It is an easy misconception to associate Google Ads with big businesses, high budgets, and increased marketing costs. The truth is, however, that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an accessible feature for all types of companies. In fact, a successful campaign is achievable even using the most moderate of budgets.
Of course, this requires a strong level of baseline work. The key to this lies in developing a precise fundamental setup phase and careful maintenance of your campaign. Here we will discuss how to run a well-planned and effective AdWords campaign on a lesser budget.
Going in blind to any type of customer acquisition strategy is ridiculous, and a pay-per-click campaign is no different. You need to identify your overall targets before you begin your campaign.
When planning your campaign, it’s important to lay out your weekly/monthly goals from the start and decide what you want to achieve in the long term. Maybe you wish your campaign to be geared towards increasing sales and conversions, or perhaps you want to generate more visitors to your website as a whole.
Try to clarify from the outset exactly what you hope to achieve from the campaign and plan your daily budget accordingly. This will allow you to develop a more focused and efficient campaign strategy.
Did you know that the most popular keywords in your industry aren’t always necessarily the best for your campaign? If you’re bidding on the most relevant keywords there is a high probability your direct competitors are using the very same tactics.
This drives up the average cost per click of that particular keyword, which will contribute to the quick exhaustion of your daily budget. The trick is to get creative and start to think outside of the box in terms of which keywords you want to use.
Long-tailed and unique keywords have significantly lower cost-per-click and can also offer you an edge over your competitors who may be using more broad terms. You can also use Google’s keyword planner tool to help you to identify the most relevant keywords for your business.
If you are a proprietor of a small to medium-sized business, chances are you’re generally based in one geographical area. This means that the bulk of your customers will most likely originate from the same radius.
So it’s important to focus your campaign on this area through locational targeting. To give a quick example: a small chain of independent coffee houses based in Dublin would gain little value from a nationwide targeted campaign. Why? It’s quite simple, there would be a lot of irrelevant clicks from people all over Ireland looking for a coffee shop in their local area. With this in mind, always try to keep your keywords and campaign targeting locally specific to prevent your budget from being exhausted unnecessarily.
Larger corporations with seemingly endless budgets can go as broad as they wish with their campaign targeting without worrying about irrelevant clicks. SMEs don’t have that luxury and every measure must be taken to ensure that each click is genuine.
When creating an AdWords campaign it is important to utilise ad extensions. These extensions will help you enhance your advert with calls to action that encourage more clicks on your adverts.
Examples include site link extensions that include links to multiple landing pages on your website, call buttons to allow a visitor to phone your company directly, and location extensions providing directions to your premises. Price extensions are another excellent feature which displays the price of particular products such as sales and promotional items. See this example from our friends at Tara Slevin.
Setting up an AdWords campaign and leaving it to run on autopilot is a critical but surprisingly common mistake made by many. This is certainly not advisable and can inadvertently lead to a waste of money and time. It is important to monitor your campaign constantly. Maybe certain keywords aren’t performing as they should. Is your ad copy clear or engaging enough to attract clicks? Is there enough value in your call to action?
Simply ignoring these problems could cause your campaign to stagnate and ultimately render it totally ineffective.
Google currently have a special offer for new AdWords account users. If a company spends up to €120 in their first month, Google will match this spend in the second month. This is a great low-risk option for small companies. You can test the waters for a short period without incurring a significant cost. As an accredited Google partner, Matrix Internet can offer this fantastic incentive to potential PPC clients. If you’re interested in availing of this offer you can do so by contacting us below.
Want to try our Google Ads Management Service!
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