Internet Marketing: Getting the Best from Google AdWords
The flip side of Google's AdSense campaigns where you place ads delivered by Google on your site (and which we have already examined) is Google's AdWords campaign. Here the advertiser buys ads from Google on a PPC (pay per click) basis where a number of keywords are listed and the advertiser uses these as a campaign by specifying the amount to be paid on each keyword once they are clicked and the total amount to be spent on a campaign in a given month.
The two buttons above will allow you to link to and join either or both the AdSense and AdWords programs. The text of this article will tell you why you should join both programs and will also give you tips as to how to minimize your costs. Read on and be informed...
What is AdWords?
The AdWords program is Google's flagship advertising product, and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution. Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Precisely as in the image above, which shows a real example of one of my old ads.
AdWords advertisements are what's called Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements and work this way: advertisers select a range of words or phrases (keywords) that relate to their campaign or landing page. These then become the keywords that should trigger their ads. In addition they specify the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click (and the maximum amount to be spent each day or each month on those keywords). When a user searches Google's search engine on www.google.com, ads for relevant words are shown as "sponsored link" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results.
The ordering of the paid listings depends on other advertisers' bids (pay for placement P4P) and the "quality score" of all ads shown for a given search. The quality score is calculated by historical click-through rates and the relevance of an advertiser's ad text, keyword, and landing page to the search, as determined by Google. The quality score is also used by Google to set the minimum bids for an advertiser's keywords.
In addition, Google offers what's called 'site-targeted advertising' which they introduced in 2003. Here, using the AdWords control panel, advertisers can enter keywords of interest, and Google offers to place ads on what they claim are relevant sites within their content network. Advertisers then bid on a cost per mille (CPM) basis for placement. However, Google does not provide advertisers with a list of sites where their ads have been placed, and there is evidence that many of the "content network" sites are merely ad pages set up on parked domains. Advertisers can provide a list of sites where they do not wish their ads to appear, but cannot obtain a list of sites where their ads could or do appear.
Once the AdWords campaign is 'live' Google automatically determines the subject of pages and displays relevant ads based on the advertisers' keyword lists. AdSense publishers may select channels to help direct Google's ad placements on their pages, to better track performance of their ad units. There are many different types of ads you can run across Google's network, including text ads, image ads (banner ads), local business ads, mobile text ads, and in-page video ads.
It has to be stated that Google's AdWords system is extremely complex and novice users often fall foul of a number of mistakes in generating their campaigns. Which is why many novice users tend to gravitate towards Google AdWords' main rivals: Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter as their learning curves are less steep initially.
History
Google launched their AdWords product in 2000 and their initial business model was that dvertisers would pay a monthly amount, and Google would set up and manage their campaign. This worked well for large marketers but was less effective for small and medium-sized companies. As a result Google soon introduced the AdWords self-service portal. This evolved into 2005's release of Google's Jumpstart: a campaign management service that assists advertisers in setting-up their campaigns.
In the next section you will learn about AdSense keyword selection and optimization.