What’s The Deal With Google Adwords?

CPC? CTR? CPM? …WTF? For many, Google Adwords is like a foreign language and a difficult first step for DIY advertisers. The confusing nature can become overwhelming and outweighs the benefits of using AdWords, but why is AdWords so confusing? Google seems to be the reigning king for the at least the last decade, so how have they not made AdWords more user-friendly?

Is Simple Better?
Let’s begin with the simplified version of Google AdWords, called AdWords Express. In theory, this is great because it allows businesses to reach customers with Google ad campaigns in a matter of minutes with no extensive setup. The catch is that since it is “express,” the options are minimal. Budgets are very low, keywords are general, negative keywords can not be added, ad formats are limited, and the settings are not advantageous for the money spent. Many companies were actually hurt due to the ineffectiveness of AdWords Express.

Google had great intentions when creating this service, but clearly it did not do the job. This is the best way to explain why the Google AdWords we know and love today is the way it is. All of the features and settings are necessary for your Google ad campaigns to work effectively for your business.

Confusing Interface 
Where do you even start when logging into AdWords? To begin, focus on performance and ads. This includes cost per click, impressions and cost per conversion (if you are conversion tracking), along with display ads and search ads. This is a good place to start but remember, depth is good when it comes to ad networks. If you were to always skim the surface, you could be missing out on a lot of data and features that would optimize your campaign. This is the only way to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Time Is Money
Managing a Google AdWords campaign will always be time consuming.  Everything on the Internet is rapidly changing, so close monitoring is essential. It is truly amazing how one slight change can dramatically alter results. An example of this is keywords. Having appropriate keywords and negative keywords make a world of difference for any campaign. This is how you target your chosen audience. People search on Google in a variety of ways, so it is necessary to run keyword diagnoses relatively frequently to ensure entered keywords are optimized. Some campaigns, or ad groups alone, have hundreds of keywords so you can see how it is time consuming to run the diagnoses and adjust appropriately. Once you adjust, you then have to check back in the following days and weeks to evaluate performance. This is just one of the major tasks that come along with AdWords campaigns.

An endless amount of other adjustments are made and monitored closely during an ad campaign. This includes bid adjustments, location targeting, device targeting, budget allocating, types of ads, different campaigns and ad groups. The list goes on forever, or at least feels like it does to a new user!

With each campaign you have to start somewhere. Take the time to set up your shiny new campaign using your best marketing skills and knowledge of the type of company and campaign. From there, it is all about tweaking things to optimize the budget. Constant tweaks to your AdWords campaign is worth your time. Use the data given within AdWords to your advantage!  The end goal is generate conversions for your product or service. AdWords campaigns are the way to make that happen if done right!

Analyze AdWords Data 
In order to appropriately tweak and manage an AdWords campaign you need data to work with. This takes time to collect, so you must be patient and let things settle in. AdWords offers some impressive data on metrics, but Google Analytics is the place to go to deeply analyze the campaigns performance. This requires connecting AdWords accounts to Analytics. Analytics is another interface to learn and maneuver effectively. It may seem frustrating to have yet another confusing interface, but the output Analytics gives is essential for insights into advancing and optimizing your marketing strategy. This is a huge help when it comes to determining how people are getting to your site, and how to keep them coming back.

In the end, Google is not trying to trick and confuse us all. The AdWords interface is robust in order to offer truly valuable features that can be a game-changer for your business! Some accounts may not require all the TLC that Google AdWords and Analytics has to offer, but it is necessary to have the options to optimize those campaigns that need extensive adjustments.

Remember, patience and time is key to a successful campaign, but understanding what you’re working with is the other half!