This is the first in a series of interviews we’re conducting with AdWords advertisers who got unusually high scores using our AdWords Performance Grader. We’re reaching out to high scorers to find out what strategies contribute to their strong AdWords performance.
Our first respondent is Marko Kvesic from Zagreb, Croatia. Follow Marko on Twitter.
Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been using AdWords? Are you an agency or an advertiser? What is your primary goal for AdWords marketing?
I’m the Online Marketing Manager at GoTraffic Online Marketing Agency. I have a master’s degree in traffic science and I’m a Google AdWords Qualified Individual. I’ve been using AdWords for more than eight months. Since I work at an agency and I’m managing my clients’ accounts, my primary goal is to achieve results based on my clients’ needs and goals. I insist on strong communication and interaction with my clients so I have the whole picture and fully understand each client’s situation. Based on that knowledge I create campaigns. Some clients want to build a strong online reputation with AdWords, some want to increase revenue or even traffic on their sites. All these different goals require different campaign organization.
There are tons of metrics in AdWords – what are your top three key performance metrics in AdWords and why?
My top three performance metrics are:
Can you describe your AdWords management strategy? How do you set your campaign objectives, and how do you know what’s realistic or not? What about your AdWords management workflow? When you’re doing your account optimization work, how do you decide what to do next? How do you prioritize your work?
I can divide my AdWords campaign management into three phases. In the first phase I do a lot of research. I communicate a lot with my clients in order to determine what exactly they want to achieve. I must have a full understanding of their products or services and their business. I research their market, competitors and, most importantly, target audience. In that phase we also determine campaign expectations and goals.
In the second phase, I create campaigns based on my client’s goals. I approach my campaign organization solely on the basis of the goals of my client. If the campaign goal is to increase revenue and high return on investment, you must organize your campaign differently than if the goal is more traffic on the site (for example).
Another important question is if the client wants to advertise on Google Search Network or Google Display Network – since those two networks function in different ways, the organization of those campaigns is also different. When I’m organizing campaigns for Google Search, the first thing I do is thorough investigation and categorization of keywords. I create tightly themed ad groups. How many ad groups do I have? As many as necessary, as long as I stay relevant.
Here are some more techniques I use in this phase:
In campaigns for the Display Network:
The third and final phase is testing and optimizing. I always try to improve my campaign results. I regularly redefine my keywords. When I detect the best performing keywords, I usually remove them from that ad group and put them in a new ad group with ads created just for that new ad group. I often research the “See search terms” report where I detect new and negative keywords. I always test my ads and I try to have at least two ads in one ad group, where I replace the worse ad with a new ad. I’m especially focused on improving Quality Score, conversions, ad positions and bids. Testing and optimizing is one of the most important things in my campaigns. When you create your campaigns the job is just getting started with a lot of testing and optimizing. I carefully analyze campaign results, detect what part of the campaign needs further improvement and that’s how I know what to do next in my account.
Any advice or tips for AdWords marketers that didn’t score as well as you?
My advice is always be relevant, create relevant campaigns and give the user the answer to his query as precisely as you can. There must be extreme relevance between keywords, ad text and landing page content. Narrowly focused ad groups, each one a variation of a single keyword. Use DKI for better ad performance and higher CTR. Use negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant traffic and increase CTR. Bid high in the beginning to get more clicks (although more expensive) but you will increase CTR and Quality Score, then gradually lower your bids. Track keyword conversion, and split-test both your ads and your landing pages. Pay close attention to your account performance, determine which parts of your campaign are not doing well and optimize them. When you are creating campaigns always have the target customer in your mind.
Elisa Gabbert is WordStream’s Director of Content and SEO. Likes include wine, karaoke, poker, ping-pong, perfume, and poetry.
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