourself: I don’t know which sites I want or don’t want to show my ad. No biggie. Leave this box blank. Once you gather data, you’ll know which content networks you’re getting impressions, traffic, and conversions from, you might want to exclude those sites not converting and basically decreasing your conversion rate as a result.

Congratulations!

You’ve successfully added placements for your ad in the Content Network! Next time, we’ll move on to the joys of billing.

Nicki Hicks
Yes there is a Step 9

Create ad and keywords: Keywords

Even though it seems a little out of order to me, you’ve created your ad – so now it’s time to choose the keywords you want to bid on for that ad.

Select Keywords

Based on your ad copy, Google will give you suggestions for keywords. Even with this list, as always, I would recommend getting a keyword analysis. You might be missing opportunities with paid search, just as with organic.

You can enter as many keywords as you like; just remember – you’re going to pay every time someone searches for one and clicks on your ad. Choose wisely.

As you input keywords, Google will estimate the search traffic. Notice that this estimate is for the entire list of keywords – not on an individual basis. What do these numbers mean, do you ask?

• CPC (Cost Per Click): How much you pay per click. In this instance, Google is estimating “pet gifts” will cost me anywhere between $.62 and $1.31
• Clicks/day: The estimated number of clicks (not impressions) Google estimates I’ll receive from this keyword per day.
• Cost/day: The estimated amount 60-76 clicks will cost.

While just estimates, the traffic summary will give you an idea how much the keyword costs – as well as how relevant it might be.

Match Types

Match types are, without a doubt, critical. In order to get traffic – the right traffic – and acquire accurate impressions data, make sure you root out any keywords that don’t apply to your product, service, and ad.

Broad match will match your phrase, including any other (relevant) variations. “Phrase match” will match the phrase, but still pick up searchers who add for long tail searches. [Exact match] will match only that phrase or term. - Negative match will ensure your ad does not show up for that query.

Negative match is one of the most powerful in the group – rooting out those queries that don’t apply. You may be thinking “when someone searches for my term, they’re looking for me”. Not so. Trying Googling your keyword(s). Look for results that both a) don’t exactly relate to your industry and b) don’t relate to this particular ad.

Congratulations!

You’ve just added your first set of keywords to the campaign! Next time, we’ll delve into ad placements.

Nicki Hicks
Keyword-holic

Create ad and keywords: Create an ad

Now that you’ve got your advanced settings all in order, it’s finally time to create your first ad!

First things first: you can create a variety of ads in AdWords: text, image, video, or mobile. Each has a variety of techniques, and I’m only going to go over the text ad, as it’s the most popular.

You’ll see five lines of text in the ad manager:

1. Headline: The blue hyperlink to your landing page; total of 25 characters.
2. Description Line 1: 1st line of black text; total of 35 characters.
3. Description Line 2: 2nd line of black text; total of 35 characters.
4. Display URL: The green text displaying your landing page; total of 35 characters.
5. Destination URL: The actual destination landing page (that must match the display URL domain); total of 1024 characters.

The wrong way to write an ad

Below is an example of how not to write an ad. It’s vague, not overly enticing, and most importantly: there’s no call to action!

The right way to write ad

Here are some of the pointers Google AdWords Help gives for optimizing your ads:

• Make your ad simple and enticing.
• Have a sale or promotion? Include it! Free shipping – add it! Price, as we all know, is a huge differentiator.
• Call-to-action. Have one. ‘Nuff said.
• Include the keywords you’re bidding on in the text.
• Choose the best destination URL – more often than not, it won’t be the homepage.
• Test multiple ads. You might be surprised about which one performs better.

With a purpose in mind, I set out to try again:

Remember: you’ll want to have tested the keywords you use in the ad beforehand (which I haven’t with this example), but you get the idea.

Congratulations!

You’ve created your first ad! Tomorrow, we start on keywords.

Nicki Hicks
Puppy Presents on the Brain

Create your first campaign: Bidding and Budget

You’ve just decided where your ads are going, now it’s time to put some money behind it.

Bidding Options

By default, Google suggests focusing on clicks – with a choice to create a manual bid for clicks, or automatic. Manual bidding simply means that you want to manually tell Google how much you’re willing to pay for any given keyword. By using automatic bidding, Google will choose how much your bid will be – but don’t worry you get to put a ceiling on that amount with the bid limit.

You also have an option to base bids on conversions. This might be a good option for an Ecommerce site – as conversions are black and white: to buy or not to buy. You can count whatever you’d like as a conversion: signing up for your email newsletter, filling out your contact form, subscribing to your feed, downloading your white paper…you get the idea. (Notice you have to set up conversion tracking – by inserting a code not unlike that for Google Analytics.)

Budget

This one is pretty straight forward: how much are you willing to spend for AdWords (per day)? Like every other option we’re setting up here, you can change this at anytime. And, don’t worry, if Google thinks you should be spending more based on “missed opportunities”, they won’t hesitate to tell you.

Position Preference

That’s right, you can choose where your ad shows up! (You’ll just have to pay for it.)

Unless you have a specific need to show up in the #1 spot, or maybe you want to be down around #3 to save costs (and you know you’ll convert just as well there), then I would suggest leaving this option “off”.

Delivery Method

Have a product in short supply and want to sell it fast? Or do you have a bottomless budget? Go ahead and show your ad(s) quickly over time. Otherwise, show them evenly throughout the day.

Congratulations!

You’ve successfully set up your bids and budget. Now that the money piece is (partially) out of the way, tomorrow we’ll go over some advanced settings.

Nicki Hicks
Budgeting isn’t just for accountants