Setting Up Google Adwords: Organizing

With our last post on Google Adwords, we described all the basics of Adwords and how it works. Since we only touched briefly on what needs to happen in order to set up a Google Adwords campaign, we thought it best to expand on these steps/thoughts a little more for all the curious readers out there. This week’s topic of choice: organization!

Because, honestly, what’s the use of having helpful tools if you can’t even find them?

First things first, when starting a Google Adwords campaign, and before all  the nitty gritty organizing takes place, you need to decide on a game plan for your campaign(s).

Think long and hard about what you want to accomplish with your ads. Ask yourself key questions - what do you have to offer? Who are you trying to target, and where? What’s your budget? What’s the meaning of life? By asking these questions (okay, except maybe for the last), you can find out a better idea of how you want to go about running your campaigns lending you to greater success than just winging it.

Once you have a game plan all squared away, It’s time to put your mad organization skills to the test. So say you have a company that sells hats - and you have multiple campaigns. (Remember, a campaign is the element that allows you to focus your ads on a specific product or service). Each campaign should be focused around one, and only one, goal. So for example, say you have your hat company has three campaigns: Hats, Newsletter’s, and Belt-Buckles. Each campaign should have a main goal that drives it. Having it labeled to reflect that goal also helps. So for “Hats”, your goal might be selling more hats, whereas “Newsletter’s” is targeted for increasing signups, and “belt buckles is for selling more belt buckles (because, you’re an entrepreneur, and everyone loves a good belt buckle with their hat).

Once you have your initial campaigns set up, with a clear plan and goals for each, it’s time to create Adgroups. Adgroups are a collection of ads within a campaign that correlates to a group of related keywords. Just like how your campaigns are set up by a common topic, your Adgroups will focus on a single product or service as well. So for instance, underneath the campaign “Hats”, you might have the Adgroups of Cowboy Hats, Trucker Hats, and Specialty Hats. Each of these Adgroups will house the various keywords pertaining to your overarching groups. Sometimes it’s easier to select Adgroups after you have your keywords selected, but often that is a personal preference. Having your account organized into Campaigns, Adgroups, then Keywords will help you create more effective ads and better manage your account.

Regardless of having your keywords before or after you create your Adgroups, making sure your account is structured will ensure your campaigns are on the right track for efficiency and success. When your account is organized, (and maintains organization), it give you a solid base to work with. It helps you to monitor changes, have even better control of your budget, set keywords quicker, determine which ads are creating conversions (i.e sales, and leads) and traffic, as well as manage/edit your campaigns easily and effectively. What’s not to like about that?