Tips to Streamline Google AdWords for Small Business

Small- and medium-sized businesses often find AdWords paid search a challenging channel to promote their businesses. There is no one-size-fits-all since the business models, resources, and budgets can vary so dramatically. Whatever the challenge, SMBs can use simple tactics to refine and keep an effective account – especially when these tips are used in combination.

Budgets: Automated Can Save Costs

Many of the tips described here are also ways to control your budget, but one specific setting is worth testing. Try using the automatic bidding. This will allow Google to automatically adjust the bids to whatever amount will get the most clicks within budget. Including a cost-per-click (CPC) limit means you place a cap on the maximum amount of the automated bid.

I have found that using this setting will keep the CPC lower, but the ad rank also slightly lowers, in the three or lower position. If you are married to the idea of having a top slot, this would not be for you.

Find this in the campaign settings, under bidding and budget.

Ad Scheduling: Laser Focus on Best Times

Using your sales and website analytics reports, try to determine if there are specific days of the week and times of the day that are sweet spots and any that fall flat in reaching your goals. For example, some SMBs find running ads in and around only business hours is a good way to control costs and focus budget. With the new Enhanced Campaigns available, advertisers can set budget in percentage increases/decreases, which will allow you to adjust for the most profitable time periods.

Find this in the campaign settings tab under advanced setting, ad scheduling.

Multi-Screen

We know through several studies that consumers move between devices to accomplish their goals online. For example, one may start researching or browsing a purchase from their smartphone, then go to their desktop to complete the purchase. The concept of the multi-screen world applies to all business types, not just big business or e-commerce. Including this as a strategy in your current program also makes PPC well-rounded, expanding reach.

The new Enhanced Campaigns in AdWords includes tablets and integrates mobile. Bids may be adjusted for mobile exposure and further customized to the business by budget, ad scheduling, and location. Take advantage of these settings to get highly relevant targeting and results.

Keywords: Find the Right Match

One of the simplest ways to run a highly relevant PPC program is through effective use of the keywords. The broader the keyword, the greater the reach, but unfortunately the relevancy can also slip. This can be a money pit for SMBs with limited budgets.

Avoid broad match, which allows your ad to show on similar phrases and close variations. Close variations include misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings, abbreviations, and accents. This can further complicate things when your ads can also appear for “related searches” or when someone searches for synonyms of your keywords.

Instead, choose one of the following matching options, keeping in mind they limit traffic the more restricted the match type is:

• Broad match modifier: +laptop +computers
  • Keyword must appear in the user’s search exactly or as a close variant, such as misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like “computer” and “computing”).
• Phrase match: “laptop computers”
  • Allows your ad to show for searches that include the exact phrase and possibly includes other words as well.
• Exact match: [laptop computers]
  • Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively.
• Negative match: -cheap
  • Ensures your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term.

Try one or some of these combinations in Google AdWords to find the optimal formula for small business. The key is to find the most relevant campaigns to your business, even if this sacrifices a bit of traffic or brand reach.