Google AdWords has provided brands and businesses with an unprecedented ability to be recognized in the global market. The first major ad promotion portal on the web, AdWords remains the largest solution available to people who want to target search users in any language, in any search criteria and with any background. AdWords is fairly simple to use, but its versatility allows for many options that can be confusing to newer users. If you have just signed up for AdWords or will be in the near future, you’ll want to read through these important distinctions and recommendations about the platform that we’ve put together, which are designed to save you time and frustration in the days and weeks to come.

There Are Three Different Match Types

The term “match type” will inevitably appear in your AdWords crash course, and it plays an important part in how ads are created and display. In short, the match type helps determine exactly which specific pieces of the audience puzzle will see your ad, based on how they search for a variety of terms or keywords. “Broad match” ensures that your search targets are open-ended, and will allow your ad to appear in search results that are similar – but not exact – to what is specified. The “broad match modifier” option allows for small amounts of variance, but will not show your ad in search results that have similar non-brand words in them. “Phrase match” is the strictest match type possible, and this will ensure that your ad only appears in search results where one or more of the exact phrases you’re pinging networks with has been used.

It’s Smart to Test Variations

Not all ad campaigns perform well. In order to ensure that you are getting the most efficiency out of AdWords that is possible, it is important to utilize A/B testing. Simply put, A/B testing is where you use one or more campaigns in order to start pinging networks with the same content phrased in different ways. You might change a word in the headline or a sentence in the description. By evaluating these variations and seeing which set of ads performs better, you can slowly but surely determine which characteristics in your ads produce better results. The final outcome is an ad campaign effort that produces more efficient ads that save money, increase conversions and bring more traffic to your website.

Monitoring Your Account Is Necessary

Simply setting up a few ads on AdWords is not enough if you want to perform admirably over the long-term. Fortunately, Google offers a wide variety of tools in its AdWords arsenal designed to help users monitor and improve performance with each passing campaign. Search term reports, for instance, can be used to determine traffic quality and the validity of each targeted keyword in your overall efforts. Several tools are available that can make it easy to figure out when a bid adjustment is necessary. Analytics designed to track ad spend across each day will ensure that your budget doesn’t get out of control, and placement reports can be used to ensure that your ads are not appearing on websites with questionable content.