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Understanding Google AdWords
Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley
Google
AdWords
Unlike many search engines Google, to its credit, clearly denotes
search listings that are paid placement. In fact, Google AdWords appear in a
separate section down the left side of the screen.
Google AdWords
provide an inexpensive advertising venue for
businesses to advertise products
or services to a targeted
audience. Advertisers have the ability to control
their budget, target their advertising based on keywords. Advertisers are
also free to determine the ad contents.
Google AdWords allow for nearly
instant traffic, which can
be turned on and off. Traffic results can be
measured, providing information on what is successful, what isn't and what
needs to be changed. AdWords can be found that work by running a test
campaign.
Benefits to AdWords
Advertisers bid on keywords, the more an
advertiser is willing to pay the higher the likelihood the ad will
appear higher in position in the list of ads served. Google, invariably
wanting to make the most from advertisers, determines placement based on a
combination of click through rate, bid amount and budget. Of course, in order
to maximize revenue and please searchers Google does have guidelines for
ads served and all ads must receive a minimum percentage click through or
they are removed.
AdWord Guidelines
Clearly and accurately describe
the website, this is to the
advertiser and searchers benefit. Ultimately, the
more
qualified the visitor who clicks the ad, the higher the likelihood
the clicker will convert into a sale. By providing clear and accurate
information, searchers who click the ad are qualified leads, which tend to
convert more consistently than unqualified leads. The most effective
advertising communicates a clear message to a targeted audience.
Avoid
excessive capitalization, superlatives and lavish
exclamation marks in the
ad. By doing this you are not only
serving the visitor you are filtering
unwanted clicks from non-buyers. Due to space limitations your ad message
will need to be concise. Select keywords that are relevant to your
product, service or content. Call to action phrases are not allowed (i.e. you
cannot use phrases like "click here" in your ad copy.) There are also no
pop-ups.
Steps for AdWord Campaign
1.) Open an account
2.)
Target language and country - This is very important because if your product
or service can not be exported you do not want to pay to advertise in those
countries for which your product or service can not be sold.
3.)
Create Ad Group - design an ad, select keywords, determine maximum cost per
click that you are willing to spend and define bid
amounts.
Title
The title tag is generally the most important part of
the ad be sure to use a short phrase that gets the attention of your
target audience. An underutilized feature at Google allows you to put a
question mark in the title, the term searched on automatically replaces the
question mark in the title of your ad.
Define max click - Google will
suggest a cost per click, but the recommendation does not need to be adhered
to. Arguments have been heard that #1 position does not always mean
increased sales; sometimes a second position will filter useless clicks and
provide targeted traffic with a higher conversion ration. The rule of thumb
is positions 1-3 garner the most traffic and best results.
Increasing either your maximum cost-per-click or the ads click
through rate will generally improve the ad's position.
Use keyword
variations to reach more prospects. A variety
or spellings and derivatives of
keywords will increase the
chances of your ads being served. Be sure to use
common
misspellings and plurals in your keyword list.
Broad match -
is targeting keywords in a loosely defined manner. Ads appear based on
keywords that have been queried
by search users. For instance, if the
keywords you are planning on broad matching are "mountain bikes" and
users search for the terms "bikes that can climb a mountain", your ad will
appear; as opposed to exact match, which requires that the keywords
selections must exactly match the query.
Phrase match - is indicated
when quotations are used in the
phrase. A keyword phrase set to phrase match
will only appear when the exact phrase is searched on. For
example "mountain bikes" will appear when searchers search for "brand name
mountain bikes".
Exact match - is when the keyword or phrase is entered
with
brackets. The phrase will only serve ads when the entered
search
phrase is identical to the keyword phrase. "Mountain
bikes" will only appear
when searchers search for "mountain
bikes"
Negative keyword - is
helpful in filtering unrelated phrases. A dash is entered before the
filtering phrase. "Mountain bike -races will not appear if mountain
bike races are searched on.
Landing Page - is important because this
not only helps with tracking, but also provides a focused and
specific landing page for searchers. Information can be related to the
actual search, while also increasing the conversion ratios for sales. A
focused landing page with content related and using the same terminology as
the actual search, will show the searcher that your solution is relevant
to their needs.
3.) Define budget - in order to maximize exposure
Google
recommends a daily budget for each campaign.
Google's
suggested budget is helpful in receiving consistent traffic throughout the
advertising campaign. Keep in mind this is only Google's
recommendation; ultimately it is up to you to determine a budget that
is affordable and suitable.
Google supplies tracking tools that assist
webmasters in
determining their return on investment based on
keyword
searches and phrases. While the technology is not perfect and
cannot track phone and purchase orders, it should give advertisers a sense of
what phrases and keywords are
converting well in their advertising
campaign.
While Google AdWords should not be your only
advertising
campaign, but should be a significant part of your campaign.
Google AdWords can certainly help send those important targeted searchers to
your website. Get started with Google AdWords at http://www.google.com/ads/
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for
NotePage, Inc.
http://www.notepage.net
a company specializing in
alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging
software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
, and http://www.small-business-software.net
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