TRAFFIC
GETTING THE MOST OUT
OF ADWORDS
There is more to Google’s advertising product than keywords, says Digital Fuel Marketing’s Aaron Phelps.
By making use of all of its features you can significantly improve your chances of meeting CPA or ROI targets.
AS MORE AND MORE BUSINESSES
go online, Google AdWords can be a
cost-effective way to quickly drive high
quality traffic to your site. However as
competition grows, so does your cost per
click (CPC) right? This doesn’t always
have to be the case. Building campaigns
in the right way and using all the features
available will ensure you get the most
of your account and hit your cost per
acquisition (CPA) or return on investment
(ROI) goals.
Reading search marketing advice, you
will find an abundance of information
about best practices that are easy to
apply to a campaign or ad group level.
Common best practices such as keeping
ad groups small and targeted, with
relevant and keyword specific ad
copy, have demonstrated great results.
However, as anybody who has managed
a large pay-per-click (PPC) account
understands, there is much more to
AdWords than just the keywords you’re
bidding on. I have listed some of the
important aspects and AdWords features
you can use to get the most out of your
AdWords campaign.
Get your structure right
Splitting your account and campaigns
to be reflective of your business structure
is a great way to start, especially when
you’re dealing with different stakeholders
for your client. From an account point
of view, splitting casino and sportsbook
is always a good start. Other than
the obvious point of it being easier to
manage, having the accounts split
allows you to allocate your budget
accordingly. This ensures that you don’t
have any crossover between all your
budgets. If your budgets are split even
more granularly, you should consider
splitting the accounts even further.
But you don’t need to go crazy as there
is the shared budget function which
can be utilised at campaign level.
Another benefit of having the account
split is being able to create granular
campaigns within each. A granular
campaign structure (including having
match types separated) allows you to
have managed budgets and optimise
quickly and more efficiently. It will
also allow you to set CPA targets
at a sports/casino game level rather
than an overall brand CPA vs non-brand
CPA; although we will discuss this
a bit later on.
Don’t forget the negatives
Selecting the right keywords is one of
the most important aspects of any Google
campaign, or that is likely what you’ve
been told. It’s probably the first thing you
think of when you start your AdWords
journey. At the end of the day you want
to drive high-quality traffic to your site
and to do this you need to be visible for
the user’s search query.
Having the right negative keywords
strategy is important, especially when
you’re running multiple match types.
As I mentioned in the campaign structure,
splitting match types by campaign ensures
this negative keyword strategy can be
quick and easy. If you have limited budget
and you are focusing on exact match only,
this won’t apply to you. However, don’t
rule out phrase match and broad match
types just yet.
There are plenty of benefits to having
this as part of your AdWords strategy.
For one, it is a great way to increase
exposure and increase share of voice
(SoV). It is also a useful tool to source
new keyword opportunities, including
“ From building the account to using all the features,
AdWords is becoming ever more advanced.
Using these f eatures and your own data will help
improve the overall performance of the account”
iGB Affiliate Issue 63 JUN/JUL 2017
27