5 Ways To Improve Your AdWords

There's a lot that goes into improving traffic to your nonprofit's website. One of the techniques that is most effective is the use of Google Grants AdWords, a program that allows you to purchase cost-per-click (CPC) advertising that will appear based on popular keywords.

According to Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants senior strategist, there are ways to optimize your AdWords to get the most out of them. Speaking at Nonprofit Technology Network's (NTEN) recent Nonprofit Technology Conference, she explained that organizations should keep the following things in mind when working with AdWords:

• Think like a user. See what ads catch your attention the next time you do a Google search.
• Use variations and common misspellings. Google will usually correct someone – but the AdWord will show for the search anyway.
• Include negative keywords. This eliminates your ads from popping up for certain searches, cutting down on unwanted impressions.
• Look at the stats. Analyze the cost and impressions for each AdWord you use. Are you hitting your goals? Is it costing too much to run some words?
• Optimize keyword-matching options. Certain punctuation around search terms will bring up different options. For example, your search results for [animal adoption] would bring up results only for that exact term. A search with “animal adoption” would bring up for that phrase, even if other terms were included in the search. Learn how the search punctuation can help, or hinder, your goals.
• Test, test, test. And for good measure -- test again. Search terms for your AdWords may work one month and sag the next.