Google's Groundbreaking AdWords Select Program
One of the absolute best online marketing processes available to any business
today is Google's AdWords Select advertising program. It produces immediate
results within minutes after being setup, drives highly qualified traffic via
selected keywords and can be monitored and modified on a 24/7 basis via Google's
excellent online interface. There are no hidden fees - it costs a mere $5. USD
to setup a campaign and requires a credit card submission at startup. We highly
recommend this interactive marketing process to all of our clients and
incorporate an AdWords Select component with all of our marketing campaigns.
Google's Pricing Model
Google charges you on a CPC ("Cost per Click") basis - you only pay for each
clickthrough to your web site from Google's, no more no less. You don't pay for
"impressions" (number of times someone views your add) like many first
generation Internet advertising models - it's truly a results driven marketing
process.
Keywords costs can vary tremendously ranging from $.05 to $11. USD or more per
keyword - Google assigns a "minimum cost per click" for specific keywords based
on "market value" and "performance history" via Google's AdWords Select program
history. Be prepared to pay a much higher rate for very popular keywords and
this is a moving target all of the time - the more popular this program becomes
the more you will be forced to pay for selected popular keywords.
Creating your Sponsorship Ad
Your Ad's position is based on a combination of the CPC ("Cost per Click") you
selected and relevancy of your ad - if your ad and keywords are relevant and
drive clickthroughs, then your ad will rise in position on the sponsored column
versus your competitors. This is an innovative feature and helps to distinguish
Google's program from all other PPC ("Pay per Click") campaigns (Overture and
their primary competitors) - most of these programs have an "economic bias"
built into them; i.e. whoever pays the highest fees gets the top placement.
Dynamic Ad Placement
Google's unique AdWords Discounter keeps track of your costs per click versus
your competitors. You select the maximum amount you want to pay for your
keywords and the ranking algorithm keeps track of your keyword costs, ensuring
you only pay one cent above the CPC ("Cost per Click") cost you specified when
you setup the campaign versus your competitors.
Setup Process - Sponsored Link Ad and Keywords
AdWords Select is based upon driving highly targeted traffic to a web site via a
set of keywords that are selected via Google's account management interface.
There are two primary components to the setup process, creating your "sponsored
link" ad and selecting your keywords. You start by creating a "sponsored link"
ad that
is subsequently inserted into Google's search results on the right hand
column - targeted by keywords that you have selected. It only takes a few
minutes to have your campaign go "live" after you've completed the setup
process.
It's very important to spend quality time creating your sponsored link as this
is the "online ad" that people will view in the midst of search results and
competing sponsored links (in some cases). You have the ability to create a
short headline coupled with two lines of text with approximately 35 characters
per line - the headline must be succinct and hard hitting and the related text
should backfill the headline with supporting words that convey what goods or
services your company provides.
Keyword selection can be the most daunting task for setting up a new campaign -
be prepared to spend some focused time working through multiple keywords to find
those that you can afford. It typically takes 1-3 hours to find 10-20 keywords
that are relatively low cost - however, if your budget is open-ended and you
have sufficient marketing funds to pay $1-8. USD per keyword then it can take
much less time. Your market focus is also another important variable that can
impact the keyword selection process - if you're in a narrow market niche with
only a small number of competitors then it is much easier and faster to setup a
campaign.
Finally, be aware you can find some keywords that are very inexpensive, but
Google will disallow these if they don't drive a minimum clickthrough amount of
roughly less than 1% - you can start off with them, but they will be turned off
after 7-14 days if they aren't driving sufficient clickthrough volume.
Wordtracker Keyword Research Tool
You may want to utilize other keyword analysis tools that will give you a
broader selection and help you to understand what keywords are popular and
searched on, which in turn ensures the keywords you do select will drive traffic
and will not be disallowed by Google. Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com) is an
industry standard keyword analysis tool that those of us in the online
advertising world (and many others) have used for years to help us understand
what keywords are popular - their service is very low cost and easy to utilize
via their web site.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of marketing experience - he is the founder of
Intelective Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com, a marketing
services company which provides strategic and tactical marketing services
exclusively to small to medium sized companies. Lee@intelective.com Reprinted
with permission from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted
freely, provided this attribution box remains intact.
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