“If you’re getting the most out of your Google AdWords spend, you’re running way more than just one ad at a time. PPC pros have set up multiple campaigns — and multiple ad groups and ad variations within those campaigns — all with different copy, calls-to-action, offers, and destination URLs that align with the searcher’s stage in the sales cycle. That’s a whole lot to set up and keep track of.”
– Hubspot
If you are new to using Adwords or a pro I’m sure you understand as the rest of us do, that paid advertising is here to stay. The old days of ‘build it and they will come’ just don’t apply anymore. When we started this business in 1996 as long as you had a good number of keywords in your text and were using meta tags properly, you could count on a fair amount of traffic. Not anymore. Paid advertising is the fastest and quickest way to generate revenue [and quickest way to lose your shirt too if not managed properly].
Like any new venture, correct marketing fundamentals are crucial. In the case of Google Adwords, the foundational key is to make sure that your online store is properly connected to Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools and Google Adwords in a manner that they will all ‘talk’ to each other and share the correct information. In the case of Yahoo! Store owners, the final piece [in addition to Analytics, Webmaster Tools & Adwords] critical to tying everything together is the Web Analytics Connector from Monitus. This piece sends the revenue data back to Google Analytics completing the loop. Without connecting these accounts, the proper analytical data can’t be generated… the numbers won’t connect.
Here is an example of how the connections should look:
- Google Analytics should be installed on all of the pages in your site.
- Google Analytics and Google Adwords should be connected to each other to ensure accurate reporting.
- Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools should be connected.
- Google Webmaster Tools and Google Adwords should be connected. (For Yahoo! Stores, we also recommend Monitus Tools to record income back into Adwords)
We think of the correct connection and setup as hitting a ‘Home Run’.
Several benefits being:
- By linking your Google AdWords and Analytics accounts, you can optimize your AdWords investment even more effectively with increased trackability and customized reporting.
- Unified view of data across properties
- Importing AdWords data into Analytics lets you see data across many accounts in aggregate and combined with rich site metrics
- Site engagement stats help you better understand marketing performance and how to optimize
Those are just a few. The benefits list is huge.
With correct information, you’re able to see all the angles and better dictate how to spend/bid on clicks and impressions. We’ve found plenty of clients who have mismanaged a tremendous amount in fees simply because the different needed applications were not tied together properly. This is key… invest the time to make sure Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Adwords and the Connector are set up properly and ‘talking’ to each other. It can be tricky but needed. If you haven’t already set this up you are definitely leaving money on the table. One of the big misses is that you won’t be able to see metrics like Return on Investment [ROI] and Return on Ad Spend which as you know are key to making sound business decisions.
Its important to remember that by optimizing your Adwords system you are opening the door to much richer decision making KPI’s [Key Performance Indicators] that will make your ad spend much smarter. In many cases lowering costs AND increasing sales.
Being Google Adwords Certified, we’ve had fantastic results setting these up and connecting them for clients. We’d enjoy talking with you about doing the same for your store. If you’d like for us to help we’ll even include a few extras that will give more visibility and insight into that huge data funnel. We’ll include several focused dashboards to help you see information at a glance and an initial health review of your campaigns and what changes we think may be of benefit to you. If anything, let us at least spend a few moments with you to chat about the great things happening here at FastPivot and how we might be able help you increase conversion and make more money.
** Don’t forget to ask us about our thoughts on using PLA’s and Remarketing campaigns. Don’t leave money on the table!**
Helping businesses make better data driven decisions
