Google AdWords Tools You Need (But Probably Don’t Use)

Winning The Internet With Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a great resource for business owners who want to increase visibility, gain more clients or leads and increase the amount of customers they have. More than likely, you’ve stumbled across this article because you’re either learning how Google AdWords works or you’re trying to run a Google AdWords campaign yourself. Either way, you’re in luck!

Once you have the basics down, this article will serve as a resource guide to help you save money, dominate your competition and gain new clients at a cheaper cost. Basically, It’ll help you win the internet!

If you’re already running a Google AdWords campaign, the first thing I suggest is to see where your money is going. To do this, there are several steps I always take to ensure that the money I’m spending is going where it should.

Step 1. Make Sure You’re Targeting The Right Area

Quite often I go into an account and see that clients are spending money on clicks in areas they don’t want to target. To avoid this, under your settings tab, you should see “Location Options (advanced)” in blue letters. If you only want to target people in your selected area (usually for small businesses) then change your settings so that it matches the picture below.

If you do not see this, change your “Network” settings and choose “All Features” Then go to the previous step.

This can all be found under the settings tab. The next step is pretty easy but can be a little time consuming. Choose where you want your ads seen and black out the areas where you don’t. Here is a picture for example:

Once you have targeted your areas, make sure to block out as much as you possibly can. This is the best way to make sure you aren’t spending money on clicks outside your targeted area.

Step 2. Make Sure You’re Not Wasting Money

Now that we have your location settings out of the way, let’s check to make sure you haven’t been wasting money. Under the Settings tab, click on the Locations sub-tab. After that, click on View Location Reports. The last step is to choose “Where Your Users Were (user locations).” I took a screenshot to show you where it’s located.

The next step is where your heart might sink a little. Too often I have seen thousands of dollars being wasted and this is a clear example of where money has flown out the window. At first glance, everything seems fine, minus a few wasted impressions.

Let’s dig deeper though. Highlight the country you want to target and then click on “select view for 1 locations(s).” Now choose the state you want to target.

Damn! $40.06 lost! It’s not even in the same state! Okay, overall not bad, but let’s dig even deeper. Let’s see which counties we’ve been showing up in. I only took a partial screenshot of the nearby counties the ads were showing up in, even though they weren’t supposed to be targeted. Overall, this account lost $295.86, NOT including the $40.06 from other states!

Thats $335.92 total loss!

Seeing results like that can make you feel a lot like this…

Now Let’s Dominate The Competition!

Now that you’re confident all of your money is going to the right target market, let’s figure out how to dominate your competition! This link will direct you to another detailed article I’ve written that shows you a few tricks to use in order to beat your competition.

Here Comes The Plug

If all of this seems too difficult to understand feel free to reach out. I do a lot of freelance work and I cost a lot less than most advertising agencies. You can reach me here.