May 26th, 2008
3 quick Google Adwords optimizations — Fix your campaigns in 10 minutes
Are you an Adwords beginner? Are you wondering how you can tweak and optimize your campaigns but aren’t sure where to start? Here are three quick optimizations you can apply within ten minutes that may help you get more value.
1. Apply Ad Scheduling
Ad Scheduling allows you to set what times of the day you’d want your ads to run. Setting your ads to run only at popular times of the day is a quick optimization that can go a surprisingly long way—specifically for campaigns with low budgets.
Google resets your campaigns every night at midnight. Depending on your settings, you may be burning a large amount of budget before your intended customers are even awake (you can see how this impacts your campaign by running a summary campaign report by hour of day).
Setting your campaigns to run only at prime times of day will help ensure that you are not wasting clicks. I normally set my campaigns to run from between 8:00AM and 10:30PM. This ensures that I am not wasting clicks in the early-morning and late-night hours.
Ad Scheduling is in the campaign settings page under the “advanced” column.
2. Tweak your Content Network Settings
For search marketers, the Google Content Network presents a difficult quandary—it offers the promise of increased search volume and traffic, but these users can be an unqualified group of mystery users.
There are a number of facts about the content network you should know:
- Traffic generated on the content network is usually of less quality that on Google search
- Depending on your keywords and settings, the content network can generate ten times as many impressions as Google search
- Campaigns need to be optimized to be successful on the content network
I usually recommend that beginning search marketers do not use the content network until they get a better understanding of targeting and how campaigns work. It’s important to note that content targeting is set to “On” by default. You should turn this off if you’re not sure if the content network is right for your campaign.
If you do decide to use the content network, try to tweak your settings so you’re not wasting your budget on inferior clicks. A few things you can do:
- Set a lower price for content bids. My content bids are normally 10% of what I will pay for Google Search terms.
- Use Google’s new site and category exclusion tool. This tool allows you to set the types of sites you want your ad to show up. It’s a great tool for honing the targeting.
- Check your placement reports. Run a placement report to see what sites are displaying your ads. You can use the site and category exclusion tool to avoid sites that are relevant to your campaign.
The content network settings are accessed in the campaign settings screen. Category and site exclusion changes are made by clicking the “Add” link next to category and site exclusion on the campaign summary page (this can be tough to find - here are Google’s instructions).
3. Use Geographic Settings
Geographic settings are also useful for honing your ad and avoiding wasting money on unqualified clicks. Many users are afraid of missing possible users, but if you know that a certain geographic location is not a credible area for your business or product, then—by all means—edit them out of your geographic settings.
You can access the geographic settings in the campaign settings screen. The interface uses Google Maps to allow you to select countries, states, or even custom-drawn locations.
Summary
With Google Adwords, it’s always better to start small and increase scope based on results. Keep your campaigns as targeted and focused as possible. As you see success and ROI, slowly open up your campaigns to more users. This way of managing campaigns is really what Google wants to see users do, but if you’re smart and strategic (as opposed to just diving in) you’ll see better results and a much better long-term return on your investment.
