How to start off an Adwords campaign for a new website?

Hi ruger999,

The AdWords program is based upon a competitive auction. Advertisers are bidding against each other so it requires a marketing strategy to be successful.

The first step, in my opinion should be keyword research, then a thorough research of your competitors who are targeting those same keywords. Look to see which are the most aggressive advertisers and study everything that you can learn about them. Note every detail of their ads, their landing pages and their entire website process.

It's likely that your strongest competitors have gained a few insights into your market already and it would be wise to emulate their success in anything that you can identify.

Pay attention to which value propositions are used the most often by the top advertisers, those are often heavily tested and confirmed to convert the best.

As a rule I always start test campaigns on the search network as it allows you to get actionable data the quickest. That information can then be used to inform you of the mindset of your market, which is often a valuable insight into who you should be targeting in your display network advertising campaigns and which messages your audience are likely to respond positively to.

Your starting budget defines the scope of your campaigns, If you have an ample budget then you will want to test many keywords at once, however if you budget is very limited you need to focus on a much smaller subset of keywords so that you can get actionable data as quickly as possible.

Just stick with your testing until you have enough data to know exactly what your value per click is on each keyword and how much traffic that you can purchase at or below that value per click. Keep ads running at those profitable levels, and expand your testing to an ever increasing keyword list until you have saturated the Search Network market.

At his point you will be ready to launch campaigns targeting prospects that are higher in the sales process funnel. This will allow you to expand the market through interest generating ads, and improve conversion rates through branding campaigns. The success of these broader campaigns rely upon an established response campaign to reel in the conversions once you have them hooked.

Follow up those campaigns with Remarketing campaigns to help pull interested prospects through the buying cycle toward a conversion.

Hi,

It's a complex question. All indicators (CTR, CPC max, QS, budget, ...) are interconnected.

For your strategy, you have to take the whole picture.

For example, if you have 10$ daily budget and the top 3 ads cost a 5$ average CPC, it could be better for you to be at the 5th or 6th position, where the CPC will be 2$.

You will have more clicks with the same budget, with the same prospects. But your CTR will be lower.

You have to find the right balance between all the elements. And the best way is to test, to test and to test.

You will never know what could be working before testing.

Bastien

Hi ruger999,

Quality Scores are indeed a very important metric to monitor and analyse in AdWords campaigns. Your ad position is determined by ad rank score. Your ad rank score is determined by multiplying your maximum CPC bid by your Quality Score.

Understanding AdWords Ad Rank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBmPtduElkM

How to optimize your AdWords ad position:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HE6KC7AsTw

The primary component of keyword Quality Score is based on your ads CTR. The higher your CTR, as compared to your competitors' CTR, the higher your QS will be. As a result, well written ads are key to getting higher Quality Scores, and a significant contributor to the effectiveness of your campaigns.

AdWords Writing Tips: Ads That Attract Customers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlI_ji7uuMQ

Aside from the quality of your ads, how you structure your account also contributes greatly to your keyword quality scores.

Organize Your AdWords Account to Maximize Your Success:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7CZLDSTaic