Adwords. Why almost every website owner tries this and throws money away.

Yes, you read that right. Throwing money away. I could also call it donating money to Google, of course, but that amounts to the same thing.
Do you want to gain a huge advantage over your competition when it comes to Adwords? Then read this blog carefully…
You’ll learn:

1. Why everyone is so eager to try Adwords
2. What is perhaps the biggest mistake almost everyone makes with Adwords (marketing agencies included)
3. How to become one of the few companies that advertises without throwing money away.

But first something about:

Monopolist and money machine Google

Let’s be clear: Google is not our friend. Of course they make the world a little more user-friendly with their software, and things move much faster online since the arrival and development of Google. We can’t deny that.
But let’s not forget that Google earns billions from us because of this, and also knows roughly more about us than we do ourselves. They then use that data again to earn even more money.
Why I’m telling you this: Google doesn’t have your best interests at heart as an advertiser, they just want to earn as much money as possible. And they’re particularly good at that.

Why does almost everyone start with Adwords?

Adwords is perhaps the most accessible marketing channel for websites. Within a few minutes you have a campaign live and you’re at the top of Google.
It’s suitable for every marketing budget, and you can, so to speak, pay €1 a day. You also pay per click, meaning you only pay once someone actually comes to your website. These
reasons mean that almost every entrepreneur is familiar with Adwords.
“But those are good reasons, right?” you might ask yourself.
That’s correct. There’s in principle nothing wrong with this marketing channel. It’s just that burning money in Adwords is just as easy as setting up an Adwords campaign.

There are more fun things to do with your money, right?

So where does it go wrong?

It goes wrong because we think Google is our friend. That, without thinking of their own wallet, they give you the best recommendations to achieve success. If Google could talk, it would have said the following:

“Enter your website and we’ll come up with a list of the best keywords”

“We know what your best bid strategy is, and let us optimise this above all”

“Why just the search network? We’ll show the ads by default in the Display network too”

“We’ll determine which ads perform well and which don’t, and adjust the impressions accordingly”

And what do all the poor internet entrepreneurs think: Yes, Google will surely know what’s best for me.
And this is where it goes wrong. Of course Google knows that satisfied advertisers are worth money, and not all of their recommendations can really be trashed, but Google thinks first and foremost about their own profit. Blindly following what Google recommends is therefore particularly naive.
The consequences I’ve seen at many companies because of this:

• Irrelevant and broad search terms in the ad groups because Google recommended them
• The worst-performing ads get shown more often
• The bids for keywords get out of hand because Google is allowed to determine this itself
• Even if you choose ads on Google only, Adwords by default has the checkbox on to also advertise in the display network
• Etc.

Can you blame Google for this? I partly believe so. They’ll absolutely do their best to automatically optimise everything as well as possible, but as long as this yields hardly any results, they shouldn’t hide the manual options so much.
We can’t blame Google, in any case, for wanting to earn money themselves. It would be foolish to expect them to exist in order to help us.
A new client recently came to us who spent €3,000 a month on Adwords. We solved the above-mentioned problems for them. Result: they now spend €1,000 a month while the number of orders has increased.

How do I become one of the few companies that earns money instead of throwing it away with Adwords?

Do you want to use Adwords the right way so that it earns you money instead of costing you money? Then take a look at the following tips:

1. Invest time in setting up the account without letting Google determine everything. For instance, choose manual CPC bidding and don’t set an advertising goal.
2. Only choose keywords relevant to your business, and create separate ads per specific topic to improve relevance
3. Go for keywords with high purchase intent. The conversion when someone searches for a paid brand name, for example, is particularly high because that person already knows exactly what they’re looking for.
4. Measure all performance and optimise it yourself. See which keywords/ads/audiences/devices/locations perform well and adjust your bids and targeting accordingly.

Unfortunately we can’t be exhaustive with the number of tips. Adwords is particularly extensive, and it’s not for nothing that entire courses are offered about this programme. Want to receive personal advice? That’s possible too. Send us a message and we’ll tell you everything else that’s important when advertising in Adwords.

Want a free Adwords Scan?

At Webba we’re fed up with so many entrepreneurs, without realising it, donating money to Google without getting anything back for it. That’s why we’re now temporarily offering a free Adwords scan. Curious whether your Adwords campaigns or online marketing can be improved? Then request our scan now and we’ll come up with tailored advice.