Increase Your Sales Traffic with Google AdWords | Simplemachine
AdWords, the PPC advertising platform from Google, remains one of the digital marketer’s most trusted tools when it comes to lead generation and sales conversion. With a CTR of 2% and an ROI of $2 for every $1 spent, it’s no wonder every SMB is using it.
That said, however, generating traffic and sales on the platform has never been a walk in the park. From keyword search to bidding and everything in between, it takes quite some effort to build a successful AdWords campaign.
To help you gain more from your campaign, we’ll look at seven often overlooked ways to increase your sales traffic on the platform.
- Increase your daily budget
Irrespective of the delivery method you’re using (Standard or Accelerated), you need to have sufficient money in your account for your ads to be shown throughout the day. If you’re using Standard delivery, for instance, AdWords tries to ensure that your ads are shown throughout the day. However, you need to have money in your account for the ads to show. If there is an opportunity for the ads to be shown later in the day but you don’t have enough money left in your account, the ads won’t be shown. This could result in missed traffic and, potentially, lost sales.
The same applies to Accelerated delivery. In this setup, AdWords attempts to show your ads as fast as possible, provided you have a sufficient budget. If your budget is depleted early in the day, you could miss traffic and sales opportunities that show up during the rest of the day.
Raising your budget will instantly increase the number of impressions you receive, resulting in more clicks, more leads and increased sales.
- Expand your advertising boundaries
When setting up a Google AdWords campaign, you’re asked to choose a geographic location within which you want your ads to be displayed. So, for example, you can choose the whole of the U.S., the state of Arkansas or just the City of Bentonville. Once you’ve chosen a location, AdWords will ensure that your ads are only shown within the selected area. The ads cannot be shown beyond the boundaries you’ve chosen.
Widening this geographic location can allow you to reach new prospects and even break into new markets. You don’t even have to extend it by a significant margin. You can, for instance, expand your location by 10 miles, and that would result in thousands of new prospects and potential sales.
Depending on your budget, if you started with a small location and have room to expand, this is another strategy you should consider.
- Use GDN ads for remarketing
Google AdWords gives you two ways to reach your target audiences: the Google Search Network and Google Display Network (GDN). If you’re serious about taking your campaign to the next level, you should consider GDN for remarketing.
Simply put, remarketing means that after a user visits your site or blog, you follow them around with display ads to keep your products or services on top of their minds. Google already boasts an expansive database of partner websites participating in the GDN program. Your job would be to tell AdWords to display your ads on the sites those previous visitors visit in the future.
Be sure to keep your ads relevant, however. Remarketing ads are all about follow-up. Consumers should instantly relate the ads to content or products they’ve previously seen. Additionally, keep the remarketing campaign alive for a sustained period. According to numerous studies, 83% of leads in a remarketing funnel convert after the first month.
- Turn off automatic audience targeting
Many marketers are usually in a hurry when setting up a Google AdWords campaign and fail to notice that the default targeting setting is set to: “Let AdWords automatically find new customers.”
If you choose to run your campaign with this setting, you’re guaranteed to show up for many searches outside your markets, resulting in a rather low CTR and even worse ROIs. In the end, you’ll double or triple your advertising cost without necessarily increasing the number of sales you generate.
To avoid such waste, go back to your AdWords campaign setup, locate the targeting settings and uncheck the “Let AdWords automatically find new customers” section.
- Consider dynamic keyword insertion
Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), the Google AdWords setting that automatically matches your ad headlines with users’ search queries, remains a controversial topic among AdWords managers. While the setup allows you to generate plenty of leads, it can also bring in some of the worst leads. So, should you still use it?
The answer is YES! You’ll need to be on top of your game, however. The best DKI ads are those that trick the user into thinking that they are highly relevant to the search query. If you can convince the searcher that your ad promises even more value than the organic results, you’ll certainly see some good, relevant traffic.
Keep in mind that proper keyword selection, match types and ad copy can go a long way in making your DKI ads a success.
- Target consumers by income level
If you’ve been using Google AdWords for some time, one thing you may have noticed is that a lot of people often click on the ads, check out your services and products and leave – because they can’t afford the items.
Although this trend is fine for visibility and brand awareness, it can also deplete your budget rather fast. So, unless your primary goal is to boost your visibility, you need to find ways to reach consumers who have the money to purchase your offers. This is achieved through income level targeting.
There are two ways to target consumers by income: manually and automatically. In the manual approach, you go to Locations and choose only the geographic areas with the desired income. Then, in the Targeting setting, select: “People in my targeted location.” For the automatic approach, go to “locations group” and pick the desired average income.
- Test and improve your ad copy and landing pages
Finally, your ads are supposed to be enticing. The ad copy should compel users into clicking. Once they do, your landing page should effortlessly get them to take action. If both the ad copy and landing pages are poor or irrelevant, you can’t expect to generate meaningful traffic, let alone close sales.
So, as you attempt to fix your campaign to boost your traffic and sales, take a step back to look at your ad copy and landing pages. Are they compelling enough? Do they complement each other? Are they targeted?
An easy way to come up with the best ad copies and landing pages is through A/B testing. Split your target audience into two groups, and serve each group with a different version of the ad copy or landing page. The ad/page with the highest conversion wins. If you can do this regularly, say, every few weeks, rest assured of achieving increased traffic and also more sales.
Let’s Help You Build a Profitable AdWords Campaign
Simplemachine is the leading digital marketing company in Bentonville, Arkansas. Contact us today at 479-319-6880 for all your Google AdWords needs and other digital marketing needs.
