If you are serious about internet marketing, then you already use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising in your overall marketing mix. A primary aspect of any internet business PPC campaign is the competent use of Google AdWords. There are numerous strategies that may or may not improve the return on your PPC marketing investment. Look over your campaign and see if you are employing any or all of the following tips.

Handling Negative Keywords. Negative keywords are the backbone of a successful keyword list. Adding a negative keyword to your ad group or campaign promises that your ads won’t show for search queries involving that term. By filtering out undesired impressions, negative keywords can help you attain the most appropriate prospects, curtail your cost-per-click (CPC), and broaden your ROI. Negative keywords will compel an ad not to be listed if any of the selected keywords are used in the search phrase. If you are conducting a Google ad campaign, the use of negative keywords is vital. First, use a keyword research tool (like Google’s free Keyword Tool, or a fee-based tool like Wordtracker) to discern what phrases are frequently used. Let’s say that you market Amway products. Research illustrates that the phrase Amway Arena is often used, but clearly it does not pertain to your products. So in this case, the word ‘arena’ would be a negative keyword.

Use Adequate Sample Groups For Split Tests. Split tests are merely statistical evaluations of two different versions of the same marketing scheme. For example, you might be examining the conversion rate of a landing page. As with any established statistical evaluation, the size of the sample is critical and more is always better. An invaluable rule of thumb is that 30 conversions will return conversion percentages within a 5% margin of error and for a robust campaign (more than 10 ad groups) you’ll require a minimum of 1,000 clicks to fully gauge overall effectiveness.

Give It Time. Remember, patience is an asset. Nobody knows exactly the incomprehensible ways of Google but strong evidence indicates that the company rewards loyalty. The longer you run your account and the more money you spend, the more Google begins to “trust” you. All other things being equivalent, time tends to bring a natural cumulation in quality scores which in turn lower costs per click. Since account maturity is indubitably something that Google measures, like a fine wine coming of age, over time your account will accordingly improve.