Google Adwords is an extremely complex platform, within which there are a number of default options that can be challenging to configure depending on your needs. In this blog we list the top 5 configuration options that will determine how successful your PPC campaign will be.
1. Location Settings
Ever wondered why you’re getting impressions from around the world even though you’ve selected to only show ads in the UK or US. The answer lies in the default location option. When you create a new campaign, the default setting is targeting “People in, searching for or viewing pages about my targeted location”. This means that if you select London as a target location, anyone who searches for a phrase or broad match keyword plus London will potentially see your ad, even if they are outside London. We recommend you go through and select the option “People in my targeted location” under the settings tab for most campaigns.
2. Adding Negative Keywords
When you add negative keywords from the search terms report, they get added in negative exact match. Many negative keywords you want to add as phrase match if not broad match. However, for a more efficient campaign, you may want to add these keywords in as broad or phrase match. You therefore have to manually go through and make this change yourself. Interestingly, whilst negative keywords are added in as exact match terms, adding normal terms from the search terms report are added as broad match terms by default.
3. No misspells or plurals for Negative Keywords
We all know that exact and phrase match keywords now match to small variations on the actual keyword entered. For example “Security” will match to “Secure” and “Holidays” will match to “Holiday”. Unfortunately for negative keywords Adwords doesn’t play the compliment the other way. This means that you will have to add every single singular, plural and misspell when trying to block certain search terms.
4. When Broad Goes too Broad
Broad match keywords can be good for researching new keywords, however there is always the risk that Adwords will match them to completely irrelevant search terms. Matching to synonyms which contains none of the original keyword is within broad match’s remit. Its therefore better to use straight broad match sparingly, preferring to go with modified broad match, which cuts out the synonyms. If you do use broad match regularly check your search term report daily to ensure that you are not burning budget on irrelevant terms.
5. The Default is Now Enhanced CPC
Since the last Adwords Editor Update, enhanced CPC is the new default bidding option when setting up a new campaign. Whilst this is Google’s new preference, we think it would be better to have the option and make an informed decision based on the nature of the account, rather than it being the default option.
