Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Cloning Campaigns for More and Better Traffic

The problem

A client of ours (itSM Solutions; www.itsmsolutions.com), provides IT service management training for some of the world's biggest organizations. With low search volume centered around just a few keywords and lots of competitors for that traffic, they needed to optimize bidding for search and take advantage of the untapped potential of the Display network. When we started working with them, their account consisted of a single campaign that included search and display, and geo-targeted pretty much every country on Earth.

The solution

We focused on two things after we took over the AdWords account. We separated Search and Display traffic into their own campaigns, and we restricted traffic by geographic location and funneled the two best regions into their own campaigns.

The resultsPhase 1: Separating Search from Display

One of the first things we did was separate Search from Display traffic by cloning the original campaign (see Chapter 16). Now we could allocate budget to each network individually and adjust ad copy based on the difference responses of each traffic stream.

Table 19-4 shows the difference that occurred in the week immediately following this change. The first week shows the metrics for the original campaign, and the second week combines the two new campaigns, Search and Display.

Table 19-4 More Conversions through Campaign Cloning

At first glance, this may not seem like a wonderful change. After all, CTR decreased, ...