Google Adwords:
Here is why it can explode your business!
Google's Adwords service has brought success to many businesses by providing them with a large amountl of highly targeted traffic from as little as 2 cents per visitor. However, there is probably an equal number of webmasters who have paid for adwords and seen little benefit or have indeed made substantial losses. If the latter applies to you, then the following may be of some benefit -
1. Design
First of all, decide how the layout of your ad will appear. Secondly, you should consider what you want to be included in the title and what keywords or details you wish to present to potential visitors to your site. Ensure that your text will encourage only targeted visitors to your site in order to avoid the expense of wasted clicks. Read through all the Google TOS and guidelines before placing your ad or else you risk having it disabled which can lead to charges.
A fair proportion of internet surfers are still very experienced and click on adwords without even realising what it is. Therefore it is a good tip to list prices in your text, so that you can put off clicks from those who would have no intention of purchasing your product or service in the first place.
2. Brainstorm
Before beginning a campaign it is advisable to write down as many keywords and phrases as you can think of. The most popular terms are likely to have been bid up to a high price, making all your click-throughs expensive. Think about what your prospective customers would type if they were looking for what you were offering.
When you have thought of as many words as you can, glance over your list and rearrange what you have into new, useable phrases. Some will be way off target and discarded instantly, amongst the others choose the one that sounds best and you should have a great sales pitch that won't break the bank.
3. Optimise
Do not go along with google's suggested cost per click. This is always far higher than necessary. Many advertisers do not understand that their click through rate affects their position to the same degree as how much they pay per click. For example, if you pay 5 cents per click for the phrase "page rank" and your competition pays 10 cents and achieves a click through rate of 0.5%, then in order to surpass this person in position you will only need to double your click through rate, to anything above 1%, whilst still only paying half of what they are Generally speaking, I would always recommend paying half of the google suggested figure for your clicks, the exception being if your business is in a highly competitive field in terms of adwords marketing use.
Now that you have your keywords and pricing in place, you should set your daily budget relatively low for a short time, allowing you to see how successfully this campaign is running, without risking too much money. Leave your campaign to run for a few days, and take good care to note which keywords are leading to sales or enquiries.
4. Experiment
You should continually monitor the performance of your keywords and Ad groups and try to change tiny details from time to time, perhaps one word here and there occassionally. Changing even one word can have an affect on the success of your campaign, either positively or negatively. If you find google disabling your ads because you are failing to obtain enough clicks then go back to brainstorming and generate another set of keywords and phrases which may work better for you.
Even if adwords are working supremely well for you, constant monitoring is important. If other people realise you are generating high profits then it is likely they will start to tap into your market. Continue to experiment with your campaigns to ensure you stay at the forefront of your field.
Success with Adwords
The beauty of Google Adwords set up is its simplicity. Signing up and getting started is very easy and takes a few minutes to get your campaign rolling.
If you are new to the Google Adwords programm, all you need to do is relax, and go through the simple steps mentioned below to get you started off on one of the most technically advanced advertising plans on the internet:
Step 1: Define your target group:
The first step would be to define the target group for your advertisement. There are multiple fields to select from which help you get the geography and language preference of the audience set up so that your ads are shown only to the relevant audience. This process results in an Ad Group, and you can define multiple Ad Groups for various campaigns.
Step 2: Word your ad:
All Google ads are text based and they are displayed in varying font sizes and color to define order and importance. Once your Ad Group is defined, you need to start putting the advertising message together. This is a bit tricky as you need to get the communication within preset character limits. You can write a headline of up to 25 characters, and a two line message of 95 characters. It might be a good idea to take a look at other Google ads in order to understand the choice of words for the ad. After the descriptions are done, you can enter a display URL.
Once the ad itself is put together, you can select the keywords for which the advert should show up. You need to careful with your selection here as your selection of keywords is going to be the key to success (as well as critical for your billing at Google) of your campaign. You can get a lot of help from the keyword tool which helps you find alternate keywords as well. It is recommended that you start with a few keywords in the first place and then proceed to add keywords as the campaign progresses.
Step 3: Define the commercials:
Here's when we need to start sorting out the preferred currency of billing and display. Google does not allow you to change currency of preference once you have set it so you need to be sure which currency you would like to be billed in.
Google Adwords allows you to set pricing of each click. The system would suggest you a maximum cost per click (CPC) which you can choose or define a CPC which you are willing to spend. The 'Traffic Estimator' allows you to see a hypothetical scenario of the traffic you can expect with each type of CPC you choose along with the cost of campaign. This helps you in choosing the keywords effectively.
The commercial section does have a number of sub steps to follow! You now need to finally define what you would like to spend on the campaign. Google will display your ad only till such time the budget permits and then inform you about the expiry of budget. This feature allows you to stay within a pre-defined budget. Google Adwords also recommends a budget based on your previous selection. You can set your budget based on this recommendation.
Once you have completed setting your preferences on the system, Google Adwords gives you an opportunity to review all the details and then click on the final process of signing up for the service.
Step 4: Signing on the dotted line:
True to the rest of the process, the signing up process is really quite simple. All you need is a valid and frequently accessed email account and set up a password and you are ready to roll.
Getting started on Google Adwords is quite simple as you can see from the above steps.
All the best with your online marketing campaign with Google AdWords.
Google AdWords Tools And Resources
Google AdWords software, services & ebooks to help you maximize your return-on-investment by maximizing the click through ratio, and minimizing the cost-per-click of your Google AdWords ads.
Here are some popular Google AdWords products and services, with more coming soon.
Last Update: Friday, April 22, 2005.
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
The Definitive Guide To Google AdWords, by Perry Marshall, is a self help course on how to drive more visitors and pay less for each one on the Google AdWords pay per click advertising program. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Downloadable ebook (PDF), MP3 audio, hardcopy, CDs & coaching |
N/A |
$49/$97/$197 |
|
|
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
Google Cash, by Chris Carpenter, is a self help guide on how to make money by promoting affiliate programs via pay per click search engines, such as Google AdWords and Overture. |
| Format |
Pages |
Cost |
| Downloadable ebook (PDF) |
87 |
$49.95 |
|
|
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
Successful Advertising With Google AdWords is a self help guide on how to lower advertising costs and maximize profits with Google AdWords ads. |
| Format |
Pages |
Cost |
| Downloadable ebook (PDF) |
157 |
$69.95 |
|
|
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
AdWordAccelerator is a web-based application that helps you build Google AdWords ads by finding keywords that have a maximum cost per click, minimum ranking, and clicks per day. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Web-based application |
Demo |
$9.95/day-$19.95/month |
|
|
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
Ad Word Generator, by Rod Beckwith & Jeff Alderson, is a software program that helps you create and manage Google AdWords ads. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Downloadable software |
N/A |
$97 |
|
|
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
Ad Word Analyzer, by Jeff Alderson, is a software program for affiliate marketers to find targeted keywords with high search volume and little competition in Google AdWords and Overture search results and ads. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Downloadable software |
N/A |
$67 |
|
|
Bid Management
Bid management, in internet marketing terms, is the process of optimizing pay per click search engine bids, for the rank and maximum amount you are willing to pay per keyword, to maximize return on investment. Here are some popular bid management software programs and services, with more coming soon.
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
Go Toast offers online pay per click bid management services for managing keyword bids in pay per click search engines, such as Overture and Google AdWords. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Online subscription service |
Yes |
$49.95+ |
|
|
| Screenshot |
Description |
 |
PPC Management offers a software program for pay per click bid management, campaign measurement and tracking, and keyword research. |
| Format |
Free Trial |
Cost |
| Downloadable software |
Yes |
$15-120/month |
|
|
How to save money on the Adwords network?
Over the years I have had many accounts with Adwords, spending a small fortune with the Adwords service. So naturally I have picked up many cost saving tricks. I am aware that most people feel Adwords costs too much and delivers little results, this is completely untrue. Adwords is a service that is here to help us, so I have written this article to help web developers make the most out of the service.
1) Set your currency,
First and foremost, select the currency of which you locally trade in. You may think its wise to start your Adwords account in USD, but if you do not live in the USA you may get a shock when you find how much you have been charged.
2) Use negative keywords,
You are using the Adwords service to generate website traffic, so obviously you want the right traffic to generate revenue. Start by using negative keywords for people whom you do not want to click on your advert, the best place to start is the keyword free. As I doubt you want to waste money on traffic that will not generate revenue.
3) Make a strict daily budget
Make sure you have set out a daily budget, Adwords generally advise a way out of proportion budget. After all most new Adwords customers have no idea how effective the advertising will be. Do not start off with a bang, your pocket will feel it.
Just as important as the budget, be careful with the CPC rate. I advise you to start with a low number, each click soon adds up very quickly. I actually found that by lowering my CPC rate by 50% I doubled my visitor count
4) Check those clicks!
One of the most talked about problem with Adwords is, click fraud. There are two main types of click fraud: the first is when any one starts clicking away at your advertisements trying to waste your money. It is very hard to stop this kind of fraud, if you are a victim stop your ads and file a report to Google ASAP.
The second main issue is now that google allows Web Developers to earn money off their websites by placing ads (Adsense) .some Web Developers try to cheat the system by clicking on their ads as much as possible. The best way to stop this kind of fraud is check your page log, Adwords allow you to block out websites that you do
not want your advert to be placed on.
Adwords does not have many protections against Click fraud, although they do disable Adsense accounts who cheat. Google are very hesitant to refund the victims, if at all. Reports tell many organisations are actually suing Google to get their money back, so be careful.
In this article I have illustrated some of the most beneficial ways to save money when advertising with Adwords. My main advice to you is, do not go crazy with your spending. You may not see the results you are after, it does take a while to get to know Adwords. I have had many successful ad campaigns using the Adwords network. However I do advise to look around, with the ever growing popularity of MSN search you may actually find it much more affordable.
|
