In the last post, we started exploring the basics of running a search engine keyword campaign. Today I’ll attempt to take it to the next level.
Multiple Ads
With the basics of running a single ad campaign under our belts, let’s get more sophisticated by writing a second ad for the same campaign. Now you will have 2 ads that will be alternately displayed based on your same set of keywords. This is a great way to figure out which wording or approach works best in getting people’s attention and getting them to click through. In marketing, they call this an A/B Test: with other factors being the same but the ads different, your results will show you which ad is more effective. Now you can eliminate the ‘loser’ or try another ad against the ‘winner’.
Multiple Ad Groups
Google allows you to run separate, simultaneous ad groups within the same campaign. This allows you to come up with an entirely different set of keywords and display the same or different ad. Why would you want to do that? Follow me on this one, because this is where you’re going to get really creative. So far all of the keywords I’ve used as examples will make your ad function like a yellow page listing: someone searching for ‘church’ or ‘churches’ will see your ad. But who do you think the overwhelming majority of people using those search terms is going to be, churched or unchurched people? Image coming up with a campaign that would target people in their moment of life change or crisis. Your keywords could be ’suicide’, ‘reason to live’, and the like. Follow me? We’ll expand this idea further in a coming post.
Multiple Campaigns
You’ll want to have your standard campaign that runs throughout the year, but maybe now you want to run a special or seasonal campaign, say for Christmas or Easter. Google allows you to launch another campaign that will have its own daily budget, location targeting, keywords, and ad text. You can even specify start and end dates so that you could have an Easter campaign stop running the evening of Easter Sunday. You could use a secondary campaign to support a sermon series or outreach event. If you wanted, you could even pause your regular campaign while the other campaign runs. The possibilities are endless, really.
In case you understand things better if you have pictures (like me), here is Google’s illustration of what I’ve described above:
Reporting & Metrics
Google tracks everything. Sign in to your account and go to the ‘Reports’ tab, and it will walk you through creating custom reports that tell you what you want to know. You can set these reports to run routinely, like weekly or monthly, and even have the reports automatically emailed to you.
Their more useful report types are:
- geographic performance (are only people on one side of town clicking your ads?)
- keyword performance (which keywords are getting the clicks and which are duds)
- ad performance (which version of your various ads is getting the most clicks)
- Impression and click-through-rate (how many times your ads have appeared and how many times they were actually clicked)
Be a zealot about reporting. It will help you refine the whole process, connect with more people, and waste less money.
Check back for our next post about how to choose strategic and effective keywords.
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