Getting found in Google can be a difficult activity for even the most marketing competent business owner, therefore running Adwords campaigns is a great way to generate leads, says Jo Macdermott, from Next Marketing Agency.

1. Know your keywords
Use the free Google ad words keyword research tool to understand what words are being searched in Google for your business topic. There is no point starting an Adwords campaign without understanding what keywords are relevant to your business.

2. Use free google tutorials
Google offers a number of free tutorials (text and video) for Adwords; use these to educate yourself before the campaign is launched. By setting up a campaign correctly from the outset, it is possible to gain the most return on investment.

3. Match types
Google offers three possible match types, broad, phrase and exact. Start your campaign on broad and run it for 5-7 days. After that time, pause the campaign for 2 days (as there is a 2 day data delay) and then narrow and phrase based on the search terms clicked.

4. Negative keywords
Having a robust negative keyword list is really important as it effectively tells google which words you don’t want your budget spent on, which is often just as important as telling google which words you want to be clicked on for. At Next Marketing, we check negative keywords at least once a week.

5. Ad words copy
Copy is certainly more art than science. Having short, catchy words that will make the audience click is vital, bad ad copy equals a bad campaign, regardless of how well it is set up.

“Being very thorough and strategic with your Adwords marketing doesn’t mean spending a lot of money. By following the process as noted above, Business Owners will enjoy improved Adwords results with less time and effort on their part. “ said Jo Macdermott, Marketing Consultant Next Marketing.