Tag: AdWords

I cannot begin to tell you how many clients have come to me for AdWords services to find out that they spend several thousands of dollars every month for clicks without holding Google accountable. What do I mean by that?

If you do not have Google AdWords conversion tracking installed and at the minimum Google Analytics installed, you are not holding Google AdWords accountable. You must have metrics in place to be able to identify the success or lack there of of your Google AdWords program.

Without conversion tracking installed you will never know how many leads AdWords actually generated for you. When things get tight financially the first thing you will choose to chop is AdWords. But if you know you got 30 leads from AdWords last month and 5 leads from your website, instead you may choose to increase your AdWords budget to generate more leads and cut back on website services for the time being. With the knowledge of what vehicles are generating a return for you, you can make smart choices in regards to your budget. But if you do not have these metrics in place, you are only guessing at where your business has come from.

Typically we will not take on a new AdWords client until these metrics have been installed by their webmaster, as we want to seriously help our clients get the most from AdWords. We want to have conversations built around historical data not guesswork!

AdWords can bring you leads and sales but you need to do your part to keep the program accountable to match your business objectives.

So you set up your Google AdWords account, set it to run, and now it’s been a few days and nothing is happening. What should you do?

First, if you have absolutely no impressions at all, I would contact Google help through the control panel and ask the ad approval powers to take a look at your program. In nearly all cases you will get a response in 24 hours that your program was under review and is running now. It used to be that a program would run in about 15 minutes after set up, but now I have seen some accounts sit there for three to five days in the ad approval process. The contact is like a kick start. So if nothing is happening give Google a push.

If your impressions are very low, the first place to look is your daily budget and cost per click. You may not be in the auction if you settings are too low.

For clients we recommend a minimum budget of $500 to $800 for clicks for a 30 day period and we will typically set up an account to run with a default cost per click of $1.75 to $3.50 depending on the market.

For professional services like legal and medical services your default cost per click may need to be $6.50 to $8.00 to get any action. If you CPC is at this level you really should have a 30 click budget of $1,000 to $1,500 on top of our fees to manage your account to get Google to show your program.

AdWords is an auction so if you have set your account up with a maximum cost per click of $.05 or $.25 and a daily spend of just a few bucks, the reality is that you are just not going to get any action on Google. Businesses are spending big money on Google and to have Google show your ads, you have to compete in this same arena.

I have to say that even though I have seen some businesses be hugely successful using Google AdWords, I have also seen some who have not. Based on this, I strongly advocate not leaving your pocketbook open to Google as they will try to spend every cent you allocate for clicks.

These are my tips for business owners:

1. If you are new to AdWords set aside a budget of $500 to $800 for clicks for a 30 day period for a testing time frame of at least three months.

2. Don’t start on AdWords until you have conversion tracking in place to measure leads generated by AdWords.

3. If you do not have a website analytics program installed, install free Google Analytics at least two weeks prior to hiring your account manager. Help them do a better job by identifying what is happening on your website in regards to traffic and keywords.

4. Use a professional account manager for your AdWords keyword research, ad text creation, and account management. The input that a professional manager can give you will help you to better understand how to market your business more effectively based on click activity and trends that they see happening from the activity in your account.

5. Don’t give up after just 30 days of traffic. Plan on really giving it a go for three months. Then if you do not see results from an increased number of leads, close your pocketbook and move out of Google AdWords and try another marketing approach. You may want to consider organic optimization, email marketing, blog advertising, or even print media advertising depending on your product or service.

It simply makes good business sense to feed with your cash investment things that provide a return for your business. Do not fall in the trap of paying Google for clicks on AdWords if the activity is not providing results, but be realistic about the results you can expect from your AdWords program as well.

AdWords can really work for you, I’ve made it happen for clients, but for some, AdWords is simply not the most practical approach. You will however not know if AdWords is for you unless you really make an honest try.