Using Google AdWords for Online B2B Lead Generation….

has proved itself as a cost-effective technique over recent years. However in our opinion AdWords is getting ever more complex and certainly there are more companies competing for attention.So is using AdWords for B2B Lead Generation getting more difficult?

A recent post, by Eric Wittlake in the Business 2 Community, certainly reminded us that many companies who manage their own AdWords Accounts, for this type of Online Lead Generation, may be making serious mistakes.

Some of the mistakes being made are:-

• Forgetting about Negative Keywords

If you haven’t made Free a negative keyword then anyone clicking your advert & wanting your service/product for free will cost you money!

• Just using Broad Match Keywords

Whilst this will initially make you feel good because it brings a lot of traffic the quality of the traffic will be poor. Do you really want to be found for types of clouds if you offer cloud computing?

• Leaving the default Display Campaign On

When an AdWords Campaign is created it automatically comes with some default settings. One of these is the inclusion of the Google Display Network. Now this is entirely different from the Search Network we are all familiar with. As such it needs to be in a separate Campaign if you decide it’s relevant for your objectives. Combining Search & Display in the same campaign is not a good idea.

• Not Using Extensions

You may have noticed that the top 3 adverts in Google Search results pages command a larger proportion of the real estate devoted to all advertisers. Moreover, you are able to link to multiple things. e.g. Extra pages on your site, Click To Call for mobile, Location details Product details Special offers etc. Recently Google announced that this would also be part of the Quality Score calculation. So you have multiple reasons to use these if you are not already doing so.

• Running everything in One (or Two) Big Campaigns

When you start creating a campaign it’s tempting to just have one. However, as additional marketing objectives and targets are added over time, it is important to create separate campaigns for each marketing theme. This not only allows better targeting (e.g. different geographies) but allows proper allocation of budget to each campaign. Having everything in one campaign does not allow this.

• Overlooking to make Keyword Bid Adjustments

We have noticed recently that if you do not keep monitoring and reacting to keyword bid adjustments it can have a devastating affect on Campaign R.O.I. You can for example fall out of the Top 3 advertising slots and as a result your Click Through Rate can plummet.

• Ignoring The Landing Pages

Many businesses do not take the trouble to invest in and test proper Landing Pages. Instead they feel that targeting their website Home Page or better still at least a page related to the search term will do. Well it won’t. Getting the potential Prospect to your website via the right search term is only the first part. It is essential to ensure that the Landing Page is aligned to the search term, answers the question the visitor is likely to have, shows some credibility and invites engagement. It is also something that requires continual assessment and refinement, not just a create and forget moment.

• Accepting A Low Quality Score

If you stay close to what Google tell us you will know that Quality Score has a major impact on the performance of your AdWords Online Lead Generation Campaigns. Not only does this affect how much you pay but also your ad. exposure and Click Through or response rates. Ignore this at your peril! Those that embrace it and make changes to improve it reap thew benefits. (and customers). Check out the video on Google AdWords How Does it work?

Conclusion

If you manage an AdWords Campaign to Generate Leads for your business you can’t just set it and forget it. If you haven’t looked at your AdWords account for a while then you need to now. There are so many changes being introduced by Google that you need to understand and decide how to implement to benefit your business. You also need to remember that AdWords is in effect a dynamic auction where bidders come and go with different objectives and budgets. So what worked fine the last time you actively looked at what was happening in the auction may not be working fine today.

AdWords remains an extremely efficient way of Online Lead Generation but you have to manage and optimise it continually.

If you would like help with AdWords Management & Lead Generation then Contact Us.