7 Biggest Google AdWords Truths That Advertisers Don’t Want to Hear

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

Andrew Lolk

● Co-Founder, CMO

● White Shark Media®○ Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner○ Manage more than $32 million per year

● Author of The Proven AdWords Strategy

● Regular on SearchEngineJournal.com and other known PPC blogs

● Last Halloween, my marketing department dressed up as me. I’m still figuring out what that means

Misunderstandings● I’m baffled by the amount of misinformation out

there

● We will not discuss keywords or ads

● Deeper meaning behind AdWords

1) Your Long-Time Competitors Have an Advantage Over You

● Discouraged after first time trying AdWords

● Google is a fair marketplace for all

Why do long-time advertisers have an advantage?● They have tested their way to better ad copy, keyword selection and

bid management

● They have discovered the value of PPC, done the numbers and

improved their website

● They have a better Quality Score than you

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

1) Your Long-Time Competitors Have an Advantage Over You

● Your initial campaign setup is rarely the end-result

● AdWords takes time to tweak, optimize and find what

works

● What performs well will change over time

● Your competitors have found out what works well

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

2) The Keywords With the Highest CPCs are Typically the Best Ones

● A lot of advertisers relate better performance with lower

CPCs

● A low cost per click can not be a KPI in itself

● AdWords is an auction, you get what you pay for

● Don’t stop lowering your CPCs

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

3) A Lot of Digital Agencies Don’t Know What They’re Doing

To them, AdWords is just this thing where you

choose some keywords and write ads

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

4) Google AdWords Is Harder than You Think

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

● If your company can’t sell your service or product, you

should invest here before anything else

● 0.2% conversion rate vs. 2% conversion rate

o When is your time best spent?

● Responsive, clean design, trustworthy, custom

photography, authentic text. Be yourself

6) Intangible Results Also Matter

● If you only measure your campaign on what

you can see, then you will be missing out

● The easiest thing to do is to cut costs

● Reviewing search funnels will show that it’s

very rare that one keyword cause a

conversion

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

7) There Isn’t One Right Way

● AdWords is not an exact science

● You can always pick apart any AdWords campaign:

o Exaggerate the importance of a single feature

o Take the opposite stand on a feature or best practice

Surprised, or Was It What You Expected?

Walk away with these two things:

1.Know you have to fight harder in the beginning

2. Invest in a good website

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

Surprised, or Was It What You Expected?

Walk away with these two things:

1.Know you have to fight harder in the beginning

2. Invest in a good website

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths

Questions?

@AndrewLolk #adwordstruths