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AdWords Targeting and Tracking Tips

Do you know your AdWords ROI for each of your geographic markets? Looking for the optimal mix between Search and Content network delivery? Are your ads sufficiently targeted? Here are five tips for targeting – and tracking – your ads effectively.

Tip #1: Target geographic markets with AdWords Campaigns.

Your AdWords account comprises of one or more Campaigns. You always have at least one Campaign, which, by default, is named something like "Campaign #1" unless you change it (from the Edit Campaign Settings link). By customizing a Campaign's settings, you can target the ads and keywords within it to a specific geographic region and to speakers of a particular language.

For example, if you target advertising to diverse markets like California (U.S.) and Mexico, you might consider setting up a separate Campaign for each one. You can even select a target language for each Campaign. Please note that you'll need to write your ads in the language you\'ve selected for that Campaign.

Tip #2: Track ROI by geographic market.

Separating your geographic markets into AdWords Campaigns makes it easy to track each region\'s ROI in Google Analytics. This can be helpful as you tailor your keyword buying for each market. The Clicks tab within the AdWords Campaigns report (in the Traffic Sources: AdWords section) shows your total advertising cost, revenue, and ROI for each AdWords Campaign. For Campaign conversion rates, click the Goal Conversion tab within the same report.

(Note that all of the Google Analytics advice in this article assumes that you\'ve linked your Google Analytics account with your AdWords account and that you've enabled autotagging.)

Even if you don't break out your AdWords Campaigns by geography, you can still split out each keyword in Google Analytics and see where your visitors for that keyword came from. Drill down to the AdWords Keyword report from the AdWords Campaigns report. (From the AdWords Campaigns report, click one of the Campaigns in the table and the Campaign AdGroup report appears. Click one of the AdGroups and the AdGroup Keywords report appears. Finally, click one of the keywords to see the AdWords Keyword report.) Now, select "City" from the "View By" pulldown menu at the far right of the report. You'll see traffic (and all other metrics) for that keyword broken out by city.

Tip #3: Target and track "Search" and "Content" networks.

You can set up your AdWords Campaigns to target Search (search engine results exclusively), the Google content network, or a combination of Search and Content. If you select Content, your ads may sometimes appear on partner sites such as The New York Times and MarthaStewart.com, as well as many smaller niche sites covering thousands of topics.

The AdWords Campaigns report shows ROI and conversions for your keywords and any ads that ran on the Content network. To see how your Content ads performed, drill down to the AdWords Keywords report. (From the AdWords Campaigns report, click one of the Campaigns in the table. The AdWords AdGroups report appears. Click one of the AdGroups and the AdWords Keywords report appears.) Traffic you received from the content network will show up in the "content" entry in the table.

Tip #4: Use AdGroups to target your ads.

Instead of putting all of your keywords into a single AdGroup, group them into "themes", and create an Ad Group for each theme. For example, let's say you are a professional portrait and wedding photographer. In this case, you might create two AdGroups, one for portrait photography and another for wedding photography. Then, within each AdGroup, you can write one or more ads targeted to the appropriate audience.

In your portrait AdGroup, you might create the following ad:
Fine portrait photography
Book your session with premier
Hollywood fashion photographer
www.abcphotostudio.com

While, in your wedding AdGroup, you might create this ad:
Glamorous Wedding Photos
Book premier Hollywood fashion
photographer for your wedding
www.abcphotostudio.com

In the portrait AdGroup, you'd buy keywords such as "portrait photographer" and in the wedding AdGroup, you'd buy keywords such as "wedding photographer". This way, when someone searches for "portrait photographer", they'll see an ad that specifically addresses their needs.

If you offer wedding photography in Los Angeles and you also offer "travel destination" wedding photography, you might decide to set up a "Los Angeles Wedding" AdGroup and a "Destination Wedding" AdGroup, each with specifically targeted ads. So, when someone searches for "destination wedding photography", you can show them an ad that says you are available for destination weddings. And, when they search for "wedding photographer Los Angeles", your ad can mention Los Angeles.

Tip #5: Track each ad\'s conversion rates.

You can monitor conversion rates for each AdWords ad you run, regardless of which AdGroup or Campaign it\'s in. As long as the headline (the first line of text in each ad) is unique for each ad, you\'ll see a line item for each ad in the AdWords Keywords report. (In the Traffic Sources navigation, click AdWords, then AdWords Campaigns. From the AdWords Campaigns report, click one of the Campaigns in the table. The AdWords AdGroups report appears. Click one of the AdGroups and the AdWords Keywords report appears.

In the table, look at the row labeled"content". The headline of each ad that received clicks will appear. This report shows you the number of visits generated by each ad, the average number of pages viewed per visit, and the conversion rates for each of your goals.
Putting AdWords and Analytics to work.

By doing a little bit of organizing up front, you can make the most of the synergy between AdWords and Google Analytics. Now, think about how putting these ideas into action with your ads can help you target – and track – your markets.

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