Looking out over the cluttered landscape your stomach sinks. There is a button labelled campaign, “campaign?” you mutter to yourself, “am I waging a war of some kind?” List upon endless list of suggested bids, competitiveness scores and who the hell is bidding on my brand name?!
Welcome to Google AdWords.
It’s what the big boys are playing with, most Paid Search agencies will offer posts like, “Top 5 Ways to See you Campaign Skyrocket” or “The Best Practices for PPC“, all of which offer differing advice. Where are you meant to begin?
Today I’ll be covering a few of the basics of your PPC campaign’s structure to give you an understanding of how your ads are laid out across your Campaigns and a few tips on structuring them. If you’re unsure of any of the terminology or jargon used then just check out our PPC glossary!
What is an AdWords Campaign?
Your AdWords campaign is where it all begins. An AdWords campaign is where you broadly name a certain type of product, service or similar entity.
If you’re wondering how to apply this to your current store or business and this is assuming you have a nicely set up navigation for your users to follow. You can create an AdWords campaign based on your website’s navigation. This can be a really easy to follow exercise to get some initial campaigns off of the ground. Take a clothing website with the following main navigation titles.
- Shoes
- Dresses
- Trousers
- Jeans
- Lingerie
It can be daunting creating your first set of campaigns so in the beginning stick with what you know which should hopefully be the layout of your navigation. This will also allow you to easily keep a track of your website’s performance at a glance and structure your following AdGroups based on a hierarchy you already understand.
What are AdGroups?
AdGroups are collections of Ads which typically target the same set of keywords. This allows you to create multiple Ads which can be tailored, duplicated and adjusted based on their performance.
Expanding on the clothing example used above you will select the campaign titled “Shoes”. As you know there are a great many number of different shoes which will no doubt be part of your Shoe campaign.
So when creating some AdGroups in our Shoes campaign you may get something similar to this:
- Shoes
- Running Shoes
- Tennis Shoes
- Golf Shoes
- Swimming Shoes…?
- Dresses
- Trousers
- Jeans
- Lingerie
I would always encourage anyone who is new to AdWords to build up their campaigns like this so they have a clear overview of the entire structure. It can also be great for veterans too for organising large campaign’s from the get go.
Creating the Ads for Your AdGroups
Now let’s put some meat on the bones of our AdGroups with some ads.
Your ads will be bringing in users to your desired destination. Whether that’s buying your lovely swimming shoes, downloading a great guide you’ve put together or subscribing to a mailing list.
Ads should spark the imagination of a user on Google and your ads should aim to satisfy the intent behind their search. In the beginning it helps to consider your potential customers falling into one of the following three groups. Let’s stick with the shoe theme.
Problem Focused User
“I feel as though I could be running better but I don’t know where to begin. How can I get the edge I need to set a better lap time?”
Solution Focused User
“I know that better footwear will help me perform better, but there’s so much choice! How do I know which running shoe is best for me?”
Product Focused User
“I’m looking for men’s Nike AirMAX shoes in size 9 to help me perform better at running. Who’s the best person to buy these from?”
Considering these questions should provide you solid answers to the structure of your ads, but most importantly which keywords should be associated with each advertisement.
Intent is key. Not just from a PPC perspective but should be considered for every part of your marketing strategy. Be in the business of offering solutions to a problem your potential visitors know they have. If they don’t know they have a problem in the first place educate them with some great content!
It’s really important to consider every angle when structuring an ad that someone will care about and be sure to check out our post on Google AdWords Match Types to make sure you’re applying not just the right keywords but the right types of keywords.
For a much more in depth look into how PPC can boost your sales please be sure to check out our guide: Why Your Business Needs SEO
Hopefully this has given you some ideas on moving forward. If you would like some more assistance we welcome you to give us a call on 0121 418 9998. We’re happy to help.
