Google Adwords Introduction
Bringing Traffic to your Website
Google Adwords advertises on the web to new audiences. Any website trying to be noticed through the billions of websites indexed on the web knows how steep the competition is. Google Adwords is a great option for your marketing mix.
With Google Adwords, you create an advertisement using your keywords and phrases. When someone searches using your keywords or phrases, your ad results will show up in the side column of the search result page with a link to your site. Google has an advertising network that your ad may also appear in that includes popular websites such as the New York Times, AOL, Ask.com, and Earthlink.
There is no spending or time requirement when you sign up with Google Adwords. You are only charged when a user clicks on the link in your ad. You can set your daily budget. A keyword search cost estimate is available at www.adwords.google.com. You simply enter the keyword you wish to use, type in the average amount you want to spend per click, and it will present you with a list of results of the cost per click, the ad position, and additional keyword options. For example, if you type in the word “car” and enter ten cents per click, you will get a list of keyword choices that range from five cents per click to ten cents per click. Based on the variables entered, the phrase “cheap cars” was nine cents per click, but had a low placement value. “Snow Patrol Chasing Cars” was five cents per click, but was at the top of the list for placement. This convenient tool helps you decide keywords for your ad and determine your potential costs. You can then weigh your costs against your returns.
Google uses a bidding system to determine ad placement. The higher the bid, the higher the placement for advertisement. If you win the bid, you might be able to pay less than you actually bid. Google only charges you one penny more per click than the bid under your bid. For instance, if you bid 50 cents per ad and another advertiser bid 40 cents per ad you would win the bid and be placed at the higher position. However, you would only have to pay 41 cents per click. Even if you have unlimited funds (at which point you probably wouldn’t need Google Adwords), you would not be able to “buy” all top placements if you have very few clicks for your ad. Google Adwords keeps track of clicks per ad and factors this into the bidding wars.
Google Adwords also offers an option to list business in specific regional and city searches. This option will take note of not only the users search words, but also of the user’s IP address.
Google Adwords is an easy valuable service to your marketing mix. It is important that you measure the cost of the clicks with your actual user data to determine if it is worthwhile. A free online training program for Google Adwords is available at www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/.
