For most website owners paid search advertising with Google AdWords, Overture or miva is today a matter of course, and therefore not really a question of "whether" but "how".

Unlike direct mail, for instance, that has many, many years of experience, paid search advertising is just three years old and still in its infancy,  which probably explains the wide difference in business spending for campaign strategy and optimization.

Tool 1: Discover and use all important search words

For the permanent keyword optimization two factors are particularly important: permanent refinement and goal-oriented campaigns that leads to lower prices and better click-through rates.

Refinement can be achieved by:

  • Continually adding new terms;
  • Optimizing individual terms with various combinations and;
  • Stop-words that increase the pre-qualification of visitors.

Grouping into sub-campaigns, general target values (cost-per-order, cost per lead, and conversion) can be broken down to product areas or other categories. For this, specific fine-tuning professional tracking and reporting systems are used.

Tool 2: Formulate display texts in a way that gets a strong response

The influence of optimized ad text is often underestimated, although it can cause differences in click rates and conversion of sometimes more than one hundred percent. The secret is to emphasize in that limited space the user benefits and produce at the same time a high relevance to the keyword query. For larger keyword lists or product databases the effort is hardly affordable in a purely manual organization, but luckily modern tools can support effective campaign management perfectly.

Tool 3: Automated bit management

The ongoing adjustment of the click prices on offer for individual target variables, as well as the competitive environment, is referred to as "bit management", which can be handled manually within the administrative systems of Google AdWords, Overture or miva.

Limits, however, are reached quickly: Not all possibilities can be exploited for larger quantities of keywords due to the high expenditure of time. Therefore, some professional agencies now rely on software support. These bit management systems allow the logging-in of the optimized values via direct interfaces, resulting in a decrease of the cost per new customer.

Measure, analyse, and interpret!

The basis for each optimization is comprehensive and transparent data, allowing you to measure, analyze, and interpret your campaign. Compared to other forms of advertising, in keyword marketing almost everything can be recorded. With the help of special tracking and analysis tools, it is possible to determine the success of each measure and sub-campaign accurately and initiated optimization measures continuously.

Ideally, these tools have direct interfaces to Google & Co. as then all cost information can be directly collected. Further, the integration and evaluation of all traffic sources makes sense, be it search engines, affiliates, price comparisons or banner campaigns.

By Daniela La Marca