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“The Fast-Track to Using Google Adwords”
By Merle http://www.PayPerCl ickResearch. com
Remember back when Al Gore allegedly said he “invented
the Internet?” Well, he didn’t, it was Google. Alright,
I’m kidding, but sometimes it does appear that way.
Google has consistently launched one killer application
after another, and they weren’t playing around when they
entered into the pay-per-click arena with their “Adwords”
program. Adwords is one of the largest online advertising
networks, reaching more than 80% of all Internet users.
So how does it work? You choose keywords/phrases
that are related to your products/services, write the
text ads that will be shown when someone performs
a search for your keywords, set a daily budget and
the cost you want to pay every time someone clicks
on your ad (C.P.C), and you’re ready to run. There
is no activation fee and no minimum monthly spend
amount.
Ads are called “sponsored links”, and appear along with
search results on Google, as well as other affiliated search
engines and “content sites” in the Google Network. This type
of keyword based advertising will help you to reach
a highly targeted audience quickly and easily.
Not only can you run text ads, but also image/animated
ads - even video. If you’re a beginner at pay-per-click
marketing, I would suggest you start out with text ads.
You’ll need to “learn to walk” before you run.
So what does a text ad look like? It consists of a 25
character headline, a description that is 2 lines of no
more than 35 characters, and what’s called a “display
url”. This url can reflect any domain you like because when
it is clicked upon, the browser will take them to your
“destination url”. This is set up behind the scenes and
does not appear in the ad itself.
A 3 line text ad might sound like a lot of room, but
it’s not. You’ve got a small area to make a huge
impact on the searcher and make them want to
click. Don’t underestimate the power of a well
written ad. If you don’t know a lot about how to
write “good copy”, I suggest you study up. You’ll
want to include what’s referred to as a “call to
action” somewhere in the description. You’ll also
want to include your keywords if possible in your
title and ad copy so they will appear in a bold font
when your ad is displayed. For help see:
http://www.google. com/adwords/ learningcenter/ text/18779. html
You also need to send them to the page that’s most
relevant to your ad copy. This page is called a “landing
page”, and you’ll want to make sure it converts. A
conversion happens when the visitor performs the
action you intended. For example, signs up for your
newsletter, buys your product, etc. With Adwords
conversion tracking you’ll be given a snippet of code
to paste on your web page wherever any conversion
takes place. For example, your thank you page. This
allows you to track how well your pages are converting.
You can also use Google Analytics. For more see
http://www.google. com/analytics/
Now that landing page load time is being factored into
“quality score”, you’ll also want to pay attention to your
page’s load time. Quicker is better. For more information
on this topic see….
http://tinyurl. com/4bsyaq
Now, let’s talk about keywords. The biggest mistake most
people make is choosing single keywords. You’re much
better off with two and three word combinations. For
example if you sell dog food, instead of targeting a
generic term like “dogs”, you’d be better off selecting
“dog food”. Remember, these keywords will be responsible
for triggering your ads to appear, so do your homework
and choose wisely. Targeting the wrong keywords can
be a very expensive lesson. For help in choosing keywords
use Google’s tool located at-
https://adwords. google.com/ select/KeywordTo olExternal
When setting up your keywords, you’ll also need to
choose what’s called a “match type”. Here are your
options:
1) Broad Match: The default setting. Searchers can
enter your keywords in any order and your ads
appear. Not the best option for targeted traffic.
2) Phrase Match: Your keywords must appear in
the exact order for your ads to appear. This is
more targeted than Broad Match.
3) Exact Match: This is the most targeted option.
The searcher must type in your key-phrase
exactly for your ads to appear.
4) Negative Match: You choose words you don’t
want your ads to appear for when searched upon. For
example, typing in the word “-free” would stop your ads
from appearing if someone typed that word before
your key-phrase.
So who decides which ads will appear at the top?
This is called “ad rank”. Ads with the highest ad
rank will appear at the top. Here’s the formula,
at least at this time as it’s always open to change.
Ad Rank=C.P.C. (cost per click) X Quality Score
To understand this formula you’ll need to know
what factors go into “quality score”.
Quality Score is determined by :
1) How relevant the keywords and ad copy
are to the search query.
2) “The historical Click-through rate of the
ad, and of the matched keyword on Google”.
3) It also includes your account history,
which looks at the click through rate of
your keywords and ads.
4) Landing page load time.
And, according to Google “other relevant factors”.
One tip to increase your ad rank is to increase your
cost per click, and improve your ad copy and keywords
in order to increase your quality score.
Ad ranking is determined slightly differently for the
search network compared to the content network.
For the content network it looks like this:
Ad Rank= Content Bid X Quality Score
What is the difference between the Content Network
and Search Network? Good question. I thought you’d
never ask. This is another option you’ll have to decide
upon when setting up your account. If you choose
“search sites”, your ads are displayed on search results
pages only. Google’s search network consists of:
AOL, Netscape, Earthlink, Compuserve, AT&T, Worldnet,
Ask.com, Shopping.com, Froogle and of course Google
itself.
If you choose for your ads to appear in the “content
network”, this includes community websites, online
publications and other information based sites that
choose to display Adwords ads. Partners in the content
network include sites such as: Google’s Gmail, About, Lycos,
NYTimes.com, Infospace, Reed Business, HowStuffWorks,
Business.com, Food Network, HGTV, MarthaStewart. com
and many other content based websites.
Ads are targeted to the content of the individual pages.
You’ll also have some control over where your ads appear
and don’t appear with what’s called “placement targeting”.
You can actually pick and choose from websites you’d like
your ads to appear on, or not to appear on. For more on
placement targeting see http://tinyurl. com/5zwfy9
You can opt in to both search and content networks, or
just one.
At this point you’re probably thinking this is a lot to
learn. And you’re right - it is, but there are plenty of
online resources to help you such as:
Adwords Help Center
http://www.adwords. google.com/ support/
Adwords blog
http://adwords. blogspot. com/
Google is a powerful Internet giant and makes for
a mighty advertising partner. Make sure you harness
some of that muscle, and you too can become an
Internet force to be reckoned with.
Merle
“The Tricks to Paying for Clicks”
Learn everything you need to know about
pay-per-click search engines at….
http://www.PayPerCl ickResearch. com