For small to medium sized businesses, return on investment (ROI) is crucial. Many will spend thousands on Google AdWord Campaigns but not get as many leads back as they thought. The most common “wastage” that we see on our new clients current AdWords campaign is the lack of Negative Keywords that they filter out.
What are negative keywords in terms of Google AdWords? They are simple a type of keyword that prevents your tailored Google Ad from showing up when a user types the word. You can read more about these keywords from Google themselves.
The most common negative keyword used in AdWord campaigns is “FREE”. This is because you will never have a good ROI if you are giving away things! Here is a small snapshot of one of our clients negative keyword list that has seen great savings.
Broad, Exact and Phrase Match Keywords
The default keyword match is Broad, where ads will show (or not show if negative) if a misspelling, synonym, related or relevant keyword is used.
For example. if you targeted the keyword “Men’s Gloves” it will show up in “Buy Male Gloves“. You can modify this further by adding “+” that will show the ad on searches with the modified query i.e. “+Men’s +Gloves” will show in search for “gloves for males“.
An Exact Match keyword is stated by putting the targeted keyword in square brackets. For example “[Men’s Gloves]” and this will show the ad only when the exact term or very close variations are used.
Finally a Phrase Match is where the ad will show up on searches that are a phrase similar to the one targeted. For example, “Men’s gloves” keyword will show ads for the phrase “Buy Men’s Gloves“.
Using Call or Landing Pages
This is a hot topic but many people will fail to convert because their landing pages (or whole website) is not up to scratch. This will be costing you big time and if this is the case, you should fix your website with an intuitive design or use Call-Only campaigns.
Avoid Broad Keywords
Keywords is the most important factor that comes into play with Google AdWords. Google want to show the best ads to their users to provide them with a good user experience. Therefore, if you provide specific keywords, Google will reward you with good placement at a reduce CPC.
For example, using “Black Men’s Glove For Large Hands” instead of “Men’s Gloves”. Your CTR for the ad will be through the roof as well as saving money on users clicking for a different type of glove.
