Everyone knows they need a good ad but it’s often easier said then done. Just coping what your competitors are doing and doing a light modification is something most small business owners do. The problem with this is they focus on the ad copy and not enough on the structure of the ad.
In last weeks hangout I drilled down exactly how I setup clients AdWords search campaigns and the settings I use inside those campaigns to give them the best chance of success early on. This can be found at – http://marketingplaybook.co/hangouts/adwords-ppc-search-campaign-setup/
Be sure to join our Newsletter to get the invite on Monday to attend the next live hangout that is held every Wednesday at 2PM CST
As Usual I have the live hangout to accompany this written guide. It’s packed with good stuff and details so feel free to watch it or just keep reading on.
What is an Ad group?
An ad group contains ads and keywords inside them. After you create a campaign you then can organize that campaign by setting up ad groups. Inside each ad group you will have similar keywords and can write a more targeted ad for those specif set of keywords.
See https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375404 for Google’s Exact answer
In AdWords example linked below they list 3 different ad groups
ad group = Deserts : Keywords = Cupcakes, apple pie, ice cream, cookies
ad group = Beverages : Keywords = Soda, coffee, iced tea, orange juice
ad group = Snacks : Keywords = Potato Chips, beef jerky, mixed nuts, rice crackers
With this kind of segmentation you are organizing each ad group by a specific theme. Personally I think the above is a poor example and let me show you why.
If I were to bid on the keyword “cupcakes” Then people are not searching for ice cream or cookies. Their intent is on cupcakes.
Imagine going to Google and searching for “cupcakes”. How exactly would you match the user intent if you were to group keywords like “apple pie” or ice cream”?
The end result would be a poor ad that the user is most likely not going to click on.
So what I recommend clients do is break down each ad group into it’s lowest denominator and write a SPECIFIC ad for each and every keyword they are bidding on unless you can group them into a specific product or service.
With the “Deserts” ad group you could drill down another level. Instead of having “Deserts” as my ad group I could have something that looks like
ad group = Cupcakes : Keywords = blueberry Cupcakes, velvet cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes
ad group = Apple Pie : Keywords = apple pie, dutch apple pie,
ad group = ice cream : Keywords = chocolate ice cream, Valina ice cream, straw berry ice cream
ad group = Cookies : Keywords = peanut butter cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies
With the above ad groups and the keywords in each separate ad group I have now drilled down a little more to the users intent. No longer will people searching for cupcakes be shown an ad that is generic and could be used for all deserts. They are far more likely now to click on my ad now that I can write a specific ad about cupcakes.
But Wait….. There is more!
If someone where to do a search for “blueberry cupcakes” and saw a generic ad for cupcakes they may click it as I’m really close to the users intent. However I can’t really name every cupcake inside my ad copy so I’d probably have to write a generic ad about cupcakes.
I really want people to click on my ad so why don’t I just give them exactly what they are looking for. I can drill down further and create an ad just for each any every type of cupcake I sell.
Here is what the new set of ad groups might look like
ad group = Blueberry Cupcakes : Keywords = blueberry Cupcakes, blueberry cream cheese cupcakes, blueberry lemon cupcakes, blueberry cheesecake cupcakes
ad group = Velvet Cupcakes : Keywords = velvet cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, red velvet cake cupcakes, red velvet cream cheese cupcakes
ad group = Vanilla Cupcakes : Keywords = vanilla cupcakes, best vanilla cupcakes, very vanilla cupcakes
I dug into AdWords Keyword tool to grab more keywords – https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home
Now we are cooking. We can now start writing ads based on the users true intent. Instead of writing a more generic ad we can fill our ad group with very target ads that really match the users intent.
Major benefits of drilling down on ad groups and only having highly related keywords in each ad
- You can write a targeted ad that is very targeted to the person performing the search
- You can now link that ad to the exact page talking about that specific product instead of a top level category
- You will be able to increase your Click Through Rate (CTR) and get more clicks because your ad is very specific
As a bonus to this. People search for what they are looking for. When you drill down to specific keywords they are normally longer tail keywords. Instead of “cup cakes” we are bidding on “Blueberry cupcakes” this person is far closer to making a buying decision then someone doing a more generic search. They know exactly what they want.
Writing the Perfect Ad
Now that you have your keywords we can use each keyword as the ad group name and then ad the keyword into your ad group.
Let’s go back to our auto mechanic example from last week. We want to create an ad that speaks directly to what the user is searching for. Let’s take two services that most auto mechanics do
BRAKES:
Brake Repair
brake service
car brakes
brake pad replacement
brake replacement
brake service cost
brake shop
Oil Change:
oil change coupons
oil change near me
express oil change
synthetic oil change
quick oil change
cheap oil change
express lube
You could easily group the Brake related keywords and Oil Change keywords into 2 different ad group and write 1 specific ad for each and be highly relevant. The Brakes ad group would go to the brakes landing page section of your site and the Oil Change would go to the oil change section of your website. There is nothing wrong with this but if you break each keyword into it’s own ad group you could write a slightly more targeted ad and chances are you will get a much higher CTR just adding in the searched keyword into the ad copy.
There are 2 different ways to approach this. DKI or individual keyword ads.
DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion)
If you grouped all the keywords together you could use DKI to automatically make the ads more relevant. Using this method will often time beat out the average CTR of your competitors and is really fast and easy to do.
To use DKI on AdWords you simply enter in the place holder {KeyWord}. This will auto insert the keyword that triggered the ad to show. You can and should also place a holder text in there just in-case the keyword is too big to fit into the title or description. To do this we simply ad on a modifier. {KeyWord:Brake Repair Service}.
Let’s write out a few ad examples to see this in action. Keep in mind that text ads are limited to 25 Characters for the title and 35 characters each for Description 1 and Description 2 on Desktop searches.
title: {KeyWord:Brake Repair Service}
Description 1: {KeyWord:Brake Repair Service}.
Description 2: Come in or Call for your free Quote.
When you bid on the keyword “brake pad replacement” You ad would now look like this
title:Brake Pad Replacement
Description 1: Brake Pad Replacement
Description 2: Come in or Call for your free Quote.
The keyword that triggered the ad in this case is “Brake Pad Replacement” so it’s automatically inserted in the ad copy in place of {KeyWord:Brake Repair Service}. If the keyword is too big to fit then the holder text of “Brake Repair Service” would be used.
The advantages of using DKI make it so you can have highly related ads that target your customer. They may not always make perfect sense but on average just using DKI with get you an above average CTR.
The other big advantage is the time you can save using DKI. You don’t have to beak each keyword into it’s own separate ad group and create a custom ad for each keyword. You just group all the “Oil Change” keywords into it’s own ad group and all the “Brake Repair” keywords into it’s it own ad group.
Individual Keyword Ads
This is the process I talked about earlier where we break every keyword into it’s own ad group and write a customized ad for each and every keyword. As you can imagine this can get VERY time consuming but the payoff can be worth it because we are able to write ultra targeted ads.
In our DKI example we used the keyword “Brake Pad Replacement”
Are ad can look something like
Title: Brake Pad Replacement
Description 1: Fast Brake Pad Replacement
Description 2: Low Price – 1 hour pad replacement
With this method you use the keyword in the ad copy and then customize the ad a little more to make it even more relevant to the customer then the DKI ad.
This method also allows you to bid on your competitors brand names as well. You can’t put “Geico Insurance” for instance in your ad copy. You can however bid directly on people doing a search for that keyword. Some brands will be more protected then others but you can often bid on the big brand competitor names and get some highly targeted traffic. With DKI your ad would not show because of trademark issues. AdWords won’t auto insert most brand names in many instances.
Software Tools to help you Automatically Build Out Keyword Level Ad Groups
There are no shortage of tools on the market to help you build out custom keyword level campaigns.
The first is AdWords Editor. This is 100% and from Google. It’s how I personally manage most of my AdWords campaigns and make bulk changes. It does kind of suck however for making mass ad groups. Still you will be using this in combination with other tools to do edits to your ads offline and then making bulk updates.
Wordstream: Wordstream is a nice tool that let’s you easily optimize your ads. It provides tips and insights into your campaigns and helps you build upon the successes you have and recommends changes you can make to improve things like your Click Through Rate and Quality Score. I’ve used the tool several times and can say I’m a fan of theirs.
While it’s a great tool the price point makes it out of reach for many small businesses. You will be spending anywhere from $250 a month to a $1000 a month depending on your adspend.
Speed PPC: This is the tool I personally use currently to build out client ads and ad groups. You use the DKI method starting out to build out each ad group and have that 1 keyword in each ad group. Form there I would export the results in a CSV file and upload into AdWords Editor where I will make all my customized changes to each ad to make it sound better.
This is an online tool with very good documentation on how to use the program.
Speed PPC charges $99 a month. The great thing here is you most likely only need it for a month to build out all your campaigns and ad groups and from there you don’t really need the tool going forward so you can cancel the membership. It’s made more for experts like me who have an ongoing need to constantly build out new campaigns but the price point makes it really easy for small businesses to build out their own campaigns
PPC Keyword Toolz: This an offline tool that you download onto your computer. It’s very similar to Speed PPC in it’s functions but a bit more clunky and not as user friendly. Still it get’s the job done well. I use this tool in the exact same manner as Speed PPC. The nice thing about this is it’s just a 1 time payment of $67 dollars.
Making Google Happy
AdWords loves to see keywords in the ad copy. This helps to show that your ad is more relevant to the end user. When AdWords see’s your ad performing well and that you are sending a person to a landing page that is highly on topic they will reward you with a higher quality score.
Making the Human Happy
The human want’s an answer to their problem or a solution. By writing an ad that is customized for the search the human performs they will be far more likely to click on your ad copy over your competition. Combine this with the landing page providing the solution to the users issue and you have a win win on your hands. This will result in a lower bounce rate which will also positively effect your quality.
Quality Score – Tying your efforts all together
So the real question is WHY??? Why go through the process of creating highly customized ads that make both Google and Humans doing the search happy. The answer to this is Quality Score.
Most don’t fully understand the power of a great AdWords Quality score. When you have a high score you are going to get more impressions, you ad may show above others and it’s highly possible you can be paying less per click being in the number 1 spot over being in the number 2 or 3 spot.
Your quality score takes into account 3 main things. Your keyword relevancy to your ad copy, your landing page and your click through rate. Of these 3 things you really need to focus on 2 for a better quality score and that is your relevancy and your CTR.
Major Take Aways
- Writing highly targeted ads will show you are providing exactly what the human is searching for.
- Highly targeted ads will get you a higher CTR
- Sending people to a page that is relevant tells Google you are giving people what they want
Nail these 3 things and your quality score will go up over time and your CPC will drop.
I cover this far more in-depth in this article – http://marketingplaybook.co/adwords/adwords-pcc-search-training/quality-score/
Next Weeks Hangout
Next week I’m most liking going to take on ad extensions or keyword match types. Both are great topics. Feel free to send use a tweet letting us know which one you would rather have covered first – @mktgplaybook . I’ll probably hop over to Facebook or Bingads next as well. Feel free to provide some input on what you need to know and if you are having any issues getting things setup I suggest you join our currently free at the time of this writing Private Facebook Group. Details are at http://marketingplaybook.co/connect/
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