Everybody wants to get more from their marketing efforts but we are constantly amazed when we take over Google Adwords accounts for clients and see why their campaigns haven't been hitting the mark. We've therefore created a quick post here to give you some tips to avoid wasting time and money attracting the wrong type of visitors to your website.
What is Adwords?
Adwords is a hugely successful system developed by Google to assist you in marketing your products through a dominant ad that appears when potential customers search for key phrases related to your offering. The pay-per-click system means you can bid for a series of phrases, determining where your ad will appear. You only pay the amount you have bid, when someone clicks on your ad, so you may think what can go wrong?Adwords can get expensive if you aren’t handling it correctly, but if well managed, it can really help to grow sales for your company. Optimising Adwords can be time-consuming, tedious work but by avoiding these common mistakes, you can get some crazy clicks creating interest and conversation, and in turn, sales and profit.
Mistake #1:
Not Grouping Keywords Appropriately
In Adwords you can create campaign ad groups for different sectors of your business which you can manage separately, for example a product campaign or a content campaign. Ad groups are essential for Adwords to work effectively. Make sure that you don’t just put all of your keywords into one group, as no matter what the search term, the same ad will appear. It’s no good just thinking your ad being at the top of the page will have the impact you hope for. Each ad should be segmented around similar types of keywords, so that your most relevant ad appears for the potential customer. Your ad should ideally have the same phrases as the search term, with extra related information. Your ad won’t get clicks otherwise!For instance, companies that sell a variety of different products have to differentiate between different ads. For instance, Ford sell cars such as the KA up to the Mustang, as well as merchandise and Ford experiences. Each of these sectors need a specific adwords campaign group based on what people are searching for.
Mistake #2:
Trying to Conquer the Whole World

You can’t please everyone, so specificity is essential. Engaging the whole world with your fantastic ad campaign would be amazing, but it just doesn’t work that way. Creating location-specific ads may be time-consuming but it will always bring in more qualified traffic.Many customers are constantly on the go, and are most likely to visit a store within a day after conducting a local search. This means that if you’re not optimizing your ad based on your location, you could be missing out of a lot of immediate traffic.Obviously engaging local traffic is of great value, however also consider other locations your product or business might prosper. People in different locations shop differently, for instance if you are an online retailer of expensive sofa beds or bespoke furniture, advertising in compact cities such as London, Birmingham and Leeds would be more effective than less condense towns. Income levels and lifestyle are also essential to take into account- specifying coastal towns when you’re an online retailer of boat equipment for example.
Mistake #3:
Ignoring the Negative Keywords in your Settings

All publicity is not good publicity. You need to identify negative words in your ad campaigns to ensure Google doesn’t show your ad for those particular words. Negative and harmful keywords can be prevented from linking to your company through Google’s Adwords settings. For instance, say you were selling a certain design software and your business appeared under ‘design software scams’ or ‘overpriced design software’, business definitely won’t be rocketing.

This is an obvious example, whereas other Adwords phrases are subtly harmful only in terms of how or what you would like to sell. If your business is in computer sales, then your ad appearing under ‘computer care tips’ or ‘computer fixes’ is completely focussed on the wrong target market, those already with computers! Selecting negative keywords can also make your campaign more specific to the product, increasing the chance of interested possible customers. For instance, if you were an optometrist who sold glasses, you may exclude ‘drinking’ and ‘wine’ from your campaign, to ensure those irrelevant customers do not use up valuable clicks.

Identifying and focussing on negative Adwords terms can completely change your campaign. It could look like you are getting lots of clicks, but it may not be the kind of traffic you want.