Radium

AdWords: Back to Basics

Having finally gotten around to taking the new AdWords certification exams, I’ve been thinking a lot about the basics of paid search. The two required qualified partner exams, “Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam” and “Search Advertising Advanced Exam” should both be considered basic knowledge to anyone actively practicing AdWords paid search management (I hope).

To test this theory and have a little Halloween fun, I decided to see how many advertisers were practicing what I consider to be the 3 basic principles of paid search.

Basic principles of Google AdWords (paid search):

1. Targeted (related) thematic keyword groupings
2. Compelling ad text with relevant keyword inclusion
3. Relevant landing page content

I’m sure we could expand the list to include other basic elements like ad delivery, budgets, conversion tracking, etc. but I feel these 3 items are the basic core to a solid paid search strategy because they drive relevance.

My testing methodology is quite simple; enter in a search phrase and review the first page ads to determine if the advertiser is using relevant ad copy and directing the searcher to the most appropriate page on the site. Keyword groupings are difficult to assume with only a few tests, and, are therefore excluded from this analysis.

Since Halloween is right around the corner I used variations of Halloween costume related search phrases for the analysis.

Test phrase #1 – “womens halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 54% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 54% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #2 – “kids halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 81% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 45% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #3 – “couples halloween costumes”
Results: 8 paid search ads

• 87% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 50% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #4 – “mens halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 54% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 18% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #5 – “boys halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 72% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 27% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Test phrase #6 – “girls halloween costumes”
Results: 11 paid search ads

• 72% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• 18% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Total Experiment Results:

• Only 57% of advertisers included relevant ad text
• Only 35% of advertisers used a relevant landing page

Obviously this is not a scientific experiment but the results do give us some insight into advertiser behavior. In these particular test results, many advertisers weren’t targeting ad copy to search queries or directing users to the most appropriate page on the site. These two simple changes could dramatically improve results and profitability of the campaigns.

A side note to the findings – many advertisers offer costumes for men, women and kids and as a result most of the advertisers that were following best practices were doing so consistently.

And what would a Halloween post be without a treat? Here’s a homemade candy corn recipe.

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