In our last webinar, we discussed how to optimize your Google Adwords campaign for lead gen success. The session was followed by an interesting discussion on benefits and best practices for marketers using Google Adwords to generate leads. The attendees had several questions, most of which were answered by Adwords expert and co-founder of AdNabu, Salil Panikkaveettil. In case you missed it, you can watch the webinar recording here:
Here’s a summary of some of the questions asked during the session
Question 1
Can we run Adwords campaigns for Adsense approved website?
You can but make sure it does not violate any terms and conditions by Google. However, mostly I have not seen this work since the average CPC from search ads are always high compared to what you can generate from AdSense.
Question 2
Can you explain why running search and display search together is a bad practice, if possible with an example? We are into a service which is very niche. In keywords, we do mention the location but still get huge impressions from even 2 tier cities. How can I save on those impressions?
You might need to look at the location targeting and campaign. Most probably, by default, the campaigns are run worldwide. If you want to reduce that coverage to specific cities, you can specify those cities in the location targeting. You’ll find it in the Campaign Settings tab.
Let’s say you only want to focus on Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai – select these four cities in the location targeting and only people from those locations can see your ad.
Conversion ratios of search and display campaigns are vastly different. It’s better to run them as separate campaigns to optimize them better. Here’s an example: If you are advertising for ‘hotels,’ your ad might show up on sites having content related to hotels which might not convert as well as people who search for it online.
Question 3
What is smart pricing feature in display?
Here’s DailyBlogTips answer: Smart pricing is a feature that Google has inside its AdWords platform (which is where advertisers can buy clicks and impressions both on Google search results and on the content network) to ensure that advertisers will get a good value for their money. You can find more information about it here.
Question 4
How to improve CTR?
I recommend the following two strategies:
- Have an ad that is very relevant to what the user is searching for: Look at the search trend the keyword might trigger for. Although your keyword might say Apple iPhone, the searches for the ad that will trigger, can be a lot of things, like Apple iPhone 5, Apple iPhone 6 and so on. One good way to improve a CTR is to have an ad that is highly relevant to what the user is searching for.
- Use the extensions: Extensions will enable you to get more real estate for your ads. If you are using site-link extensions or call out extensions, your ad will look much more prominent, than your competitor’s. Extensions will help in increasing the chance of people clicking on it and getting you a higher CTR.
Example of Site-link Extensions:
Example of Call-out Extensions:
Question 5
How can AdWords violate the guidelines in tech support related business?
Google is cracking down on tech support advertisers because of high fraud rate. Some advertisers can get whitelisted, but it is slightly difficult.
Question 6
I am running two types of campaigns. One is search and the other is display. The problem is that I am getting huge impressions and clicks from the display campaign but not from the search campaign and the keywords bid is so high. In this case, what would be good for IT offshoring services?
Before display, run search campaigns. Once you have run search campaigns for a while, you can run display campaigns. However, in display campaigns, make sure your targeting is really relevant, otherwise, you’ll get a lot of unwanted random clicks. Once you have run display for a while, you can try remarketing.
Question 7
Is landing page always necessary for Google ads? If not, what are the other alternatives for landing page?
There are ‘call only’ ads.
Question 8
What are the best marketing research practices before AdWords Campaign creation?
You need to have a proper strategy on how to group keywords together, how to group ad groups together and how to create campaigns.
For instance, if you are an advertiser and you are selling phones, you can create different campaigns for different brands. So Apple could be one campaign, Samsung could be another campaign, and in the ad groups, you can specify the individual models.
Inside the Apple campaign, there could be Apple iPhone 5, another could be Apple iPhone 6, and so on. Inside these ad groups, you’ll have only the keywords which are related to Apple iPhone 5 – like ‘buy Apple iPhone 5’, ‘best Apple iPhone price’ and so on.
In other words, you can create ads which are very relevant to what people are searching for. You don’t want to be in a situation where user is searching for Apple iPhone 6 and you are showing a generic ad of ‘buy an Apple iPhone.’ You can be more specific and take the user to a landing page which talks about Apple iPhone 6 rather than just Apple iPhone. This is more about the campaign creation part.
I’d also suggest you always use Phrase and Exact more than Broad and if you are very keen on using Broad, use Broad Match Modifier than the Broad Match Type. Here are a few other pointers:
- Use all match types
- Use negative keywords
- Have less keywords per ad group
- Have highly relevant ads
- Always have multiple ads in an ad group
- Always use extensions
What is also important is understanding what your user wants and creating the strategy around that. Group them appropriately in your campaigns. For example, in case of an education business, the same person may search for free test papers and some other products for competitive examination. Now, the intent is different in both the searches and therefore, the ad needs to be served appropriately.
Question 9
What are best competitor analysis practices for AdWords, unlike natural SERP results for determining the Organic SEO competition? Is it keyword analysis or any other practices?
There are tools, like SpyFu that allow you to do that. Within Adwords, go to Campaign / Ad Group Tabs and look at Auction insights report. There, you will find who else is bidding for that keyword and how it is performing. Within keyword search also you’ll come to know how many people are searching for that keyword. If there’s more competition, bids will be higher.
Question 10
How can you make the URL builder work so that we can track the keywords performance?
In the URL builder form, you will notice certain compulsory fields that you will have to fill up. (See below)
If you are using Campaign Term (marked above), you’ll be able to identify which keywords are bringing you more traffic.
Question 11
Where do we begin for good lead generation by Google AdWords?
Identify the keywords first. Look at keywords which your potential customers might be searching for online.
Question 12
How effective are Google Adwords for quality B2B lead generation for professional services?
I have seen advertisers use Google Adwords successfully for professional services. But the catch here is that sales cycle is slightly longer. You might be able to generate leads but the conversion of leads into sales might take longer than a B2C provider.
However, it’s important to know that people are still actively searching for your product. So it makes sense to be in front of your audience who are searching about your features, about your competitors, about you in particular, or something that can be related to your field.
In B2B, the sale cycle tends to be longer. However, it’s not only about generating leads and closing leads, there is a potential of building relationships, sharing past experiences, case studies and so on, all of which will contribute in making a sale.
If your ticket size in a B2B space is small and you spend a lot more money in generating high-quality leads, then you might want to rethink that strategy. But otherwise, if you are getting people to your website or landing pages and generating leads, then you should be able to use variety of lead nurturing techniques to make sure you are in front of those potential customers even if they are not ready to buy from you, at that time.
Question 13
Is Facebook advertising good for lead generation?
I have seen some advertisers crack Facebook well. It really depends on what you are advertising. If it is a product users can buy casually, like t-shirts, Facebook might work really well.
Question 14
If I have a new website, for which ad type I should go PPC or PPM
Go for PPC as you are paying for performance than just impressions.
Question 15
Which type of keywords are best for affiliate marketing, Broad, Exact or Phrase?
Broad will give a huge reach compared to Exact or Phrase, but it might give you a lot of irrelevant clicks also. A better way is to use a hybrid approach. Use Exact, Phrase and Broad in your account. There are some best practices while doing so, such as, use of negative keywords to reduce competition between match types.
Question 16
I have a services business in Chennai, but my target group is NRIs. How do I choose location and keywords?
It is a slightly difficult situation. If it’s a real estate product, you can choose keywords with Chennai in it. For example, “Apartments in Chennai” and location as all locations with India in negative. In that case, your ads will only be shown to people outside India searching about Chennai.
Show ads for keywords that have the location in it like ‘real estate Chennai’, ‘apartments Chennai’, etc and the targeted location in your campaign setting should be USA and not India. India should essentially be a negative keyword there. Whenever a person in USA searches for ‘real estate in Chennai’, only then show your ad.
However, it’s important to understand that the way people search for outside India might be completely different from what they are doing in India.
Question 17
What type of keyword matches do you suggest for an e-commerce website when the targets are both branding and lead generation?
Use a hybrid approach. Have separate campaigns for branding and lead generation.
Question 18
In display network, how do our extensions work?
Social extensions (Google plus followers) might work (Google decides this). Most other extensions are specific for search network.
Question 19
For existing Google Adwords account, the user doesn’t have any promotional coupon offers?
Not now.
Question 20
I’m a newbie at a startup. Which keywords should I use: Small and Medium Businesses or SMB? (also applying to expansions and short forms in general)
You should use both.
Question 21
Where will I get the option to select the type of keywords?
By default, all keywords are in Broad, adding double quotes makes it Phrase. For example: “best hotels”; adding square brackets makes it Exact match – [best hotels]. For BMM, add + in front of words – +best +hotels.
Question 22
Can we use dynamic keywords depending on the search term?
Dynamic keyword injection essentially replaces your text in ads with what user is searching for. For example, if ad text is {KeyWord:Best Hotels in Bangalore} and the user is searching for ‘Best Hotels in Koramangala’, your ad will show Koramangala instead of Bangalore. You should always keep caution as you wouldn’t want to use dynamic keyword injection for competitor keywords.
Question 23
How should you check to see if your ads are still running on Google?
Go to Tools > Ad Preview > Diagnosis. There, you can check whether your ads are running at a particular location or not for keywords of your choice.
