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Streamline your
campaigns with help
from the experts
With so many locksmith businesses now relying
on Google AdWords as their primary source of
new business, it is imperative that you streamline
your campaigns to maximise ROI and keep
budget wastage as low as possible, says Roy
Dovaston of SimplePP and Click Guardian.
»»There are many
agencies wanting to manage
your campaigns on your
behalf. If you choose this route,
then it’s essential to do your
homework because among
some very talented pay per
click managers there are also
many companies around with
very little knowledge that will
happily take your money.
‘If you choose this
route, then it’s
essential to do
your homework’
SELF MANAGEMENT
IS NECESSARY
For many locksmith
businesses, adding agency
fees on top of their advertising
budget is not affordable so
self-management is necessary.
While one advantage of
managing your own campaign is
the advanced knowledge of your
own business there is commonly
a major disadvantage in that
AdWords has evolved into a
highly complex advertising
platform that requires expert
attention to avoid common
pitfalls and deliver campaigns
that are finely tuned.
TOP TIPS
Here are some top tips that
will make managing your
campaigns more effective:
1. At the time of writing
this article Google has been
offering a free £75 advertising
credit for quite some time!
Of course there are terms
and conditions, the main
one being that after applying
the promotional code, the
advertiser has 31 days to
accrue advertising charges
to the value of £25 before
the promotional amount
is released. For any new
advertiser this is a boost that
simply cannot be missed:
https://www.google.co.uk/
adwords/coupons
2. When selecting keywords
it’s important to understand
match types: https://support.
google.com/adwords/
answer/6324?hl=en. While
using broad match keywords
is perfectly fine, it is, however,
important to understand
exactly how this type of
keyword works prior to using
it. If deployed incorrectly,
broad match keywords have
the ability of triggering your
ads for completely irrelevant
keywords. Spending 10 minutes
to completely understand
keyword match types will not
only save you money but could
also be the difference between a
campaign’s failure or success.
3. Lack of conversion
tracking is something from
which many locksmiths’
campaigns do not suffer. In
my experience of managing
AdWords campaigns for many
years I have come across about
90% of locksmith campaigns
that are running without
tracking. I understand the
difficulties of tracking for
locksmiths but it really is
important to try and overcome
this. Google offer a Google
Forwarding Number. While
it doesn’t display as a local
number on your web site,
when a client rings it send
invaluable information
back into AdWords which
means being able to make
better informed decisions
about keywords that work
and those that do not. More
information here: https://
support.google.com/adwords/
answer/2382961?hl=en-GB
4. I have already touched on
being mindful of the keyword
match types you choose
which leads on to the use of
negative keywords. All too
often advertisers completely
locksmithjournal.co.uk | jul/AUG 2015
overlook negative keywords
purely on the basis that
they do not know what they
are! The use of negatives is
imperative if your campaign
is using keyword match types
other than exact match. A
negative keyword helps you
refine your campaigns by
disallowing keywords to trigger
your ads that are irrelevant.
For example you may offer
emergency locksmith services
in London and be using
the keyword ‘emergency
locksmith’. You may have
your targeting area defined
but someone within your
area searches for emergency
locksmith Scotland. Clearly,
you do not provide services
to this region but the phrase
match keyword allows the ad
to trigger anyway. This is a
common example of where
using a negative keyword will
save you money!
To see exactly which
keywords trigger your ads
and start working on your
negative keywords login to
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