Adwords Express - Real user experience?

[JakeM]

I'm just about to start using Google Ads. I've looked briefly at the full blown Adwords, and although I'm sure I can learn the system, and how to optimise my ads, I can't afford to spend time learning it.

I've therefore looked at Adwords Express, where I choose an category (Architect), pick a radius from my high street office (10 miles), pick a monthly budget and then Google sorts everything out itself.

This obviously cuts out the marketing/PPC campaign companies. As such, every article written by a Marketing Firm seems to slate Adwords Express, suggesting they could easily get as much as 400% of the clicks for the same Ad budget. This is all well and good if a company is spending £1000+ per month on Ads, as the price for a PPC company to setup the campaign is quickly recovered...

However, for a small business looking to invest maybe £50-£100 per month initially, paying someone to setup and manage a campaign, isn't a financially viable option...

Have any small business owners ventured into Adwords Express, and what are your experiences? As my business category is on Google's list "Architect", I assume they would know how to market me...?!

 

[Deleted member 173943]

I'm just about to start using Google Ads. I've looked briefly at the full blown Adwords, and although I'm sure I can learn the system, and how to optimise my ads, I can't afford to spend time learning it.

I've therefore looked at Adwords Express, where I choose an category (Architect), pick a radius from my high street office (10 miles), pick a monthly budget and then Google sorts everything out itself.

This obviously cuts out the marketing/PPC campaign companies. As such, every article written by a Marketing Firm seems to slate Adwords Express, suggesting they could easily get as much as 400% of the clicks for the same Ad budget. This is all well and good if a company is spending £1000+ per month on Ads, as the price for a PPC company to setup the campaign is quickly recovered...

However, for a small business looking to invest maybe £50-£100 per month initially, paying someone to setup and manage a campaign, isn't a financially viable option...

Have any small business owners ventured into Adwords Express, and what are your experiences? As my business category is on Google's list "Architect", I assume they would know how to market me...?!

Our experience is that AdWords Express won't be effective. It's super easy to put your business in front of people online within a certain area, but due to the lack of targeting, results will be difficult to come by. Not impossible, but difficult.

I'd recommend not pursuing AdWords Express.

Try Bing Ads (Nah, I'm just joking!)

 

[StevePoster]

It is important that you have knowledge and experience in Adword for you to take the field effectively and understand its flow on how it will be placed.

 

[JakeM]

Update!

I gave Adword Express a go, and it's changed a lot from all the (biased) reviews I read by PPC agencies (who Adwords Express is putting out of business...)

Good Points:

• I was able to select my target audience, either by a set radius, or using individual areas / postcodes.

• Adwords then trawls your website and comes up with a list of selected search terms/keywords which it then bids on. It then keeps optimising the campaign constantly, and even adds in new search terms every few days. Mine is up to 181 keywords!

• Some of these search terms aren't valid, but you simply turn off these terms and Google won't bid on them.

• Furthermore, I wanted to add some keywords, so I emailed Adwords support, and they simply added those terms in for me.

• It's really easy to use and manage, and is optimised constantly on a day by day basis.

Bad points:

• Only one so far and that is that when new search keywords are added, they are turned on automatically and by default. Therefore, it's a good idea to login every week or so to turn off the ones that aren't relevant to your business. This is a a 10 second job, but I just have to remember to do it every week or so.

 

[Peter Bowen]

Have you made any sales from your spend yet?

 

[JakeM]

Yes, I've set it at £50 per month for the moment as I'm trying a few different marketing options right now.

Ideally I'd like to have a much higher budget per month to get stable results quicker (it's quite easy to flip a coin twice, and get two heads...), but so far I've spent £74.06 and have had 79 clicks, a few enquiries and one job so far, which I'm very happy with financially.

39 of the keywords it selected have had views, and of those 39, 15 of those keywords have been clicked on at least once.

My worst marketing option so far has been Yell dot com. I haven't had a single enquiry (bar someone wanting work experience), and I'm tied into two adverts there for a year...

 

[fisicx]

Adwords works best if you test and adjust. For the first month or so you need to be constantly tweaking the keywords and the adverts and (most importantly) the landing page.

Doing this you can easy increase the number of conversions and filter out the keywords don't work.

Properly managing your adwords can reduce your costs. But don't think spending more will suddenly get more leads. You will reach a point where the ads and leads flatten off. If you want more leads you then need to start a new campaign (new keywords, new ads, new landing pages).

The key to success is constant monitoring and adjustment. I often begin a campaign with a couple of hundred keyword variations and whittle this down to one or two moneymakers.

As to yell - that's a complete waste of money.

 

[JakeM]

That's interesting about how things might flatten off above a certain price point. At present, I've been extremely selective in both my target area, times the advert will show (purely business hours), as well as the search terms it will bid on. Looking through it, it seems that I've made it so specific, it cannot reach my monthly spend (which I'm ok with).

As I'd rather pay for more specific leads, that I can easily convert, rather than waste money.

The only thing I keep going back and forth with, is limiting my advert to business hours. The thought process behind this is that people either call or email me. Advertising out of business hours, means I can only answer emails. It does get me more views (and clicks) though...

 

[fisicx]

But if you have a cracking landing page - optimised for Adwords - then you can get fantastic conversions even out of hours.

Don't ever use your 'normal' page as an adwords landing page. People are clicking on your advert because they want what you are selling. So the whole page needs to written to convert a warm lead rather than convincing people you are the man for the job. It means you can remove all the fluff and focus on the conversion.

 

[Peter Bowen]

@JakeM well done for making a sale. That's the important bit.

I ran an AdWords campaign for an architectural practice, it worked really well. AdWords is a good fit for your kind of business.

About advertising during business hours: We got loads of enquiries from people wanting residential stuff - alterations and new builds - after hours and on weekends. Obviously if you only do commercial stuff then it's probably fine to advertise only during the business day.

There is one thing that baffles me about your approach. An architect's time is worth a shedload of money. Each new project is worth a shedload of money, but here you are tinkering with AdWords Express. AdWords Express is the homeplans.com of the AdWords world.

 

[JakeM]

The individual landing pages are the main benefit of Adwords over Express. At present, I've optimised my homepage to cater for my most popular search term (as I pretty much offer just one service). I've spent a lot of time optimising the speed in which my homepage loads and built my website around this concept. The homepage also explains what I do in seconds, and in a visually interesting way.

My main area is residential, so I think I will expand the hours in which my advert it shown, and see how I get on!

I guess I have ended up with a strange philosophy in terms of what work I do, and what I outsource. My working week can vary from absolutely crazy weeks where I have to work into the night, to a few days off with no work. When I don't have any work, I like to take a proactive stance on my marketing, as I have the time available and it's nice knowing all aspects of my business. I do believe in spending money on marketing though - adverts, PPC, directories, printed media etc.

 

[fisicx]

You need different landing pages for different keywords.

And you don't need to explain what you do, your advert already does this.

Building an Adwords landing page can be more difficult that a 'normal' page as the focus is different.

I've been using Adwords for many years and the landing page is key to success. If you have 10 keyword groups in your campaign then you may need 10 landing pages. If you only have 1 or 2 keyword groups you could be missing out on loads of niche opportunities.

So my advice would be to use the full Adwords service and spread your net wider. Experiment and test find out what works and what doesn't.

 

[Peter Bowen]

Building an Adwords landing page can be more difficult that a 'normal' page as the focus is different.

@fisicx hits the nail on the head.

Building high converting landing pages is both an art and a science. The payoff from a good landing is significant, especially in a field like architecture where the value of each new client is high compared with the cost of getting that client through AdWords.

I've implemented a lot of the ideas tested here http://goodui.org/ in the landing pages we build for our clients. It's definitely worth a read.

 

[extulsftjz]

Another reason for having AdWords only landing pages is Quality Score. Raise this and reduce the amount your pay for a click and or improve your position on the page.