If you’re a PPC expert, you’re no stranger to Google AdWords. AdWords has a treasury of tools for your PPC campaigns. Whether you’re an expert or not, there are probably features that you aren’t aware of. Here are six overlooked tools that every PPC user, and expert, should use and understand.

Demographic Targeting

Your customers are people. Ok, duh. When determining the intent of the person making a purchase, keep that in mind. AdWord’s demographic targeting feature makes specific age and gender brackets searchable. Knowing the demographics of your customers is essential in leading potential buyers to your ad.

For example, consider a 22-year-old man alongside a 78-year-old man, both searching for a new pair of shoes. Demographic targeting places these two men in separate demographic groups based on their different ages. In the end, you benefit from this tool because you’re aware of the buyer’s intent.

The demographic tools will help you select what type of people you want directed to your ad. This can be found by going to the “Audiences” tab and then locating the sub tab titled “Demographics.”

Negative Keyword Setting

Negative keyword lists aren’t popular. Why? Because they can require a lot of work. However, negative keyword lists play a vital role in boosting the ROI of an AdWords campaign.

If you’re selling online note taking applications to a group of people looking for online note taking applications, for instance, then you could add keywords like “online notes” or “note taking applications online.” However, if your clients aren’t so tech savvy and desire a spiral notebook, you’d create a negative keyword list including the word “online.” This will prevent visits to your ad by people who aren’t interested in your product.

The search term report, found under the “keywords” tab, will reveal searches that people have used to see your ad. Here, you can either add new keywords or add negative keywords that you’d like to remove.

Display Targeted Keyword Settings

Is the display network a struggle for you? Do you have a smaller budget? Look no further for help: the new display feature is here.

Displaying Targeted Keyword Settings gives display network options to the advertiser. This feature satisfies the advertiser who focuses on the keywords and targets the content alone (such as apps, sites, and videos) with the audience in mind who is potentially interested in the keywords.

Research shows that above-the-fold ad placement provides the greatest opportunity for clicks. Since there are multiple types of devices out there (e.g., laptops, phones, and tablets), the best practice is to utilize above-the-fold ad placement. Click here for a video explaining how to do it.

The Image Ad Creator

A benefit of image ads is increased access to different properties. If a site only allows image ads, you’ll have access to this site.

A quick tip is to keep multiple sizes of your ads available. Some websites have specific size qualifications for images. Keep all the possible sizes of your ad on hand to contribute to any site specifications.

It’s simple and only takes seconds: click “+ New ad” and then click on “Image ad” – and you’re on your way. This is a much better option than making .swf files with Adobe Flash.

Expanded Text Ads

Google has enabled a new text ad format that allows you to increase the amount of text you can put in an ad. Google says that these ads are designed for a mobile-first world and have both the user and advertiser in mind.

Although the new Expanded Text Ads are not “required”, in that you can still create Standard Text Ads, there is a transition plan in place where Google will phase out the Standard Text Ad and only offer the Expanded Text Ad. Currently, that date appears to be January 31, 2017.

Here are the main differences in the Expanded Text Ads:

  • There are 2 headline fields that allow up to 30 characters of text each.
  • There is a single expanded description that allows up to 80 characters of text.
  • A display URL that uses the final URL’s domain
  • There are now optional “path” fields that allow up to 15 characters each.

Try them out today!