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Proper management of your Google Adwords campaign will prevent your campaigns from getting what is commonly referred to in the internet marketing world as the “Google Slap.” So exactly WHAT IS the Google Slap? That’s when Google decides that you have done something that is either against their policies, quality guidelines, or against the law and they decide to “slap” you for it.

Sometimes that punishment results in your website being removed from its index and search results. Other times, it may be an “adjustment” downward for your page ranking. Here is how Google puts it in their own words:

“Google may temporarily or permanently remove sites from its index and search results if it believes it is obligated to do so by law, if the sites do not meet Google’s quality guidelines, or for other reasons, such as if the sites detract from users’ ability to locate relevant information. We cannot comment on the individual reasons a page may be removed…” (Google Webmasters/Site Owners Help Manual)

The “Google Slap” is mostly used when referring to cases where organic listings are penalized. Organic listings are free search results that appear below and to the left of paid ads; however, make no mistake about it; you can get “slapped” for running bad Adword campaigns as well. An example of having one’s Adword campaign being slapped would be where perhaps your ads were costing $3 a click and suddenly Google raised your minimum bid to $10.

Here are some of the common mistakes people make in their Adword campaigns that result in Google slaps: -Poorly written ads with extremely low click-through rates -Using too many broad-matching keywords, which really have no relevancy to the terms searched on; this will also result in low click-through rates, which will get you “slapped” with higher ad prices. -Low quality scores, where there is no relevancy between the keywords searched on, the Adword copy, and the landing page. -Using a destination URL that is not congruent with the display URL in your ad -Deceptive advertising; DON’T do this.

There are many other ways to get yourself slapped, but I think you may be getting the picture. Now, what you REALLY want to get from Google is what is referred to as “Google Love.”

Google loves for its searchers to find what they want; in fact, if you can figure out a way to make sure that your products or services are exactly what a searcher is looking for, Google will LOVE you. It’s really that simple. Many people try to over-complicate this.

Google loves for its searchers to be happy and they will reward you will lower-priced ads if you can consistently and effectively make this happen. Many advertisers don’t know it, but the ads at the top are not necessarily the ones who are paying the most. The Google bidding process factors in something called a “quality score,” which is the great equalizer. Quality scores assure Google that an advertiser cannot simply “buy” their way to the top position without giving the searchers value in return.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather be loved than slapped – especially when we are talking about my Google Adwords campaign. If you follow Google’s guidelines, do your market and keyword research, and spend some time learning about effective Adword campaign management techniques, I promise that you will feel lots of love…and not only that…you will find yourself with a profitable Adwords campaign.

One of the first steps to running a successful Google Adwords campaign is bidding on good keywords. You want well-thought-out keywords that your prospect is likely to type into Google when searching for a solution to their problem. But you ALSO want keywords that lead to conversions. If you sell widgets, which keyword do you think will actually convert better for your product…”widgets” or “where can I buy widgets”? My money is on the latter.

But here is where most folks have a problem. They stock up only on obvious keywords and are missing incredible opportunities for attracting more searchers. Thinking “out of the box” means pondering the non-obvious ways that prospects may be looking for your company.

The number one rule that you have to remember when doing your keyword research is that you have to get into the mind of your prospects. You have to think like they think. So how do you do that? There are several ways.

First of all, why not ASK them? What’s wrong with asking your customers what led them to your website. If you take leads over the phone, make sure that you have a form that is required to be filled with that information. If you sell a product online, follow up with an e-mail that asks them why they needed your product or how they found you. The answers may surprise you.

Let’s say that you sell a software product that fixes registry problems. Here are a few obvious keywords you would may want to bid on:

-fix registry problems -problems in registry -how to fix registry problems -having pc registry issues

Of course, you would bid on many more keywords than those, but you get the picture. However, you are missing out on many opportunities because you are not thinking “out of the box.” You are what we like to refer to as “too close to your business.” You may have heard it another way: “You can’t see the forest for the trees.”

Do you really think all of your clients know what they want when they first begin searching for a solution to their problem? Of course not! More thorough research would have revealed some of the following keywords:

-error 403 -what does error 403 mean -kernel 32 dll error -spool 32

These keywords reveal examples where users don’t know that they even need registry software. They just know that they are having problems and are searching for the solution to that problem; and more than likely they need an answer fast. If you had gotten into your prospect’s mind by thinking out of the box, you would be running a more successful Adwords campaign.

The same scenario works in any business. Let’s take an entirely different profession and say you are an attorney that specializes in workers compensation issues. I just took a pause from writing this article and typed in “workers compensation” into Google. Guess what? Pages and pages of paid Google Adword ads, advertising the wares of workers compensation attorneys all across the nation.

But what if I don’t know I need a workers compensation attorney? So let’s type in another keyword phrase: “what if I got hurt at work”? Guess what? FAR fewer ads show up. In fact, there are so few that I could probably be on the first page of Google for under $0.05.

Now granted, that keyword phrase is probably not searched on very much, but don’t you think that folks who ARE searching on that keyword term would be much more likely to be a prospect than someone who just enters the words “workers compensation” into Google? After all, just because I search “workers compensation” doesn’t mean I need legal services. I may need insurance instead.

And don’t you think “what if I got hurt at work” would be a highly PROFITABLE keyword as well? Now all you have to do is find lots more highly profitable keywords and soon you will be well on your way to absolutely dominating your competition in your Google Adwords campaign.

Thinking out of the box is not hard, if you just…well…think out of the box! Get into your prospect’s mind and soon you will be getting into your prospect’s pocketbook – in a legal way, of course – and you will be well on your way to managing a highly successful Google Adwords campaign.