help with Adwords...im trying it again on a limited basis

[huggytree]

ive tried and failed horribly with Adwords in the past..my website was redesigned a year ago and my sales from my website have gone up 4-5x, so i think its time to try again

i did 2 mini campaigns
$10 per day , $1 per click

campaign #1
limited to Mukwonago,WI (my hometown)
Keywords: Plumber mukwonago, plumbing mukwonago, plumbing mukwonago wi, water heater mukwongo, etc (8 key words)

AD:
Waukesha Plumbing LLC
Mukwonago's local plumber
Mukwonago owned & operated
www. waukesha plumbing.com


campaign #2
limited to the state of WI ( couldnt figure out how to bring it down to Waukesha County where i wanted it)
Keywords: water heater waukesha, waukesha waterheater wi, etc (4 keywords all focusing on waterheaters...since my website is waukeshaplumbing.com i have all the 'plumber waukesha' type keywords handled already)

AD:
Waukesha Plumbing LLC
Waukesha's local plumber
Waukesha owned & operated
www. Waukesha Plumbing.com



anything im missing or could do better???? if i have success i may pay someone to do a whole campaign for me

all these keywords have 'unknown or poor' ratings by Google...

[vangogh]

Dave I can't tell you everything about AdWords in a single post or thread, but I'll try to offer some thoughts to help.

First know that successful AdWords campaigns aren't usually something you set once and forget about. Generally you do your best to set things up and use the system to test various things against each other. For example you can run 2 ads for the same keyword and over time see which ad works better. Then you try a different ad to compare it to the one working better. Over time you continue to improve the campaign.

The basics for setting things up are to first do a little keyword research. I typed plumber and plumbing into the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS) and pulled some phrases from the results.


plumbing repair
plumbing repairs
licensed plumber
plumber services
plumbing services
plumbing companies
residential plumbing
plumbing contractors

All of the above use either plumbing or plumber, but they also use other words and some themes start developing. Some people are looking for services, some for a company, some want residential while some want contractors. What you generally want to do is begin expanding on the phrases around those themes. I took plumbing repair and searched again in the same tool and found:

plumbing repair services
plumbing repair costs
bathroom plumbing repair
plumbing repair toilets
home plumbing repair
plumbing repair leaks
plumbing leak repair
emergency plumbing repair

You want to build an ad group around all these different phrases and test a couple of different ads against each other. You'd then build another list of words around say licensed plumber and set it up as a different ad group with different ads.

Since you're limiting things to only show up in Waukesha you probably don't need to use Waukesha in the keyword phrases. You can use another tool, the AdWords Preview Tool (https://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview/?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000) to see what ads are showing specifically in any area, though the regular Google results will likely work since you're located in the area you're targeting. You can get some ideas for other ads about how to write your own.

The reason for setting up different ad groups is that while it may seem like someone searching for plumbing repairs is looking for the same thing as licensed plumber there are going to be subtle differences and each will respond differently to different ads. By separating these keyword themes you can write different ads to appeal to the different groups. It also allows you to set different bids on the keywords.

You want to direct people to the closest match between the ad and page on your site. Ideally you'd build out the site so there are pages that make good matches. For example you mention your plumbing license on your home page. I'd probably create a page more dedicated to talking about your license. Maybe an about page that leads with your licensing information and then talk more about you as a plumber. The heading of the page should match the ad so if someone clicks an ad for a licensed plumber you'd want the main heading on the page to use those words. I realize you're not going to create new pages on your site right now so directing people to your home page is probably what you'd have to do for the moment.

Again once you have the basic set up going it's about monitoring your different ad groups and campaigns and tweaking them here and there. AdWords will likely be most successful for you if you target a wide range of keyword phrases and adjust various parts of your campaigns based on the data Google gives you.

Your goal is to build a list of words and ads that are each profitable. One phrase might cost you $100 a year and result in $200 a year in business. You try to tweak it so the net result is $250 then $300, etc. Another phrases may end up costing you $100 and only result in $50 a year. You can either work to improve that or decide it's not the best phrase and drop it entirely.

I hope something in there helps.

[billbenson]

Huggy, what search terms show up in your web site stats? It really sounds like you are coming up with keywords that you think will work well rather than letting Google tell you what search terms it likes. Your stats are the best place to get this information.

Also use your stats for negative keywords. Lets say someone searches for "moen plumbing parts" Google may decide to display your ad even though don't have that phrase or those keywords in your list. You see that and put parts or Moen as negative keywords so G doesn't display your ad for non clients. It is fairly common that Google will display your ad for searches that don't make sense to you.

Also, as VG eluded to, you probably want landing pages specifically for your ads. If your landing page is tied in with your ad and your keywords, your cost per click will go down. Also, your landing page needs to be a selling page. I suspect that your problems in the past have been related to your landing page.

[huggytree]

thank you both for your help...you are correct that i just chose keywords that i think will work w/o any research....im understanding what your both telling me to some degree...its a bit beyond my knowledge......i have no idea how to direct to different pages of my website

when i have a good month in business and have tons of extra money i think im going to hire one of you to do a campaign for me....and see what a pro can do

ill let you know whats happening with the Adwords account in a few days....i want to try to get more work locally here in my home town of Mukwonago,WI....Waukesha is a county i live in and it is also a large city right next to Mukwonago.....its hard to call yourself local and use a different city's name as your company name..im trying to figure out how to do it.....there's a very good 'buy local' attitude in my area...i find it above average and i want to take advantage of that

[vangogh]

We probably threw a lot at you, didn't we? :)

If you're interested there's an AdWords Learning Center (http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs&rd=1), which walks you through a lot of the basics. It's a lot of reading and it may still be more than you really want to know, but it's there if you have some free time.


i have no idea how to direct to different pages of my website

When you create an ad it asks for a URL to send people to. You have them set to go to your home page. You would just use choose a different URL based on where you wanted the ad to go.

[huggytree]

2 days live and no searches for my keywords yet....everything is at 0

[billbenson]

Give it two weeks. Adwords is faster than regular seo but it's not instant.

Have you looked at the keywords in your stats program? That should be supplied by your host and you should have user password access to it.

[Business Attorney]

Adwords will also suggest more words and phrases, so you can easily expand your list. I'm not that surprised your ads haven't been shown. I have a huge list of words and am bidding higher than $1 in an area with a lot more people than Waukesha County. While my ads in the aggregate had hundreds of impressions today, I think more than half of them had no impressions at all and a lot had only one or two impressions. "Business attorney" had one impression. The more related words you can cover, the greater the odds are someone will use the terms you have selected. Your $10/day cap will protect you from running up a big bill, so you really have nothing to lose. Plus, some of the longer tail terms are much less expensive to buy.

Also, did you look to see what position Google predicts your ad will run in? If it is not in the top 10, you'll only get people who can't find what they are looking for on the first page. Also, I saw some figures recently that showed the drop off between the top three (which appear directly above the search results) and the rest (that appear to the right of the search results). I don't remember the actual numbers, but the difference was HUGE.

[billbenson]

I didn't notice that you had set a $10 a day budget. When I first started I had a low budget like that as well. I upped the budget to $90 or something like that and all of a sudden had more clicks and impressions. I have no idea if others have seen budget vs impression relationships, but I did.

When you get no clicks and no impressions with your ad campaign, you are also learning nothing about what ads work, keywords, etc.I don't recall what you said your maximum cost per click was (CPC), but lets say its $2 (that's a really high figure to me but just for example). If you set your budget at $100 for a day, you have only risked $100. You could gain a bunch of information for that $100 and perhaps even a job. Right now though, you are trying to learn adwords, find keywords etc.

__________________________________________________ ____-

Here's my recommendation Huggy:

Your not loosing anything right now if you have no clicks. Now is the time to learn. You are probably not going to get many clicks with your keywords etc the way they are, but that's ok. If you get a big job and don't have time to mess with it, leave it there.

If you have free time, find some more key words and write some more ads. I have 100 or so ads and I really should have 1000. But four is still twice as many as two. Play with it slowly over time and don't do anything that is going to put a bunch of money at risk.

Leave your budget at $10 for now. You will want to raise that later, but not until after you have more information.

To help you Huggy, the one thing I would like to know is if you have access to your site stats. That is critical and you need that information. If you don't have access to that info or your web host doesn't provide that let us know. If you have stats, what are your key phrases and keywords?

[vangogh]

I saw some figures recently that showed the drop off between the top three (which appear directly above the search results) and the rest (that appear to the right of the search results).

I can't tell you the exact numbers either, but there is a big drop off. For years people have been running eye tracking tests on search results pages. Here's a famous image of one.

168

It's from a few years ago so the results page is different now, but the results are still the same. You can pretty much see the drop off after the first 3 results, which are now usually ads.

[huggytree]

2 ad campaigns for the 2 citys....$10 a day each and $1 per click to get on the 1st page

i will check in a few mins to see if i got any clicks yet....my phone hasnt rang all week, so if i got a click i didnt get a job yet from it...

[huggytree]

just checked it and still nothing...it doesnt say 'active' it says 'eligible' ...when i looked up what that meant its kind of confusing

i also tried a basic internet search for a few of my keywords and my ad didnt come up...when ive done this in the past it always has...i dont think my ads are running for some reason....any thoughts?

[billbenson]

If its doesn't say active you aren't getting any impressions (your ad isn't being displayed). Upping your budget or max cpc would probably get your ad shown. I'd write a couple more ads using less common keywords instead. This is where the keyword research becomes important.

[Business Attorney]

In the adwords dashboard, go to the tab that says "Keywords" In the column under status, it will give you some information such as"

Below first page bid
First page bid estimate: $2.00

Also, there is a symbol like a talk bubble in the comics. If you click on that, it will provide information such as:

Keyword: (Your keyword)
Disapproval reasons:
Showing ads right now?
No Your keyword isn't triggering ads to appear on Google right now due to a low Ad Rank. Ads are ranked based on your bid and Quality Score. What can I do?

Quality score 7/10
Keyword relevance: No problems
Landing page quality: No problems
Landing page load time: No problems
Expected clickthrough rate:
Ad relevance:
Landing page experience:
Limited due to:

If your bid is high enough, then the quality rank of the landing page may not be good. You should consider having a specific page on your website that is geared toward your target market and the ad you are displaying. For example, for "plumbing mukwonago" you only mention Mukwonago once on your home page, and it is neither in your page title nor in your description meta tag. You would be much better off from an adwords standpoint if you had a page that was more focused on Mukwonago. It might help with your conversions, too, to talk about the locally-owned in Mukwonago angle.

[billbenson]

If your bid is high enough, then the quality rank of the landing page may not be good. You should consider having a specific page on your website that is geared toward your target market and the ad you are displaying. For example, for "plumbing mukwonago" you only mention Mukwonago once on your home page, and it is neither in your page title nor in your description meta tag. You would be much better off from an adwords standpoint if you had a page that was more focused on Mukwonago. It might help with your conversions, too, to talk about the locally-owned in Mukwonago angle.

If you notice Huggy, there is a repeating theme here from all of us. David is exactly right. Ideally you need a landing page for each ad.

keywords -> ad (keywords in ad) -> keywords on the landing page.

You never answered. Do you have access to stats that show your keywords and key phrases for visitors for your site?

[huggytree]

If you notice Huggy, there is a repeating theme here from all of us. David is exactly right. Ideally you need a landing page for each ad.

keywords -> ad (keywords in ad) -> keywords on the landing page.

You never answered. Do you have access to stats that show your keywords and key phrases for visitors for your site?

i do not have access to keywords for visitors...how do i find it?

[huggytree]

just played around with Adwords again....went to the keywords section......some keywords were marked bad, so i deleted them.....some others needed a $2.00 bid to be on the first page...i up'd them

still no change in status....still says eligible....im going to have to contact google when i have some free time...my keywords over all do not have a very good rating... according to google they are rarely used...

i need to find out what types of words lead people to my website to begin with....

a while back i tried using competitors names as keywords...i had very poor performance using that idea

[Business Attorney]

i do not have access to keywords for visitors...how do i find it?

There are several ways. Do you have access to a cPanel or other administrative panel? Most hosts give you access to your raw log files which aren't really readily usable, but they also have stats programs such as Awstats or Webalyzer. On one host I use, stats are automatically available but on another host, until you select one or both of the stats programs, neither is in effect.

Other options include Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools. All are free and all give slightly different information. I use all of them. These last three are accessible from your web browser and don't require that you go to your admin panel at all although before you can use them you have to verify that you own the site, usually by putting a small file on your site.

[billbenson]

Huggy, with a $5 host you get stats. From prior posts I suspect you are hosting with the company that is writing your website.If you don't have stats via a control panel you are getting screwed.

[Spider]

If you cannot get statistics from your host (or it is too cumbersome) try StatCounter (http://statcounter.com/) - this is the stat program I use, and the stats it provides are very extensive, including Keyword Analysis and Recent Keyword Activity. There is a free version - I pay $9 a month, I think, for greater capacity. Highly recommended.

[huggytree]

i have been ignoring Adwords for a few weeks now since it didnt make my keywords active....and guess what...they are now active

3 hits by 2 people...time spent says 0...cost $5.25....no calls on my end

water heater and a city name is the hot keyword

one had 833 impressions, but 2 clicks

anything i can do with that info? does it mean my Ad. is good?

[vangogh]

There's not a lot of info there to act on. 2 clicks in 823 impressions is pretty low. It suggests you either need to improve your ad to entice more clicks or perhaps improve the ads position. Do you know where your ad is currently positioned on average.

I just used Google's AdWords Preview tool to find one of your ads and I can a couple of things where you need to improve. I'm looking at an ad that below your company name and url reads:

Mukwonago's local plumber
Mukwonago Owned/Operated

The two lines are redundant. The second isn't giving any information that can't be figured out in the first line. You might not even need to mention Mukwonago since it was one of the keywords.

Instead you could do something like this:

Call for 24/7 plumbing repairs
Locally owned and licensed

The first line is a call to action. I'm not sure if you offer 24/7 service at the moment, but if not the first line can be changed. If you want people to call you then you have to tell them to call you. You want to use an action verb like a command. The second line provides some information about you that's designed to make people trust you more. First line call to action. Second line additional information to overcome potential objections to the first line. If it fits within the the character limit you could change the second line to

Locally owned and licensed in Mukwonago

though I'm thinking that exceeds the character limits.

The page you want to send people to with the add should clearly show a phone number and perhaps some information about the type of repair work you do. There has to be a connection between your call to action and the landing page for the ad. If someone clicks on your ad to call you they shouldn't have to search for the number. That should be one of the most visible things on the page.

Naturally you can't stop with the one ad. You want to do the above with every ad. Don't make all your ads the same. If you bid on a keyword for water heaters have the first line of the ad read call for water heater repair. Make that same connection between the keyword being searched and your ad copy. Google actually makes this easier to do by letting you use variables in the ad so whatever keyword is used gets placed in part of the ad copy.

Also try two different ads against each other to test them. Test the one above against

Call local and licensed plumber
24/7 water heater repair

You run both ads at the same time and Google shows you which is getting more clicks and costing less money. When enough data has been collected you can compare one ad the winner and write a new one to test against.

I know that's a lot of information to take in, but it's the basic idea if improving each ad. At the least take from this post the idea about writing the ad. Call to action followed by additional information and see if it works. Feel free to run an ad by us here before trying one if you want. There are enough copywriters here to help tweak it.