Goal Digger Series: 13 steps to crush AdWords

In my "Goal Digger" series, I'm going to impart tips and tricks to crush your competition.  Google AdWords offers more and more everyday, though many of you are still using this tool for PPC only.  Hey, there's some prime meat sitting right in front of you; put the salad fork down and get after it, already.  Here are 13 tips to expand this strategy for your business.  Even if you don't have an eCommerce website, these can be re-purposed for lead generation, get creative!

1. All ads should direct to a product, promotion or product group page, no ads to homepage only, and none to your generic navigation pages.  Send people to your site with a clear purpose, and measure the return.  Downloadables, individual products and contest lead pages are all acceptable targets.
2. End ads with proper punctuation and use longer headlines when possible.  Some of you ignore your 3rd grade grammar teacher, and either don't use punctuation, or don't emote excitement in your headlines.  Sell me the click!  Lead with thy clicking and participating will solve my problems, make me younger, happier, sexier, more successful.  Longer headlines with a PROMISE get 47% more marketshare in online advertising.
3. Add display ads to the strategy, let Google autoselect networks.  PPC is just the tip of what you can do with Google.  Display needs to cascade into that strategy, and remember - make these ads sexy!  A/B test your ads and let your audience tell you what works.
4. Increase bids on high value keywords.  Or abandon those bids, they are too low of a bid to capture market share with vast competition.  "If you ain't first, you're last."  "The best place to hide a dead body?  The second page of Google."  I could do this all day.  Here's the point, if you don't have the bid budget to dominate in a keyword, find another way to pay-and-play.
5. Ad copy should reflect performance over explanations, ie: “Look 10 years younger in one week with (xyz product) now.  Guaranteed results!”  or “Win him back with the skincare regimen to the stars”, "Take the vacation that rekindles the romance of your 20s".  Keep in mind the relevance of the copy to keyword.
6. Test in-market audiences, beyond demographics, target users who have demonstrated that they’re in the market for a specific product/service based on their web behavior.  In-market audeinces are the new Artificial Intelligence of demographics.  On a slightly related note, those very expensive research reports are HISTORY reports, unless you are tapping into smart data, predictive data, skip the research in favor of live testing.
7. Start AdWords dynamic ads – Set up remarketing ads for people who land on product group pages, and product pages – but do not engage with a cart or complete the buyer cycle, pre-determined.
8. Customize ads with real-time updates for sales and free shipping, ex: you can tell google, my sale ends in 30 days; encode product name, price and promotion period.  This work for non-eComm as well, for brand delivery, you should have a "customer cycle" worked out, you should know the motivating factors to a decision and build those triggers into a drip campaign.
9. Use IP exclusions to block competition from draining ad budget.  No explanation needed.
10. A/B test every ad, provide weekly report on ad(s) performance
11. Set up CPA forecasting, CPA goal should be <$5.  Cost Per Acquisition is the new Cost Per Impression.  Don't over-pay for CPA and quit using agencies that don't want to be measured by results that matter!
12. Target outranking share: Use bid strategy to outrank brand competition in your niche space, target outranking share should be 100%
13. Add PLAs (Product listing ads) to google adwords.  Even without eComm, you have "products", you are selling something.  Get creative with PLAs and play in that space, in unexpected ways.

Hope this helps you and your team kick ass in GAW.  If some of this looks unfamiliar, give me a shout - I can fix that for you.

For those of you who don't relish in the nitty-gritty of online advertising, you might tell me:  I don't need digital consulting, we are already hitting our goals, online conversion is 56%.

Real talk:  How do you know it shouldn't be 66%??

Get a look under the hood, kick the tires, and take that program for a real spin.

Your friendly Goal Digger,

Jenn