Tips for AdWords beginners

[Ronald Marva]

Adword is a byword in affiliate marketing. So if you are just starting up on using this tool for your campaigns, here are some useful tips on how get the most of it:

• Experiment with different creatives and positions - Test your creative in each position and work out where it will be most effective, from an ROI (return of investment) point of view.
  
• Optimise your landing page - Learn how to make use of directing your clicks to the right landing page. A landing page is the page which the person who clicked on your ad will see when they come through to your site. Avoid using use your homepage as your landing page unless it deals only with selling the product you're advertising.
  
• Track conversion and ROI (Return On Investment) - Track your impressions, clicks and click through rate. Find out which efforts are actually making you money! You can use Google's own conversion tracking codes, or you can use your own software.
  
• Work out your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) - You should know how much you're paying for each order/sale/download/enquiry/whatever on each channel.
  
• Don't enter into bidding wars - Think carefully before you enter into a bidding war with your competitor. It is not always necessary to be on top. If you have a better product, your clickthrough rate will get you to the top – and you'll still be paying the same as you were in the second position.
  
• Set a weekly budget and stick to it - Make sure you know a keyword is working (more importantly, know why it is working) before you invest more.
  
• Keep a close eye on your competitors -Come up with a list of information from the way your competitor conduct their campaign. You can learn a lot from your competition.

Feel free to add your beginner's tips!