Chromand - Desiging, Developing, and Marketing for the Interwebs

I found out an interesting little nugget of information about Adwords the other day. Your placement ranking is based on a quality scoring algorithm, instead of just your bids. Here is the super complex Google algorithim, which has recently been leaked:

Quality Score = Bid * CTR%.

Ok, so it’s really not that hard. that means if you bid $1 on a keyword with a CTR of 0.40%, you will get better positioning that someone bidding $2 with a CTR or 0.10%. So, here are some tips to increase your CTR, and be able to get better and cheaper rankings.

1. Have several, focused ads in your ads group

• If your site has a variety of topics, make a variety of ads, with each dealing with a specific subset of keywords. Let’s take this site for example. I could run one set of ads about Adwords, one about Adsense, one about design, and one about coding and web development. By breaking up your keywords, you can also see if some are outdoing others, and if some our floundering and need more of your attention.

2. Get a good keyword selection

• Be specific when choosing your keywords, and use lots of long tail keywords(keywords that are 4+ words long) This way you are targeting better, but are getting into more searches for cheap.

3. Use negative keywords

• by putting a minus sign before a keyword, you can make it a negative keyword, and you won’t show up searches that involve those keywords. For example, if you are selling something and are looking for customers, “free” and “picture” are good things to have as negative keywords.

4. use multiple Ad variations

• Within your ad categories, you can have ad variations. Make at least 2 per category, and let them compete against each other. You can change the Adwords settings to rotate the ads evenly, which is preferred. The way Google optimizes showings is a little screwy, and it can give you a less than optimal CTR.  When one is performing poorly, take it out and try something new.  Here is a really good link for some things to try in your copy: 31 Adwords Tips.
  

5. Don’t use the content network

• Just don’t. It will hurt your CTR and your conversions. Besides, did you know that 50% of content network traffic is from link farms?

6. Be smart about your bidding

• when advertising in the search network, we are shooting for the top 8 positions. 9th and below get almost no traffic. Play around with bidding, and bid the lowest you can and still get in those top 8 spots.  Just don’t break the bank on this.

7. Always be optimizing

• An Adwords campaign is not something that you set up one day and forget about it.  It changes constantly, and you need to be monitoring it and making changes all the time in order to be truly effective. Just set aside 15 minutes of everyday, check your stats, and make some changes. Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Try new keywords and new ad copys. See what works and what doesn’t.  Eventually, you’ll find a good balance that works for you.

These tips are a great resource, because not only will this increase your CTR, but it will also give you a more targeted campaign, which will increase conversions on your website as well.

Happy Hunting!