Google AdWords is the system Google has developed to assist you in marketing your products or services in the Google Search Engine, and its affiliate sites, via the use of a placed text ad that appears when people search for phrases related to your offering. You assign specific keywords to groups called Ad Groups. Your advert text is placed according to these Ad Groups. When a person types in any of your keywords, the ad will be triggered according to its ad placement. Google AdWords can be your strongest marketing weapon, but you need to know the basics of how it works and how to make it work for you.
The display of the ads based on your bidding
Your ads appear as a sponsored link. The system is a pay per click system, this means you can dictate where your ad appears through bidding for a series of phrases. You only pay the amount you have bid for. If someone clicks on your ad as a result of a web search, you will be charged for that click based on your Cost Per Click. This is the amount that AdWords charges you for the click.
The ads take the format of a short text ad that includes a title line, two short descriptive lines, and a URL link to a website or a specific website page. You need to make sure that you think strategically when doing your advert wording. If the wording of the advert does not tightly match both the page that it directs to and the keywords that it is linked to, your advert will not be as effective as it could and should be.
The ad will appear on the page of results you decide you want to appear in, for example, page one of Google for a search result. The ads appear at the top of the organic search engine results. You can also decide what position on the page your ad will appear through the amount you are willing to bid. In turn, the more you bid for a phrase, the higher your ad appears on page one of the Google search results. If your campaign is still new, it is advisable to start higher with your bidding, and then as time goes by, you can slowly start to lower your bidding as you receive a higher quality score and Click Through Rate (CTR).
Keep a close watch on the quality score and the Click Through Rate
Google looks at how relevant and useful your ad is to the searcher and the search terms they have used. It also looks at how many clicks your ad has received previously (also known as its CTR) and how relevant your landing page is.
The quality score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices for your bidding and better ad positions. In fact, even if your maximum bid is less than a rival bidder, you still may appear above their ad if your quality score is better. Your quality score is rated on a 1-10 scale.
The quality score is based on components, such as expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. The CTR is a mixture of your clicks vs. impressions. The more impressions and clicks you receive, the better your CTR percentage will be. In order to achieve a good landing page experience and ad relevance, you need to make sure that the page that the ad lands on has quality information that the searcher will find valuable and relevant. The more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you will see higher quality scores.
Keep everything tightly linked
For instance, if the searcher types “wedding rings” and your advert appears saying: “Buy quality wedding rings here”, once the ad is clicked this needs to lead the searcher directly to a page featuring a selection of wedding rings that will interest the searcher of the term. If it just goes to your generic homepage, it’s not going to be good enough. The searcher does not have the energy or time to sift through your website to find what they are looking for. That is why it is essential to link the ads to a very specific page so that what they searched for appears immediately on their screen.
Research shows that 87% of web users do not scan past page one of their search engine results. In addition, the higher your website appears on a page will result in more visitors to your website, as web users prefer to click on the ads/search results at the top of the page. As you can see from this statistic, web users want information that they can conveniently have access to. They want to instantly have the information they seek in front of them. Ensuring that your linking landing pages display what the web user wants will have a beneficial impact on your ad position. It is a win-win situation for both you and your potential consumers.
So why use Google AdWords?
There is a difference between the types of visitors to a website. There are those that are actively browsing traffic and you get the visitors that may have found a website in a search engines’ organic results. Organic results behave differently to traffic that comes directly from Google AdWords or pay per click traffic. Traffic via surfing in organic results is simply people browsing for information, whereas, traffic via pay per click means that you are clicking on an ad. This means that the searcher that clicks on an organic result may not necessarily want to buy something, however, when a searcher clicks on an ad, it is more likely that they are physically looking to buy something. Whether that be a product or a service. Therefore, you don’t necessarily need millions of visitors via browsing, but rather specific targeted visitors via Google AdWords.
AdWords Management
You can aim for the highest bid for phrases and gain some great positions and traffic. You could set up a Google AdWords account in a matter of minutes, but without proper Google AdWords management, you will often find that not only will your budget get used up and not result in any sales or enquiries, but the traffic you do send via this method to your website may be disappointed when they get there, if the page they land on is not relevant to their search. They will simply click away and you will have lost budget and a potential customer.
In addition, through consistent Google AdWords management, not only will your campaigns become more effective in driving relevant targeted traffic to your website, the amount you bid for with your desired phrases may be less than your competition. In many instances, your ad will appear higher in the Google search result even though you are bidding less than your competitor for a phrase.
When deciding who gets top billing among the sponsored links for phrases, Google factors in bids and how many people click through each ad, giving preference to the more effective ads. If an ad and its destination are relevant to the phrase marketed, it is more likely to gain a visitor via pay per click. It can also be said that there is a good chance that these visitors will become customers through their conversions.
What to do now
Do you want to try Google AdWords but don’t know where to start? Do you already have a campaign, but you are not happy with the results? If you answered yes to any one of these questions, it could mean that you are in need of professional help. Contact us to discuss how we can efficiently and strategically manage and grow your AdWords campaigns.
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