How to Avoid the Common Mistakes when Using Google Adwords

Establishing a successful Google Adwords campaign can be tough for both beginners and experts alike. Tougher still if you are entering a new niche or just starting to operate in an unfamiliar market. You can always spend a lot of time on market research and spying on your competitor but you will only advance once you create an ad and concentrate on optimizing it. Then again, just placing an ad out there won't instantly lead to success. The truth is a lot of people discover how quickly they can lose all their time, effort and money invested in Adwords by committing simple mistakes.

These costly mistakes are addressed in the book The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. Written by Perry Marshall, the book is all about getting excellent results from Adwords campaigns consistently.

Below are five common mistakes you must avoid to get you started in raking in huge traffic from your target market:

1. Not writing keywords in your ad's body. Most ads I see only utilize keywords on their headlines. Do not neglect the body of your ads as 1-2 keywords or keyphrases placed in there will make it more relevant to search engines and your market alike.

2. Send traffic to your site's homepage. The purpose of a site's homepage is to provide broad information about the site and what it offers. There's a good chance that your visitors will turn away if they have to exert effort to get the information they came for in the first place. This ultimately results in a low conversion rate and lost sales. Make it easy for your visitors by stating your offer upfront on a landing page.

3. Using 'broad match' in the Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool as the basis of your research and campaign. As the name suggests, the 'broad match' selection is only useful for an overview of your chosen niche or market. The whole point of keyword research is to know the precise words or phrases your target market uses when searching for information in Google. Make use of 'phrase match' and 'exact match' instead to find out the exact keywords or keyphrases that will lure in your prospects.

4. Use of low-performing keywords. Discovering the exact keywords your target market use takes time. Monitor your Adwords campaign regularly to check if your keywords are performing as expected. If they're not, look for other keywords to focus on. The Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool has a 'synonym' feature you can use to produce new keywords and make the most out of your campaigns.

5. An uninteresting headline. Each ad on average only has a second to grab the attention of viewers before they move on. The headline of your ad serves as the hook to reel in visitors. It's the most prominent part of your ad and the quality of it will determine if the reader checks out the rest of the ad or not. State the most important benefit you're giving in your headline to compel viewers to read the body of your ad and click through it.

Getting High Quality Traffic Through The Keyword Selector Tool

It is essential to know which keywords or keyphrases you should use that will allow people to easily identify your ad when you begin creating and writing for your Google Adwords campaign. An expert in Google Adwords, Perry Marshall, advises all pay-per-click managers and Adwords users to utilize Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool in each ad's design. This free tool allows you to find the most profitable and popular keywords in your niche, and can also help you drill down related keywords that you can use for other campaigns or just general keyword research. The Keyword Tool is especially helpful for fine-tuning your efforts when ads are performing poorly; if you've written an ad using low-traffic keywords, there is a good chance that your ads are not being clicked enough to make your ad effective.

Here are some more ways to use the Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool effectively for your Adwords campaign:

1. Start with a broad search. Many people make the mistake of using very specific keywords or keyphrases when they first begin conducting research with Google Adwords, but this can leave you with only mediocre results. Start with a broad search instead and drill down your results using the 'synonyms' tool that offers suggestions and variations as part of the results.

2. Use a set of similar keywords as you create different ad groups. Make sure you are creating an entirely new ad group for every campaign so you can keep track of what is working - and what isn't. You can also make use of the 'relevant keywords' feature already built into the Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool that helps you narrow down your search with ease.

3. Use a 'negative keywords' strategy. Sometimes optimizing your Google Adwords campaign will involve taking away words that do not work for your market; the Google Adwords tool can be tweaked to stop showing certain words that may not be relevant to your particular niche. For example, if you are selling greeting cards but your basic search keeps showing results for 'free greeting cards,' you can eliminate the word 'free' by designating it as a negative keyword. The Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool will now only show you results without the word 'free.'

4. Use the Site Content feature if you don't know where to start. Google can scan your web page and offer suggestions of keywords based on your site's content. For example, if your home page provides information about services and trends in your marketplace, these may be strong keywords for your particular niche. When the scanning process is complete, you will see a list of highly targeted keywords related to these ideas and topics in your results.

5. location, location, location. Many people fail to realize how important adding a location - whether it's a town, city or state - to your key term or keyphrase really is. This is especially important if you offer products or services within a particular zone or area; the traffic you can generate from these keywords may be much higher than a general search, and will get you highly targeted, even qualified traffic. Consider appending a keyword or keyphrase with a location to determine the best combinations for your ad campaign.

Improve Your Marketing With Google Adwords And Split Testing

When it comes to using Google AdWords ads to attract customers, your CTR or clickthrough rates are the key to getting the biggest bang possible for your marketing buck. Perry Marshall, an online marketing expert, suggests the those seeking to increase the effectiveness of their AdWords advertisements to employ the strategy of split testing. By split testing, you can begin to determine the precise effectiveness of each of the keywords and phrases in attracting attention and, as a result, clicks from members of your target audience. By paying attention to what really works in your marketing, and perhaps running two or more advertisements simultaneously, you can gain valuable insights into what drives your customers.

Split testing isn't simply for AdWord, however; the knowledge you obtain from split testing performed on just about any area of your site can be easily applied to the creation of effective AdWords, and help you develop a more advantageous online presence. As a springboard for your own ideas, here are five examples of areas in which split testing can be effective.

1. Your signup pages. Whether you have a newsletter signup box on your homepage, or are just collecting e-mail addresses for a free download, running a split test in this area can help you determine what types of freebies your visitors respond well to. The words and marketing copy you use in these areas can be manipulated to deliver different messages; when you've defined what the most effective messages are, it also becomes easier to insert these messages into a Google Adwords ad.

2. Your website's "shopping cart." One area of your site that can yield important clues to what makes your customers tick is the "shopping cart." Looking at what customers do on this section will tell you more about their buying habits, as well as what they're truly interested in. Split testing can be applied to your site's shopping cart as well, perhaps by experimenting with messages presented to customers during the process of checking out. In this vein, it is also a great idea to monitor what items are most commonly searched for on your site.

3. Individual product pages. If a customer is viewing the page for a specific product, they're definitely interested, but the specific copy on this page can be an essential factor in motivating him or her to make the decision. Make sure that the copy used on your product pages is attention-grabbing, and use split testing to see which variations of a message get the best results. Long-term monitoring of the effects of product pages copy can bear considerable fruit both in increased sales and knowledge that can be applied in your Adwords ads.

4. Sales letters. Sales letters have always been of great value to online marketers, as they encourage the recipient to make an immediate decision to click through to your site. These letters are perfect for split testing, as they allow you to track which key messages you should emphasize in order to provoke an immediate response from your target audience, insight which can be easily and beneficially applied to your AdWords advertisements.

5. Email messages to customers. Any electronic messages you send to potential customers can be fine-tuned for greater effectiveness using split testing. Even if you don't send out a full newsletter, the tweaking of even autoresponder messages, and the subsequent monitoring for clickthroughs, can yield valuable information about how to attract a greater audience to your site.