Google Adwords Noob? Here’s How To Get Started with PPC Advertising

Congratulations on getting your new business up and running! Now it’s time to focus all your efforts on finding customers so you can sell what it is you have to offer. Since most consumers today turn to google when looking for products and services to buy, it only makes sense for a business to advertise online. google‘s pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program called Adwords is a fast and easy way to expand the reach of your website which by the way, is something you should have by now. Adwords is also highly measurable which means you can make regular adjustments to your strategy in order to improve your results.

How Adwords Works

When someone performs a google search, the results are assessed and ranked, putting the closest match higher up on the search result page. This organic search result is based on many factors including content, internal links, backlinks, headers, page titles and much more. Also on the search result page there will be sponsored links on the right side and sometimes at the top. These are google Adwords advertisements. Using this type of PPC ad, a business is able to connect with customers in real-time when they’re searching for products and/or services to buy. And, the business running the ad only pays when someone clicks through to its website, hence the name PPC.

Getting Started: Choose Your Keywords

The selection of the right keywords is the most important aspect of a successful pay-per-click campaign. You will have to bid on keywords which means the most commonly used keywords will cost you more, but if you win the bidding, your PPC ads will appear higher up on the page to give your website maximum exposure. It’s best to use automatic keyword bidding when first starting out to keep the process simple.

You can easily research your keywords using google‘s free keyword tool. It’s a good idea to test your keywords yourself by conducting searches. Just type one of your keywords into google and see if your competitors are using Adwords (if they are, ads will appear on the right side of the page or top). Of course, if you type in something like ‘motel Las Vegas’ you will have tons of competitors which means you need to get more creative with the keywords you choose for your ads. Just think about what your business’s unique selling point is and them come up with and test keywords and keyword phrases that best match reflect your uniqueness.

Set Your Daily Budget

You will need to determine how much money you’re willing to spend on PPC advertising. With Adwords, you have two main money decisions to make: budget and bidding. Your budget is obviously how much you’re willing to spend advertising on google. The most simple way to determine your total daily budget is to divide your monthly budget by the number of days in a month. You will then have to decide how to divvy up your total daily budget across each of your ad campaigns. In the beginning, considering splitting your daily budget evenly across each campaign to keep things simple. As far as setting a bidding budget goes, you have two options. You can either manually set your bids or allow Adwords to set them for you. For newbies, it’s best to set manual bids for clicks as this option gives you more control over how your budget is spent.

Write Compelling Ads

Now it’s time to write some great ads. Keep your unique selling point (USP) in mind when creating an ads. This will help your ad stand out from the crowd of others. Use your best keywords in the heading and body of the ad to receive as many clicks as possible. And don’t forget to include a call-to-action that tells searchers what you want them to do once they land on your website. google has very specific rules about ad formatting so if you don’t create an ad the correct way, you’ll be notified.  It’s vital that your ad stands out so include any special offers or promotions as doing so will help grab the attention of your target market.

Use Conversion Tracking to See What Happens When Users Click Your Ads

google offers businesses a free conversion tracking tool to help them find out what happens after someone clicks their ads. For instance, you can use this tool to find out if a clicker took a desired action which could be making a purchase, signing up for your newsletter or completing a form in order to receive more information. All these actions are called conversions which are all actions taken by customers that provide value to your business. Conversion tracking will show you which keywords are helping you meet your specific goals. When you know which of your keywords are bringing you the most business and which aren’t, you can make more intelligent investments in those profitable keywords while avoiding the unprofitable ones altogether.

Getting started with PPC advertisement really isn’t all that difficult. google does a great job of walking beginners through the process of creating, running and monitoring Adwords ads. If you run into any issues/problems when advertising on google, it’s very easy to find the help you need right in google‘s Adwords Help Center.