How to Get Started with Google Adwords

admin | September 26, 2009 | 0 Comments

For an internet marketer, building or launching a website can be a time consuming and frustrating task. When this done, though, most marketers face an even greater challenge: Getting traffic to their sites. Fortunately, Google Adwords provides a means for getting traffic quickly, so marketers do not have to wait for weeks or months to begin making sales. Getting started with Google Adwords is quite easy – even a new marketer can set up a campaign and begin receiving traffic in a matter of a few hours.

To get started with Google Adwords, simply go to Google’s homepage and click on the “Advertising Programs” link. Then, select the “Google Adwords” link on the next page, and complete the required contact and payment information. Advertisers are only charged for clicks they receive from their ads, so there are no up-front costs.

Once the account setup is complete, click on the “Add New Campaign” link in the Google Adwords dashboard. Writing an ad is a simple process; however, be sure to include the most important keywords in the text of the ad. For example, an advertiser wanting to drive traffic to a site about weight loss supplements should use the phrases “weight loss” and “lose weight” in the ad text. This seems simple, but since the ads must be kept quite short – 95 characters or less, including the title – the process can be surprisingly challenging.

Once the ad is written, proceed to keyword selection. This will determine which Google searches will trigger the ad’s display. The Google Adwords tool will suggest keywords; however, it is important to make sure these keywords are in line with business objectives before choosing them. Improperly selected keywords can result in non-targeted traffic, which means that people visiting the site might not be interested in the content or products the site offers.

After the targeted keywords have been selected, it is time to establish a budget for the campaign. This is expressed as both a daily spending limit, and a cost-per-click limit.

The daily spending limit prevents marketers from going over budget with ad expenditures, but it also limits the number of times the ad is shown. Once the daily spending limit has been reached, the ad will not appear again until the following day. It is important to consider the daily spending limit carefully, to prevent having an ad cease to appear early in the day.

The cost-per-click limit represents the maximum an advertiser is willing to pay for each visitor. High competition keywords will normally require a higher cost-per-click than low competition keywords. The price pr click involves the Google Adwords Quality Score. The Quality Score is complicated – but can easily be described as a system helping relevant ads with relevant landing pages rank better when people are searching for relevant keywords. SEO may reduce the cost per click and also improve the rankings. The most important thing you do is to focus on relevancy in both landing page, ads and keywords. Keep in mind, though, that by choosing a high cost-per-click amount, the daily spending limit will be exhausted more quickly, and with a fewer number of clicks.

The next step is to launch the ad campaign. Google will review the campaign, and if it is approved, it will begin appearing on Google search pages and driving traffic within just a couple of hours.

For more advanced users I recommend using Google Adwords Editor to manage their campaigns. Google Adwords Editor is a software which allows you to manage your adwords accounts, campaigns and adgroups offline. I would also like to recommend you to try A/B split testing different landing pages. During the first weeks of the campaign you should analyse your campaigns daily.

Building effective Google Adwords campaigns takes a bit of practice; however, carefully choosing ad text, keywords, and spending limits will help drive traffic without costing a fortune.

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