Using Google Adwords ads for small & medium businesses in Switzerland
Being visible in Google is key to succeed in today’s business, find out how a small business can get results by using Google Adwords, Google’s paid marketing tool.
You developed your website but then you need visitors to your site. Search is key in a lot of business where people search for services or products directly or indirectly. It could be services like accounting, tax returns, consultants, moving companies, kid’s activities, restaurants, lawyers, dentists, massage therapists, architects, language teachers or products like baby articles, cosmetics products or gift ideas. In typical segments, clients coming from search marketing can easily reach 30-70% of paying users.
Search Engine Optimization vs. Google Adwords
The top results are the paid results, while the next 10 results / page are the so-called organic results.Getting as high as possible among the organic results is called Search Engine Optimization which takes long months to show results but can be very effective long-term. Google Adwords is the paid advertising where you pay per click, here you can attain results quicker. The search marketing can be very well measured, you see how many people clicked and you can track how many people clicked on “Contact” and how many sent you a mail or called you.
9 steps to launch a successful Google Adwords
1. Understand the competitive market
Understand who are your direct or indirect competitors and what is their search marketing activity, this will help you, define your strategy.
2. Analyse keywords
Google has a “Keyword Planner Tool” which helps you estimate the number of searches for certain expressions in a given geography and it also suggest similar keywords. It could be a long list with direct searches like “tax consultant geneva, tax advisor Geneva, tax return specialist, tax expert for expatriates” and indirect one, like “deadline for tax return 2015, tax deductions 2015” etc. In Switzerland, you will need to focus on 2 or 3 languages depending on your market.
3. Identify keywords and group them
You will have to pick the relevant ones and group them into similar groups for which you will run your ads. This could be per service or product groups, an accountant firm could advertise its payroll and tax return services.
4. Define campaigns with the right targeting
Under campaigns you can define the geography, country, city and language and whether it should appear on desktops and/or mobiles.
If you have questions, feel free to contact us.
5. Create ad groups
You can run different ad groups within a campaign. Think of a language school, which has a separate campaign for its Zurich-based school and its Geneva-based school. The Geneva school offers courses in English, German and Italian, for which separate ad groups should be created.
6. Add the keywords to the ad groups
Following the language school example, you would add keywords like “learn Spanish in Geneva” “Spanish language school Geneva” etc. under the “Geneva language school” campaign and the “Spanish course – Geneva” ad group. You can choose from different type of keyword settings, whether the exact same word has to appear in search or whether variations, misspellings or synonyms can appear as well.
7. Define negative keywords
This is crucial to filter out searches that are not relevant for example “learn Spanish abroad” or “accountant internship Zurich”
8. Write your ads
You should always write at least 3 different ads for each ad group, so you can test which one is working better. You have limited characters, 25 for the headline, and 2×35 characters for the description and another 35 characters for showing the link. Make sure your headline reflects what your user is exactly searching for. The description should be convincing and motivate the user to take action. The display URL can be different than your actual URL. You can also add so-called extensions, like email, phone, address.
9. Choose your bid type and set your maximum cost per click per keyword
You can either choose for automating the bid or you can set them manually. You can then define how much you are willing to pay maximum for a click on a certain keyword. If you are selling baby articles that are 50chf on average, then you can afford less than if you are advertising dentist services for 2,000chf. The level of competition and the quality of your site will also determine the cost and your position of your ad.
+1 optimise, optimise, optimise
You have to continuously optimise your campaigns, add keywords, remove keywords, refresh ads, update your bids, those little things will make a big difference.
Creating and managing a campaign is not very difficult, but to do it right, it takes a lot of practise and expertise. I could cut my wife’s hair or do my corporate tax return, but probably I would do more damage than good – so I stick with creating apps, websites and Google campaigns. We are happy to consults you.
If you have comments, questions or have app development or web design needs in Switzerland, please contact us.