6 AdWords Tips for Small Business Owners - Jobidea24

In this article, we'll take a look at some of the most critical factors that make for a great Google AdWords strategy for an eCommerce business, both in terms of designing your ad campaigns and how to optimize them. The site itself for maximum conversions.

1. What is measured is managed

Sorry for the clichéd wisdom. If there is one primary metric that every advertiser must consider, it is the return on investment.

The best way to measure your ROI in Google AdWords is to track conversions with their cost. Don't think click-through rate alone is the king of all PPC metrics: if you're not driving sales with all that traffic, you're losing money.

• Set up conversion tracking in your Google AdWords account.

• If necessary, enable cost attribution in your linked Google Analytics account.

• Monitor the profitability of your ads and keywords, and whip your horses.

2. Transactional Keywords

The most profitable keywords for an eCommerce business are those that are transactional. If a potential customer comes to your site to research a product, see what it looks like, and understand what it does, that potential customer is less than another potential customer who intends to buy. Your bidding strategy should reflect this fact.

Who is more likely to buy: someone searching for "best bikes" or "bike shops in San Francisco"?

Set up different keyword ad groups and adjust your bids and language accordingly.

3. Ads That Sell

Well-designed ads can do wonders for your AdWords campaigns. Choosing the right word or image can lead to higher sales and higher CTRs, often leading to lower CPCs, better placement, or both, by increasing the Quality Score of your ads. Over time, this can lead to a snowball effect where you'll see your entire campaign start to perform better based on a few simple changes you decide to try.

And "testing" is an important idea to keep in mind. You won't know which word or layout will work best, so try many versions of the same ad and then narrow down the herd. I won't mention horse abuse again, but you know what to do.

Different placements and keywords require different types of copy and images, but it usually pays to use active language (if any) focusing on benefits and unique selling propositions. We can see two examples of this on Google and Facebook:

Notice how, in a single line of text each, Google and Facebook present all of their respective ad platforms' unique selling propositions, along with additional benefits. On Google, customers search for you and find you. On Facebook, you can reach the desired audience. These examples could be more exciting, but you can bet they'll work.

Another big trick up your sleeve when using text ads is dynamic keyword entry. Be careful not to overuse it, but if you can deliver on the implied promise of the keywords you're bidding on, it can be a powerful tool for increasing your CTR.

4. Ad Extension

The most critical type of ad extension for most eCommerce sites is product extensions, which display images, titles, and prices for related products based on your Google Merchant Center account. But depending on your specific business, seller ratings, ad site links, and call extensions are also worth trying. (If you're new to ad extensions, check out the Google AdWords Help Center page for a quick overview.)

5. Custom landing pages

It's a good idea for each ad group to choose a landing page specifically for a) that group of keywords and b) your ad copy.

In other words, if you're running an AdWords campaign for an eCommerce website and pointing all of your ads to the home page, you're doing it wrong.

You don't have to design a new landing page for each ad group, but you do need to ensure that whatever URL you choose is the one most relevant to your site for that ad and keyword combination. There is a related page.

If your ad targets "running shoes" keywords, don't send your prospect to the home page or a general category page for "running shoes." Instead, show them your best-selling running shoes and cross trainers. This also helps keep the display URL simple and contextual: "yoursite.com/running" is better than "yoursite.com," even if the URL the ad points to is very tall and ugly.

6. Reduce friction

Whether selling a single product or thousands of items, reducing friction is a sure way to increase sales. This also applies to free permission marketing assets.

The harder it is to get your prospects to buy (or convert in general), the less likely they are to do so. But it's incredible how many e-commerce sites clog up your sales funnel by requiring too much customer information.

Remember these guidelines when it comes to forms and reporting requirements:

• Ask for as little information as possible.

• Make it possible for you to order without creating a username and password.

• If you need to ask for a lot of information, do it in stages rather than all at once. A short or two-step registration can drastically increase registration rates.

• When in doubt, remove it. (You can also use an analytics tool like ClickTale to help you see what people are skipping.)