1. Quality score

As multiple advertisers will often bid on the same keywords, Google must determine which ads will show, and in what position on the page. To do this, it looks at both the maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) bids and the quality of your keywords, known as quality score. Quality score relates to how relevant your ads and keywords are to searches on Google, which is determined by a number of things, including your Click Through Rate (CTR). Ensure you regularly check the quality score of your keywords and make amendments if the quality score is 4 or below. You can separate out any low scoring keywords into its own, more targeted ad group. Or create an advert with more relevant ad text.

2. Keyword matching

The four keyword matching options determine which searches can trigger your ads to appear. These options can help you control who sees your ads.

• Broad match: Allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations
• Phrase match: Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase
• Exact match: Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively
• Negative match: Ensures your ad doesn't show for any search that includes that term

With broad matching will ensure you enjoy more ad impressions, with exact match you'll get fewer impressions and more narrow targeting. You can use negative matching alongside broad and phrase match to ensure your advert is more relevant to the searcher. For example, if you only sell new football boots then you should use the negative terms of 'used' to ensure you do not appear is somebody searches for 'used football boots'.

3. Use dynamic keyword insertion

Keyword insertion is an advanced feature used to dynamically update your ad text with your chosen keywords. Depending on a user's searched keyword, AdWords automatically places your triggered ad group keyword into the ad text. This makes your ad more relevant and useful for users while making it easier for you to create multiple unique ads for a large amount of account keywords.
Well-written keyword insertion ads in well-organized ad groups can make your ads more relevant to users when you use a more general ad with large numbers of keywords. These ads are more likely to receive clicks than a generic ad would for the same ad group. In these cases, keyword insertion may help improve the Quality Scores for your ads and keywords over time through improved click through rates (CTRs) and overall performance.

4. Search and content networks - 2 very different campaigns

The Google content network is a large, diverse network of different kinds of websites that partner with Google. On this network, you can show your ad to potential customers when they're looking at websites related to your product or services. This should be used in a different way to the people using the search network, where the advertising is keyword driven. Keeping search and display network campaigns separate allows you to define your advertising strategy for each respective network. Depending on your advertising goals, you will most likely focus on clicks (CPC) or conversions (CPA) on the search network, yet on the display network you may choose to use other bidding options that support more of a branding approach (CPM). In order to set up different bidding options for search and display network, you would need to separate the two.

5. Tracking and refinement

The key to long term success with pay per click marketing is continual testing of your campaigns effectiveness. Once you have the right data, use it and refine your campaign to improve your return-on-investment. You can use this by using the in-built conversion tracking feature. This allows you to:
Connect keywords to your goals: Maybe you want users to view a particular page more, or you'd like an increase in sales. Conversion tracking can show you which keywords are helping you meet your specific goals by connecting them to conversions.

Measure keyword success, boost your ROI: Not all keywords are equal. With conversion tracking, see which ones serve you best, so you can invest precisely in those that bring you business and avoid those that don't. This, in turn, boosts your return-on-investment.

6. Get expert advice or pay for your education

Two comments from customers we encounter are "We have tried PPC and it didn't work" or "I already run my own PPC account", often these 2 statements are connected and the client usually cannot expand on why the campaign did not work. Advertising through PPC can be very expensive if not done correctly. For example, with one client we reduced their monthly spend in half while still achieving the same revenue. A little advice at the beginning of your campaign could help you hugely.

Why hire a professional?

• Thorough assessment of business needs and current state
• Professional PPC campaign management can greatly increase ROI, and reduce startup costs
• Focus: Is search engine marketing really your core business?

7. Choosing the right keywords

First, look at your website content and write down every word, word combination or phrase that describes each category of your business. This is the starting point for creating your keyword lists.
Include all brand and product names as well as plurals, synonyms and alternate spellings for each word or phrase. Capitalisation does not matter. Take out keywords that are very generic, irrelevant, or obscure.

Then, group your keywords into close-knit themes and create a new ad group for each theme. Put your keywords into these new ad groups. For example, if your campaign is for digital cameras, you can group together mini digital cameras in one ad group and SLR digital cameras in another.

A great keyword is:

• Ideally, 2-3 words long
• Specific (keywords that are too broad or general will not reach users as effectively as keywords that are highly targeted)
• Directly related to the text in your ad
• Directly related to the page your ad links to (specified by the destination URL)

8. Eye catching ad copy

Your customers choose to go to your website over your competitors' based only on what they see in your ads. If your ads don't grab their attention, you could be missing out on valuable sales, leads or traffic.

Tips to create a compelling ad:

• Use a strong call-to-action (for example: 'Buy now', 'Call today')
• Include prices
• Include special offers and unique selling points
• Make sure the text is highly relevant to the keywords in each ad group
• Use your keywords in your ad
• Direct users to the most relevant landing page on your website with a specific destination URL for each ad.

9. Campaign structure

With AdWords, the organization and structure of your account is important. It can have a huge effect on the performance of your campaigns. We recommend you structure your account in a similar way to your website. So, if you offer multiple products or services, you should create a new campaign for each product/service.

Each campaign will contain ad groups that should be based on different themes.
Within each ad group are your ads and keywords. Your ads are what your customers will use to decide whether or not they will visit your website, and your keywords are the words your potential customer will use when searching for your ad

10. Use ad extensions

Ad extensions expand a standard text ad with one or more lines that provide additional information such as an address and phone number (location extensions and phone extensions), more page links (ad sitelinks), and product images (product extensions).

Which ad extensions you use will depend on how you want to reach customers, and how you want to extend their experience. For example, if you own a bicycle repair shop in Darlington and a customer near your store searching for bicycle repair shops or tools to repair their bicycle is a local user you could more effectively reach with location extensions. The user will see your text ad, along with your local business address and phone number.

Often adverts utilising ad extensions achieve a higher click through rate (CTR) as the extra detail in the ad means it stands out from the rest of the ads.