My Google Advertising is not Working – Ironing out the Problems so you don’t Pour Money Down the Drain

Photo Credit: skryo

“I tried AdWords for my business but it didn’t work”

“I had someone run my AdWords and it didn’t work for my business.”

These are comments that I hear when speaking with business owners.

The underlying issues behind these statements is not so much that it didn’t work for the business concerned, but more likely or probable, that the way in which the Google advertising was run didn’t deliver the desired results for that business.

“So what went wrong with the Google AdWords campaign?” you might be asking.

Pay Per CLick (PPC) is a Specialised Area of Online Marketing

In reality, setting up and running an AdWords campaign is a complex process for the uninitiated. It is a specialised area of online marketing that requires a range of diverse skills, ranging from sharp analytical skills, good marketing skills, attention to detail, creativity, understanding statistics and probabilities, psychology, to understanding the mindsets of searchers on the Internet so that you are able to craft good copy for ads and landing pages.

Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics

No tracking? We’ve taken over quite a few AdWords campaigns where tracking wasn’t in place in Google Analytics.

If you can’t track what you are doing by setting some initial goals, then it’s going to be difficult to assess the results from your advertising and marketing efforts.

The analogy that I like to use is that it’s like running a marathon – taking off when the starter gun goes off, and starting to run down the road, not knowing where the finishing line is, in what direction you should head, or how long you should run for. Then there’s the question of how you should pace yourself as you are running down the road – should you go slower at first, then maybe sprint and push harder when you are nearing the finishing line? But then if you don’t know where the finishing line is – that could pose a slight problem?

Set up Goal Conversions

It is important to have tracking in place in Google Analytics when setting up a Google AdWords campaign because one of the metrics that is critical to measure and track is goal conversions. A typical scenario is that visitors get to your website, and then some may leave because they can’t find what they are looking for. The bounce rate may be attributed to a variety of factors. Perhaps the visitor couldn’t find what they were looking for, or other distractions on the page led them to click on another page when in fact you wanted them to stay on the current page. There are many issues that can distract a visitor to your website page that need to be analysed, with further refinements being made once you form a clear picture about what is happening.

Getting Targeted Leads to your Landing Page

It’s great to get traffic and visitors to your website, but it’s also important to make sure that the online leads that you are getting for your business are targeted, relevant and the right sort of leads for your business. A more in depth analysis will reveal the search terms that resulted in the goal conversions, so that you can do more of what works, and minimise what is not working so well with a campaign.

Running a Google Adwords campaign is an iterative process of continuous improvement. Google advertising can work for your business if it is set up correctly at the start and properly managed on an ongoing basis.