Troubleshooting an underperforming ad account
The investment into a Google Adwords campaign is substantial. And the ROI should be as well. Do you have a sneaking suspicion that your campaigns could be doing better? What do you do if the new business coming in via PPC isn’t paying for your ad spend and management?
Here are a few places to laser focus to get your AdWords campaign back on track.
- Start by identifying the audiences. Are you working from personas? For example someone in the market for a new pair of eyeglasses could be:
a university student — who wants to look trendy
the Mom of a grade schooler — who wants something durable
a Babyboomer — who wants to look stylish and possibly younger
Smart campaigns clearly spell out who they are targeting. Adwords are too expensive to invest without this research. - Do your keyword research. Guessing at your keywords is rarely effective. Research is the key to success. SEMrush is a great tool to research potential keywords. And even though a keyword phrase perfectly describes your services, if no one has searched on it in the US in the last 30 days, it isn’t a good word to invest advertising dollars into. Manage your ads and add negative keywords if you are getting the wrong kind of traffic.
- Match your messages to your audience. Each ad can target a unique audience. If you are selling eyeglass frames, the messaging for an audience of 25-45 year olds might be “Trendy frames for every budget” whereas the messaging for an older audience might be “Trendy bifocals that make you look younger.” Tell specific stories to specific audiences. Separate your ads groups with targeted ad copy. Details really matter with messaging to get clickthroughs. Focus your ad copy on the benefits you deliver, not the features of your product or service.
Correct message to the correct audience at the correct time = ad success! - Review your selling pathways. It’s important that at every touch point from ad to sale, you are delivering the correct messaging. This might mean different landing pages for each audience, or a different dynamically generated web page based on the ad the audience arrives on your website from. Are your landing page contact forms easy to fill out on a phone? Are they attractive and professional?
- Review the data. In the end, it’s all about the data. Are 30-year-olds clicking on the ads aimed at 25–45 year olds? If not, why not? Google Analytics provides detailed and extremely helpful information that complements your AdWords information. Be sure you have a Google Analytics code setup on every page of your campaign and website — and that all of your ads have UTM tracking codes. Are you testing enough ads, and promoting the winners? Are you adding new ads to test against these winners? Ad optimization is an important part of ad management.
Want to discuss your AdWords strategy with your agency but not sure where to start? Download a copy of our guide 7 Questions to Ask Your SEO Agency or apply for a 30-minute web audit with us.