How do you choose your AdWords agency for high-performance SEA campaigns?

Do you use an AdWords agency to create and manage your AdWords advertising campaigns, or are you thinking of doing so? Would you like to complement your natural search engine optimisation (SEO) marketing strategy with paid search (SEA ) to maximise the performance of your website, attract more traffic and win more online customers?

This article takes a look at the basics of Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), from creating a text ad to choosing a Google AdWords-certified agency and the best practices to adopt. Finally, we recommend three marketing tools for tracking and optimising your SEA campaigns.

To find out everything there is to know about Search Engine Marketing (SEM), follow the guide!

See all software Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

What is an AdWords campaign?

Definition

An AdWords campaign is a marketing acquisition channel that aims to list a website in Google's top results for specific searches, so that it appears in the ads at the top of the page.

This channel, known as SEA (Search Engine Advertising), is distinct from SEO (Search Engine Optimization): the ads are positioned at the top of the page in Google results, as in the example below, and preceded by the word "Ad".

To do this, there's no magic, just a tool: Google AdWords (recently renamed Google Ads). This is Google's advertising network, the tool used to promote text, image or video ads.

Most often, it's a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign: you pay for each click on your ad.

Objectives of an AdWords campaign

The objective is simple: to be visible on specific keywords related to your business and to attract and then convert potential new customers.

You can reach all your potential customers online. Online advertising offers several methods of targeting potential customers who are looking for your products and services.

With a well-managed, high-performance AdWords campaign, you can reach your audience :

• at the right time - you can customise your delivery schedule to the exact day and time ;
• in the geographical area you want to reach;
• on any type of device (computer, smartphone, mobile).

Google AdWords video tutorial

There are many Google AdWords tutorials available online, particularly in video format. Here is an introductory video to Google AdWords aimed at new businesses wishing to start an AdWords campaign:

How do I create an AdWords text ad?

Use Keyword Planner to select the right keywords

Keyword Planner is the keyword planning tool for advertisers available on Google AdWords. It enables you to choose the keywords that are relevant to your audience and prepare your AdWords campaigns as effectively as possible.

How does it work?

1. You search for keywords related to your business, product or service.
   Example: "shoes" if you have an online shoe shop.
2. The Google AdWords Keyword Planner suggests new keywords related to those in your search to give you new ideas and increase your chances of appearing in Google results.
   Example: women's shoes, men's shoes, pumps, trainers, etc.
3. You group your keywords by common theme in what are known as ad groups. This grouping enables you to improve your performance.
   Example: ad group "pumps" with the keywords "pumps", "cheap pumps", "black pumps", "red pumps", "patent pumps", etc.

➡️ The data provided by AdWords helps you to make the best choice of keywords so that your AdWords budget is not the only factor in the performance of your campaigns.

What information does AdWords provide?

For each keyword search, the keyword planning tool gives you the following information:

• search trends over a given period, in total and on mobile,
• a list of related keywords, in order of relevance, with the following data for each of them :
  • average monthly search volume
  • competition (low, medium or high),
  • the ad impression rate,
  • high and low bids, i.e. the maximum and minimum amounts an advertiser is prepared to spend to have their ad placed on a keyword,
  • account status, to track your campaigns and find out whether you are already using this keyword.

💡 There are alternatives to Keyword Planner, such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Keyword suggest.

Choosing the right targeting option

There are several targeting options available on AdWords. Choosing the optimum targeting helps you to capture the Internet users who are the core of your audience, and only them, in order to maximise the ROI of your campaign.

The targeting options are as follows

• exact match: the keyword searched for by the user corresponds exactly to the keyword of your campaign, to the nearest letter.
  Example: [escarpin rouge] means that the ad will only appear if the user types the exact expression "escarpin rouge".
• phrase match or match expression: a fairly short search expression containing your keyword.
  Example: "red pumps" means that if the user types something before or after "red pumps", such as "cheap red pumps", the ad will appear.
• modified broad targeting: the user searches for a long expression containing your keyword. This targeting takes account of accents and singular/plural variations.
  Example : +escarpin +rouge means that if the user types "choose cheap red pumps", the ad will appear.
• broad match: the user searches for a long expression containing your keyword, variants or synonyms of this keyword.
  Example: if the surfer types "women's shoes", which is a synonym of "red pumps", your ad will appear.

💡 You can also add keywords to exclude in order to be more precise.
For example: if you only sell women's shoes, you should add "men", "children" to the keywords to exclude. If your positioning is exclusively upmarket, you should add "cheap" to the keywords to be excluded.

Steps to follow

We'll guide you through creating an AdWords ad step by step.

But before you create your ads, you need to have selected the keywords on which you want to position yourself, and group them by common theme to create ad groups.

Example: create an ad group "pumps" with the keywords "pumps", "cheap pumps", "black pumps", "red pumps", "patent pumps", etc.

Process with the old Google AdWords interface

1. Sign in to your Google AdWords account.
2. Click on Campaigns.
3. Choose the campaign to which you want to add a text ad from the menu on the left.
4. Click on Ads, then on + Ad and select "Text ad".
5. Click on Choose... and choose the ad group to which you want to add a new ad.
6. Enter :
   • the final URL,
   • a title
   • a description,
   • any optional fields.
7. Save the advert.

Process with the new Google Ads interface, the new name for Google AdWords

1. Log in to your Google Ads account.
2. Click on Ads and extensions in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on the More button ➕.
4. Select Text ad.
5. Enter :
   • the final URL,
   • a title,
   • a description,
   • any optional fields.
6. Save the ad.

As you fill in the various fields for your text ad, you will get a preview of your Ad for computer and mobile.

Example on mobile :
Cheap Shoes
Find all our Red
Shoes at the best price!
https://www.maboutique.com/escarpin

Best practices for writing a high-performance ad

• The keyword on which you want to position the ad must be present in the title.
• Create one AdWords ad per keyword.
• Use capitals for strong words: they are more visible.
• Rename your URL with the campaign keyword: once again, your site has a better chance of being seen by an Internet user. Each keyword must be found in the URL of a page on your site.
• Add ad extensions: telephone number, customer reviews (stars), postal address, price, links to other pages on your site, etc.

How do you create powerful Google Ads? Video answer:

How can I run a successful SEA campaign?

How do you run a good AdWords campaign? What can you do to make it effective and profitable?

Criteria to consider before launching your AdWords campaign

Don't blindly throw yourself into creating one or more adverts just to "do a test"; the results won't be there. Start by observing :

• your audience(s): age, gender,
• the target geographical area: a town, a country or a region,
• language,
• the price: what cost per click (CPC) are you prepared to spend?
• your conversion, sales or registration objectives,
• the duration of the campaigns.

3 tips for a successful AdWords campaign

A landing page that converts

Someone has clicked on your ad and been redirected to your website: congratulations, you've taken the first step! Now your objective is to retain this visitor.

The quality of your ad's landing page is the main factor in this. Indeed, if this page doesn't contain the information you're looking for, isn't easily readable, isn't adapted for mobile, etc. the visitor won't stay on your website and your conversion rate will drop in favour of your bounce rate.

💡 Google scans the content of the page and looks to see if it finds the keywords purchased on AdWords. Depending on the result, it assigns a quality score to the word. The higher the score (good quality), the lower the bid.

Take care with your landing page to provide the answers visitors need to their queries and keep them on your site.

A mobile-friendly site

In 2019, the number of searches on mobile devices will exceed the number of searches on computers:

• 46% of traffic is expected to come from the desktop;
• 54% of traffic from mobile.

Source: Alioze

You no longer have a choice: to meet the expectations of Internet users, you need a mobile-optimised website to match user behaviour.

➡️ When you create your AdWords ad, tick the box to adapt your ad to mobile devices.

Precise monitoring of your campaigns

You set conversion targets internally before launching your AdWords campaigns. There are two main tools you can use to monitor the performance of your campaigns and adapt them if the expected results are not up to scratch: Google AdWords and Google Analytics.

These tools measure the cost and ROI of each campaign, ad group, keyword or advert.

Google Analytics makes it possible to observe the behaviour of Internet users on your site and to see how much direct sales this channel generates, as well as indirect conversions.

At the start of your campaign, define the performance indicators you want to track in order to measure the impact of your AdWords ads. This will enable you to :

• add, modify or delete keywords,
• adjust your bids and budgets
• test new ad variants,
• change your targeting (duration, geographical area, device type, etc.)
• or even completely rethink your strategy, either quantitatively or qualitatively, if the results are not convincing.

SEA agency: what is the role of an AdWords agency?

Despite the above explanations, you're still confused by all this marketing jargon? Don't have the time, the skills or simply the desire to manage your AdWords campaigns? Are you worried that your efforts are costing you more than they're bringing in?

AdWords is a very powerful channel and can be very profitable. On the other hand, it's very quick to spend a lot of money on AdWords, and optimising a campaign is actually very technical. It's a matter of fine-tuning to make it effective.

Call on an AdWords agency to design and manage your paid search campaigns.

Why entrust your AdWords campaigns to an agency?

Entrust the management of your AdWords campaigns to a paid search agency. Why should you do this? Creating, managing and monitoring SEA campaigns can't be improvised. By choosing a service provider, you can ensure that :

• Choose the best keywords for your business,
• knowledge of the tools and best practices (Google Ads, but also Bing Ads, Facebook Ads and Twitter Ads) for effective campaigns,
• Knowledge of Internet user behaviour, which can change very quickly online,
• monitoring and updating SEA campaigns,
• analysis of actual costs and optimisation of the return on investment of campaigns,
• personalised advice for your company.

Outsourcing AdWords campaigns is like making an investment, just as you would hire a service provider to create a website or manage your accounts. You could do it, but at what cost, and for what result? Agencies work on a performance basis: their commission depends on the return on investment from your campaigns.

Concentrate on your core business and let the marketing professionals manage your AdWords campaigns.

How do you choose your AdWords agency?

We've put together a list of indicators to help you choose the AdWords agency that's right for you:

• Google AdWords or Google Partner certification guarantees the quality of the agency's work and the profitability of the campaigns it manages.
• What is your budget? What commission does the AdWords agency receive (generally 10% to 15%)?
• How is the campaign monitored? Is there any?
• What activity reports are sent to you? Does the agency provide detailed reporting on what is working (or not)?
• What is the agency's reputation, or rather its e-reputation?
• Does it have areas of specialisation?

Directory of AdWords agencies for your SEA campaigns

Here is a selection of SEA agencies, from AdWords pure players to smaller players in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille and Montpellier.

AdWords agencies are legion: we haven't listed them all. If you'd like to recommend an agency that has proved its worth to you, just mention it in the comments and we'll add it!

The agencies listed below are all Google AdWords certified agencies ✅.

[Special case] SaaS software publishers are now well acquainted with this player for referencing their service in Google results: appvizer! More qualified leads, cheaper than AdWords, what more could you ask for?

How can you measure the effectiveness of your campaign?

You've chosen to entrust your AdWords campaign(s) to an agency, but :

• Didn't they provide you with any reporting? (A word of advice: change agency!)
• you don't understand the mass of data they've sent you?
• the KPI (key performance indicator) monitoring is incomplete or doesn't meet your expectations?
• your in-house marketing team is closely monitoring the performance of your campaigns?

The simplest and most effective way of measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns is to use dedicated marketing tools. We compare three of them.

Ranxplorer

Ranxplorer is a powerful SEM-SEO tool that compiles an impressive amount of data in numerous dashboards. It shows you which keywords your site is positioned for and how traffic is changing, for example.

You gain visibility on :

• keywords on which you are not positioned, but could be and still gain traffic;
• tracking of keywords that generate traffic to your site and opportunities for optimisation (SEA analysis);
• the number of keywords positioned in sponsored sites, including Google Shopping results.

Finally, Ranxplorer detects your competitors and analyses their strategies (semantic performance, positions occupied, etc.).

Seiso

Seiso is the Google AdWords analysis tool developed by JVWEB. It is ideal for e-commerce sites, but is also suitable for all companies that spend SEA budgets and want to make the most of them. Its clear, simple and visual interface makes it easy to analyse the data in the various dashboards.

A simple login using your Google Account authentication gives you access to a free audit of your Google Ads campaigns as well as a free monthly report delivered straight to your inbox: monitor performance and identify areas for improvement with ease.

Seiso recalculates the quality scoresfor each campaign and for the account as a whole in order to identify what's working and what's not, under-utilised campaigns and unprofitable campaigns.

As well as being free, its other major strength is its reliability and security. You remain in control of your account data, which is not stored in Seiso.

Selldorado

Selldorado works on a different model to the two previous tools, relying on affiliation and retargeting to maximise the revenue from your campaigns. It is aimed in particular at small e-tailers, putting them in touch with partners who will bring them traffic and sales.

It's a simple, no-subscription, no-commitment solution. You are charged a commission of 12% on the sales generated by the partners: you only pay if you make money.

What's more, you get dedicated access to manage your campaigns and track the use of your advertising budget.

Selldorado is powered by the Effinity group.

See all software Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Boost qualified traffic to your site

You now have all the keys you need to attract qualified visitors to your website and convert them into customers. Creating and managing Google Ads will hold no secrets for you.

A final word of advice: companies sometimes spend huge sums on AdWords advertising and see little or no return on their investment. Don't hesitate to call in an AdWords agency and entrust your campaigns to one of their experienced consultants. It won't necessarily cost you much more, and you can be sure of high-performance campaigns!