This article is based on a call to the Google Help center on adwords

I thought you might find it very useful to help improve your own Adwords account.   The rep couldn’t have been more helpful.  I was trying to improve a very small account that wants advertise in Pittsburgh area only.   Here is what the article entails:

1. Keyword Matching Options

2. Keyword Status: Low Search Volume

3. Optimizing Your Account Structure

4. Creating Effective Ad Groups

5. Keyword Insertion

** 1. Adwords KEYWORD MATCHING OPTIONS **

The four keyword matching options determine which Google searches can trigger your ads to appear. These options can help you control who sees your ads.

You can set each search-targeted keyword to have one of those four settings. To use a keyword matching option, just add the appropriate punctuation to your keyword:

1. Broad match: keyword

Allows your Ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations (The broad match modifier may also be used to further refine your broad keyword matches: +keyword.)

2. Phrase match: “keyword”

Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase .

3. Exact match: [keyword]

Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively.

4. Negative match: -keyword

Ensures your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term.

With some options, you’ll enjoy more ad impressions, clicks, and conversions; with others, you’ll get fewer impressions and more narrow targeting. By applying the appropriate matching options to your keywords, you can best meet your ROI goals.  For more information about keyword matching options, please see: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100

** 2. Adwords KEYWORD STATUS: LOW SEARCH VOLUME *

“Low search volume” keywords are temporarily suspended because they’re associated with very little search traffic on Google properties. If the number of search queries for these keywords increases even a small amount, they’ll be reactivated and will start triggering your ads to show again. Our system checks and updates this status once per week.

A keyword can have low search volume because it’s not relevant to users’ searches. For example, the keyword might be considered too specific or obscure, or it was misspelled significantly. Keeping these keywords out of the ad auction helps AdWords serve ads more efficiently and reduces the volume of keywords on our system. Before our system stops a keyword from joining the auction, it evaluates the number of searches on a given keyword worldwide over the past twelve months.

When you have a keyword with low search volume, you have a couple of options:

1. Don’t do anything — if more users start searching for your keyword, we’ll reactivate it. This is particularly relevant in the event that you’re advertising a new brand, term or product.

2. Delete the keyword, and use the Keyword Tool to find additional keyword ideas.  In your case, as we discussed, I would recommend refining your keyword list either by removing the term “Pittsburgh” from your phrase matched keywords, by changing some of your phrase match keywords to broad match, and/or removing some phrase match keywords and replacing them with
broad match keywords.

I think that these modifications will hopefully help you to see keywords that have higher search volumes.

** 3. Adwords OPTIMIZING YOUR ACCOUNT STRUCTURE **

A well-organized account can improve your campaign’s performance. We recommend you structure your AdWords account so your ad groups are divided according to different themes. This will help users see specific ads for each product or service.  You  generally aim for a keyword list of 5 to 20 highly relevant keywords in an ad group.

By doing this, you can potentially improve relevancy and, therefore, your quality score by showing users more highly relevant ads.

To see a detailed example of how to best structure a campaign, please visit: https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46075&hl=en_US.

** 4. Adwords CREATING EFFECTIVE AD GROUPS **

Reorganizing your campaigns into unique ad groups that each feature a specific product or service will likely help to improve your return on investment.

When you have highly specific ads and keywords, users are more likely to notice and click on your ads. For example, if you sell shoes and hats, you could have one campaign for each product. Within your ‘shoes’ campaign, you could include ad groups for athletic shoes, dress shoes, etc. Within your ‘hats’ campaign, you could include ad groups for women’s hats, children’s hats, etc. For each ad group, you can then create targeted ads and build a keyword list that contains relevant keywords.  Learn how to create ad groups at https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107934.

Here are a few additional tips for creating well-targeted ad groups:

- Create multiple ads for each ad group.

An ad group contains a list of keywords and one or more
ads that will appear for these keywords. You can create as many ads as you
would like to test your ad text and find what works best for you.

One campaign can include up to 20,000 ad groups, and each ad group can include up to a few thousand keywords. However, an ad group with a
large number of keywords may not perform as well as a more targeted ad group with fewer keywords. A focused ad group with a highly targeted, specific
keyword list and Ad is generally more cost-effective and successful than a general catch-all ad group with a mixed, multiple-themed keyword list and generic ad
text.

- Use your keywords in your ad text.

Part of your ad text will appear in bold whenever it  matches or nearly matches a user’s search query.This can help improve your click-through rate (CTR), since the relevance of your ad is highlighted.

Here’s an example: Your ad, which includes the words ‘Find rental car bargains,’ shows for the search query ‘rental car.’ Because the search query matches a phrase in your ad, ‘rental car’ appears in bold. Learn more about ad bolding at http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=webinars.cs

- Use unique destination URLs.

If your website has several sections, I recommend taking advantage of a unique destination URL for each ad group. This ensures that your ads link to the most relevant webpage on your site. A visitor who immediately sees what he/she is looking for on your landing page is more likely to convert for you.

** 5. Adwords KEYWORD INSERTION **

After our call, I did some additional research regarding your question about how keyword insertion works with your Destination URL.

If you look at the example given in the AdWords Help Center article about Keyword insertion (http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=webinars.cs),
the destination URL with the keyword insertion looks like this: http://www.example.com/?kw={keyword:nil}

Since the keyword insertion appears after a “?” it will be read as an arbitrary parameter.  In other words, most websites will ignore the URL string after the “?”.  Therefore, the only use
for the keyword insertion in the destination URL is for tracking purposes, for example if you have conversion tracking set up or Google Analytics tracking your landing page.

This article was brought to you by Paul Ames.com.  Call us to get help managing your Adwords account.

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Useful Resources:

Small Business Center – Stay connected with the latest
AdWords tips and news: www.google.com/adwords/smallbusinesscenter

AdWords Beginner’s Guide – Great tips for new online
advertisers:  http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&guide=21899&page=guide.cs

AdWords Online Classroom – Free online video tutorials on
a range of topics:  http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=webinars.cs

For more help internet marketing, be sure to follow us on our blog at paulames.com Google adwords