In today's article, I present 13 tips that you can use to reduce your AdWords costs. Google AdWords campaigns are one of the best ways to acquire new customers online. With AdWords campaigns, you can target people who are looking for your solution. However, if you don't keep an eye on your AdWords campaigns, they can be expensive fun. In the following I describe different Optimization options for the placement of Google AdWords campaigns.
Reduce AdWords costs: top tips
1. book keywords as exact match
When categorizing keywords, advertisers have the choice between Exact power, Phrase Match and Broad Match. By default, keywords are categorized as broad match. With a broad match, not only the specified keyword, but also Largely matching keywords posted. In addition to synonyms and variations, this also includes misspellings. If you want to work with broad match keywords, you should never forget to include negative keywords to register. In most cases, however, it is advisable to enter your keywords as an exact match. When classified as an exact match, your ads will only be displayed if the search query matches your keyword exactly. You can find more detailed information on the Exact Match keyword setting here here.
2. reduce the number of keywords in ad groups
When creating Google AdWords campaigns, it often happens that Ad groups contain far too many keywords. Google itself suggests, 10-20 keywords per ad group which, however, is pretty bad advice. In order to run AdWords campaigns that perform well in the long term, the Quality factor be high. This is only the case if the ads match the search terms. Find out why the quality score is important and how you can calculate it here. From this it can be deduced that your ad groups only have one small number of very similar keywords to optimize the quality score. As a rule, I use 2 - 5 keywords per ad group.
3. implement conversion tracking
"Fifty percent of advertising is thrown out. But you don't know which half that is." - said Henry Ford. Fortunately, nowadays we have the opportunity to track our advertising measures. With Google AdWords, it is also possible to track generated Conversions to track. Because an analysis on a CPC and CTR basis should be avoided. Your company's success will certainly not depend on the click-through rate and the cost per click, but on how many conversions you generate for which costs. For this reason, you should Conversion tracking in AdWords. From sales in online stores to registrations in apps, all activities can be set up as conversions. You can find conversion tracking in AdWords under the menu item "Tools → Conversion".
4. mobile vs. desktop vs. tablet
In addition to analyzing which ads and which keywords in our campaign lead to the desired conversion, the respective Terminal deviceon which the conversion takes place. The click prices and click rates differ significantly depending on the end device. For example, it is usually the case that the click prices on mobile devices are still significantly more favorable than those on the PC. The click rate on mobile devices is also generally higher than on desktop. To analyze the performance by device, click on the tab in your campaign "Settings" and then click on the menu item "Devices". There you will now find a summary of how the Click prices, Click rate and the conversion rate per end device.
5. individual keyword bids
If you run an online store, you probably have a large selection of products (>100). Each of your products has a different price, so the Margins of the products differ significantly. For this reason, it makes sense to give each keyword or keyword group a individual CPC to be allocated. This means that people are prepared to accept a higher click price for products with a higher margin. Once you have integrated conversion tracking, you can identify keywords with a high conversion rate and assign them a higher click price than keywords with a lower conversion rate.
6. optimization by time
The sixth tip "Optimization by time" is all about the segmentation of website visitors. The main question here is: "When do you generate the most valuable website visitors?". The intention of the respective search query often changes depending on the time of day. The conversion probability in Online stores highest between 8 and 10 pm. With this knowledge, you can of course make your own AdWords campaigns much more effective. You can find the analysis function by time in the tab Advertising scheduler → Day & time.
7 "Pay attention to placements" for display campaigns
In addition to running search network campaigns, there is also the option of using Google's display network to attract potential new customers. With display campaigns, people are not targeted on the basis of the respective search query, but based on the websites visited and interests. For this reason, the placements, i.e. the websites on which the display ads are shown, should be monitored. You can find your placements under the "Display network → Placements". There you can view the performance of your ads per placement. Unfortunately, it often happens that Google shows the display ads on websites that have no thematic fit with the target page. The rule here is to monitor regularly and switch off unpopular and poorly performing placements.
8. from generic keywords to longtail keywords
The choice of keywords booked has the greatest influence on CPC and CPO. In many industries (insurance companies, banks, etc.), click prices of €5 - €6 are not uncommon. For this reason, a lot of time should be invested in the Keyword research as the selection of suitable keywords is the greatest lever for the success of advertisements in the Search network have. In addition, the more specific, the higher the conversion rate. For generic search queries, such as "Shoes", it is not clear what type of shoes are being searched for. For this reason, the performance on the target page is comparatively weak. For specific Longtail keywords "Red Adidas men's shoes 46" is clearly what is being searched for. As a result, the conversion rate will also be significantly higher.
9. posting negative keywords
If the use of exact match keywords is out of the question, then a combination of phrase match and negative keywords is the right choice. This allows you to filter out certain search terms for which you do not want to appear right from the start. This way Search terms with keywords such as "free, cheap, used" regularly appear in the list of negative keywords. This ultimately leaves more budget to bid on relevant search terms.
10. use display extension
Ad extensions are actually one of the standard settings for placing effective ads. For this reason, it is still surprising how few advertisers make use of ad extensions. There are numerous options to choose from: Sitelinks, Additional information, Call extensions, Range extensions, Valuation extensions etc. By using ad extensions, your own ad is displayed significantly larger. The larger display of the AdWords ad ultimately results in an increased click-through rate, which influences the quality factor and the CPC. This means that more clicks can be generated with the same budget.
11. use keyword placeholders
At the Keyword placeholdersr is an extended AdWords function in which the user's search term is automatically transferred to the ad title. The following code must be used in the title {KeyWord: ...}. A replacement title is included after the word KeyWord if the current search term cannot be included in the title. The use of the keyword placeholder results in an improved quality factor, which leads to a lower CPC.
12. analyze search networks
When switching Search network campaigns these are not only displayed as standard via the native Google search, but also in the search networks of partner sites, e.g. T-Online. It is quite possible that the conversion rate as well as the average CPCs differ significantly between the search networks. For this reason, your own campaigns should also be analyzed on the basis of the search networks.
13. displays in continuous A/B test
A complete no-brainer, but here too there are always advertisers who only play a single ad. Ideally, however, at least two Ads per ad group to find out which one leads to better performance. It is important to ensure that sufficient data is collected to prevent premature conclusions.
Conclusion Reduce Google AdWords costs
There are a lot of ways to optimize the Performance of your AdWords campaign. As a rule, the right choice of keywords to be advertised in conjunction with the segmentation of results (time, end device, placements) can lead to an uplift in performance. Prerequisite for a Performance-based analysis and Segmentation is the implementation of conversion tracking.
I hope that I have provided you with helpful tips for optimizing your AdWords campaigns in my article: Reducing AdWords costs.
