We’ve all been there. We’ve thought to ourselves, if I can just advertise my product/service at the top of the Google search engine, then I’ll be sure to drive traffic to my site and generate leads and sales and start making more money! Google AdWords is of course that medium that allows you to advertise on the Google Search and Display Network, but are you ready to take on all that AdWords offers? Here are some important things you need to consider before you start your first AdWords Search Campaign.
What Industry Category Does Your Product/Service Fit Under?
Make sure you know what your product/service category fits under. Knowing this helps you build out the right keyword lists and ads. Google AdWords Keyword Planner lets you create keywords lists by industry type, and gives you suggestions and other ideas to expand your list of potential keywords to bid on. In addition, Google AdWords has strict advertising policies and doesn’t allow certain products like guns & ammo and political & healthcare industries to advertise on their search & display network. To see if your company makes the cut, check out Google’s Advertising Policies.
Who is Your Target Audience?
Who are the people that are looking for your products and services? Are they young, old, women, men? Where do they live mostly? When do they tend to shop online? Understanding your demographics allows you to select and focus on these certain audiences and geographies in AdWords. If most of your customers are middle aged men, who live in North East part of Texas, who typically only shop online after work and on the weekends, then you can target your ads to those individuals at the right place at the right time. If you’re not sure what your demographics are, start using Google Analytics Audience Reporting. This report will show you amazing data about the people that are visiting your site as seen HERE.
Who Are Your Competitors on AdWords?
The internet offers dozens of tools that allow you to see if your competitors are advertising on Google. Our favorite PPC competitor analysis is semrush.com. Their reporting will show you if your competitors are advertising on AdWords, what keywords they’re bidding on and how much it’s costing them. Also take a look at how your competitors are writing their ads on Google. Find out who the biggest player is in your industry look at how they’re communicating to searchers in their ads. You might also be able to pick up some tips and tricks from their ads to improve the quality of your ads.
How Much You Can You Afford to Acquire a Lead or Sale.
This is the quickest and most effective way to understand if AdWords is right for your business. Before you start in AdWords, first go to the AdWords Keyword Planner to generate a list of keywords that you would bid on if you were going to advertise on Google. Google will give you extra keyword recommendations to bid on as well as the possible search volume & avg. CPC. From there you can make predictions about your conversion rate on your site. It would be ideal if you could first take your conversion rate from Google Analytics as a starting point. Quick Tip: By taking your potential avg. CPC and conversion rate you can quickly determine what it might cost to acquire a lead or sale (avg. CPC / conversion rate as decimal). If you find that you might be able to acquire leads at a relatively low cost, then that’s a great goal and starting point. But, if that number is too high and doesn’t leave any room for margin, then you now know that AdWords might not be the right medium for your company until you’re able to improve the conversion rate and/or the value-add of the service you’re promoting on your website.
Is Google AdWords the Right Advertising Medium for Your Company?
It’s important to understand that with Google AdWords you’re advertising to searchers who are already familiar with a certain product or service category. If you’re advertising something so unique that it has its own individual category, then you’ll likely have a hard time actually finding the right keywords to bid on to find the right customers. Don’t spend time and money in AdWords if won’t able to produce quality and relevant traffic. If this is the case, try starting with an AdWords Display campaign instead. Google’s Display network allows you to advertise your new and unique brand to millions of people across the internet.
Andy Dixon
