Google AdWords is the lead provider of pay-per-click advertising for webmasters to promote their website, products or for affiliate marketers to promote products that they do not own. There are many misconceptions and miscues regarding proper methods of using AdWords to drive traffic to your website so that you may earn revenue. Below are 5 tips that should clear up some of the misconception and then you will be lead to where all of the confusion or frustration behind PPC advertising will be taken care of.

Tip #1: “Free” Negative Keywords for Campaigns (mostly for monetized websites.)

For site’s that exist to make profit make sure that every ad group in your campaign has the keywords “-free, -freebie, -freebies” so searchers looking for free items do not come across your site that requires a purchase to obtain a product or service. The importance of doing this is beyond importance as failure to do so as a lot of money can be lost by having to pay for freebie seeking visitors who click your ad because you did not filter out free-related keywords.

Tip #2: The 3 Variation Method – Keyword Entry

When entering keywords you could simply enter “my keyword” into the keyword box when adding a keyword or phrase to your ad group but AdWords has special syntax that can increase the efficiency of each keyword. Just entering the keyword as is, will only yield broad searches for that keyword, it is necessary for every keyword phrase in your ad group to be put in quotes and brackets [] so to add one keyword you should actually have three entries: keyword, “keyword” and [keyword]. This will allow for broad matches, phrase matches and exact matches to all display your ad.

Tip #3: Ad Groups for Each Keyword

Since AdWords handles the way ads are displayed by the effectiveness of the ad, the quality score and CTR a technique that is often utilized is to create an ad group for every keyword phrase (remember tip #2, technically 3 entries per ad group) so that low performing ad groups do not sacrifice or affect the CTR of your better performing ad groups. This will allow for your best performing keywords to operate at maximum efficiency.

Tip #4: Capitalization

Unfortunately Google AdWords does not allow advertisers to type their ads in all caps (searchers are thankful for this) but there are many methods to create emphasis. Simply enough capitalize the first letter of every word in your advertisement (including the display URL); even though it may be grammatically incorrect it creates emphasis and can draw the eye.

Tip #5: Research the Competition

Make sure to scout competitor’s ads for keywords you are considering adding to your ad campaign. If they are bidding ridiculous amounts that are far beyond your budget you should shy away from that keyword, and if too many keywords pose this problem you may want to reconsider your niche. Study how the competition sets up their headlines and description. See if you can find a pattern among the competition and seek to make your ad unique. Make your ad stand out from the rest!