We’d like to take a second to debunk some of our favourite mis-truths regarding AdWords itself and AdWords management 🙂
Myth #1: The more keywords, the better.
Many companies in the AdWords management industry seem to have taken a fancy to boasting that they can run an AdWords campaign for your business with anywhere between 1000 – 20,000 keywords.
Whilst this certainly sounds impressive, it’s often unnecessary or worse. Too many keywords can have quite a detrimental effect on the performance of an AdWords campaign. Some of the best performing and most profitable campaigns that we’ve been involved in have used less than 5 keywords. Granted, it does take quite a lot of research, testing and refinement to arrive at those keywords over time.
The point is, you shouldn’t worry too much about how many keywords you have. Rather, you should place emphasis on having a few of the right keywords. Which keywords are “right”? Simply put, the right keywords are the ones that are being typed by customers ready to either enquire or purchase.
Myth #2: It’s all about the clicks.
To this day, I’m still surprised at how often I speak with new clients who are primarily focused on achieving x amount of clicks per day. It’s a mentality left over from the era of print or TV advertising, which focused on impressions, or pure quantity of receptive audience.
I can’t stress enough how clicks are only a means-to-an-end, not the end goal itself. The ideal AdWords campaign will receive as few clicks as necessary to achieve the desired conversion rate.
That’s right, you read it here first. As few clicks as necessary. I’ve seen AdWords campaigns generate 1000’s of clicks per day and make no sales at all. It’s the result of poor keyword selection and poor landing page conversion rate. Basically, sending the wrong people to a bad website.
Remember: You’re paying for every click you get. The logical strategy is to minimise the amount of clicks you get, whilst maintaining a high conversion rate of qualified visitors.
How is this done? Appropriate keyword selection and landing page conversion optimisation. But that’s for another blog 🙂
Myth #3: Guaranteed first page position.
Every AdWords company out there will happily guarantee that they can put you on the first page of Google.
Question: Why is everybody so willing and able to make this lofty and seemingly valuable guarantee?
Simple explanation: They don’t need to actually do anything to make this happen. Every advertisers ads will show on the first page of Google, by default. No “optimisation” necessary. That’s right. Throw a keyword and an ad together and press “Go,” and your ads will technically be displayed on the first page of Google search results. Thats the where.
The part of this equation that gets conveniently left out of most desperate sales pitches is the who and the when. The real value of AdWords isn’t a byproduct of appearing on the first page, it’s a result of showing your ads to the correct set of people.
Myth #4: AdWords can work for any business.
Wrong. This is one of the most irresponsible myths that’s being perpetuated by operators within the search engine marketing industry.
Guess what? AdWords won’t work for everybody. It’s not a magic business growth tool that can be switched on and instantly create new customers out of thin air. It’s an advertising medium, and like any other, it can be hugely profitable or a massive money-drain depending on how you use it.
It’s about determining a realistic CPA (cost-per-acquistion) goal for your product/service, and determining whether that goal is achievable through AdWords.
For example, if you sell beach towels online and your profit margin per sale is $10, your ad campaign needs to generate sales for you at a cost of less than $10 per sale. If this proves to be unrealistic and it actually costs you $20-25 per sale, it’s time to find another advertising medium.
Of course, there are always things that can be done to improve your conversion rate, reduce your CPA, etc., but at the end of the day, AdWords simply won’t work for all businesses, and anybody who promises that it will should be approached with caution.
Myth #5: AdWords can be guaranteed to work.
Wrong.
AdWords can never and should never be guaranteed to work. In fact, taking that a step further, no advertising is guaranteed to work.
There are too many variables in play for somebody to ever promise you that AdWords will work for your business. If they do, they are either being naively optimistic or maliciously dishonest. And either one is a good reason to steer clear.
Let me clarify a bit. AdWords is hugely powerful and has amazing business generating capabilities. It’s unlike any advertising medium ever utilised before in that it allows you to specifically target customers who are already trying to find you.
The problem arises when the assumption is made that this process is automatic. It’s not. You need to closely control the customer interaction experience. From which keywords you are found under, to what your ads say about you, to which page the visitor is taken to, there are a number independent factors that can make or break the success of any AdWords campaign.
A successful AdWords campaign is anything but guaranteed.
Sum it up.
Hopefully this clears up some of the common misconceptions about AdWords and more specifically, AdWords management.
As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.