This is the latest in a series of interviews we're conducting with AdWords advertisers who got unusually high scores using our AdWords Performance Grader. We're reaching out to high scorers to find out what strategies contribute to their strong AdWords performance. For more in this series, see:
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 1
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 2
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 3
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 4
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 5
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 6
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 7
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 8
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 9
- AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 10
AdWords Experts Share the Secrets of Their PPC Success, Part 11
This week’s interview is with Sebastian Dorn.
Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been using AdWords? Are you an Agency or an Advertiser? What is your primary goal for AdWords marketing?
I have been using AdWords for about three or four years. Right now I am working as an in-house SEM manager for a company that sells products for hazardous material storage. I am also responsible for the foreign group companies in 11 different countries.
The primary goal is to generate income. It is a pretty niche product and most of the core products are high-priced and need intensive consulting. Right now conversion tracking is not possible for all leads that are coming through AdWords.
There are tons of metrics in AdWords – what are your top 3 key performance metrics in AdWords and why?
Because of the portfolio of the company, my most important metrics are CTR, Quality Score and Conversion Rate of the online shop.
Can you describe your AdWords management strategy? How do you set your campaign objectives, and how do you know what’s realistic or not?
The most important thing for AdWords is to have a good account structure. You also have to have a strong, optimized website behind your ads. You can have the best ads in the world but if you can´t create leads/sales because you have bad landing pages or a weak performing website/shop, then your AdWords campaign will never be profitable.
To get the most impact out of an AdWords campaign, I have some key strategies I use for all group companies:
Keyword research and optimization
- Frequently search for new keywords using different keyword suggestion tools.
- Find negative keywords, which is one of the most important things you can do in AdWords.
- Find long-tail keywords.
Ad group optimization
- Be as granular as possible.
- Frequently test new ads.
- Always use a minimum of 2 ads per ad group.
- Use different ad groups for different match types.
Match types
- I am always using all three match types per keyword to get as many impressions as possible.
- Only use the modified version of the broad match type.
The last strategy is to be open to new strategies and ideas – and if possible test everything!
Any advice for AdWords marketers that didn’t score as well as you?
Watch the details, sometimes one word in your ad can increase your CTR significantly.
Be aware that your customer is no keyword tool or a bot and he searches for products in a different way than you.
Try to understand your customer and give him what he expects.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.