Google AdWords Learning Center - Increasing Traffic/Clicks

Objective: Learn how to optimize campaigns to increase traffic by creating unique keyword variations and taking different steps to increase clicks on your ads.

Please note that the industry typically defines 'site traffic' as page views where webmasters can sell ad space. However, the AdWords definition of increasing traffic means increasing clicks on an advertiser's ad(s).

The main methods of increasing traffic include:

Adding new or unused keywords
Creating keywords for unadvertised parts of the advertiser's website
Including more general keywords
Separating high-traffic keywords
Increasing daily budgets
Increasing Maximum CPC or Quality Score
Setting your distribution preferences to maximize traffic
Broadening your location targeting settings

We'll expound on some of these methods below.

Let's consider the example of an advertiser selling a product line for 'Acme Printers' who wants to increase traffic.

In addition to using the keyword 'Acme printers,' you may consider adding variations such as 'Acme Printer', 'Acme jet'. Make sure you only add unique variations of your keywords that may not be already covered by expanded broad matches. Always include plurals as well. Although plurals are generally included in broad match, you should still include them to ensure your ads show for as many relevant queries as possible. Keep in mind that plurals can perform differently in some cases, so you may want to set different maximum CPCs for them.

Browse your site to identify major product categories. You can create ad groups that target specific product types or models. Advertising new products that aren't already featured within your account is an effective way of increasing traffic. In this example, you can create an ad group to promote your Acme printer supplies and generate more traffic from current Acme printer owners.

You can also increase traffic by creating ad groups for more general keywords. Continuing with the 'Acme Printer' example used throughout this lesson, you could use 'printers,' 'color printers,' 'inkjet,' etc. Words like this will generate a lot of impressions and, if they're relevant, clicks. Just remember to find the most general terms that are still relevant to your product or service. If they're irrelevant, they can generate poor quality leads to your website. Also, general searches are generally performed by users who are early in the research stage of the purchasing cycle. It's important to have a presence at this stage; however, you may want to start with low CPCs to allow for clicks that may not immediately result in a conversion.

An important aspect of optimization is generating specific ads to go with new keywords you create. Consider the keyword variations 'Acme color printers,' 'Acme inkjet printers,' and 'Acme laser printers.' These keywords are more specific than 'Acme printers,' and would benefit from their own ad text tailored around the keyword. You may want to separate these keywords into their own ad groups.

Moving a high-traffic keyword into its own ad group and placing that keyword in the ad title will likely increase the number of clicks from the same number of impressions, which will also improve its CTR.

If you'd like certain keywords to receive maximum traffic, make sure they're in campaigns whose daily spend isn't reaching or exceeding its daily budget consistently. To increase traffic on all keywords in a campaign, increase the daily budget for that campaign. To increase traffic for specific keywords only, move them into a separate campaign, then set the daily budget high enough to yield the highest number of clicks.

Increase your maximum CPC or optimize your ad, keyword, or campaign to improve your Quality Score and to earn a higher rank. Because ads with higher ranks receive more clicks, you'll gain an increase in traffic.

You can broaden your location targeting settings or ad distribution preferences to maximize traffic.

Make sure that your location targeting settings reflect the areas of the world where you do business. Target your ad internationally if your offer applies to other countries. Even if your site isn't tailored to foreign countries and languages, you can still target your campaign to groups of users. For example, setting your language targeting to 'English' would ensure that your ad is shown to any user whose browser language is set to English anywhere in the world.

The Google Network of search and content partners offers a great opportunity to gain additional traffic. You may wish to edit your campaign settings so your ads are eligible to appear on this network.