Unless you’ve studied architecture or engineering, then you may not have heard of the word keystone. A keystone is the final wedge-shaped piece at the very top of a stone arch. Until this piece is correctly placed, the arch can not hold weight. In other words, the arch would crumble and be worthless without the keystone.
Knowing that, what do you think is the keystone of a successful Google AdWords advertising campaign? Is it the keywords? The ads? The landing pages? The bids? The quality scores?
No. Those are all important, but they are not keystones. There is another element that must precisely fit or else the campaign will not work.
It’s Your Offer
The offer you’re presenting in your ads and on your landing pages is the keystone.
Think about that for a minute.
You could have everything in your AdWords campaign set up perfectly – appropriate keywords and bids, relevant ad copy, a solid landing page, and all the right AdWords settings – but if you’re not presenting a compelling offer, then prospects are not going to click on your ads and you’re not going to generate sales!
It sounds obvious, but this is often overlooked during the planning and optimizing stages of an AdWords campaign. It’s common for businesses to simply use the same offer that is already presented on their website, which is rarely unique or irresistible.
Don’t make that mistake! If your offer isn’t strong enough then the campaign will come crashing down — like an arch without a keystone…
What Makes a Strong Offer?
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all offer that is guaranteed to work for any business in any industry. That’s because one of the most important factors is your competition. What are the other advertisers offering your prospects?
So, “Google” your top keywords and review the advertisers on the first page. Even better, write down all of their offers so you can more clearly see how you could craft a more compelling offer.
Can you beat their price? Can you make a stronger guarantee? Can you offer a no risk, free trial period? Can you make it easier for prospects to respond via phone, email, text message, or in your store? Can you set a real deadline to overcome procrastination?
Those are just a few examples of how you could strengthen your offer versus your competition.
Google Rewards Advertisers With The Best Offer
Google AdWords is an auction, which means you set a maximum bid that you’re willing to pay per click on your ads and then Google determines your ad position in their auction. But here’s the catch – the highest bidder does not necessarily get the top ad position.
That’s because your ad position is calculated using your bid and another factor called your quality score. Quality score is determined by many different factors, but by far the biggest factor is your ad click through rate. So if your ads get clicked on more than your competitors, then you’ll tend to have a higher quality score.
If you have higher quality scores, then your ads can be in the top ad positions even with lower maximum bids than your competition!
What does this all mean?
Well, it means the advertiser with the strongest offer is not only going to get more prospects to click on her ads, she’s also going to get better ad position and pay less per click than her competitors. Clearly, it pays to invest some time testing and tweaking to find the most compelling offer in your market.
Want More AdWords Help?
This Thursday I’m presenting a live training called How to Profit with Google AdWords In Just 15 Minutes Per Day!
When you attend this 90-minute online workshop, I’ll show you exactly how to profitably manage your Google AdWords campaigns, so you slash your ad costs and generate more leads and sales… all in just 15 minutes per day!
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