AdWords MENA Blog: Optimization, Part 4

Optimization, Part 4

Monday, July 11, 2011

We are now coming to the end of our short series of tips on the basic optimizing of an AdWords account. In previous articles we discussed the structure of an account, targeting and budget, placement and bidding. In this concluding article we will quickly look at how to evaluate the performance of an ad campaign using resources provided by Google, in particular tracking conversions in AdWords and Google Analytics. We will also give some advice on interpreting the reports under the tab "Dimensions".
Tracking conversions in AdWords
When you look at an advertiser's account, it is sometimes hard to tell which ads or keywords are the most effective (in other words, which ones bring the most benefit to the advertiser). It seems as though the CTR is about the same, as is the average cost-per-click. But not all keywords are equally useful.
Imagine a situation where there are 10 visitors for keyword A, with an average cost-per-click of 10 cents, equating to an overall cost of 1 dollar. For the second keyword B, there were five visitors at an average cost-per-click of 20 cents, costing 1 dollar in total. Which word is more effective? The first one, of course, you say, and you won't always be right. What if, of the 10 visitors who came along thanks to the first word, none of them made a purchase, whereas of the five who dropped by after clicking the second word, three made a purchase? Clearly, the costs incurred in advertising using the second word are more justified.
We will never know about this if we haven't installed conversion tracking or a statistics program: with conversion tracking, you can see the relevant data right there in your AdWords account, across all campaigns, ads and keywords. We won't go into the details of setting up conversion tracking here (you can read about it in this article in the Help Centre), but, as always, we will look at some general recommendations:

Conversion does not necessarily mean a purchase. Conversion means any action a visitor takes on your website that leads you to believe that they may become a customer; this means the click on the ad was useful for you. Such an action could be, for example, a view of your Contacts page, in which case you can put a tracking code on this page.
Do not place a tracking code on the target page of your ad. In this case, the number of clicks will be equal to the number of conversions, rendering this type of statistic useless.
If you track where forms are filled out, add a tracking code to the page which confirms that the form has been submitted.
According to conversion tracking results, you can pause less effective keywords or drop the bids for them. On the other hand, key words that convert well can be shown more frequently. The same applies to websites on the display network.
Contrary to common opinion, conversion tracking is possible with a changing order price.
As soon as you start getting data on conversions, make use of the per- conversion optimizer to enable the system to focus on clicks that are most likely to lead to conversions, making your advertising more profitable. You can use this function even if you import conversions from Google Analytics. If you want to concentrate even more on useful referrals, use the Conversion Optimizer.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is comprehensive freeware for gathering all kinds of statistics on websites. Indeed, it deserves its own article - if not book. That would be way too big a task, therefore I will just give some tips on how to use Google Analytics:

If you don't have a Google Analytics account, you can create one directly from your AdWords account by clicking the,"Google Analytics" link under the "Reporting and Tools" tab. It's free.
When and if you set up Goals in Google Analytics, if your accounts are linked you can import them fromConversions in AdWords ("Conversions" page).
One of the most useful parameters for determining the performance of referral sources is the Bounce rate. Work out what kinds of websites attract visitors with the lowest bounce rate and add similar websites ("Manual ad placement") in campaigns on the display network.

Dimensions
Most of the reports from the Reporting Centre were moved to the "Dimensions" tab within "Campaigns". It is not always immediately visible in the account. Sometimes you need to click the arrow to the right of all the tabs. These are examples of the actions you can now take:

View Geographic report. If your ad is ineffective is certain regions (low CTR or performance score), then exclude them from geo-targeting in your campaign.
View report Hour of day. Here you can determine which time of the day your ad was most effective, use the ad impression planning capability, and also reduce the cost-per-click bid at times when the ad underperforms, but increase this amount at times when the ad is effective.
View report Demographic and use it to develop demographic marketing for your campaign.

We have now reached the end of our discussion about basic account optimization. You can now create an account and track its performance. You will also be able to continue developing and expanding your advertising within this account, implementing more complex actions that we will definitely describe in the future. Check for updates on our blog!

Author: Aleksei Petrov, AdWords TeamPosted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

1 comment :

luffyMarch 19, 2019 at 7:19 AM
https://adwords-mena-en.googleblog.com/2013/03/new-valuetrack-parameters-for-enhanced.html?showComment=1552979980873#c2935283443488765418
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Optimization, Part 4

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