Search Campaign Management_Week 2 Optimization

In this post, I'm gonna tell you the week 2 Search Campaign Optimization strategies.

“This is the first day that you can really start optimizing.”

1.    Check avg. position:

1.1. The top 3 avg. positions are the best places to be but this doesn’t mean that only these 3 positions will get conversions.

1.2. If the position is more than 3 and the campaign is not meeting its daily budget then try to increase the bid for the keywords, so that it will improve the avg. position as well as to meet the daily budget.

2.    Check whether your budget is exceeded on a daily basis for last 7 days.

2.1. If your campaign daily budget is consistently meeting every day. Then it’s an indication to reconsider your campaign daily budget. I would recommend check your campaign lost impression share metrics “Search Lost IS (Budget)” and increase the daily budget accordingly.

3.    If the campaign is not meeting its daily budget, then

Approach 1: Enhance your Ad group & keyword list. You can use both “Keyword planner” & client website to find new ad group / keyword ideas.

Approach 2: Check whether Targeted location can be extended.

Approach 3: Change the keyword match types to “Broad” if the keyword match type is other than Broad.

4.      Keywords

4.1. Pause keywords or lower the bids on keywords that aren’t generating conversions. This will help to streamline the account performance and to focus effectively on profitable keywords.   

   

4.2. Pause keywords with very low CTR, because as we are in beginning stage that we need to focus on Quality Score, low CTR keywords negatively affect the quality score.

Note: Experimenting with these keywords at the beginning stages is not advisable. As I said above, focus on Profitable keywords.

5.    Review Ads

5.1.  If one ad has a CTR of 5% and the other 1%, then obviously pause the 1% CTR ad. Do this for all ad groups. Note: Have atleast two ad variations in each adgroup.

6.    Negative keywords:

6.1.  Add negative keywords based on SQR (Search Query Report) and GA top search term report. 1^st week it is advisable to do SQR from the day 3 but after that it can be a weekly task. 

 Stay In Touch for Week 3 updates. Please post your questions or suggestions if you have any.

Nandakumar K

Search Campaign Management

In this article, I would like to discuss about the basic concepts & optimisation strategies of "Search Campaign Management". Day to Day activities on AdWords Search Campaign Management.

Day 1:

 1) Successful AdWords Search Campaign launch.

Day 2:

 1) Monitor the campaign performance.
 2) Look out for the following warning messages in AdWords interface if any.

• Disapproved ads
• Disapproved keywords
• Keywords below first page bid.
• Conflicting negative keywords
• Low Search Volume

Note: Just make sure that the keywords are not Low search volume simply due to misspellings or wrong word order.

 3) Make sure Google Analytic started tracking.

 4) Make sure your Search ads are displaying in Google for all the keywords. Run "Keyword Diagnosis" report.

        "Patience is the most important in initial stage of campaign. I would recommend not to do any major changes during this time" 

Day 3:

 1) Observe the campaign performance.

 2) Run "Search Query Report" in AdWords interface as well in Google Analytic to see the irrelevant paid & organic search terms which lead a user to the site and add them appropriately.

"I would prefer one word terms as negatives. If more than one word use "Phrase" or "Exact" respectively"

Day 4:

 1) Repeat "Day 3" process.

 2) Check whether your daily budget has been met all the three days before the day got end up. 

     I) If the daily budget exhausted before the day: Consider lowering your bids either for all keywords or high spending keywords.

     II) If the daily budget not spending: 

• Review your keyword list and bidding.
• Make sure that your keywords aren't "Below First Page bid" or Avg. Position is more than 3. If Position is higher than 3, consider increasing keyword bids by 20%.

"There is no bid cap on increasing the bid but as a best practice I would recommend 20%"

Day 5:

 1) Repeat "Day 3" process.

Day 6:

1) Repeat "Day 4" until the ads are displaying throughout the day with the proper utilisation of the daily budget.

"I would recommend observe the campaign and not to do any drastic changes during 1st week" 

Next week, I ll be explaining the 2nd week day to day activities and optimization strategies. Stay connected...

Nandakumar K