Hi,
I'm thinking of starting an AdWords campaign, but before I begin can anyone tell me what the biggest problems are with AdWords or what I should watch out for?
Thanks,
Humsmasher

The best advice I can give you. Set your keywords to exact match and not broad. This way your ad only shows when someone types that specific keyword in. Also try and come up with different keywords related to your niche that Google doesn't suggest. Because everyone is using those words and the cost per click is going to be pretty high.

You just have to experiment with it!

If you are going to start an AdWords campaign then you should be familiar with its working and performance report. I think the biggest problem with Google adwords is price bid and keyword selection. Because most of the people do not have sufficient knowledge about it. You can get complete guidance about Google AdWords here: http://www.tictacdo.com/pages/templa...ate15gt520kpll

You should also set a budget, let say 50 a day or 100.00 and so on, but if this is your first time I would start low, let say 25 per day. Oh and make sure you have your negative keywords these will save you money too

Too broad keywords that do not drives traffic for at your site.

Originally Posted by double2ndlife

The best advice I can give you. Set your keywords to exact match and not broad. This way your ad only shows when someone types that specific keyword in. Also try and come up with different keywords related to your niche that Google doesn't suggest. Because everyone is using those words and the cost per click is going to be pretty high.

You just have to experiment with it!

Excellent advice! Thank you.

I beg to differ with all these "don't EVER use broad matches" fools. Do you think Google are stupid or thieves or something? Do you think the option is there but should not be chosen at any stage at any point on any keywords? Actually broad matches are perfectly fine, it really depends on how many words you include in your phrase.

I'm not going to expand beyond that, but seriously, anyone new who is trying to understand google, you can see their own video tutorials easily (just google them) and ignore any silly idea that you should not use broad matches. You might well find that you want to bid on many many phrases which you set to broad match.

Also, in answer to the question, here's something I read which summed up just about all I had learned through experience with adwords. Two rules...

1. Don't overpay (overbid) for hits

2. Pause and delete ads/keywords/groups, don't just add them, ie keep on top of your ctr and if it's not good enough then kill off the ads which have bad ctr (if you fail to fix their ctr through other means, such as improving the ad text)

The first point is not likely to be emphasized on google's tutorials but I think that point 2 is fairly well covered, I mean it's quite obvious in the end - why would there BE ctr if it didn't matter to anyone.

The most painful pitfall to watch for is that your domain does not get given bad quality score - ie for getting too few clicks per 1000 exposures... you have to make sure you get the right people and give them the right message and that you KNOW you have done this by watching the numbers and staying on top of them and taking action quickly in any/all cases where they are failing.

Run only a few ads at a time - try not to let any ad have more than a few 100 exposures before you carry out the first pruning/adjusting.