GOOGLE ADWORDS: The aim is not to provide a plan of action. Instead, it is a simple explanation of how the Google Adword system works.
Some website owners feel ‘forced‘ into extra web advertising. Adwords is only one of the many different Internet options to get websites noticed.
Fact: Partnering up with Google Adwords is one of the best ways to move forward for this.
Even so, an astute webmaster will use Google Adwords as an extension – not a replacement. It can be a shrewd addition to everything else that is moving in the right direction with their website.
Note: Adwords is often best used as an integral part of the total marketing plan for a web-based business.
What is Google Adwords Campaign?
Adwords is an advertising system devised by Google. It facilitates website businesses to advertise their products or services. This can be either at the side of, or above, the normal organic search results pages.
There will be various websites partnered with Google to display their Adwords advertisements. As a rule, yours will not be the only campaign showing in SERP.
In simple terms, you will be bidding against other advertisers on specific keywords. The highest bid will get the best exposure on the search adverts and selected websites. Unlike some other auctions, there are no losers – only those who fail to win!
Note: It is very important that you target your Google Adwords campaign ‘wisely’. Lack of planning and keyword research results in a poor performance and investment.
Adwords Keyword Bidding Strategies
An Example: You own a business website selling car parts online via the Internet. Your website does quite well but you sell a wide range of car parts. That makes it difficult for your site to rank in the ‘number 1 Google position‘ for many of the stock-lines.
It is not common practice to have a web page dedicated to each of the different stock lines.
In relation to that, your online competitor seems to beat you hands down in the search results more often than you would like. It happens a lot!
You identify one area that is not getting good web exposure. For this example let’s use the stock item of ‘Nissan Auto Parts’.
Research on the Adwords keyword planner shows there are more than 3,000 web searches for ‘Nissan Auto Parts’ per month. It would be helpful to get some of those searches to visit your website.
That would help to move some inventory of the specified car parts.
So, is there a solution to this example problem? In fact, yes there is if you use a Google Adwords campaign. Google is the world’s leading Internet advertising organisation.
The first step is to join up and go through their easy text advert helper. It is an easy process to design a small box ad that relates to ‘Nissan Auto Parts’. The strategy is to get your advert displayed in a prominent position on the search pages.
When people search for your chosen keywords, your advert shows up next to the search results. Problem solved!
Note: Playing the keywords bidding game needs proper research. It is the best way to increase the likelihood of a good ROI. Learn how to do the research and avoid making a blind choice of the major keywords.
How to Get Started with Google Adwords
There is a set process to get exposure for an Adwords box ad. You need to bid in a secret auction. Bidding will be against other advertisers who also plan moving their ‘Nissan’ inventory.
In some cases, your competitors may be ‘greedy‘ and smart at the same time. They could be trying to increase their overall business. That is another good reason for using Adwords!
Unless you have a bottomless pit of funds you need to invest with caution. Specifying an advertising budget assures there will be no nasty surprises with costs.
Fact: Google already realises that budgeting can be a problem for some advertisers. Thus, they allow you to set a fixed daily budget.
Continuing with our example, let’s agree that you choose to spend $50.00 per day. You ‘place that bid‘ against other advertisers. Google will suggest a ‘maximum bid‘ for you as part of the process. Once that gets accepted you are off and running.
This is a basic example of how the Adwords bidding process works:
- Advertiser ‘A’ allocates a budget of $200.00 per day and fixes his maximum bid at $2.50 per click.
- Advertiser ‘B’ allocates a budget of $100.00 per day and fixes his maximum bid at $2.25 per click.
- Advertiser ‘YOU’ allocate a budget of $50.00 per day you fix your maximum bid at $2.00 per click.
In this example, Google serve the ads of Advertiser ‘A’ at the top of the Ad listings. That would continue until his daily budget runs out.
Advertiser ‘B’ is likely to show in second place. Whereas, your campaign sees you starting off in the third place listings. But, once your competitors’ budgets run out your adverts should move up to the number one spot.
Note: Often, Google may then REDUCE the bid amount for you – unless another bidder enters the race.
Conclusion: Getting Started with Adwords
The examples represent a simplification of what happens in reality. But, there are many variables in the procedure. The variables also apply to organic search results as well as those paid for by advertisers.
Even so, this basic guide should show you how simple it is to start up and get going with a Google Adwords project. The other half of the equation is the Google Adsense system. Everyone who monetizes a website should remember that one does not function without the other!