Romancing the Click: 5 Principles for Successful Online Dating that Will Improve your Google Ads

This is a little something that was originally published as a guest article on The Copy Detective blog by Copywrite Matters.

If you’re not familiar with AdWords, it is Google’s paid search engine marketing program. When set up and managed well, it’s an effective way to bring targeted traffic to your website, especially when it’s competitive to get your website on page one of Google in the organic search results.

Here’s how it works:

• An ad linked to your website is shown on page one of Google
• Your ad is only shown when people search on keywords that you select, that are closely related to your product or service
• You only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Some of the principles of running a Google AdWords campaign are similar to the principles of online dating. With some skill and commitment to success, they might just change your life 🙂

1. You need to be clear about who you are trying to attract

If you’re not, you’ll attract the wrong people. You don’t want to waste your time and money dating the wrong people, just like you don’t want to waste your time and money getting clicks on your ads from the wrong people.

2.  Tweak your ad until you find the version that works best

In the online dating world, what you write in your profile has a huge impact on who tries to connect with you. Similarly, with Google AdWords, your ad copy has a huge impact on how many clicks you get and how well targeted they are.

AdWords allows you to run more than one version of your ad at the same time.  You can select a Campaign Setting that means that over time the ad that gets clicked on the most will be shown the most. Keep updating your ad until you find the ultimate high performing version.

3. If you want to take the relationship forward, make a great first impression

Generally for a first date, your aim is to look your best and make a great impression (unless of course the date is a dud but that’s an article on someone else’s website!).

In a similar way, when someone clicks on your ad, you want to make a great impression and show your web visitors that they have found what they’re looking for. Do this by directing your ads to a relevant, well planned landing page that motivates your visitors to respond to your call to action.

The web world moves fast. If you don’t have a great landing page it’s far too easy for your visitors to click the back button and move on to the next website.

4. The fattest wallets don’t always win the race

For a first date, some people might plan a flashy dinner at an expensive restaurant.  Splashing money around will impress some people, but it won’t impress everyone. With AdWords, a lot of people think that having a successful campaign means having their ad showing in one of the highest positions.  Although this is a great strategy that allows advertisers with big budgets to maintain high quality ads, in order to maintain a high position, you need to be prepared to pay more than the other advertisers.

In order to stretch your budget further, try bidding the right amount to have your ad shown in a lower position (around 3 to 5).

Ideally you’ll still get a good Click Through Rate and enough targeted clicks to use up your budget each day, but you’ll pay less per click so you’ll get more clicks for your cash.

5. Don’t give up until you find your perfect match

Google AdWords success means different things to different advertisers. Sometimes an ad campaign gets results right from the start, but in other situations, you need to be persistent and keep experimenting in order to make get the best possible results.

Different parts of your Google AdWords campaign that you can test and change include:

• The Ad Copy
• The landing page
• The times that the ads are scheduled to run
• The target locations
• Different keyword positions
• Different keyword match types eg broad match and phrase match
• Your daily budget.

If you’re running AdWords and want to improve the quality of your clicks, send me an email to discuss 1-to-1 AdWords Coaching or outsourcing your AdWords management. Chances are you’ll save money in the long run.

Or if you have questions about AdWords, please leave a comment below.

Until next time

Melinda