Google AdWords is complex machinery, and with all the possibilities and data it’s easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis.

There are however a few simple things you can do when you’re stuck that will pretty much always lead to improvements.

1. Refine keywords according to search data

Let’s say your campaign contains the keyword adwords, as a broad match. Your keyword will match a search like create adwords campaign, but the quality factor will be lower than it could be because it’s only a broad match and you likely have many competitors also using a broad match (let’s hope they are not reading this blog).

To fix this, find the search terms report where you see for which keywords your ads were actually triggered. If you notice that many people actually use the search phrase create adwords campaign, add it as a

• broad match: create adwords campaign
• phrase match: “create adwords campaign”
• exact match: [create adwords campaign]

The next time someone is typing this phrase, you’ll have a much more precise match. This should give you a higher quality score, meaning more clicks or smaller cost-per-click. The ranking compared to your competitors who use broad match should also improve.

2. Vary and test

To be honest, sometimes one of your ads can outperform others by a large margin without there being any reasonable explanation for it. That sucks, but you’re lucky nonetheless. Create more opportunities for fortunate accidents to happen by varying your ads. After a reasonable time, follow up with the next step.

3. Mercilessly delete keywords and ads with low performance

If you use a keyword that creates lots of clicks, but no conversions — what good does it do? It’s eating up the budget of other, potentially more promising keywords.

Take a moment to think about why it could be performing badly. Maybe you are using one among a group of synonyms that attracts the wrong clicks. You’re using vehicle instead of car, or the other way around.

Delete that particular keyword and add a better variant if you can think of one.

4. Move budget-sucking ad groups into their own campaign

Let’s say you sell 10 products, but the majority of clicks goes for a keyword for the product with the lowest margin. Your campaign is clearly not realising its full potential. Move that ad group into a separate campaign so that you can control its budget separately.