AdWords Help Experts

Before you start an AdWords account it would be wise to make sure that AdWords will work with your business model. AdWords has strict policies regarding promotion of pharmacies, drugs, alcohol, firearms, adult content, tobacco, data collection, get rich schemes, arbitrage, affiliate marketing sites, etc., etc, etc. Read the AdWords Terms & Conditions for your location as well as the many various AdWords Advertising policies before you get started.

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Are There any Types of Sites that are Difficult to market with AdWords?

There are some sites that Google feels merit a low landing page quality score. Low landing page quality score can often affect Affiliate websites. Affiliate marketers would benefit from reading the Affiliate Policyand the Link Policy documents as well as this great article by fellow AWHE Writer Bela Lakatos on “Display URL for Affiliates” before they get started with AdWords.

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Do I need to do anything to my website first?

Most Likely. Your website should be organized, honest, transparent, functional, contain contact info, be ecstatically pleasing and most importantly provide a good user experience. Be clear on what you do with personal information, if you do request personal info include a privacy policy that is linked to the request form. Have a clear call to action, install Google Analytics and AdWords Conversion Tracking. Read Google’s AdWords Full Landing Page Quality Guidelines.

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Where will my ads appear?

Google offers three networks.

Google Network– Keyword Advertising shown only on the Google.com domain.

AdWords Ads on Google.com

Search Partner Network- Keyword Advertising that covers the Google Search Partners such as AOL, ASK, Business.com, howstuffworks.com and many more.

AdWords Ads on the Search Partner Network

Content Network – Contextual advertising. Your page content is matched to content network sites. Keywords are not necessary with the content network but can be used to help Google match your pages to content network sites. If through your keywords Google finds your ads and website relevant to the Content Network website your ads become eligible to appear on that content network site.

AdWords Ads on the Content Network

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Can I have my ads show in my local area only?

Yes, you can use the location targeting feature under SETTINGS to target a specific location in just about any corner of the world.

Selection the Location that you want your ads to appear.

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What should know before I start my first Campaign?

Before you build your first campaign create an outline of the services or products you plan to advertise. Create lists of related keywords for each product or service and then break that list down farther into lists of keywords by theme. Say you sell BBQ accessories, create an ad group around BBQ accessories with related keywords, BBQ brushes with related keywords, BBQ Flavored Wood Chips with related keywords, BBQ sauce with related keywords, BBQ Grills with related keywords. The idea is to create ad groups that have high relevance. By breaking down the ad groups by keyword theme you can present visitors with ad text that is related to the theme. This setup also makes segmenting and reading data easy.

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How do I select keywords?

Make a list of specific keywords that are very relevant to your products or services and expand to new keywords ideas. Be specific with your keywords. Most advertisers cannot afford to market non specific keywords. AdWords has a Keyword tool to provide keyword suggestions and there are several great keyword research tools available online through other sources.

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What are keyword Matching Options?

There are 4 keyword matching options. http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100

1. Broad – allows other keywords to be included or relevant (as deemed by Google) keywords to be substituted.

2. “phrase” – allows the keyword to be shown in the phrase order i.e. “red shoes” with terms before or after the phrase.

3. [exact] – allows your ads to show only on the exact keyword specified.

4. –negative – will restrict your ads from appearing for the –negative keyword. i.e. “red shoes” with a negative –kids prevents the ads from appearing for “kids red shoes”. Negative Keywords can be included in Broad, Phrase and Exact Match Types – Learn morehttp://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=67991.

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How do I Identify and add Negative Keywords?

Negative keywords can be identified by running a search query report or by using the keyword tool. Learn more about identifying negative keywords. Negative keywords can be added at the Campaign level to cover all ad groups under the campaign or at the ad group level to cover only specific ad groups. Read here to learn how to add negative keywords to your adwords account.

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Are there any tips for writing ad text?

Be honest, transparent and clear. Convey your message and convince a potential customer to click your ad by offering specials or discounts if they are available on the website. Avoid the use of hype in your ad text and allow your potential customers to identify with you by closely relating your ad text to the keywords in that ad group.

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How Can I see my Ad Live?

Google has a preview tool located at http://www.google.com/adpreview. This tool will allow you to view your ads live at any time without causing impressions on your account.

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What is Ad ‘Rank’?

Ad rank is a score that your keyword receives when the quality score is multiplied by the max CPC – Quality Score X Max CPC = Rank.

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What is the difference between ad rank and ad position?

Position is the actual position of your ads on the results pages. Rank is the score a keyword receives based on it’s quality score and Max CPC and this Rank is what determines your position and what you pay per click.

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How is ad rank used to determine my ad position and cost per click?

Quality Score X Max Cost Per Click = Rank

Advertiser A. Max CPC of .55 with a Quality score of 1.7 = assigned rank is .93 = position 1

Advertiser B. Max CPC of .65 with a QS score of 1 = assigned rank of 65 = position 2

Advertiser C. Max CPC of .30 with a QS score of 1.5 = assigned rank of .45 = position 3

Take B’s rank of .65 and divide it by A’s QS of 1.7 – .65 / 1.7 = .38 cents.

- .38 is what Advertiser A has to pay + 1 penny added to place it above B’s position for a total of .39 cents.

Take C’s rank of .45 and divide it by B’s QS – .45 / 1 = .45 cents.

- .45 is what Advertiser B has to pay + 1 penny to place it above C’s position for a total of .46 cents

This process repeats until the end of the auction where the last bidder pays the minimum bid required to be active in the action.

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How do I raise my ad rank?

Because rank is determined by Quality Score X Max CPC you have to raise one or the other. Raising quality score is done through raising CTR, this can take time to achieve so if you need to see immediate improvement in your rank you will need to raise your bids.

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What does ‘below first page bid estimate’ mean?

Below first page bid estimate indicates that you need to increase your bid to be placed on the first page of search results. First identify if the reason is due to underbidding or if you have a low quality score. If you see a low quality score try to identify if there is room to improve the quality score. If the quality score not low then you may be in a competitive market and need to raise your bids to be ranked higher.

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What does ‘Rarely shown due to quality score’ mean?

This messaging indicates that you have a problem with either your Keyword Quality or Landing Page Quality Score, possibly both. Your quality score needs to be addressed immediately. See the next steps to evaluate your low quality score.

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How can I see my Quality Score?

Watch this easy YouTube Tutorial or read instruction below.

To view your quality score go to the keywords section. Visit the button labeled Filters & Views. Go to Customize Columns. Enable Quality Score to show and then grab and drag the quality score button to the place you would like it to appear in the user interface. Your quality score will be shown on a 1 – 10 scale. 1 is the lowest and indicates a major problem and 10 us the highest and indicates a great performing account.

Step 1.

How to See your Quality Score in AdWords

Step 2.

How to See Quality Score in AdWords

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What should I do if I have a low Quality Score?

First identify if the low quality score is due to a problem with your keywords or the landing page (website page) that your visitors land on. A quick way to see quality score details is to go to your KEYWORDS section and place your mouse pointer over the little bubble next to the keywords status. A popup will appear indicating your quality score level for the keyword, landing page relevance and landing page performance.

How to Identify if your Low Qualtiy Score is due to Keywords or Landing Page problems

How to Identify the reason for your Low Qualtiy Score

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Why do I have a low Keyword Quality Score?

Low quality keywords can be due to the following:

past performance: If Google finds that a keyword has provided poor results for advertisers in the past it may receive a diminished quality score from the start. Either avoid the keyword or work on increasing its quality score by increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR).
Relevance: If the keyword is not truly relevant to your product or service it may cause a poor relevancy score. Keywords should be as specific as possible to the product or service. Example of poor keyword for ‘ballet shoes’ would be ‘ footwear’ – Example of Good Keyword: ballet shoes, ballet slippers. While footwear is relevant to ballet shoes it is not relevant enough to effectively use with AdWords.
Low Click Through Rate (CTR): A low click through rate is an indication that visitors do not find their search query relevant to your ad text. Google judges relevance through user behavior so a low CTR in an indication of a problem. A continually low CTR (less than 1% on the search network) will degrade quality score. – See How do I evaluate and Improve CTR? below.

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Why Do I have a poor Landing Page Quality Score?

AdWords Adsbot

Google visits your landing pages with their AdsBot-Google bot to evaluate your landing page for relevance to your account and especially user experience. This bot will crawl your pages looking for signs of a poor quality landing page. Poorly scored landing pages will require high minimum bids, when not paid, will prevent your ads from appearing. Google uses landing page quality score to insure a good user experience for people using Google to search the web. Below is a list of common reasons for low landing page quality score – in no particular order.

Slow Load time – here is a tool for checking your website performance http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
Error Pages that start with a 4 or 5 code, for details on specific codes see: World Wide Web Consortium list.
Blocking Bots – specifically the adsbot-google bot.
Sites under construction
Data entry affiliates
Sites that mislead customers with false promises
Sites that install malware software on a visitor’s computer
Site that contain popups/popunders
Sites that manipulating browser functions such as disabling back buttons or resizing windows
Sites that require software to be installed to be viewed should be aware of Google guidelineshttp://www.google.com/corporate/software_principles.html
redirect to another site
Arbitrage – sites that contain only advertising
Framing – multiple pages with different URL’s that are the same as the parent site
Data Collection websites that offer free items or info in order to collect private information Avoid asking for personal information if it is not absolutely necessary – If necessary present a privacy policy and link it to the form that request personal info.
Affiliate sites that’s purpose is to send traffic to another site with a different domain. These sites can often be bridge pages or sites that contain non original content.
“Get-rich quick” sites.
Poor comparison shopping sites whose purpose is to send visitors to other websites.
Users should be able to easily find what your ad promises. If you offer a special make it available with in 1 – 2 clicks of the landing page.
Feature unique content that can’t be found on another site. This guideline is particularly applicable to resellers whose site is identical or highly similar to another reseller’s or the parent company’s site, and to affiliates sites. These pages are often known as: Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company. Mirror pages: Pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site; your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company’s or any other advertiser’s site.
To ensure the best possible user experience, AdWords won’t show multiple ads leading to identical or similar landing pages at the same time. This is true even if the pages have different domains - check your content here http://www.copyscape.com/. It’s especially important to feature original content because AdWords won’t show multiple ads directing to identical or similar landing pages at the same time.
Provide substantial information. If your ad does link to a page consisting mostly of ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional, unique content.
Site validation issues. – check validation with http://validator.w3.org/. Some validation issues can indicate a communication issue with Googles adsbot.

If you were able to identify with anything in the above list work on making changes if you can. The adsbot will visit your landing pages again within a few weeks.

A great tool to track the adsbot was developed by AdWords Top Contributor, Richard Ball at Apogee Web Consulting, get tracking the Adsbot-Google here. This will allow you to identify when the adsbot has visited you again.

Below are three links with further explanations of landing page quality guidelines as well as an important page on link policies that effect landing page quality score.

Sites that merit a low landing page quality score: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66238

Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines:

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?answer=46675

AdWords Link Policies:

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?page=guidelines.cs&topic=16862&subtopic=16868

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What is CTR and why is it so important?

Click Through Rate, otherwise known as (CTR), is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions (ad views), the higher the CTR the better. Google uses CTR data to gauge the relevance of your keywords to ad text. When an advertisers includes a new keyword in their account it is assigned a quality score based on the keyword performance within the Adwords system for other advertisers, as well as its relevance within your account. The quality score assigned can then be raised or lowered from that point based on the Click Through Rate (CTR) score that the keyword accrues within your account. CTR has a large impact on quality score so raising CTR, and in-turn Quality Score, will result in you being able to improve your bottom line by either seeing an increase in your current ad rank, or if you choose to stay at the same rank you can instead reduce your bids.

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How I evaluate and Improve CTR?

A low CTR indicates room for improvement. Perhaps potential customers found your ads in error due to poor keyword selections, perhaps your broad match types are expanding to irrelevant searches, maybe your ad text is boring, and perhaps your rank is just too low to make your ads truly visible. Below is more detail on evaluating CTR at the keyword, ad text and rank levels.

Evaluating Keywords

Are your keywords too generic? These days’ internet users are search savvy and use specific search queries to be presented with the most relevant search results possible. If you are a personal trainer you may be tempted to select a keyword like ‘fitness’ but think of all the other applications that the word ‘fitness’ can apply to; fitness diet, fitness equipment, fitness supplements, fitness clothing, to name a few. If your ads appear for your personal training program when a person searches for fitness supplements then you are not going to appear relevant, will not receive the click, and your CTR will suffer.

Are your keywords in the proper match type? There are different keywords Match Types and selecting the right match type for your account is important.

- Broad – allows for your keyword to expand to relevant keywords. Example: broad match keyword ‘computer repair’ could expand to ‘computer repair jobs’, ‘computer monitor repair’, or ‘computer repair classes’.

- “Phrase” match- will keep a phrase in-tact but can allow for words to be added before or after the phrase. Example: “computer repair” can expand to ‘free computer repair ’.

- [Exact] match- will only show the ads when the exact keyword is used [computer repair]. This option does not require negative match keywords.

–negative match – will restrict your ads from appearing for the –negative keyword. i.e. Broad match keyword “computer repair” expands to ‘computer repair jobs’ add a negative -jobs and it prevents the ads from appearing for people looking for a job. Use your imagination a little and add negatives for -job, -employment, -career, -careers, -hire, etc. Negative Keywords can be included in Broad, Phrase and Exact Match Types – Learn more http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=67991

For most advertisers to effectively use broad match and phrase match keywords it will be essential to use negative keywords to maintain a good CTR and not waste money on irrelevant clicks.

Identifying and adding Negative Match Keywords

Negative keywords can be identified by running a search query report or by using the keyword tool . Learn more about identifying negative keywords. Negative keywords can be added at the Campaign level to cover all ad groups under the campaign or at the ad group level to cover only specific ad groups. Read here to learn how to add negative keywords to your adwords account.

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Evaluating Ad Text

Is your ad text well written? Ad text needs to be honest, compelling and contain a call to action. If you offer specials let people know. Your ads appear amongst many other advertisers, ad text that stands out and grabs a potential customer’s attention is important. Create professional, prominent ads that are free of gimmicky language and make sure your offers are available with 1 – 2 clicks of the landing page.

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Evaluating Ad Position

Does your ad position need to be evaluated? Ads that are below the page fold (requiring users to scroll down) will receive impressions because they are on the first page but will not actually be viewed as often as ads above the fold. If you find you have a low CTR check your ad position. If you find it is low on the first page you may want to consider raising your position by adjusting bids. A great way to identify position issues is to run both a Keyword Performance Report and Impression Share Report. These reports will help you identify if your ad position needs to be addressed.

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Can I track my sales, leads, registrations, etc?

Yes, with Conversion Tracking. It is a simple snippet of code that needs to be installed into your website. The code works behind the scenes of your website to collect data when a specified ‘action’ has taken place, such as a sale, registration, lead or contact form is filled out. This code can even be customized to capture and pass important variables from shopping carts such as the price of a sale pre shipping and tax to make it very easy to analyze data.

Watch this video about how to create a conversion tracking code or see the written instruction with screenshots below.

To create a conversion tracking action visit the Reporting Tab and the Conversions link.

Tracking Conversions

Next Step is step 1 in creating your conversion tracking code.

Step 1 to Create Conversion Tracking Action

Step 1 - Create Conversion Tracking Action Code

Step 2 & 3 – Name your conversion and select the purpose of the conversion.

Steps 2 & 3 - Name Conversion and Select Purpose

Steps 4 & 5 – customize your conversion tracking code and install it on your website.

: Steps 4 & 5 – Customize and Install your Conversion Tracking Code

Once you install the code into your website and upload it live online the code should show as verified

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What reports should I run often?

There are many helpful reports located in the AdWords Help Center. Mentioned below are a few to get your account off to a good start. Getting familiar with all the reports center has to offer is going to be important for you when reviewing data and optimizing the account. Spend time getting familiar with all the report center offers.

Here are some of my favorites:

Search Query Performance Report – if you are running keywords in Broad or “Phrase” match it is important to run Search Query Performance Reports regularly. This will help you to identify negative keywords as well as new keywords to add to your account.
Impression Share Report – This report will allow you to identify if you are losing Impression Share to rank or budget as well as how much impression share is exactly matched to your keywords.
Keyword Performance Report – Easily identify keywords that need to be evaluated.

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Are there any tools or tips to help me get the most out of my budget?

Yes. AdWords has features such as ad scheduling, position preference, ad delivery. There are are tools available to some account such as the bid stimulator. Best practice for small budgets is to make sure you are going for quality clicks by using very specific keywords and using keyword matching options to control when your ads show. I think that advertisers on a tight budget should do their best to pre-qualify their prospective visitors.

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Do you Have a Question?

If you have a question that you would like answered feel free to post it in the comments below and the AdWords Help Experts team will do our best to answer. It will also help us develop this AdWords FAQ further to help other advertisers.