Today we’ll be looking at what Google AdWords is, how it works and what it can achieve

for your business. And we’ll try and debunk some of the mysteries and myths that you

may have heard about Google AdWords.

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Your business is already online which is great. Only around 50% of Kiwi businesses have

a website, so you’re already ahead of the game. But how do you think your website is

performing for you? Are people finding your site when they’re searching? Are you

measuring how effective it is as a referral or sales channel for you?

When we talk about your website getting found, Google is at the heart of your strategy –

whether it’s through organic or paid traffic.

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Now that you can see the huge volume of traffic that goes to Google each month, the

importance of being found ahead of your competitors becomes very clear.

Driving people to your website from Google can be done in a couple of ways:

1. Buying traffic with Cost Per Click campaigns, for leads that start straight away. There

are a variety of terms for what is essentially the same thing. You’ve probably heard

people talk about “Google AdWords” “Search Engine Marketing” or “Search

Marketing”. Essentially all of these terms relate to the same thing. You may also

sometimes hear this referred to as ‘paid’ online advertising. Google Display and

Facebook Ads are also included in this category.

2. The second way to drive people to your website is through what we call “building

traffic” through Search Engine Optimisation or SEO, for developing a sustainable leads

source. SEO is essentially the process of increasing the natural or organic ranking of your

website on a search result page by making improvements to your website and content.

This is often referred to as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ traffic.

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Search Engine Marketing is in essence a marketing strategy that you can use to help

customers find you online.

Your website is essentially an automated sales rep that is designed to turn potential

customers into actual customers. Google AdWords is an online advertising platform that

delivers potential customers to your website…in other words it generates leads for your

business.

How does Google AdWords do this? It’s the process of having your website listed in

search engines by paying to have ads displayed on search engines. These ads are

displayed on Search Engine Results Pages – or what we commonly refer to as SERPs.

This is a screenshot of a typical SERP. We can see there is a large amount of

competition, and that ads account for a large percentage of listings.

To understand how this all works you need to break down the anatomy of a Google

search page. It’s important to understand that Google is basically two search engines

-One for ‘Paid’ spots – which is AdWords

-One for ‘Organic’ spots – which is based solely on website relevance.

Today we’ll be focusing on the paid, Google AdWords spots.

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AdWords is essentially an auction model that works in real time, where competitors bid

against each other to show in competing positions on the search results page.

How visitors get to your website from Google AdWords is actually pretty simple:

When users have a requirement for a particular product e.g. ‘Hairdresser’, they are likely

to perform a Google Search either on their desktop, laptop, or phone.

It is at this stage that Google ads will be displayed. So, if you provide a rental service,

you are essentially advertising to someone that already has a need for that service.

Your Google AdWords ads appear beside relevant search results because Ads are

displayed on Google to users searching for products or services like yours, at the

exact moment they’re looking for them

People click on the ad to find out more (to drive this action ads need to be compelling

and contain relevant keywords)

Once consumers click on your ad they are taken to a relevant page on your website and

connect to your business!

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• With Google AdWords reach and relevance are key – that means you only pay for

qualified prospects, i.e. the ones who actually click on your ad.

• And you only advertise to people looking for your product or service because your ad

only appears to people who have entered a relevant search term on Google. What

other forms of advertising works in this way. You only advertise to people looking for

your product or service. Amazing!

• In AdWords we talk about Cost Per Click or CPC. It’s also sometimes called PPC – Pay

Per Click. The trick here is to pay less than people below you in the search results

page or to generate more clicks than the person above you. There are no set prices,

the cost you pay for each click is based on how relevant the search query is to your ad

and your website and how many people are actually clicking on your ad compared to

people clicking on your competitors’ ads.

• Managing Google AdWords campaigns is about getting what you paid for, so if you

can get more traffic for your limited budget on a lower position, then that’s a good

thing. The aim of the game is to drive down your cost per click and improve your

conversation rate from clicks to sales.

• ROI – The best thing about online is that everything is measurable. By using both

AdWords and Google Analytics you can optimise your campaign. E.g. if you have 100

keywords and 50 of them are converting into sales, we can focus your budget on the

50 keywords that are converting, and pause the rest.

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• The key to this is constant measurement and conversions tracking through Google

Analytics.

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Let’s unveil a few secrets about how to create a successful Google AdWords campaign.

There are many elements involved in Google AdWords so we’ll just focus on three of

these today:

- The importance of selecting the right keywords in your campaign

- How to write effective ad copy

- The secret of turning visitors into customers

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In Google AdWords we talk a lot about ‘keywords’. In the world of Google,

keywords are words or phases that are related or relevant to the product or

service your business offers. In essence, they are the words people will

search to find your business and they are the words Google AdWords will

use to decide whether to show your ad to someone when they’re

searching.

Firstly, you need to Select Keywords, and it is very important to try make

these as relevant as possible – Think about what customers are likely to

type into Google when looking for your product or service.

Then, you need to write relevant ads – and align them with your keywords.

If you’re a Hairdressing Business, ensure you say so it in your ad-copy.

Write more than one ad version. Best practice involves testing different

messages to discover which one performs the best.

Every business is trying to make their ads stand out with specials, deals or

unique selling points. So we try & use Offers & Promotions as often as

possible (for example “$20 Off” is likely to get more traction than a generic

brand ad).

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If we come across a business doesn’t have any current offers, it is perfectly

fine to promote their expertise, and mention their area of service.

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Getting your keywords right is one of the most important success factors in Google

AdWords. Because with Google AdWords you pay per click, you want to make sure your

keywords attract the right audience, so finding relevant keywords can be daunting. At

Yellow® we have our own proprietary system which has 10 years worth of historical data

and we can tell which keywords are most successful for specific industries and regions.

We recommend a budget based on your business, industry and region.

There are a few essentials when choosing keywords so you don’t eat up your budget on

unqualified leads.

- Starting small and targeted is the rule of thumb e.g. if you are a plumber, you don’t

want to bid on plumbing as big keywords will eat up your budget quickly. If you’re a

commercial plumber make that clear, if drain unblocking is your speciality, use that

- If you service a particular region, specifying relevant locations together with your

category can help make sure you’re getting the right kind of leads. After all, if you

serve Wellington Central, it’s unlikely that those in the Wairarapa will be calling you

- You are ideally looking for two things – be super targeted and super relevant

- Attention grabbing and urgent words are also important as they attract searchers’

attention. Certain words do a good job e.g. free, guaranteed, act fast and limited

time.

- And don’t forget to bid on your own business name!

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Once you’ve conquered the challenge of getting people to click on your ad, make every

click count by sending visitors to a landing page with relevant information.

What’s a landing page? It’s basically the page of your website that you want your

customers to land on once they click your ad. It can be a home page or a product specific

page. But there are a few rules of thumb here to make sure you’re getting customers to

take that next step i.e. conversion – that is, taking an action by either calling or emailing

you, walking into your shop or using your website’s ecommerce facility to make an

immediate sale.

The landing page should showcase what you’re advertising in the Google AdWords ad –

otherwise it’s just not relevant to the searcher. A good landing page is one that

addresses whatever the searcher was looking for. And if we think back to our keyword

strategy i.e. using highly targeted keywords, then you need to direct them to a highly

targeted page. The more relevant the landing page, the higher your conversions.

For example if you have a health food shop and your ad is promoting supplement to help

with winter chills, you want to take your customers straight to the page that promotes

those products, not just your generic home page where they have to hunt to find the

products they are looking for.

The best rule is to drive your traffic to deep linked pages within your site.

You may even want to set up a specific landing page that can’t be navigated to easily so

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you can test and learn.

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So, going back to the example of Hairdresser Auckland.

We can see a few different business options and a map to help find

business locations.

The trick to success with Google’s auction model is to pay less than people

below you or generate more clicks than the person above you. There are no

set prices, the cost you pay for each click is based on how relevant the

search query is to your ad and your website, and, how many people are

actually clicking on your ad compared to people clicking on your

competitors ads. That’s the performance element. Let me explain using an

overview of basic terminology

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AdWords is filled with performance metrics, and the most important of them all is a

metric called ‘Quality Score’. Quality score is a key factor in the Google Ad Rank

equation, which determines where your ad shows and how much you will pay per click.

Position & Ad Rank are determined by your bid and your quality score. Bid x Quality

Score = Ad Rank.

The higher the ad rank, the higher the position on the results page. So, if your

campaign is set up well, you can pay less per click than your competitors for a better

position on the SERP.

This is a good visual on how the auction side of AdWords actually works. Explain the

above example.

The most important thing to remember is that Quality Score has a huge impact on

position and cost efficiency - The business who bids the most doesn’t necessarily win

the highest ad position.

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Conversions are measurable objectives on your website.

Ideally, they are actions you would like your visitor to take once they’ve found what they

are looking for.

E.g. For Garret Hairdressing example, conversions could be – Phone Calls, Online

Enquiries or Online bookings

No quality control, dangerous situation to be in

- severely limits our optimisation options

- Impossible to show value when presenting reports

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So, time to bust some myths

The majority of feedback we receive from customers is about ensuring their

ads show in position 1.

The important thing to remember is that managing AdWords campaigns is

about ROI, so if you can get more traffic for your limited budget on a lower

position, then that is a good thing. Lots of people still click the side-runner

ads. The game is to drive down your cost per click and improve your

conversion rate from clicks into sales.

The next biggest complaint we receive is when our customers can’t see

their ads on the results page. This is usually the result of a limited budget

campaign, if the budget is limited, then Google will serve your ads

sporadically throughout the day.

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Ultimately the key to success is continuous testing and measurement. Make sure you

regularly click into your Google AdWords account to see how many people clicked on

your ads and went to your website. These insights will show you which keywords and

advertising copy work best for you. You’ll also be able to see how long people stayed on

your landing page, so you’ll know by the level of engagement whether it was the right

page to link to.

At Yellow®, we do all the work for you in terms of measurement. Not only do we product

a monthly report delivered to your in box giving you insights into your Google AdWords

campaign, Yellow® Google AdWords campaigns are reviewed regularly and we can tell

you how much of the market share your ads are attracting. We may recommend a

different price point or to change out your keywords and ad copy. Especially with

seasonal businesses it’s important to change your messaging – and even your budget-

depending on the season. For example we know that over Xmas the following categories

get a lot more search traffic – taxis, boarding kennels, liquor outlets and holiday parks,

so you need to structure your annual Google AdWords campaign to factor this in.

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Think about what 100 additional enquiries a month would mean for your business.

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This is the first in a series of two sessions around driving traffic to your website. Today

we’ve focused on buying traffic through Google AdWords. Next month we’ll look at

building traffic to your website through the art of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.

Together these are powerful, complementary tools that can transform your website into

a leading source of revenue for you and your business.

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At Yellow we can help with all your digital marketing needs and any of the solutions

we’ve talked about, including getting your website up and running, a website upgrade or

simply helping you figure out what your business needs. We work with a variety of

businesses – big and small, from Kaitaia to Invercargill.

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