An Introduction to Google AdWords
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Over 200 million searches are performed on Google every day and the results displayed can be split in to two sections: those highlighted at the top and down the right side of the page, and the remaining results that are displayed down the left hand side. Many names have been given to each set of results; results listed at the top or down the right-hand side are referred to as sponsored links, paid listings or Pay per Click (PPC), whilst the remainder are known as organic or natural results.
Google AdWords is the platform online marketers use to manage PPC across the Google Network, a network currently has a UK market share of over 75%. Separate platforms are available to manage activity on other search engines such as Yahoo! and MSN.
Put simply, PPC is an auction of keywords. The bidding process varies from search engine to search engine and the cost of your bid – just like a normal auction – is dependant on how much your competitors are willing to bid and your own cost-per-acquisition targets. Separate bids are applied to individual terms and different adverts and their relevant landing pages are served to users searching under different keywords or strings of keywords.
Using AdWords allows you to target adverts to people actively looking for your products or services. It also ensures that adverts are only served to those internet users who are potential customers and you only pay if they click, thereby obtaining the maximum return on advertising investment. It is this targeting and control that has resulted in advertisers spending over £2bn a year online according to latest figures from the IAB.
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Getting started
Once you have an account in Google AdWords you will need to structure it in this way:
Campaigns
These are the top-level, strategic categories of your account. So for a property web-site, for example, you could have campaigns titled Brand (containing variations of the company name), London Homes (geographically targeting London and London-based keywords), and Brighton Homes (targeting Brighton and Brighton-based keywords). It is only at this level that the budget can be split, time rules can be implemented enabling you to control when your adverts are shown and geographic targeting can be applied.
Ad Groups
These are the secondary categories within campaigns which allow marketers to further refine which adverts are shown against certain keywords. Used a tactical level, examples might include “2 bedroom London home” or “Brighton flat”.
Keywords
Choosing keywords or search terms is an essential starting point for any Google AdWords campaign. They should cover any term you would expect someone to search for when looking for your product and service. They can vary from the obvious, such as your brand name, to specific terms or so-called long tail terms such as “red size 8 dress”. The number of keywords used in an account varies widely, with large retail clients having tens of thousands of terms and niche local service providers possibly closely managing a couple of hundred. In addition to relevant terms, you can also specify keywords or variations that you do not wish to appear against.
Adverts
These are the PPC adverts that consumers see displayed when they search via search engine. Adverts have character limits of 25 for the headline and 35 characters for each of the lower two lines. It is important to target the advert as much as possible to the search term. The relevance of your ad to the keyword is essential for a good quality score.
Landing Pages
Also referred to as destination URLs, this is the page on your web-site that a potential customer will land on once they’ve click on your advert. These should be targeted to the keyword and again their relevance is crucial to your quality score and in turn the performance of your account.
Bids
Your bid amount is known as a Cost per Click (CPC) and this can be applied to each keyword. Your CPC will determine the position that you achieve within search engine listings. The more competitive a term the higher the CPC you will need to pay – highly competitive terms like “loans” have top position CPC’s of over £20.
Budget
Marketers apply a total budget to their AdWords account (either directly with Google or via an outsourced, specialist agency) which is broken down into daily budgets for each campaign. There is no minimum spend and you can chose to either show your activity until your budget is reached or request Google to evenly distribute your activity throughout the day.
Beating the competition
Creating an intelligent account structure from day one will enable you to benefit from lower CPCs, higher positions and maximum ROI in the future. How?
Google AdWords applies a quality score to each of your keywords. Your quality score reflects your keyword's Click Through Rate (CTR) which is the percentage of clicks your ads received divided by the number of times your advert was displayed plus the relevance of your ad text and landing page to the keyword. Keywords with a high quality score generally provide users with a better and more relevant search experience. A good quality score will enable brands to achieve a higher position within search listings at a lower CPC.
Maximising ROI
Once your account structure is complete, an essential element to successful results is tracking, analysis and optimisation. There are numerous tracking solutions available ranging from the free and simple Google Analytics, to more complex (and expensive) software that integrate the results of all online activity in detailed reports and holistic interfaces. This technology enables online marketers to analyse the keyword terms that are driving traffic and conversions, and optimise your account to maximise ROI.
Account optimisation can be applied at every level and includes:
- adding or removing keywords
- testing new ad copy or landing pages
- increasing or decreasing CPCs to maximise positioning
- developing geographic and time-based strategies.
Getting the best from your marketing spend
Whilst it’s one thing to gain a basic understanding of how to run a Google AdWords campaign, the sheer scale of the task involved can be daunting to some. As with all marketing spend, choosing to run a PPC campaign will need to fit with your marketing and sales objectives.
It can’t be denied that consumers are spending more and more online – a staggering £46.6bn online in 2007 alone – and a recent survey (see www.tamar.com)revealed that over half of consumers (51 per cent) start with a search engine when looking to purchase goods or services from a retailer. So the question must be: can you afford not to be there?
