Running a B2B Google Adwords campaign inhouse, or through an external agency, can be a cumbersome task at the best of times. Seeing the Quality Score of your star keywords and phrases drop can often lead the most experienced Adwords campaign manager scratching their head.
An Adwords Campaign being managed for a B2C Retailer at least offers the opportunity to ‘cross-sell’ related products. As an example, running a search for ‘Lawnmower replacement blades‘ (…yes, sadly I am talking from my own experience!!!) can bring the consumer through to a website offering a plethora of related garden accessories. There’s the opportunity to build the email database as well as cross selling the very latest Flymo Superdooper Mower. Not completely a lost cause from the perspective of the Adwords Advertiser. However, if I was a manufacturer of replacement blades looking to develop OEM relationships with retailers, how do I stop consumers clicking my ad and wasting my advertising budget?
B2B marketing, especially within the confinement of Adwords Campaigns doesn’t offer the ‘come one, come all‘ mentality of our colleagues within B2C. The creation of successful B2B Adwords campaigns often relies upon the thought process of who NOT to attract, rather than who TO attract.
This is why it is essential to implement the task of choosing “Negative Keywords” to full effect. Setting negative keywords is an ardous task, thankfully performing thorough keyword research at the beginning of Campaign development will save you a considerable amount of time further down the line.
…remember, it’s not what YOU know, it’s what the prospect WANTS to know.
You don’t dictate what the google user types into their search bar. What you do know, however, through a mixture of Site Analytics and Keyword Research, is which terms relate to your product or service offering and which terms are simply redundant. Are your current Adwords Ad Groups running with no associated negative keywords? Could this be the reason that your Ad Campaign is underperforming?
The potential consequence of Managing Adwords Campaigns without the necessary negative keyword filters;
- Those that click on your ads soon find themselves clicking the ‘back’ button having found a largely irrelevant site for their needs = WASTED BUDGET
- Those that DON’T click your ads are ignoring your ads as they offer little relevance to the information they are seeking = REDUCED CTR (Click Thru Rate)
- Google monitor the poor performing CTR of your Ad Groups and Campaigns and reduce the Quality Score of your keywords = LOWERED AD POSITION
- In order to compete once more you have to increase your budget or CPC (Cost Per Click) even further to then begin competing on the keywords that are largely irrelevant in the first place = WASTED TIME & MONEY
It’s a vicious circle, and a circle that I see so often as I inherit poorly performing Adwords Campaigns.
To combat the curse, take a few moments and run through your Site Analytics to understand just what traffic Adwords is generating for your site (assuming that your Adwords Campaign is joined to your Google Analytics). Start filtering those irrelevant keywords into a fresh new excel spreadsheet entitled “NEGATIVE KEYWORDS” and build a list which you can then import into your Adwords Ad Groups to slowly start the task of filtering your traffic.
Understanding Negative Keywords and the influence they can have upon your Adwords account is the first stage of a long task turning around underperforming, time wasting, budget zapping campaigns. Once you build a better understanding of the measurements behind why your Adwords campaign may be blitzing your monthly budget you, and your business, will begin to reap the benefits of an effective campaign.
