Objective: Learn what an optimization is and why all advertisers should optimize from time to time. Then, get started by taking inventory of your website, account, and competitors' websites.

An optimization is the process of adjusting parts of your account — like your keywords and ad text — and your website to improve the performance of your AdWords ads. Optimizations might consist of adjusting:

Very simply, optimization makes your advertising more effective. In AdWords terms, this means a higher Quality Score, or higher ad quality. Since quality is directly tied to your ad's performance, position, and costs, optimizations can bring you greater advertising success and lower your costs. Every advertiser can benefit from regular optimizations.

Now that you know the basics about optimizing, where do you get started? How do you know what needs optimizing? Begin by taking inventory of all things that make up your online advertising campaign. Review the following, and take notes of what is and isn't working well:

• Your website and landing page quality: Look at your website from a user's perspective. Does the design flow well? Is it well organized? Is the information useful, honest, and clear? You want your website to be easy to navigate and to communicate your business clearly.


• Your account: Review the performance of individual keywords and ads across different campaigns in your account. Check stats such as your keyword clickthrough rate (CTR), costs, and ad position. If your CTR is low or if your costs are high, optimizations are in order. To learn different ways to check your account performance, visit the Quality and Performance Basics lesson.


• Competitors' sites: Browse your competitors' ads and websites to help you understand the similarities and differences in your products or services. You can also identify factors that make your business more compelling than the competition (such as special promotions or unique products), which you can then highlight in your ads.