Google Adwords is one of the most popular ways to advertise and can be an effective part of any company’s overall web marketing strategy. Google Adwords allows a user to market a company’s message while at the same time qualifying prospects to make sure the right people are reading their messages. Chances are you either already have ads running through Google Adwords or you’ve seriously considered it.
Google gives an Adwords user results of the success of their ads, individually and collectively, in the form of number of clicks, number of impressions, the click-through-rate, and average position. All of these data results are helpful for a user to see, but some are more important than others and should be determining factors in deciding to keep running, change, or discontinue ads.
Clicks – Clicks refer to the number of times people click on the ads. This number is important to determining the success of the ad, but should be looked at in relation to the number of impressions an ad reports.
Impressions – The number of impressions is inconclusive to determining an ad’s success when its data is looked at alone. The number of impressions an ad reports should be looked at in conjunction with clicks.
Click-through-rate (CTR) – The click-through-rate is one of the biggest determinants of a successful ad. The click-through-rate is the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of its impressions. The higher the click-through-rate, the more a user can assume that prospects found this ad relevant to the keywords they searched. A “good” click-through-rate varies, but it can be safely said that every Adwords user should strive for click-through-rates that are 1% and above.
Average Position – The average position of the ads also strongly determines its success. The average position of an ad describes how a user’s ad compares to and ranks against other ads.
Overall, a Google Adwords user should be most concerned with their click-through-rate and average position data. Once these are analyzed, a user or company can decide what must be done to ensure that their ads are effective and engaging customers.
Sometimes the content of the ads can hinder their success. Using brand names or trademarks in the ad content may lessen Google’s ability to show the ad. Google needs to take time to decide if you, as the Adwords user, are qualified to use that term before it will run the ad to its full capacity.
Other words of which to be conscientious of when creating ads are words that Google deems inappropriate. These words may not be obvious and sometimes can be very general terms. For example, the phrase “the best” is flagged by Google as an inappropriate term. In these cases, the user must edit the ads and change the content before the ads can run.
The success of a Google Adwords campaign depends on careful coordination of effective ad content and relevant keywords. Autumn Consulting has a team of web marketing experts specially trained in creating and monitoring Google Adwords campaigns. Want to make sure your Adwords campaign is reaching its full potential, or want to start one? Contact us to get started.
