Tweaker for Google AdWords

TYOA (Tweak Your Own AdWords) 

You might not need to hire a professional. You can TYOA.

Separate Search and Content Ads

Did you know that when you create an AdWords campaign, you're actually buying contextual advertising as well as search engine advertising? Tweak this! They're not the same thing at all. Separate them! Either turn off the content network or put your content ads in a separate campaign from your search ads.

Bid Higher for Exact Matches

Include both broad and exact matches for a keyword phrase. Set the bid higher for the exact match. This allows you to control the position of the ad for the exact search. This also protects you from paying too much for keywords that are too broad.

Use Negative Keywords

Your ad will not be displayed if the search includes a negative keyword. Because broad match is really expanded broad match, it's critical to employ negatives if utilizing broad matches. Think about that. If you're using broad matches, you could be buying keywords that aren't actually in your keyword list.

Create 2 Campaigns for Local Ads

This might seem counterintuitive but a good strategy for reaching the local audience is to create a national campaign. Huh? Yeah, create a local campaign with your core keywords and then a national campaign with those core keywords paired with geographic locations.

11 Tips for TYOA

Want more ideas for TYOA? Read 11 tips for tweaking your own AdWords.

Resources for AdWords Tweakers 

Google AdWords Learning Center

Free training provided by Google. They offer both text and multimedia lessons. This is an excellent resource for AdWords advertisers.

Google AdWords Help Center

Google's support for AdWords. Excellent place to search for an answer to a question.

AdWords Help

Unmoderated group run by Google. If you can't find answers via the Learning Center or Help Center, ask a question here. Google reps post under the name AdWordsPro. I contribute under the name Rich@Apogee.

Apogee Weblog

Blog for my company, Apogee Web Consulting LLC. I keep up with what's happening with AdWords and search engine marketing in general. Subscribe if you want fresh information for tweaking AdWords.

Free Tool to Track Content Ads

If you have the content network turned on, be sure to track the traffic from these contextual ads. You can block sites that don't yield quality traffic. This free, open source tool will show you where your Google content ad hits are coming from. See a demo.

AdWords Help Custom Search Engine

If none of the above resources help, try this custom search engine to find answers. The search index is limited to authoritative Google AdWords sources.