The process behind Adwords (Google Ads) campaigns

*Post update: Google Ads is the new name for AdWords.

If you own a local business and want to grow your audience or raise brand awareness in a short time this article will be a must-read.

Smokeylemon is a Google Partner and all our Digital Marketing team is Google Ads Certified. We design, implement and optimise campaigns across Google networks to achieve our customer’s goals in a short period of time at the most efficient cost possible.

Every day we receive enquiries about AdWords (Google Ads). From small and medium businesses owners who want to grow their audiences, to large companies interested in driving the right message to very specific audiences, or boosting the promotion of one of their products or services. For all of them, large or small, we follow the same process and we offer the best quality service at a fixed affordable price. Yes, they all pay the same for our AdWords services, regardless of their budget for ad spend. Keep reading to know why we do this.

The following infographic shows the five-step process that we take over at Smokeylemon to create AdWords campaigns. 

first meeting

The first approach is essential to know the business goals and needs. Every single business has different reasons to start getting paid traffic to their website. The type of industry or sector, the business current situation and interests, budget and marketing goals will determine which is the best network to advertise on, which ad formats are the most appropriate or what the message is to communicate.

proposal - advantages of a fixed price

Once we've researched the business’s needs and goals both off-line and in the digital space, we create a proposal offering a range of options that apply to that case specifically. Whilst most marketing agencies charge a percentage of the total campaign spend, the costs of our services are fixed regardless of the budget.

We have a good reason to do this: charging a proportion of the total spend may lead marketers to intentionally mismanage the account so that the ad spend costs aren’t as efficient as they could be. Therefore more money spent by the client means more money for the marketer. By contrast, our fixed cost allows us the time to manage the client’s AdWords account throughout the month where we thrive to keep the ad spend costs as low as possible within the client’s budget through different AdWords management strategies.

create adwords account & research

As soon as the client approves our proposal, the first step is to create an AdWords Account and start the specific keyword research. What we aim for here is to find opportunities in the digital market that allow high visibility at a low cost per click (CPC)–the amount of money it costs you when someone clicks on your ad. To do this we use several tools to answer questions like:

What are users searching for mostly?

What specific terms do they use to find what they are looking for?

Where are they located?

How old are they?

What’s the best time of the week/day to show the ads according to the search volume?

campaign setup: budget, targeting, bid strategy

The campaign set up is always based on our research discovery. The answers to our questions during the research period will determine the demographic, geographic and interest targeting, bid strategy, and keywords. Combine this with Smokeylemon’s design and marketing nouce and we will also determine what kind of message to deliver, tone of voice to use and what’s the best CTA (Call To Action) to include in each ad group. 
The monthly budget for ad spend is a customer’s decision, but we make a suggestion of a good amount to start with based on projections from the current market. Learn here how AdWords budget works

review and optimisation

It is near impossible to get amazing results on the first try. The first month, in particular, is full of experimentation as we place ads and gauge how the market reacts to them. Campaigns are complex and they are influenced by multiple dimensions and factors. It’s essential to keep an eye on keywords, bid strategies and Key Performance Indicators constantly, to optimise them and get the most of them. Not reviewing these indicators regularly means a waste of money as the budget runs out quickly. This is where our fixed cost account management fee really earns its keep.

reporting

Every beginning of the month, our client receives an email with a detailed report on their campaign performance during the previous period. We gather the key performance indicators and display them in an easy-to-read document with an annotated “plain-English” explanation of the findings.

In short, running effective AdWords campaigns is not an easy task. They are time-consuming and require skills and knowledge. We can help you!