Google Adwords is a system developed by Google to assist business owners like you in marketing your services or products using Google’s search engine and other affiliated search engine sites.
The marketing is done through placement of text ads which display once people search for search-phrases (keyphrases/keywords) that are related to the product or service you are offering - the text appears as a sponsored link which they can click on. This link will send them to the relevant page on your website with more information and some 'calls to action' to guide them on their next steps.
This system gives you huge control over who sees your advert and how much it costs you. For example: you decide what countries/counties your ad should appear in, and what days/times it appears on. And you only pay the bid amount for that keyword when someone finally clicks on your advert - so you can control how much the advertising costs you.
What do Adwords adverts look like?
These ads are short text ads that have a title, two short descriptive lines and a web address linking to your website. Your advert appears on google page results that you (and your website designer if they're assisting you) decide you wanted it to appear on - for example, page 1 of the Google searches results.
The more you bid for a keyword or keyphrase, the higher your ad will be placed on Page 1 of the results. Since 87% of web users rarely scan past the first page, it is important to ensure that your ad is seen on this page meaning more visitors to your site since users prefer clicking on search results or ads that are placed at the top of page 1.
Why is Google Adwords Important to Your Business?
There are two types of visitors to your website: visitors that came across your site through organic search engine results or general surfing, and visitors that came directly through Google Adwords adverts after entering one of the specific keywords you are targeting.
One difference between these two visitor types is that for a lot of products/services traffic from non targeted surfing is often browsing for more information while traffic via pay per click actually knows what it is they want to buy. So, you do not require millions of browsing visitors, but rather some targeted visitors that you can get through Google Adwords.
How to Get Started With Google Ads
This is how Google Adwords gets you targeted website visitors:
- Step 1: People search on the Google search engine, using keywords, for your services and products.
- Step 2: They see your ad which appears next to or above the organic Google search results.
- Step 3: On clicking your advert, they are taken to your website where a product/service specific web page is awaiting them.
However, to optimise your ads you need to carry out the following steps:
Know what it is you are selling:
Most individuals are just looking for traffic to their sites, but it is not apparent what it is they are selling until you get on their website. A professional website designer can help you find out what it is you are selling, know what your audience wants and finally focus your strategy around this.
Find out how much you are willing to pay for the sale:
How much is the sale worth? What are your expected margins? What is the lifetime value of the buyer? During the web design stage, finding out all these details can help you come up with an advertising plan and it will also inform you what it's worth spending on getting each new customer.
Keyword research:
Carry out SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) research to identify your most important keywords. The google adwords account screens have some free tools to help you find these keywords and see what other keywords your clients are likely to use.
Understand your competitors:
This step may take longer but is crucial when you are jumping into a competitive marketing space. Several tools online can help enlighten you on where your competitors are really bidding and getting some degree of success.
Do some research the old-fashioned way:
Google the terms yourself and see what and who comes up. This is also a good way to find out how active your business rivals are. Make a note of keywords that they are bidding on, headlines, ad copy and their landing pages. All this info will prove useful later as you decide on what your adverts will contain and what keywords you will target.
Refine keywords:
If you are on a limited budget, select only a few keywords that are relevant to you. It is always better to have a small amount of niche keywords that give you decent data and traffic rather than have a large amount of generic keywords that provide no feedback or sales leads.
Check your settings:
Check the default settings on your account and change them as follows:
- Focus on one country and language at a time, for multiple countries and languages create separate campaigns for each
- Start by targeting desktops and tablets devices; if successful, create an alternative campaign for mobile
- Start with manual bidding for clicks, this offers more control on the amount of money you are spending
- When choosing delivery method, select standard as this will help you pace your budget and ads by displaying them consistently throughout the day
Writing your advert text:
Use your writing skills to offer your customers a solution for a problem they may be having. Remember to use the data you collected during the competitive research stage to understand what works and what doesn't.
Choose your destination URLs (web page links):
Be clear on the actions you want your visitors to do by providing relevant landing pages. Otherwise, you will get a low quality score from Google and far less clicks will turn into customers.
Employ conversion tracking:
This allows you to track the number of sales lead conversions you have managed using Adwords.
You need to constantly supervise your Adwords performance and improve the campaigns and adverts so as to ensure you get the maximum performance from each keyword and advert. If we can help you with a new Adwords campaign that you are planning or analyse your current Adwords account to get it to perform better, give us a call here
