Google Adwords Campaigns

[MARA&TS]

Hi

I just want to know if anyone on here runs Google Adword Campaigns for their business and if so do you manage the Campaigns yourself or you have an external company do it for you?

If you manage it yourself, how successful are your campaigns and what level of understanding, training and experience do you have with using Google Adwords?

If you have your campaigns managed by an external company, how successful are your campaigns and how would your recommend finding the best company to manage your campaign?

 

[gpietersz]

Someone who had campaigns managed by an external company recently told be that he discontinued adwords completely and found he lost hardly any business because the traffic from adwords was not complaining.

On the other hand some people find it works for them.

Whoever you choose, make sure you have the data to know whether its working: in particular track conversions as its the extra sales that matter.

 

[makeusvisible]

Hi

If you manage it yourself, how successful are your campaigns and what level of understanding, training and experience do you have with using Google Adwords?

If you have your campaigns managed by an external company, how successful are your campaigns and how would your recommend finding the best company to manage your campaign?

I'm speaking from an Agency perspective.

The first thing, and this is me been slightly geeky, it is no longer "Adwords", it is now called "Google Ads". Same beast, different name.

Around five years ago, my wife joined our agency to take over management of Google Ads. She is a very smart lady, with a very analytical background. She works on Google Ads every day, all day.

As a team we chat about campaigns daily, and discuss Ad performance, conversions, Ad text and campaign ideas. Honesty, I have no idea how someone could run a business, and have time to manage their own Google Ads campaign. It's ever changing, the learning curve is huge, and just one mistake on a campaign can result in wasted spend. You can literally spend money faster than standing at a petrol pump. From our experience, the number one reason for people self managing and saying "Google Ads doesnt work" is because of a badly configured campaign.

That said; Google Ads isnt for everyone. Not every campaign will (or even can) be a success. In any sector, it doesnt matter what you sell, if you website isnt optimised to within an inch of it's life, Google Ads isnt going to work. If your website converts at 1%, and your competitors converts at 5%, your going to have to spend 5 times as much money on Ads, which is going to make it unviable. Before even thinking about Google Ads, I would always advise to ensure your website is as near perfect as it can be. Again, this is a common reason why someone people might say "Google Ads doesnt work", when in fact the issue is their website isn't converting well enough.

If you are going down an agency route, my advice would be;

• Ensure the Google Ads account is setup under your name and Google account, and ensure the agency has access to it via their MCC. Its your account, your data, and your spend.
• When you start with an agency, give them a 'Cost Per Conversion' to work towards. For example, "For every £100 we spend we need £400 in sales". Or "For every £100 we spend we need 3 enquiries". A good agency should be able to look at this, and estimate if it is achievable.
• Don't expect sales from the minute it goes live. A Google Ads campaign is built on good data, and solid changes based on traffic. You only have data to act on and make changes by spending budget, and bringing people to your website. As traffic grows, you can start setting negative keywords, improving landing pages and all the other optimisation tasks based on performance and trends.

Hope this helps.

 

[gpietersz]

because the traffic from adwords was not complaining.

Just in case its not obvious, tat should be "not converting"

 

[cts1975]

I started managing my Adwords/Google Ads myself in 2003. I subscribed to a newsletter from Perry Marshall. In those days he would answer questions personally by email! Adwords was only a couple of years old then so nobody claimed to be an expert as they would do today.
There is so much information and forums where you can learn huge amounts of info. If you commit a few hours a week to learning you will be surprised at what results you can produce in a relatively short time.
Google Ads is really good for short term instant campaigns. We have campaigns which we roll out for events like The Grand National or the Christmas Extravaganza events at Tatton Park, Delamere Forest Concerts in Cheshire. If business increase your Google Ads budgets and then reduce when you have converted some of those enquiries.
May be educate yourself enough to know when an agency is ripping you off. See how the agency themselves rank on Google.
I'm contacted a few times a month by agencies who tell me how wrong my Google Ads advertising is. They seem to loose interest when I remind them that they cold called me and I don't need to make cold calls!

 

[MARA&TS]

Thanks for all of your advise, it is much appreciated and gives me some food for thought!

 

[Mollie Rhodes]

Yes, Google Ads works. I have been using Google Adwords for a long time now and it has worked really well for me. Google Ads is a form of advertising that allows for targeting qualified, in-market prospects, and if managed correctly, it can deliver strong ROI, helping you grow your business’s leads and sales. I have got a good amount of traffic through Google Adwords and also my conversion rate has increased pretty well. So yes Google Adwords is working for me.

 

[Sophie Leonard]

Google Adwords campaigns success depends on your business category and keywords you choose for the campaigns. For example, if you choose software development company for your software business, it will have too many competitions and lower CTR rate, but if you run ads adding specific city with it, as in above example, software development in Texas, it may have less competition and the people who wanted developing their software in Texas will definitely click on the add and that increase CTR. So, running campaigns on Google comes with experience using that tool.
Also, as I said it highly depends on business category.