Now is a great time to take a fresh look at your search campaigns and make sure everything is clean, well organized and ready for the brand new year. We asked MatchCraft’s campaign management experts which optimizations they’re looking at right now.
Their top five:
1. Use All Your AdWords Extensions
Extensions add valuable information to your ads and give you more real estate on the search engine results page (SERP) – both of which increase clicks and conversions. Google says sitelinks, in particular, can boost CTRs as much as 50%. And callouts, while they’re not clickable, give you an additional opportunity to highlight important service features, e.g. “Free consultation” or “24-hour service.”
2. Make Your Ad Stand Out
Use your limited ad copy to highlight your unique selling features and accolades. If you’ve won awards, appeared on TV, offer a money-back guarantee, or prevailed in a big case, mention it. Anything that separates your ad from the pack will help users decide where to click.
3. Add Mobile-Preferred Ad Copy
In 2014, for the first time, mobile search volume passed desktop searches. Make sure your campaigns are ready for mobile customers by creating mobile-preferred ad copy that includes specific calls to action for mobile users like “call now” or “schedule a consultation.” Of course, first you’ll want to make sure the business has a mobile-optimized landing page or website; without one, you run the risk of seeing your campaign’s performancequality score drop. (Surprisingly, more than half of small businesses still lack mobile-optimized websites). Businesses that don’t have mobile-friendly websites or landing pages should consider opting out of mobile traffic until they do.
4. Clean Out Your Keyword Lists
Once you get to 50 keywords in a campaign or ad group, take a look at which ones are really driving the results you want; keep those and toss the rest. There’s no need to clutter your campaigns with zero- or low-traffic keywords that aren’t generating conversions. Aim to do this quarterly, if not more often.
5. Restructure Campaigns or Ad Groups by Match Type
This lets you easily see which keyword match type (modified broad, phrase, or exact match) is producing the desired conversions. A Ford dealer, for example, wants to know which match type drives the most calls for the keyword “Ford Prius 2015” so she can allocate more budget to the one that’s working.