Adwords

[Brian McIntosh]

I've just got around to opening the pile of junk mail and bills that arrived today and, bless them, Google have sent me a voucher for £50 to spend on adwords. Trouble is, I've no idea what the hell to do with it. Ok, I know I've got to spend it but how do I go about it?

 

[peteark]

Do a google for 'google webmaster tools'

Open an account

Use this free tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Select your main keywords

Change the drop down box 'broad' to 'exact'

Look for keywords that have a few words (longtails) and a few numbers (unpopular terms convert better and are cheaper)

Select about 3 to 5 words

Go back to your Adwords account and set up an advert for each phrase

Pete

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Brian,

I've been chatting with a forum member about creating a Google Adwords tutorial for the blog where we may be able to put in a few short videos as well...... Watch this space!

 

[peteark]

That would be useful I run 3 accounts and it still baffles me.

 

[Brian McIntosh]

, that would be excellent. Like Peter, this is all Greek to me so any help will be useful.

 

[peteark]

Shhhhhhh Brain

I understand Adwords well, I just struggle with the keyword reasearch aspect.

My main problem is trying to devise a formula that takes into account the amount of people that check search engines to check their own positioning, balanced against people who are actually looking for something specific.

Its a good problem to work on, if you like headaches.

 

[Tim Barlow]

My main problem is trying to devise a formula that takes into account the amount of people that check search engines to check their own positioning, balanced against people who are actually looking for something specific.

The answer lies (at least to some extent) in ensuring that you know which keywords produce an economic return. Take the time to come up with a success metric that can be measured on Google Analytics. You can then get rid of, or reposition the keywords that don't produce results.

 

[peteark]

What we are working on, is a script to generate better quality keyword research, taking into account demographics, repetition and trends. It's one of the more complicated scripts we have attempted.

I work with a group of close friends, over the years we have devised some excellent tools for our own research, obviously some are easier to produce than others. I imagine the keyword script will take until the final quarter of this year to finish

 

[stugster]

Hi guys,

I used this from Red Evolution: Seed Keywords Engine, A FREE Keyword Tool, Find Seed Keywords for FREE For my Easy PC Scotland keywords.

It's not much more than a database which stores keywords for certain scenarios. You create a search scenario, then send that link to all your friends and such-like. They go in, pretend they're searching, and type in their keywords.

You can then look at the most popular and make your decisions based on the PPC costs

 

[peteark]

Interesting Stuart, thanks

 

[stugster]

One of the features that software lacks is the ability to merge similar (or exact) keywords and display useful reports. As far as I could tell (or at least when I used it for my own needs [see the example on their site]) it only listed each and every input users had done. This isn't much use when you get more than 100 keywords sent in.

What would be good is if the software could:
a) arrange it by IP address so that people who put in gumph can be quickly removed from the statistics;
b) merge keywords that are close, e.g. PC Repair and pc repair.


Out of interest, and one question that bothers me a lot... is "pc repair" going to be a different hit than "pc repairs" ?

 

[peteark]

Plurals are separate, which compounds the problem

Keyword discovery and Wordtracker have decent systems they are just knackered as Google will never give them access. Which leaves them having to use a huge 'fudge' factor, rendering their software useless

 

[Tim Barlow]

Google have sent me a voucher for £50 to spend on adwords. Trouble is, I've no idea what the hell to do with it

£50 will not go very far unless you are very specific. Some starting points:

Think about your brand name & misspellings (for example I couldn't find you on "Brian MacIntosh"). Check variations of as well e.g. brian mcintosh photographers, brian mcintosh photography. Bryan mcintosh photographers (and variations) also worth including.

Then combine specific types of photography with specific locations e.g. commercial photographer north east scotland, commercial photographer aberdeen.

For small towns very near you you could try "photographer laurencekirk"

Until your confidence increases, you also want to make sure that you either put all phrases in as exact match (put keywords in square brackets e.g.[photography laurencekirk]) or learn about negative keywords (a big one for you is probably "wedding".

(Tip for website: add your address - it provides credibility - do you really want to risk losing out on that ad agency deal to photograph your local area just because you didn't put an address on the site?)

 

[peteark]

Good post that Tim

Longtails are cheaper

Geo-specifics are generally ignored, leaving a bit of a niche