AdWords is one of the most rewarding digital marketing methods that a business could use. But despite this many businesses avoid it, and the excuses used are pretty common. Fear is to blame for most of these misconceptions, which include:
“We tried it and it doesn’t work”
“It’s like gambling – the house always wins”
“It’s only for big players with deep pockets”
None of the above myths are true, but we aren’t surprised that they exist. For the uninitiated, AdWords can seem incredibly complex and confusing, when in reality it just requires a deeper understanding of the process and the benefits. So many businesses could be missing out on the fantastic potential of AdWords by believing in one or more of these excuses – but that stops today.
The first step to getting rid of your excuses is to define your AdWords goals for your business using the SMART Principle. In other words, make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. This will immediately improve your outcomes by helping you distinguish between genuine problems and excuses.
By doing this before anything else, you’ll be able to set and stick to a budget, target the correct location, manage network preferences, understand click costs and ad ranking and schedule advertising. You’ll better understand what the needs are in the group you are targeting, what you want them to purchase from you, starting when and using what style and type of communication.
Once you have created a SMART goal, your second step is to understand what goals are directly linked to what specific outcomes in the AdWords platform. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness of your business you would need to look at increasing impressions (to see how many people have seen your ads), and if you wanted to driving engagement you would need to look at whether or not customers have clicked on your ads to view your offer.
Knowing what exactly you are looking for and how you can measure it will make all the difference in gauging the success of an AdWords campaign, allowing you to see what’s working, what’s not, and how to fix it. And when you’re armed with the right information, you’ll never need to make another excuse again.
