![\"AdWords](\"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/AdWords-300x50.png\")
First off, it should be re-iterated that trying to manage your own AdWords account without sufficient training and experience, usually leads to a lot of wasted cash.<\/p>\nFirst off, it should be re-iterated that trying to manage your own AdWords account without sufficient training and experience, usually leads to a lot of wasted cash.<\/p>\n
Typically you will be paying over the odds for clicks, missing the mark with your targeting and simply boosting Google’s coffers with little to show for it. Consequently we always recommend working with an experienced AdWords practitioner<\/a> if at all possible.<\/p>\n That said, some dental practices do configure and manage their own accounts, so for those that do, here are a few “must do” spring cleaning activities that are important to ensure that your accounts deliver some level of success.<\/p>\n Far too many DIY PPC dentists set up their accounts much too broadly i.e. one campaign, one or two ad. groups and then lots of diverse keywords thrown in. This is not good good! Your campaigns, ad. groups, keywords, adverts and landing pages all need to be targeted to a narrow topic range to ensure tight control, relevance and to yield lower click costs. Without this, you could be spending 40% or more than you actually need to.<\/p>\n So it pays to review your targeting, set your campaigns, ad. groups, keywords and ads. in a granular and well-structured fashion. It takes time but it does pay off.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Are your keywords correctly configured or did you just put them in there without understanding the various types of matching parameters? We discuss those elsewhere in this blog and it really is worthwhile understanding what it means and how to use it correctly. If you are stuck in “broad match” mode, you will be attracting all sorts of irrelevant, expensive clicks, so it pays to get in there and sort those keywords out quickly.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, a lot of DIY PPC advertisers don’t know about negative keywords and hence just how important they are. This system tells Google not to show your ads. for search terms which you select; so for example you probably don’t want dental nurses clicking on your adverts when they search “dental practice jobs”. Here you would include the word “jobs” to prevent this from happening. The negative keyword system is more complex than this but this serves to illustrate its purpose and importance. Not using “negatives”? You need to get in there and set these up and periodically review them.<\/p>\n Keywords which have a low score are detrimental in terms of the overall relevance of your campaign and the knock-through to higher click costs. You need to assess why the low quality score exists e.g. is the landing page target not sufficiently well related – and then decide what to do. Will you pause the keyword completely or take steps to improve the quality score? Simply leaving them is not a wise move. You also need to check click-through rates, impressions, cost-per-acquisition etc to see if the keywords are worthwhile optimising or pausing.<\/p>\n Is your ad. copy as good as it can be and relevant to the selected keywords and landing pages? Are you using the right text to show correctly on mobile platforms for your mobile ads? Your ad. copy is also not “fire and forget” and needs periodic review to ascertain what is working well or not so well.<\/p>\n Are you making the best use of ad. extensions to make sure your ads. are as eye-catching as possible? If not, review what is available to use and start implementing it.<\/p>\n Where you ads. show on Google is increasingly important, particularly now there are only 4 positions available at the top of the page. If you’re not up there, your clicks will be very low, your click-through rate also low and you quality score likely low too. Unfortunately Google is really driving advertisers to bid up on their keywords and if you don’t have the budget to do this and a campaign which is optimised, chances are you will leak budget quickly with very limited return.<\/p>\nReview your account structure<\/h3>\n
Check your keyword match parameters<\/h3>\n
Review your negative keywords<\/h3>\n
Check through your low quality score keywords<\/h3>\n
Review your Advert Copy and Extensions<\/h3>\n
What about your ad. positions? Too low?<\/h3>\n
Are you measuring your returns?<\/h3>\n