How To Eliminate Unproductive Traffic

The paradox of AdWords is that a bold limitation of your ad distribution can increase your ROI.

Most people think the more impressions their ads get, the better. The more visitors their site gets, even better. But with PPC advertising that’s not always true.

You increase your ROI when the traffic you send to your landing pages is highly targeted, and when you lower your campaign costs, by getting rid of the “tire kickers”.

There are at least 6 ways to get rid of unproductive traffic.

1. Use Keyword Matching

The keyword matching options available in your AdWords account are:

• exact match
• phrase match
• broad match
• the use of negative keywords

It is in your advantage to use the [exact match] option. When you type your keywords in square brackets, the search engine will display your ad only when someone searches for that specific phrase. If your keyword is [Las Vegas Condo], your ad will only be displayed when somebody searches for “Las Vegas condo”. In web search, capitalization is not important. But spaces between characters, punctuation and symbols, word succession and hyphenation does count.

About exact and phrase match we did spoke before in the campaign planning section.

In your AdWords account, the default option is broad match. You can use it, but it’s not in your advantage to use it alone. We strongly suggest using broad match together with negative keywords. In fact, it is the power of the negatives we want to talk to you about.

A negative keyword is usually a word/phrase that you don’t want your ad to be found with. I.e., if you want to sell something, you don’t want people that included the word “free” in their search to click on your ad. The best way to avoid this is not to show your ad on those searches. You can achieve this through negatives.

There’s no limit to how many negatives you can define. Whenever you include another good negative keyword in your list you lower your costs. At the same time, you maintain your sales. That’s how you improve ROI.

2. Use Geotargeting

AdWords allows you to reach people in 250 countries. But do you really want that? Can you deliver in 250 countries? If not, why should you waste money on all those clicks?

Define your target geographicaly. You have the possibility to choose the places you want your ads to be shown, in your AdWords account. Try not to play the generous, because your budget is at risk.

3. Use Language Options

Moreover, with Google AdWords you can target people of 14 languages. This is helpful in two ways:

• when your product or service can really be used only by people that speak certain languages
• when you want to write more effective ads, by using the language of your potential customers

4. Decide Whether You Want Your Ads to Display on the Content Network or Not

In AdWords campaign management section you have a check-box that allows you to decide whether you want to display your ads in the content network or not.

The content network is the sum of webpages that participate in the AdSense program. Simply put, your ad will be shown on related webpages. You can decide on which sites your ads will appear.

The decision is really disputed and there are arguments on both sides. Some people say your ads will increase the relevance of the content where they are displayed and you will get targeted exposure. On the other hand, there are advertisers that doubt the people who click on AdSense are really targeted, motivated or with an urge to buy. You should test for yourself and decide after.

5. Use conversion/keyword tracking

There’s no way to know what works and what doesn’t unless you go through the process of the 3T’s:

• testing
• tracking
• tweaking

You need to perform tests over your ads, keywords and landing pages all the time. You need to track results for each test and pick the most convenient version. Learn how to track your conversions, and then do the tweaking.

6. Write the Price in Your Ad

Advertisers of all kinds share a common problem: pricing. At the other end of the rope, the first thing we ask as potential buyers is “how much”.

Price is usually the most important buying decision. Advertisers should filter their potentials through price in the first place. The most sure way to do it is by creating ads that quote the price (when possible).

Now that you know how to filter your visitors, you should learn how to get more of them. Our next thread is about increasing your traffic.