All Forum Posts by: Ash Ogunleye

To second @Angel-Ty L. - Adwords Express is complete trash. Stick with the main product. You will actually have control of the account. Express accounts are much harder to optimize, as well. 

Also, the some of the clients at the marketing agency I work for have had horrible results w/ Express as well prior to working with us.

I just got the Whova message to join the Private FB Group - but it's still unavailable to me.

I guess my big takeaway would be regarding just how potentially powerful networking events can be. I mean, even if my niche isn't investors or realtors (like 99%+ of the community) that 1% can be a huge difference maker.

@Brie Schmidt and @John Casmon great job putting this weekend's event together! Also great thanks to the assistants and all the speakers and sponsors. By far the best networking/conference of any sort I've been to. Looking forward to attending more events across the country and hope to be back next year!

Fun fact: I met @Meghan McCallum, and she told me I was the first person to show up to the event, LOL.

Also props to the charity fundraising on Friday night - I myself have been chronically homeless with my Mother throughout my life so it really hit home to see people supporting Facing Forward.

Was also nice to meet the people whom I did - will be doing follow ups soon.

Hi @Brie Schmidt, thanks to you and everyone else for putting this event together - will be there!

Side Note: The option to enter your discount code doesn't show up on the page, least not for me.

- Ash

@Karen Margrave Thanks - I've already gotten out some content over in the marketing section

@Jillian Sidoti I've reached out to you via PM and sent a colleague request

@Larry Fried Really appreciate it!

Hi Marc,

Regarding the Digital Marketing bit - SEO and PPC can both be great, just keep in mind you have much less control over the whole process with SEO, but the upside is that it's long term costs are very low compared to PPC. However with PPC you have much greater control of how much traffic/leads you are able to drive in, provided you know what you're doing. 

- Ash

@Jason Turo: Hello there! 

I'm a Digital Marketer by profession, with a specialty in Paid Search traffic. So to help you out..

First, here's a list of costly Adwords mistakes you'll want to avoid. (I wrote this post myself)

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/87/topics/556...

Next, addressing your ideas: 

If you try learning Adwords yourself, yes this CAN be done, however this can be very frustrating and time consuming, as Pay Per Click is equally as much an art as a science. This also comes with the fact it can be VERY expensive to have bad ads running for keywords that you shouldn't be bidding on (very easy to do if you don't know your way around the platform.

VA - The biggest issue with freelancers in Digital Marketing is that you get what you pay for, literally. It's almost impossible find VA/Freelancers in Marketing at "VA" prices who actually know what they're doing, and if you do, they're going to be overseas workers, which comes with a slew of issues on it's own (other than massive time zone differences and thus delays in communication).

Lastly, there's consultants. If you want to spend your time growing your business as efficiently as possible, it makes the most sense to have a consultant help you. Those of us in the Digital Marketing space literally eat, sleep, and breathe marketing. Skilled Internet Marketers are worth their weight in gold. 

BTW - just taking the advice I laid out in that post I shared with you will put you miles ahead of all the other investors trying to run their own advertising, so there's definitely a ton of value there. Also the other posters are saying some accurate things as well.

Let me know if you have any questions,

All The Best,

-Ash :)

 Hello Sam, whatever you do, don't give up! BTW, have you tried running Paid Advertising online yet?

Hi there,

Actually this list comprises of 13 costly Adwords errors, but I put 10 in the title because I’m a marketer :) Anywho, let’s get to the list!

#1 Basic Account Setup Errors - Check account setting. You need to make sure your ads are showing at the right times of day and in the right location, etc.

#2 Not Setting Match Types

- If you’re spending way too much money on your account, it’s probably because you’re running a bunch of Broad Match keywords, which Google Adwords gives you by default. You should make use of a variety of match types, such as Broad Match Modifier, Phrase Match, Phrase Match Modifier, and Exact Match.

#3 Not checking Search Terms - You can check your Search Terms to make sure relevant search queries are triggering your ads. If you’re getting irrelevant searches costing you money, you can add those terms as negative keywords.

#4 Automatic Bidding

- This one happens a lot. For most advertisers, this is a terrible idea. Set Manual CPC to help control your budget

#5 Poor Account Organization - Account structure should ALWAYS resemble the website. This goes for everything from account settings, to keywords, ad groups, even the ads themselves. The naming conventions in the account also need to make sense.

#6 Landing Pages & Quality Score - Ads should ALWAYS talk about a topic AND send the searcher to a landing page talking about that same thing.. Make sure that Adwords “ quality score” ( composed of Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, Landing Page experience) of an Ad is good. Quality Score also affects how much Google charges you for clicks, as well as how often your ad is served (shown) to searchers.

#7 No Negative Keywords - ALWAYS have negative keywords. This will save you tons of money in the long run. Negative keywords are keywords that won’t shown for your ads.

#8 Not Optimizing Website For Mobile Traffic

- Make sure website is mobile friendly. Use http://quirktools.com/screenfly/ (it's free) to verify.

#9 Improper Location Targeting - Make sure your ads are targeting people in the location you selected. Most of the time, change the default setting to “ people in my targeted location” by going to campaign → settings → location options (advanced) → target → people in my targeted location. Make sure as well that you exclude the locations where your don't want your ads to show ( locations → select city → select exclude)

#10 No Remarketing Campaign/List - Make sure that the remarketing feature is enable for the website. Setup the code on the website and build a campaign where the ads can target people who left your website. Alternatively, you can also build a remarketing list.

#11 Bad Ad Copy and No A/B Split Testing

• Look over your ad copy. If you wouldn’t click on that ad yourself, don’t expect anyone else to either.
• The text of the ads you are writing need to be relevant to the keywords that you are bidding on. This all goes back to proper account structure. It’s the foundation of a properly run Adwords account.

• A/B Split Testing (a.k.a. Test ONE variable against another). Without A/B testing you won’t know which ads are truly performing and which ones to keep vs those to shut down. In other words, not testing will costs you a LOT of money.

#12 Not Using Ad Extensions

- There’s simply no reason to NOT use as many Ad Extensions as you can for your business. It simply makes sense to do so, because Ad Extensions give your ads more real estate (make your ad space larger) on the search pages, making it all the more likely for YOUR ads to be clicked.

#13 Not Setting Up Conversion Tracking

-- This is HUGE. If you don’t have proper conversion tracking installed, you’re literally pouring your hard earned money down the drain, due to the fact you’re basically shooting in the dark. The particular actions you track of course will depend on your type of business, as well as your own business goals, but at the end of the day, if you want Paid Advertising to be profitable for you, (not just Adwords) set up proper conversion tracking.

So there you have it, 13 ACTIONABLE steps for not wasting money on Adwords :) If you’d like to know more, just reach out! 

- Ash