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Understanding Google AdWords
By Sharon Housley (c) 2004 

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 
and target their advertising based on keywords. Advertisers are 
also free to determine the ad content.

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 greater 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 an 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 cannot 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 under utilized 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 ratio. The 
rule of thumb is positions 1-3 garner the most traffic and best 
results. Increasing either your maximum cost-per-click or the 
ad's click-through rate will generally improve the ad's position.

Use keyword variations to reach more prospects. A variety of 
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 is 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. 

4.) 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, it 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/

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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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