Does Playing Video Games Make You Smarter about Google AdWords Campaigns? Yes!

Marc Sirkin at last year's Games for Change Conference

Marc is the Chief Marketing Officer at the IRC.   I've been following Marc Sirkin's blog for about a year before I met him at last year's Games for Change Conference where he taught me Brain Age and Mario.  (At the time, my son was in the process of earning 50 stickers for NinendoDS and I wanted to be able to play with him.  Being over the legal age limit for these devices, I needed a tutorial.)

I'm working on another screencast (sponsored by NTEN and SalesForce) about the SalesForce/Google Ad Words Integration.  So, when I discovered that Marc during a OneWorld conference call that he has been implementing keyword advertising for a couple years, I called him up to get a tutorial.   Here's what I learned:

What are some of the best practices for nonprofits who are planning/implementing a keyword advertising campaign?

We'll still learning and tweaking.  And that's the point.  You need to take a reiterative approach - look at the results and evaluate and improve. 

If you're just starting, don't enter a million different keywords, landing pages, and ads.  Be strategic.    Start simply with a group of keywords, one landing page and one ad.  Review the performance and then expand.  Otherwise, you'll have so much data and too many choices to make to figure out what works best.

What advice would you give to someone who is developing their keyword advertising campaign with Google Ad Words?  What should they think about before jumping into the software?  Can you share some steps?

Step 1.  Start with your outcomes, not your keywords

Remember that your goal is the answer to the question: What do you want people to do on your site?  If you're using Goolge Analytics goals, you've already thought through some of this.  Do you want them to read content, download a screen saver, sign an online petition, sign up for more information, sign up to volunteer, make a donation, or something else?   The important thing is that is actionable.

Step 2:  Think about your messaging and determine the best "landing page"

Now, start to think backwards.  You have your goal.  Next, think about what a person might type into the Google search box, messaging that will make them click on your ad, and where they should arrive on your web site.  That last step is called the landing page.   The landing page has to make sense and it has to lead to the action you want.  While you can do this thinking on the fly inside of Google Ad Words, you are probably much better if you sketch it out before hand.

Step 3:   Identify Keywords and Write Ad Copy

It's a good idea to do some brainstorming with people on staff and outside research.   The question we might brainstorm is "What would a user type into a search engine to reach that goal?"  The Google AdWords software will suggest keywords.  There are some other methods you can use.  For example, there are some tools like Nichebot and Word Tracker, but they aren't free.

If you're already using Google Analytics, running some of the keyword reports will give you an idea of what keywords people are using to find your site.   You'll get some bonus information if you have Google Analytics goals set up. 

When you are thinking about keywords, be sure to include "not" expressions.  For example, if you were trying to promote the movie Pirates of the Caribbean you might include a  negative  "Not Pittsburgh" - so the movie fans would be clicking on your ad, not baseball fans.

You can write your ads (brief text ads) on the fly while you are in the software, but you'll probably do a better job if you do it before you venture into the software.  A quick environmental scan of other ads will also be useful.     Definitely type in your keywords into the search engine and see what ads come up -- that's your competition.  How might your ad get clicked on?    

You can learn how to write killer ads by typing in commercial words that are popular -- like mortgage.  Study those ads because they are no doubt making money.  And, of course use action words!

Step 4:  Set up Your Campaign in Google AdWords 

Now you're ready to go into the software and create a campaign and bid on adwords -- you'll need the following pieces of information -- your keywords, your budget (remember nonprofit donations have a limit of $1 per click) and your ad copy and position.   There you can start bidding for keywords.  Remember, if you're just starting out, don't go too hogwild - start with a few options, evaluate, and tweak.

Step 5:  Monitor, Tweak, Monitor, Tweak, Monitor, Tweak

Look at the results and ditch ads or keywords that aren't getting you a good return.   How to figure that out?  The click through rate, cost  per click, and conversion goal are the best metrics in google AdWords.  Google adwords metrics/reports tell you about what's happening with the campaign.  Eliminate ads, keywords, and position of ads that suck.  It is also important to look at your results in google analytics -- which  tells you how the adwords campaign relates to your overall web site. (It's nice that the two are integrated so you can easily tab back and forth) 

Finally, you need to be able to "source" the people that you pull in  -- so you can take it further.  If using the Saleforce integration,  I'd want to be able to select the people in my database who came to me via keyword advertising.  It's really good to know the original source - this person got on our database because we ran a killer keyword ad campaign and they clicked on one of the lead forms.  I'd want to use that information to segment a direct mail fund raising campaign or maybe do a survey to those people to find out how we could improve our web site, after all those people are probably heavy Internet users.

I'd also want to do some analysis and find out what works best for keywords -- signing online petition, making donations, or both.  I'd probably start asking questions like, "Why do the donors who came to us via keyword advertising only give $25?"   I'd want to use them to build personas of online information seekers.

I probably wouldn't get too granular with customizations of messaging - like refer to the fact that someone typed in a particular keyword to find us.  I think that might annoy the donors or volunteer.  While I want to learn more about my audience, I want to respect their privacy too.

Once an organization has implemented their first campaign, what should they do to improve the next campaign?

Get more strategic how you pick ad words, create ads, and test test test test.  The Google AdWords donation if fantastic, but just because it is in-kind -- you still need to be smart about using it.  If you decide to invest some of your organization's marketing budget in the Google advertising network which gets your ad out to the advertising affiliates, you'll want to use your dollars wisely.

We are being far more strategic and we look at monthly trends - the goal is to minimize the average cost per click and up the click through rate.

Have you implemented a Google AdWords Campaign with SalesForce integration?  What are your tips and advice?  What are your favorite resources for learning more?

Resources:

VolunteerMatch SalesForce/Google AdWords Case Study

SalesForce/Google AdWords Learning Center

Google AdWords Learning Center

Leveraging Google AdWords for Fundraising

Convio Primer on SEO

Self SEO

Boris Mordkovich's Keyword Advice

Ten Tips for Getting Started with Google AdWords

Which Keyword Research Tool To Use

Keyword Tips for Writing Powerful Google Ads

Google AdWords Tips

Turning Dimes Into Dollars: The Basics of Low-Bid PPC

Interview with Andrew Goodman

Comments

[Marc Sirkin]

Turns out that playing video games not only makes you smarter about Adwords, but keeps you young too ;) Thanks Beth.

[Rob]

Can also give KeywordSpy - a try for a keyword research tool, with results actually reflecting what advertisers are using at the current time.

[Cally]

Fantastic Beth's Blog!! Hey!! Beth visit my favorite site Couponalbum.com for purchasing latest video games on discounted prices and save money on every purchase.

[kirt]

These are helpful tips when your about to engage in Google Adwords. With a little bit of experience and some drawback and the the dedication to succeed Google Adwords can help you alot in your PPC Campaigns

[Winning On The Internet]

Personally, I think the best information you can have about Google Adwords is in the Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. Whether your new to Adwords or have been doing it for years, these are the principles you must adhere to in order to have a competitive advantage with adwords. And you'll probably be better than 95% of advertisers because of it. http://www.winningontheinternet.com