Google Adwords Campaigns: Insights to Success

creating a business case


Google AdWords and other Search Engine Pay-Per-Click channels are one of the most effective resources for new websites or marketing to new areas of interest.

If your website needs a traffic boost and you looking to secure a key top three position in the search results in the short to medium term then PPC advertisements are often the answer to start with.

PPC and any other form of per-click advertising can however if not managed professionally be expensive, especially for those considering or currently doing their own AdWords or AdCenter campaigns.

 

It is estimated that for many first-time PPC campaigns undertaken in-house businesses lose money at a ratio of 4-to-1 due to a lack of experience with common blind spots and how ad networks work.

Without that or a partner to support you your risk of losing money is significant. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not knowledgeable or not being up-front about it.

 

What is often underestimated?

What is often underestimated is the level of specialist knowledge and insight needed to pinpoint the precise keywords, ads, and targeting to attain the critical mass to fuel success.

Further to this marketers need to keep up with and understand the implications arising from Google’s constant algorithmic changes and how they impact search. Google will typically make upwards of 200 changes every year.

 

For most resource and expertise-poor businesses, however, this is, of course, not a readily available option and failure to keep on top of these changes will result in your business failing to cut through the noise and find profitable ways to get serious search exposure online.

 

Make sure your website is suitably optimised and avoid google’s automatic option.

Search Engines are focused on delivering searchers the best website for every click, whether paid or not. If they consider your site is not optimised, underperforming or not delivering valued content, they will penalise you by reducing your ratings and correspondingly increase your bid price per click (a sure way to lose money fast!).

Avoid the temptation to take the easy route with Google’s automatic mode where they will offer to set up your initial campaign for free.

Google is about looking for the best way to serve searches, not the best way to serve your ads, and they want to make money too.

 

Budgeting and Payments

With PPC, “Pay-per-click” you literally pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
You pay the ad platform for the clicks and you pay PPC specialists for their work, skill, and expertise.

You can take full control of the amount of your ad budget and spend any amount you wish, however for AdWords management to be worth your time and a providers, you should be prepared to spend at least $2,000/mo on ads.

At Marketing Search our ‘best-in-class specialist providers will typically use purely data-driven, results-driven frameworks to make account management decisions and so rely on both tracking and split-testing.For that reason, low-volume accounts are difficult to work with.

 

Set realistic expectations on time frame / time-to-profit

You need to allow 30 days for the setup and launch phase and allocate 2 to 3 months for a reasonable amount of testing and optimisation to enable the account to mature and become profitable.

You can on occasion have immediate and spectacular results but normally the system requires building, optimisation, and scaling over time and it is absolutely essential to run sufficient volume traffic in the account so that providers can collect enough data to make good decisions.

 

Outsourcing and selecting an agency and professional PPC/Adwords service costings

If you need or choose to outsource be careful in your selection, don’t just hire any PPC Agency. Firstly make sure they are genuine specialists and have in-depth keyword research, analysis, and
conversion optimisation expertise and capabilities.

Make sure they are not off-shoring the work or subcontracting the work to others and importantly that they will spend the time making sure you get personal service and the highest possible CTR and Conversion for the lowest price!

Consulting & Strategy are generally priced by the hour. Fully-managed services are available on a month-to-month, pre-paid retainer. The fee structure is typically charged out as a % of monthly ad spend with a minimum set.
If you are planning a new campaign or bettering your existing campaign performance and/or reducing your costs on Google AdWord, Microsoft AdCenter, and other PPC systems, then consider contacting Growth & Search  ( www.growthandsearch.com.au ) to find your ‘best fit solution.

Written by Neil Anderson
20th December 2022

Neil Anderson is the founder and director of Growthandsearch.com a privately owned business specialising in the provision of business growth-related knowledge and services for Australian small and medium size businesses operating in the services sectors.