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Objective: Learn how to optimise your account for optimal performance — from structuring your account to editing keywords and ad text. To review the basics about organising your account, choosing keywords and writing targeted ad text, visit the Starting Off Right lesson.
Maintaining organised campaigns and ad groups is important to the performance of your account. Organisation helps you achieve your advertising goals, make edits quickly and target your ads appropriately.
When organising your account, strive for the following:
- Organise your campaigns by topic. Create separate campaigns for each of your product lines, resources or brands. This helps you monitor your advertising more easily and make the necessary adjustments to improve your campaign performance.
- Target the right languages and locations. Target your audience appropriately by choosing languages and locations that relate to your business. If you target multiple countries, try splitting them into separate campaigns by country. To learn more, visit the Language and Location Targeting lesson.
- Create highly specific ad groups. Just like with your campaigns, build your ad groups around a single product or service. Then group your keywords and placements into related themes. By doing this, you can create ads that most accurately promote what you are selling.
- Avoid duplicate keywords across ad groups. Google shows only one ad per advertiser on a particular keyword, so there is no need to include duplicate keywords in different ad groups or campaigns. Identical keywords compete against each other and the better-performing keyword triggers your ad.
Your keywords and placements should relate to your ad text. Here are some optimisation strategies for keyword and placement targeting:
Keyword targeting
- Choose specific keywords that relate to your business, ad group and landing page. Two-word or three-word keywords usually work best. For optimal ad visibility, include relevant keyword variations, along with singular and plural versions. If applicable, consider using colloquial terms, alternative spellings, synonyms and product or serial numbers. The Keyword Tool can help generate lists of possible keywords.
- Take advantage of keyword matching options. With some keywords, you will get more ad impressions; with others, you will get fewer impressions but potentially more clicks. To learn more, visit the Keyword Targeting lesson.
- Use unique keyword URLs. Keyword Destination URLs send users to a specific landing page, ensuring that your customer arrives immediately at the most relevant page for the keyword that triggered your ad. Edit individual keyword URLs by clicking 'Edit Keyword Settings' above your keyword table.
- Try Google Sitemaps: If you're a webmaster or have access to your web page code, you can use Google Sitemaps as a tool to generate more relevant keywords for your AdWords campaign. Sitemaps enable you to submit all your web pages to Google automatically and receive detailed reports on those pages' top Google search queries. You can then use the reported top search queries as keywords for your AdWords account.
For more information, visit Google Sitemaps.
Placement targeting
- Choose sites or related placements that are relevant to your business. The more relevant the sites that you target, the better the chances that your ad will be displayed. To create an effective list, we strongly suggest using all methods available in your account when choosing placements. To learn more, visit the placement targeting lesson.
When using the Placement Tool to find and select websites and related placements, pay attention to the Ad Formats column in the list of available placements. If you only run certain kinds of format - for instance, image ads only, or text and video ads only - make sure that the placements you select accept your format.
- If necessary, target site sections. If an entire website isn't relevant to your ads, you have the option to target only the relevant parts of the site. This option may be appropriate if the site covers a variety of topics, only some of which relate to your ads. For example, if you sell kitchen appliances, you might choose to only advertise on the food section of a news site rather than placing ads across the entire site.
(Note that site sections are slightly different from publisher-defined placements. In a publisher-defined placement, the publisher decides what pages or portions of his site you may target. With a site section, you yourself use URLs to choose which parts of the site you want to advertise on.)
Using keywords + placements
You can add keywords and placements to any AdWords online campaign. Keywords can help place your ads on both the search and content networks. Placements affect the content network only.
When you choose both keywords and placements, you'll be targeting your content network ads twice: once by keywords and once by placements. Use the Networks and bidding section of your Edit Campaign Settings page to determine how your keywords and placements work together.
Here's an example: Suppose that in one ad group you target the keyword roses and the placement www.example.co.uk.
- With the content network enabled and the setting 'Relevant pages across the entire network,' you can let the keyword roses display your ad across the content network, but raise your bid whenever roses triggers your ad on www.example.co.uk.
- With the content network enabled and the setting 'Relevant pages only on the placements I target', you can choose to have your ad appear only on content pages of www.example.co.uk and only when one of those pages matches roses.
The content of your ads should capture a user's attention and set your business apart. Strive for the following:
- Include keywords in your ad text. Include your keywords in your ad text (especially the title) to show users that your ad relates to their search.
- Create simple, enticing ads. What makes your product or service stand out from your competitors? Highlight these key differentiating points in your ad. Make sure to describe any unique features or promotions that you offer.
- Use a strong call-to-action. Your ad should convey a call-to-action (such as buy, sell or sign up) along with the benefits of your product or service. A call-to-action encourages users to click on your ad and to take action when reaching your landing page.
- Choose an appropriate Destination URL. Relate your ad to offers that you make on your landing page to help users complete the sales cycle.
- Test multiple ads in each ad group. Experiment with different offers and call-to-action phrases to see what is most effective for your advertising goals. If your ad serving options are set to optimise (the default setting), Google automatically shows the best performing ad more often.
- Try different ad formats. Google offers both text and rich ad formats, such as image ads. Incorporate different ad formats into your ad groups to entice a user to visit your website. To learn more, visit the Ad Formats lesson.
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Objective: Learn about some advanced optimisation features, available at the campaign level of your account.
Ad scheduling allows you to control the days and times when·your AdWords campaigns are shown. If you want to run an ad campaign on Tuesdays only or from 3:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. daily, you can do it with ad scheduling.
Ads are scheduled on the campaign level from the 'Edit Campaign Settings' page. Each campaign may have up to six scheduled segments per calendar day. Segments may be as short as 15 minutes or as long as an entire day of 24 hours.
Two steps are needed to set up ad scheduling for an AdWords campaign. First, you must enable ad scheduling for that campaign. Once ad scheduling is enabled, you choose the days and times when you want your ad to run.
Here's how to enable ad scheduling:
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- From the All Campaigns page, click the campaign that you want to work with.
- Near the top of the page, click Edit Campaign Settings.
- On the next page, click Turn on ad scheduling.
Ad scheduling is now enabled for this campaign. You will also be taken to the Ad Scheduling page, where you can set your schedule.
On the Ad Scheduling page, you will see the seven days of the week with 24 hourly blocks for each day. Green blocks indicate that your ad is scheduled to run during that hour. Grey blocks mean that your ad will not run during that hour. Click Edit next to any day of the week that you wish to edit and use the drop-down menus to select your time periods.
To make changes to a number of·days at once, find the line marked Bulk edit and select all days. Then use the drop-down menu to edit the times your ad will run on all days. For instance, if you select 1.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m., your ad will run at that time on all seven days of the week.
Ad scheduling also includes an advanced mode, with a bid multiplier feature that allows you to raise or lower your bid during certain time periods. For example, if you find that this campaign gets the best results between 8.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m., you can bid more for impressions or clicks during that period by entering a percentage higher or lower than 100%. For instance, if your default bid for a campaign is £0.50 CPC and your bid multiplier entry for Tuesdays is 120%, then your CPC bid for Tuesdays only would be £0.50 * 1.2 = £0.60. By contrast, a bid multiplier entry of 50% (£0.50 * 0.50) would lead to a £0.25 bid during that time period. The bid multiplier may be as little as 10% or as much as 1000% of your usual bid.
The bid multiplier affects all ads in any campaign, including ads with separate search and content bids. When the time period for a given multiplier ends, your campaign will revert to your normal campaign bids. To enable advanced mode and use the bid multiplier, click the switch to advanced mode link near the top of the Ad Scheduling page. Then click 'Edit' next to any day as normal. You'll see an input box for the bid multiplier next to the usual pull-down menus.
When you are satisfied with your ad schedule, click Save Changes. Your changes will take effect almost immediately. In the future, to adjust your schedule for this campaign, return to the Edit Campaign Settings page as described above. Click Edit times and bids to visit the Ad Scheduling page.
Once you enable Ad Scheduling, a small clock next to a campaign name on the All Campaigns page will indicate that ad scheduling is enabled for that campaign.
Here are a few more things to know about Ad Scheduling:
- Ad scheduling, whether in regular or in advanced mode, will not raise or lower your budget. The AdWords system will still try to reach your usual daily budget in whatever number of hours your ad runs each day.
- Ad Scheduling does not guarantee that your ads will receive impressions or clicks. The usual AdWords rules still apply and your ads will compete for impressions with other ads as usual. If you schedule a campaign for very short periods of time or only at times of great competition for the keywords or placements that you have chosen, your ads may not get the chance to run very often.
- Ad scheduling can be used on campaigns that use keyword targeting and placement targeting.
- Ad scheduling will not work with the AdWords Budget Optimiser™. In order for the Budget Optimiser to best serve an account, it must have the freedom to display ads at all times.
If you have multiple ads in a single ad group, AdWords determines when to show your ads based on your ad serving settings. You can choose between two different ad serving options on your Edit Campaign Settings page, under the Advanced Options heading:
- Optimise: This is the default setting for all your ads. Over time, our system determines which ad is performing better based on higher historic click-through rates (CTRs) and Quality Scores compared to other ads within the ad group. Based on this data, your higher performing ads will be displayed more often. You can see the ad that is being served more often by viewing the % Served column on your Ad Variations table.
- Rotate: This option will serve all the active ads in an ad group more evenly on a rotating basis, regardless of their performance. Your ads will enter the ad auction in an approximately equal number of times and our system will consider the ad's Quality Score when ranking the ad.
We recommend that you stick with the default optimise ad-serving setting for best results.
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Objective: understand how AdWords advertisers can set a position preference for their ads.
Position preference lets users tell Google where they would prefer their ad to show among all the AdWords ads on a given page.
If an advertiser finds that her/his ad gets the best results when it is ranked (for example) third or fourth among all AdWords ads, she/he can set a position preference for those spots. AdWords will then try to show her/his ad whenever it is ranked third or fourth and avoid showing it when it is ranked higher or lower. If the ad is ranked higher than third for a given keyword, the system will automatically try to lower the bid to place the ad in the preferred position.
Position preference does not mean that an ad will always appear in the position specified. The usual AdWords ranking and relevance rules apply. If an ad does not qualify for position No.1, setting a position preference of 1 will not move it there. Position preference simply means that AdWords will try to show the ad whenever it is ranked in the preferred position and to avoid showing it when it is not.
Position preference also does not affect the overall placement of AdWords ad units on the left, right, top or bottom of a given page. It only affects ranking relative to other ads across those units.
Position preferences are not guaranteed. An ad may still appear in other positions, though the AdWords system makes every effort to display ads according to preferences. When a user sets a new preference, it may take a few days for the AdWords system to begin delivering the ad according to those preferences.
The position preference feature uses pull-down menus for high and low position settings. 1 is the highest (top) position and 10+ is the lowest available setting. Choosing a setting of 10+ means your ad will show in positions of 10, 11, 12 and beyond.
Advertisers can request that their ad be shown only when it is:
- Higher than a given position (such as above 7).
- Lower than a given position (such as below 4).
- Within a range of positions (such as from 2-8).
- In a single exact position (such as position 2).
Separate position preferences can be set for any or all of the keywords in a campaign.
Position preferences are set in two steps. First, position preferences must be enabled for a particular campaign. Then preferences can be set for individual keywords within that campaign.
To enable position preferences for a campaign, follow these steps:
- Log in to your account at https://adwords.google.co.uk.
- On the 'Campaign Summary' page, select any campaigns that you want to enable for position preference.
- Click Edit Campaign Settings.
- Find the 'Advanced Options' section.
- Tick the box to enable position preferences.
- Click Save Changes.
To set position preferences for your keywords:
- Return to the 'Campaign Summary' page.
- Click the name of a campaign to be edited.
- Click an ad group within that campaign.
- On the 'Ad Group Details' page, tick the box next to any keywords for which you want to set position preferences.
- Click the Edit Keyword Settings button (located above the keyword list).
- On the 'Edit Keyword Settings' page, you'll see the feature in the far right column.
- Use the pull-down menus to choose the range that you want for each keyword, from 1 to 10+. The left-hand number is the highest position that you'd like your ad to take. The right-hand number is the lowest position that your ad will take. (Remember, these are only preferences, not guarantees.)
- Click Save Changes.
Once you've set your preferences, you can view them from the main 'Ad Group Details' page by clicking the word Show next to each term in the Settings column. Your position preferences will remain in effect until you edit them or disable position preference for that campaign.
Setting a position preference can sharply reduce the number of impressions and clicks a keyword receives. Targeting just one or two positions means an ad will not show at times when it otherwise might have. We encourage advertisers to choose as broad a range of positions as they are comfortable with.
There is no single "right" position for all ads. Many people want to be ranked No.1, but some advertisers prefer the lower costs that come with lower positions. Others find that certain keywords get a better return on investment (ROI) when their ads run in a specific position. The more advertisers test different positions and results, the more likely they are to find the positions that best suit their needs.
If an advertiser does not set a position preference, their ads will continue to run normally in all positions. If they enable position preference but do not set individual preferences, their ads will also run normally in all positions.
Does position preference work with the Budget Optimiser™? No. The Budget Optimiser sets and adjusts bids automatically based on overall budget, and so cannot work effectively when the advertiser also sets position preferences manually.
Does position preference work with content bids? Yes and no. Advertisers may run both features in the same campaign at the same time. However, since position preference does not apply to Google's network of content sites, any preferences set will not affect the content bids.
Will the keyword tool suggest position preferences? No. The keyword tool is not affected by position preferences and does not suggest preferences.
Does the Report Centre show my position preferences? Yes. Your reports now show your position preference, as well as the average position that your ad actually received. (If you changed your position preferences many times in a given reporting period, the average position may not be very meaningful.) Keywords without position preferences are marked "any".
Does position preference work with ad campaigns and ad groups that have placements? Yes and no. Placements don't affect ads running on the search network. If the campaign has targeted the search network and an ad group contains keywords, the position preference can apply to search network results. If a campaign targets the content network only, or placements only, then position preference won't apply.
Does position preference work with preferred CPC bidding? No. If you select preferred CPC bidding, the AdWords system automatically adjusts your ad position as it works to hit your preferred CPC bid. This position adjustment is incompatible with the position preference feature.
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