Ideas For Split Testing Your Google Adwords Advertisements
It is absolutely vital that you split test your Google Ads. I explained the why it is vital that you split test your google adwords advertisements in my last article so in this one I want to give you some ideas for split testing your Google Adwords Advertisements.
As a marketing man, split testing is my nirvana. Usually, with so many types of marketing split testing is either impossible or not as easy as you would like it to be to track.
However, Google Adwords not only makes it incredibly easy for you to carry out split testing of your advertisement copy, but it actively encourages you to do so.
How I split test my google adwords advertisements
Google does encourage you to split test your advertisements, but it also then encourages you to let Google choose which advertisement works best in terms of conversions and then automatically display that advertisement more than any of your others.
I am not a fan of this.
Whilst my Google Adwords representative constantly tells me that Google knows best so I should hand over complete control and let Google optimise for conversions, I like to rotate my ads indefinitely so that I can continually test and improve the best performing advertisement which then improves my Ad Rank and thereby reduces my cost per click to get to position one.
What do I split test?
Split testing where you position your keywords in your advertisements
The obvious point is that your advertisements must include the keywords that your prospect has searched as many times as possible whilst making sense.
I say this is obvious but frequently people get this wrong because they have far too many adwords in one Adgroup.
For example if I was marketing consultancy services using Google Adwords, these might be some of the keywords that I would target:
- Marketing a consultancy service
- How to get clients as a marketing consultant
- How to grow a consultancy business
- Marketing a consulting business
Whilst each of the search terms is related to the service, every one of them should be in their own Ad Group because they are all sufficiently different to warrant their own advertisement.
See what I mean with these search results:
None of these advertisements answer my search keyword.
I was looking for advice on “marketing a consultancy service” but I have been presented with a marketing consultant, a marketing agency and a general marketing advertisement.
No one has given me an advertisement that explains they can help me with marketing my consultancy service (I don’t need help by the way, in case you were worried – I have this one covered 😉).
So point number one is to ensure that you have very few keywords in your Adgroups so that you can closely target the keywords in your advertisement. Split test where you position these keywords in your two Google Adwords advertisements to see which position works best.
Usually including them in your first line, your display URL and in the remaining ad copy gets the best results, but split test and see what works best for you.
Split testing where you position your keywords in your Google Ads is important. It makes a substantial difference.
In the next article I will show you what to split test next in your Google Adwords Advertisements.
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