Google Adwords is a great way to advertise your products or business online. Google will post ads in a relevant search depending on the amount that is paid for a particular search term. Popular terms can be expensive, such as ten or eleven cents; however, less popular terms can be as little as two or three cents. Google uses a PPC system, or pay per click. This means that Google charges a certain amount of money per click on each ad determined by the keywords used in the search. Google Adwords supports a number of countries and languages, so it is possible to advertise to a wide range of potential customers.

The first step in creating an Adwords account is to create an ad and determine specific keywords for it. This is the most important part of the process and the chosen keywords will play a great part in determining whether the ad will succeed or fail. These keywords will signal Google to display the ad whenever a potential customer uses one of the keywords in a search. This is a simple idea; however, Google has also set up a tool to help with keywords. Google Trends is a great way to research the keywords that would be best for a certain ad.

The second step is to bid on the keywords. The highest bid per keyword will be placed first in the results, followed by the second, and so on. Google does not charge when an ad is displayed, only for the clicks on the ad. Choosing a budget for the ad will prevent costs from rising dramatically. There is no minimum budget. Google will simply display your ad until the price of the added clicks equals the amount of the budget. Then, since this budget is based on a day to day basis, Google will display the ad the following day until the budget is maxed again.

Due to the fact that Google is making a profit off of the Adwords program, the process of setting up an Adwords account is quite simple. However, for the campaign to succeed, there are a few main rules to follow:

• Conduct as much research into the keywords as possible. Check the campaign every day for statistics on keywords and make changes accordingly.
• Write compelling advertisements that will draw particular customers to your site.
• Create attractive and inventive landing pages for your campaign. Explain to viewers why they should use the products or services that are being advertised.
• Use negative keywords to prevent your ad from appearing to people who are not looking for your specific services. For example, a site selling cosmetics may use the negative keyword ‘surgery’ to prevent the site from coming up in a search for ‘cosmetic surgery.’

Once a campaign is begun, it is the advertiser’s responsibility to oversee it and control it. If the basic principles listed above are followed, then there is no reason why a campaign would not be successful.

Good luck with your campaign and if you need any help, please call us at 407.246.0092.