What is SEM
SEM is short for search engine marketing, a phrase that includes pay per click and cost per click.
SEM is sometimes synonymous with Google Adwords, the premier online advertising service developed by Google.
Google Adwords was designed as a platform where advertisers pay to display their advertising copy to online users on Google’s Search Engine.
It’s a system that utilizes cookies and keywords picked by these advertisers, with the Google using these factors to place advertising copies on relevant pages and apps.
Advertisers pay when online users divert from their usual browsing by clicking on an advertisement that they see.
If the ad is appearing on a partner network, the partner websites obtain a portion of the generated income during these transactions.
This type of ecosystem also branches out to paid search advertising like geotargeting, mobile targeting, and retargeting.
What SEM Is Not.
There are particular areas of overlap between SEM and SEO, but they are two distinct identities with different uses.
[eafl id=”12145″ name=”Ballen Brands PPC” text=”Search engine marketing”] encompasses all aspects having to do with search providers like Google.Search engine optimization was -and still is – a primary focus when optimizing an online presence.
There are also other terms and other phrases that are sometimes convoluted and confused; these terms include:
Pay per click – or PPC.
PPC is a method of purchasing advertising within the search engines, where you pay for a person who clicks on your ad.
Search engine results page – or SERP.
SERP’s are the results presented by a search engine after you input a keyword. These pages display a mix of organic and paid listings.
SERP’s is the marker that differentiates between PPC, SEM, and SEO.
That’s because an online user and potential customer see the entire page and will be influenced by what is on that page in organic and in the paid slots.
Online advertisers sometimes pay attention to only paid slots in organic slots, which are designated on different parts of a results page, with most Google ads being on the top of the results page, and organic sources taking the majority of the page below the fold.
Although Google is continuously changing how their sponsored ads appear, they are always marked as an ad. There are additional paid features changing the results such as site extensions and reviews.
Businesses advertising via Google Adwords tend to focus mostly on ads in the search engine results page, instead of realizing the full scope and reach of ads beyond paid listings.
For example, someone who is in a shopping mood and is actively looking for deals may be more aware of paid ads.
For someone who is just searching for information may not be so susceptible to them.
People looking for information will skip the ads and go directly to the organic results, while those who are shopping will pay closer attention to the paid ads. Here are the statistics to support that theory:
In a 2012 study of 1.4 billion users showcased that about 94% of online users clicked on organic listings, despite the fact that paid ads occupy the majority of the space above the fold in the SERP’s.
? Similar Web Search Report recently offered a report tracking desktop traffic explaining that paid search only counted for just over 5% of all website traffic, with organic hitting the 95% mark.
This trend has not changed in the past couple of years – actually, according to eConsultancy data, only a paltry 5% of users between the ages of two and 17 will actually click on a paid listing.
This can be derived from millennials being familiar with the search engines, galvanized by the recent trend of ad blockers.
However, those who advertise on Google Adwords need to conceptualize the fact that they are over 5 billion searches performed on Google every single day according to a 2012 report.
Even if only 6% of online users click on paid listings, that’s hundreds of millions of potential searches per day.
Using SEO and SEM together
Understanding SEM and SEO can help fine-tune your Adwords campaign.
For example, SEO efforts may take several months to more than a year for it to be fruitful.
For those advertising with Adwords, it is imperative that they understand the difference between the organic search results and paid search results, and how they marry into each other instead of being two polarizing aspects of online advertising.
This is especially true when it comes to optimizing parts of a Google Adwords campaign such as search extensions, relevancy scores, and product data feed.
If you own an e-commerce site, you can bid on related terms all while optimizing your site over time via SEO practices.
Once you’ve obtained organic visibility that has been empowered via a PPC campaign on Adwords, you can lower or remove those bids as a traffic source.
This is only one example of how SEO and SEM can work together to supercharge your marketing methods.
Your SEO efforts will reward you with organic traffic from organic listings, while SEM will help create a more efficient campaign that helps your eager visitors land on specific web pages with your product on it.
Gaining traffic to a your webpage from a search engine, whether paid or organic is positive for your SEO efforts.
When the user clicks through to your page, Google measures the user experience by clicks, actions, time on site, page views and so forth.
When it believes that page was a quality return on the SERP for that query (search term), your page is likely to climb the search engines.
On the flip side, if your page is designed poorly, and doesn’t offer value, it is likely to tank quickly based on high bounce rates and low user interaction.
what is google adwords [play Video]
In 2016, Google made almost $80 billion in revenue stemming from its advertising products.
Not only does that number represent the value of the value of Google Adwords, but it also spotlights the fact that when used strategically, Google Adwords can be highly profitable.
For most businesses and their prospective target market, Google Adwords makes an excellent way to market your services and product.
For those who aren’t convinced, here are five reasons as to why your marketing goals should include Google Adwords.
1. It’s affordable, and there are no minimum investments.
This is one of the great positives when it comes to Google Adwords – it’s approachable, and scalable regardless of how much expendable money your businesses have.
With Google Adwords, there’s no minimum investments or monthly expenses, which means that the access point for Google Adwords is relatively nil, especially when compared to other advertising options that require monthly ad placement costs.
Naturally, some keywords on Google Adwords will cost more than others, but if you are realistic with your budget and project expectations in the market that you are operating in, then Google Adwords can be a viable option to supercharge your PPC campaign.
2. You only pay for results.
Google Adwords is an affordable tool, especially since you’re only paying when you get results.
With a pay per click campaign on Google Adwords, you only pay each time someone clicks on your advertisements on the paid listings and ads on pages.
If your campaign is set up strategically and you’re actively incorporating relevant keywords and filtering negative keywords, your ad campaigns will grow with you and become a well-oiled machine.
Additionally, remarketing on Google Adwords helps you reach your target market who have clicked on your ad in the past but have not converted yet.
3. Google ads show up in the ideal place.
Google Adwords understands the power of video marketing and ad placement for the best results.
[tweetthis remove_twitter_handles=”true” remove_hidden_hashtags=”true”]64% of online users are more likely to buy a product after watching a video. #BallenMethod @loriballen_[/tweetthis]This meshes with Google Adwords, especially since YouTube advertising is managed through Google Adwords.
This sort of partnership means that Adwords provides businesses like yours the opportunity to get their advertisement on YouTube videos that are related to your service.
With over 1 billion hours of videos being watched each day, Google Adwords creates a valuable opportunity to market.
4. Not only do ads show up in the ideal place, but they also show up at the ideal time.
Regardless if your ad is in the paid listings section on the top of the search engine results page or if they are located within a blog post, they will be there at the opportune time.
The presence of the Google ads gives businesses the opportunity to get in front of prospective customers right when they are making a buying decision.
Before Google Adwords, businesses had to advertise on platforms like the Yellow Pages under a category that was closely related to their niche just to have the ad in front of potential customers.
Google Adwords is, in many ways, just like the Yellow Pages – just without the middleman, administrative work, and upfront costs.
5. Tracking of your return and investment.
Google Adwords is a transparent platform where you will be able to monitor how much money you are investing on it and your potential returns.
Advertisers will be able to track web form submissions, e-commerce sales, and completed transactions.
Google Adwords Features Explained
Google Adwords can easily be called as the most well-known online marketing platform in the world – and it can also be the best source of growth for your business.
Starting in October 2000, Google Adwords came out as Google’s paid advertising platform, an updated, modern version of organic search for businesses.
With Google Adwords, businesses can generate search traffic without spending all of the necessary time required for SEO-based growth.
For marketers, Google Adwords will give you the opportunity to generate traffic quickly and efficiently, instead of investing time in social media and SEO campaigns.
Once you find a successful combination of ads and keywords, you can then scale your budget with just a couple of clicks, taking your campaign from a side project into a potential source for new, eager customers.
For many businesses, especially those that are smaller and startups, Google Adwords is seen as an aspect of marketing that they should avoid over fears of it being too expensive or challenging to maneuver.
Although Google Adwords has been live for several years at this point, there is still a bit of apprehension when it comes to utilizing it to its full potential, especially since SEO’ is viewed as a free method to garner traffic.
Despite its reputation, Google Adwords is surprisingly affordable once you have optimized your campaign and strategically started a cost-effective Google Adwords campaign.
Here’s how you can start your Google Adwords campaign the right way.
Before you’re given the opportunity to create your custom ads and choosing how much you’ll invest, you need to set up your campaign.
Google Adwords actually splits into two networks – the Search Network and the Display Network.
You also have other campaign types such as Shopping, Video, and App Installs.
Google Adwords Search Network.
The Search Network will represent the website where your ad can appear on search engines.
These include Google sites and non-Google related sites that partner with the platform.
These are called search partners.
When your ad displays on the search network, your ad will show on the search results page when users insert a keyword (query) into the search engine.
The Search Network caters to different types of ads, including text, dynamic, and call-only adds.
These ads are labeled as “ads” or “ads by Google” in the SERP’s.
For e-commerce sites, shopping ads will display a link to products that you have for sale.
Video and image ads will allow eligible search partners to host video-based advertisements.
You have the option of removing and including search partners.
In Campaign Settings, simply uncheck the box to EXCLUDE search partners or display network.
Google Adwords Display Network.
This network enables advertisers to pick a format, create an ad, decide where your ads will run, and then set a budget so they can reach your target audience and start showing up on related pages.
With millions of websites, news networks, and blogs, the Google Display Network reaches an astounding 90% of Internet users worldwide.
It has options to hone your ads to specific demographics so they can notice yoadwur brand.
Google Adwords allows you to be proactive instead of being reactive, with tools to measure your ads’ results and figure out which audience or target market is more responsive.
Whether you’re trying to gain more clicks on a particular web page, or increased sales for a specific product, Google Adwords lets you measure campaign performance so you can make adjustments accordingly.
How Advertisers Are Using Google Adwords
Google Adwords to target cost-per-acquisition.
Also called CPA, cost-per-acquisition is a bidding strategy which sets bid with the goal of obtaining conversions.
It allows advertisers to set the benchmark as to how much they are willing to pay for every conversion, with Google providing a recommended target CPA on what it believes to be a sensible conversion cost derived from historical information.
As you can imagine, determining your CPA is impossible with a new campaign or a freshly opened Google Adwords account.
Conversion tracking needs to be enabled for at least 30 days – preferably longer. If you have a small budget, you will need even more time to collect data.
This data allows Google the opportunity to manage your CPA goal.
The ideal CPA strategy permits Google to take control of bidding in individual auctions.
If Google Adwords believes a search query is likely to convert, you’ll ads will have a higher position.
Of course, this is all done with a maximum bid limits to ensure that it doesn’t cut into the bottom line.
YouTube video lists.
This is a free marketing tool which allows advertisers to personalize ads for YouTube.
These lists can be created by linking your Google Adwords account and YouTube, enabling you to remarket to people active on your channel.
This list of viewers can be used to fine-tune your targeting settings for existing or new video campaigns.
Campaign drafts and experiments.
Experiment lets advertisers test changes in a Search and Display network campaign, enabling drafts to prepare multiple changes.
From there, you can either apply these changes if it’ll end with preferable results.
These experiments help you measure the impact of changes before committing to them.
When creating a draft on Google Adwords, you’re mirroring your campaign set up.
From there, you can update settings.
After finishing your draft, you can apply the draft to the original campaign or create an experiment to test its performance.
For campaign experiments, you can convert your draft to a stand-alone experiment.
You can specify how long you’d like to run the experiment, and how much of your budget you’d like to allocate.
When a customer lands on a search partner website or happens to come upon your advertisement in the paid listing in the SERP’s, Google Adwords will randomly make either your original campaign or your experiment active for the auction.
As your experiment runs, you’ll be able to compare performance against the original campaign and make changes to end it early.
Attribution that is data-driven.
Customers may do several searches and click through several ads before making a purchase.
Usually, that conversion will be credited to the last ad they clicked on.
But for data-driven attribution, account data is used to determine which ads and keywords, as well as campaign, have the greatest impact.
Accounts will need to be well-established for data-driven attribution to be available.
?For advertisers that have north of 20,000 clicks and 100 conversions within a 30-day window, data-driven attribution will be an option.
Attribution and devices.
Just like data-driven attribution, cross device attribution showcases the pathway a customer has taken to convert.
But this time, it considers the different types of devices that they used.
It doesn’t matter if the customer used a mobile phone or a PC to make a purchase.
You will find a cross device attribution by clicking on the “tools” tab on your Adwords account and then clicking on “Attribution.”
By clicking on Cross Device Activity, you will be able to select the reports that you want to view.
You’ll be able to see the number of conversions with cross device activity, the ratio for each type of device, as well as a breakdown of conversions by the path between devices, so you can further analyze the order people use devices before they convert.
Google Adwords quality score explained.
When quantifying your quality score, Google takes into consideration several factors, including your keywords and your landing pages.
Your quality score is a representation of the reachability and the value of a campaign.
A lower quality score can make your campaign eligible for lower prices.
What affects your Google Adwords quality score?
Your quality score represents mostly three components: ad relevance, expected click through rates of your advertisements, and the user experience once they arrive on your landing pages.
When creating an ad on Google Adwords, relevancy is very important.
You – and Google – want your advertisements to perform well and to be positioned on related pages and posts.
It is one of the primary factors that affect your overall quality score.
Making ads that don’t mesh with your landing page is looked down upon by Google because it’s potentially misleading.
In the past couple of years, Google has released algorithm changes to ensure that the user experience is underlined and emphasized – this same sentiment is also true on Google Adwords.
To make sure that your ads are relevant, it’s imperative that you choose keywords for your campaigns that are appropriate to your landing page and the content hosted on it.
Categorize your ads into ad groups, with each category focusing on a narrow range of similarly themed keywords.
When creating your Google Adwords campaign, do not make the mistake of putting all your keywords in the same ad group – instead, ensure that each group of keywords emphasize on a topic that you want to address.
The tighter the ad group, the better it will perform.
Example: You are a real estate agrent. Instead of grouping all of your keywords into one ad group, You might have an ad group for each of the following:
- Las Vegas Town Homes
- Las Vegas Real Estate
- Las Vegas Real Estate Agent
- Las Vegas Condos
- Las Vegas Home Value
Google Adwords also uses historical data to work out how people will react to ads and the expected click-through-rate for these ads.
Google wants ads that are hyper focused and respond favorably to online users.
Higher than anticipated click-through-rates will give you a higher quality score.
Google Adwords also tries to be fair – it gives much more weight to recent data than historical data when calculating click-through-rates, giving you the opportunity to turn around a poorly performing ad campaign and redesigning it for success.
When calculating your click through rate, ad positions and the predicted CTR will be used.
Therefore, you do not need to actively factor in these parts. Instead, focus your time on creating effective, while well-designed advertisements.
Not only do you need to focus on the performance of your ads, but the quality score also factors in the user’s experience once they land on your landing pages.
Once they click on your ad, land on your page, click on the back button on their browser, then Google takes this as a sign of that your ads are ineffective, unrelated, or poorly designed.
This will decrease your quality score.
Landing pages with little content, unsupported claims, and poorly written articles will also decrease your quality score.
Periodically, Google will use a bot to scan your landing pages and assess its quality – so make sure that you work on your landing pages continuously.
Thankfully, you can check your Google Adwords quality score on your dashboard by selecting the keyword analysis field.
The quality score is a numerical system, with one being the lowest and 10 being the highest score.
To find your quality score, click on Keywords, and add Quality Score to your columns from the Attributes.
How to bid on google adwords
Which ads appear on the paid listings section of the SERP’s is based on an auction system.
Bidders set a maximum amount that they’re willing to bid for a keyword – these are called keyword bids.
It is much more complicated than just the highest bidder having preferential treatment in the paid listings section.
There also factors that influence the auction outcome.
To understand this process, it is important that you also understand its relationship to the SERP’s.
When you enter a keyword in the Google search engine, Google Adwords identifies all the keywords that are related and eligible to be shown.
It will take into account the users inputted keywords, their location, language, the time of a completed search inquiry, and the approval status of a particular ad.
Google Adwords examines these factors, then analyzes each of the eligible bidders to determine ranks.
Once the quality score is determined, it is combined with the keyword bid to determine its ad rank.
If an ad rank is too low – no matter what the bid is – then the ad most likely won’t even show.
The cost of clicks on an ad is calculated based on this ad rank.
The bidder only pays as much as the next highest bidder below them, making it possible to reduce the amount a bidder will pay for clicks on their ads.
This is done by increasing their quality score due to well performing, high-quality ads and landing pages.
The relationship between the SERP’s, keyword bids, bidders, and keyword auctions happens in less than a second once a search inquiry is done on Google’s search engines.
How Much Does Google Ad Words Cost
The cost of starting and maintaining a Google Adwords campaign is a viable question that is asked a lot.
However, there are so many factors that could come into play when it comes to the final cost of a successful campaign.
There’s no simple answer when it comes to Google Adwords, just as there is no one size fits all solution that will apply to every possible Adwords campaign.
Think of Google ad words as a customizable ad platform – you have control over how much you can spend, how much you want to spend, and when you want to spend it.
Let’s take a closer look at these factors.
Google Adwords is a platform for pay per click advertising.
You create advertisements, choose specific keywords to bid on, and then finally determine how much you’re willing to pay to per click – which is why it’s called a pay-per-click advertising.
One of the benefits of a Google Adwords cpc campaign is that you only pay when a user actually clicks on your ads.
It doesn’t matter if they use their mouse to hover over your advertisements, read it, or interact with it any other way – as long as they don’t click on the ad, nothing happens and you aren’t charged.
You can also set daily and even monthly budgets on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
After you find a campaign strategy and a winning ad to run, you can let the campaign run knowing that it won’t undermine your budget in the long term.
The Mechanics and Costs of Google Adwords
Google Adwords uses an auction model to determine the cost and ad placement.
An auction starts when an online user inserts keywords into the search engine and then presses search on the Google website.
Within an auction, the location of the ad and the cost per click are determined by the ad rank.
The advanced formula is relatively straightforward and will allow you to gauge your campaigns – the formula is your maximum click per cost bid multiplied by your ad’s quality score.
So, for example, if the maximum bid for a keyword is five dollars, and your ad has the quality score of 10, then that means that the ad rank is 50.
When a single auction is live, whoever ends up with the highest ad rank wins the advertising spot at that moment.
It’s a complicated process that is done behind the scenes, in mere seconds.
Google also uses the ad rank to calculate how much you will actually end up paying per click.
This formula, to calculate your CPC, is the ad rank of the ad below yours divided by your quality score, plus 1 cent.
?The main take away of this formula is that you can actually end up paying less while maintaining a higher ad position if your ad has a better quality score.
Actual Cost of a Campaign.
Now that you know the process and the actual calculations when it comes to a campaign, you can see how a solid cost of a Google Adwords campaign can differ on a case-by-case basis.
There are certain variables that you have control over like your cost per click bid and the quality of your ads.
However, there are also factors that you can’t easily control, like your competitor’s max cost per click and the quality of their ads.
An Example of a Google Adwords Campaign
Let’s say that you are bidding on a highly competitive keyword like business loans.
This is a relatively broad and a highly competitive term with a cost per click bid that is probably going to be very high.
If you want to minimize costs like exuberant cost per clicks, complete keyword research and come up with less competitive keywords.
For example, a long tail keyword that is still associated with business loans, is “business loans for bad credit start up.”
Keywords like these will have a lower search volume and may overall net you fewer clicks within your campaign.
However, your ad campaign will be more affordable to start and maintain.
Other Benefits and Factors That influence your Campaign Cost.
You have the option of launching a test campaign on as little as five dollars a day if you wanted to.
Your results will depend on how competitive your category is and the keywords that you used in the campaign.
The point is that your campaign is scalable, allowing you to take out funds and allocate it to other aspects of your marketing if you want to, and vice versa.
As such, it’s highly scalable.
Everything you do on Google Adwords happens in real time.
You can scale up and down as soon as you’ve identified a successful campaign or campaign that needs tweaking.
You aren’t locked into any terms and conditions, contract, or are required to spend a certain amount per month just to ensure the eligibility of your campaign.
To position your Google Adwords for success and to ensure that it doesn’t cut into your budget, you have the option to delve deep into the Google Adwords analytics.
You can see exactly how many times your ad is being served and showcased to online readers, the number of people who have actually clicked on your advertisements, and how many people actually converted after clicking on your ad.
This slew of data allows you to pinpoint the factors that contribute to your success and expand upon them to make sure that your current and future ad campaigns are effective.
Google Adwords Setup Guide
Once you have familiarized with the text and phrases associated with creating a Google Adwords campaign, you can now start a campaign equipped with a bit of foresight.
You want to create a Google Adwords campaign that will reach your target markets and help turn the laissez-faire user into a dedicated customer that is sensitive to your ads.
Your Google Adwords Settings Matter.
To start showcasing advertisements to your target market, you need to create a campaign in Google Adwords.
Device settings will help you create a maximum bid amount and how much you want to spend when your ads show.
You will need to make some important choices in your Google Adwords campaign.
Start with a clear marketing goal – do you want readers to buy a physical product, open a traffic stream to your blog sites, or do you want your readers to respond to your call to action?
Once you know what you want and expect from your campaign, you will find that it will be much easier and straightforward to decide which Adwords features you want to include in your campaign.
Typically you want to create a campaign that is specific to your business goals and product categories.
For example, if you are a skin care reviewer with an online boutique, you could have a campaign for makeup, skin care, and so on.
If you are a real estate agent, you could have a campaign for home values, one for local buyers, and one for out of state targets.
Google Adwords also gives you several options when it comes to campaign type.
These campaigns have a direct influence as to where your ads will appear, the kind of ads that you can create, and other customization settings.
To reach out to potential customers, then the Search Network with Display Select is the standard campaign for new advertisers to starting with their first campaign.
If you want to include features like rich media ads or targeted ads, you can select the “All Features” category.
If you want to reach an audience that are actively looking for your services, then the Google Search Network may be the best option for that sort of marketing.
Your advertisements will show up on Google and partner sites when people search for your product.
The Search Network Only sub-type is best for those who want to set up a campaign quickly without a lot of the additional options that may be deemed unnecessary.
For a tentative Google Adwords campaign where you aren’t sure that online users may be interested but you’re still interested in brand recognition, then the Google Display Network may be the best option.
You will be able to create text ads as well as use engaging media like photographs and video to create your advertisements.
These ads are then automatically matched to a relevant partner site and other placements like apps.
If you are using the new Google AdWords Dashboard, click Campaigns and use the + Button to add a new campaign.
Next, Choose your campaign type. Remember that you can look at the options before committing.
Each option will also ask you to choose a goal. Do you want to drive awareness, leads, traffic, app installs?
Consider the Geographical Location of Your Target Market.
You can use location targeting to focus your ads on specific regions and even states.
You can even focus on customers within driving distance of your brick-and-mortar shops.
Radius targeting will allow you to pinpoint a specific distance from your business.
Setting Your Bid and Your Final Budget.
As mentioned, your bidding and the daily budget strategy are important during the life of your campaign.
For those who are just starting with the Google Adwords, it is typically recommended that they use cost per click bidding, which means that you will only pay when a reader or online user clicks on your ad.
You can use the option of Manual CPC or automated maximize clicks strategy.
These two strategies will depend on your experience level and how much you are willing to invest in actively monitoring your bids.
If you are uncertain how to manage your bids or don’t have the time to do so, then automated maximize clicks strategy allows a Google Adwords to manage your bids and help you automate the cost of clicks within the confines of your budget.
You will be able to set a limit for how high Google Adwords such your bids.
For newcomers, do not use this option, as you may potentially limit the clicks that you might otherwise earn.
If you know how to manage your bids effectively, then you can use the manual CPC bidding – which is the default option in Google Adwords – to set your own CPC bids for individual groups or keywords.
A Word on Your Daily Budget.
Your daily budget represents the amount that you set for each campaign, showcasing how much you’re willing to invest per day.
For those who have started with the first campaign, then a more manageable budget run for a few weeks is ideal.
This allows you to become more familiar with Google Adwords tools and features, as well as reevaluate your plan.
Ad groups, in layman’s terms, is where you’ll write text for your ads and choose the associated keywords that can trigger those ads when someone completes a search query in the search engine.
Each campaign will need one ad group, with one ad per group at least.
For the best results, creates two ad groups with at least 4 to 5 ads in each group.
Google Ads (types of ads, how they all work)
The design and design of your ads have a direct correlation as to how often readers click – or do not click – your advertisement. Most people are familiar with the text ads that tend to appear on individual blog posts and also on the side of the search engine results page. However, you can also promote your services and products via ads that incorporate videos, image, and digital content ads that are placed adjacent to popular mobile apps and software. Each ad format has its own benefits and use. As an advertiser, you also have the option of running multiple kinds of ads from the same Adwords account, and in certain circumstances, in the same campaign. Here are all of the ad formats that are available to you on your Google Adwords account. The benefits and usage will also be explained, so that way when you set up and run your ad campaign, you do it right the first time.
Text ad format. The text ad is the quintessential ad format that tends to be used in Adwords. They are quick to design and are easily implemented into most campaigns. You can reach customers in a search on Google, with the text ad showcasing alongside the search engine results page. You can add contact information and use power words to attract online users to click on your ad. The text ad format only uses text.
Responsive ad format. Responsive ads are especially beneficial as they can accommodate different screen sizes, including the screens of mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers. By using a responsive ad in your campaign, you will fit any available ad space, making your ad particularly versatile. Responsive ads also show native ads, which tend to boost its impact. Responsive ads use text and images.
Image ad format. The image ad format can be static or interactive, depending on your niche, needs, and preference. The GIF is a popular format that is used in image ads. They can showcase your product or services and tend to be particularly useful for photography based categories like selling a physical product or an actual photographer using Google Adwords. Image ad format uses animated images using Flash and GIF formats.
App promotion ad format. If you have a game or application in the Google Play Store, you can monetize it with the help of promotion ads. You will be able to send customers to download your app in the App Store or links them directly to the app. You only showcase on compatible devices.
Video ad format. The video ad will showcase just that – an ad in the format of a short, precise video. You will be able to have them as a standalone ad or insert them into media content like on YouTube. You will be able to deliver an engaging experience directly to the customers.
Product shopping ad format. These are relatively straightforward, with the ad showcasing an image of your product including the store name, price, and any relevant details pertaining to the product in the image. These ads are particularly effective when placed in front of shoppers and those looking to compare products.
Showcase shopping ad format. This looks and behaves like the product shopping ads – but these will expand when clicked on to show related products and information about your store.
Call only ad format. These will simply show contact information like your phone number and the name of your website. You can augment your leads by adding a few descriptive sentences with the ad.
The ad approval process. Google wants ads that are appropriate for everyone, with a tedious approval process to ensure that your account is following advertising policies. After you create an ad, the approval process will start automatically. Google will use a 360 scope to ensure that it is compatible with its network, inspecting your headline, keywords, description text, and landing pages. Thankfully the process typically takes only one business day, with some ads being eligible to run while in the review process.
Designing and Writing an Effective ad.
When designing your ad, it’s important that your headline grabs the attention of your target market.
This is the area that your readers and online users will read, giving you an opportunity to catch their attention and hopefully their dollars.
Include your keywords and action words in your headline.
You will then have to choose a landing page that is closely associated with your freshly designed ad.
Make sure that to the web page that you use is directly related to what you’re advertisements suggests.
People who click on ads are sensitive to your call to action and are willing to engage – as long as the landing page is informative and straight to the point.
Your description text should highlight the unique features of your product or services, include specific promotions, with proper grammar – including the capitalization of the first word of each letter.
To truly galvanize online users, try using ad extensions available on the Adwords platform.
These extensions will give you the opportunity to include more information about your business and each ad, including contact information or social media handles.
There is no extra cost associated with these extensions enabled in your campaign and ad group.
Using and selecting the right keywords for your Google Adwords campaign.
For ads to show when people search for your product or service, you want to choose keywords that are similar to the phrases that people will use when looking for your services or when conducting research.
When the keywords that they inputted into the search engine are similar to the ones used in your campaign, your ad will be eligible to show up on the results page.
Choosing the right keywords will require you to step into the shoes of your customers.
What search keywords will they input? What are they looking for exactly?
Consider the theme of the ad groups and the phrases and words associated with your niche and an eager customer who is looking for your product.
If you need help looking for appropriate keywords, then Google’s Keyword Planner will allow you to complete a forecast for potential keywords.
You can search for keywords, and ad group ideas.
To get the most out of your daily budget, you may want to narrow or widen your ads potential audience for any particular keyword.
For example, you may want to showcase your advertisement to someone who uses a similar search term that contains a particular keyword.
Alternatively, you can be more precise and show your advertisement only when a person is specifically searching for a specific keyword, without any other added words.
Also take note that you only want to pay when someone actually clicks in a keyword, underlining the importance of relevant keywords and filtering out the negative phrases that may potentially trigger your ads.
If your ads show on search terms that aren’t valuable to you, you can add them to the list of negative keywords.
This will prevent Google showing your ad whenever they search for a particular word or a combination of phrases.
Billing and payment thresholds.
How you are billed will depend on the settings and the preferred method of billing.
For most people on Google Adwords, they want automatic payments, which means that you are charged after advertising costs are subtracted.
With automatic payments, Google will automatically charge you 30 days after your first automatic charge or when new charges reach a preset amount.
Make sure that you routinely review your billing and payments page under the gear icon to ensure that your campaigns go on uninterrupted.
Finding out How Your Ad Is Doing.
In Google Adwords, you can choose to see the statistics of three levels of performance metric – campaigns, ads, ad groups, and keywords.
You will then be able to select a date range to see the pertinent information.
The columns and the information that it showcases can be tedious and sometimes even confusing – thankfully, Google has a video explaining these columns and what they represent.
One of the more important metrics to monitor is your conversion tracking.
This showcases how many clicks turn into actual customers that invest in your product or service. Your conversion tracking is a free tool in Google Adwords.
It will be able to track not only customers who invest your product, but also people who have signed up for your newsletter or filled a contact form.
Studying your conversion tracking will allow you to pinpoint ads, ad groups, and keywords that are bringing you business.
Setting up a Google Adwords Account
Before driving into a new Google Adwords campaign, you would need to think carefully about your products and how you want to organize your account. One of the more common mistakes when it comes to new users of Google Adwords is that they mix together different products and services into one.
Each type of product should be separated.
Organizing and researching Google Adwords campaign ideas.
It’s a good idea to conduct research before building any campaign. Longtail keywords and categories are more effective and can be more sustainable than more competitive keywords.
Also take advantage of your local region, especially if you are a physical store who is investing in online marketing.
For example, your city name followed by your keyword can open up a traffic stream of potential customers eager to buy and invest in you.
For nonprofits, you may be eligible for up to $10,000 a month to spend in Google ad words.
This grant is only for specific countries where nonprofits are available, with your account being enrolled for nonprofits to qualify for grants.
Your Google Adwords also have to be correctly configured ensuring that the administrator of your Google for Nonprofits account and your Adwords account match.
You also need your customer ID when submitting your account.
It will take about three days for Google to respond via email.
Your First Google Adwords Campaign
Using Ad Groups
On a Google Adwords, an ad group contains ads which target a set of keywords.
Each individual campaign is made up of one or more groups, with each ad group consisting and organized via a theme.
These themes can be helpful for advertisers, as they can base their categories and keywords around these themes.
For example, for a person who is selling T-shirts, each consecutive ad group may contain a keyword that focuses on the product that you sell, with an ad group that tells the Google Adwords system to show ads for the specific products on websites related to them.
Ad groups allow Google to look for relevant content.
A tightly themed subject that is related to your service or product will do just that.
How to Bid
Google Adwords gives you several ways to bid for your ads effectively.
After you started your first campaign, you will have a relatively clear goal when it comes to your ads.
Knowing what to expect from your ads will help you decide how you want to go about the bidding process. You can focus on different factors when it comes to your bid – including impressions, clicks, conversions, and other forms of engagement.
If you want to focus on clicks for display and search ads, you can do so.
The cost per click bidding process gives you the option to use automatic bidding and the manual bidding.
You can also focus on impressions, paying by the number of times that your ad is viewed.
These impressions are calculated with a cost per thousand viewable impressions.
This type of bidding allows you to pay for every 1000 times your ad appears.
If you aren’t all that interested in grabbing new customers and instead more focused on putting your brand into the advertising network, then this is a viable option.
Advertisers can also focus on conversions on search, display, and shopping ads.
This will measure a particular action that you want to see on your web properties, which is usually some sort of sale.
You will still need to pay for each click, but Google Adwords will automatically set your bid for you to underline preferable actions.
For video ad formats, you can also focus on views.
With this type of bidding process, you pay for video views and other video attractions such as clicks.
Target Audiences
Audience targeting and Google Adwords allows you to be more accurate when choosing the demographic that can view your viewable ads.
In the edit panel, you can categorize your audiences in bulk.
Advertisers can import audiences by unknown, duplicate audiences, and even numeric IDs.
Selecting Keywords
Keywords are the lifeline to your Google Adwords campaign.
There’s a direct correlation between the quality of your keywords and your visibility in the search engine results page and partner sites.
When you’re first starting off with Google Adwords, it is imperative that you start with a robust list of valid keywords.
Here’s how you can curate a list of powerful, effective keywords to use in your Google Adwords campaign.
There are research tools in your arsenal.
Google already has a keyword planner – the Google Keyword Planner.
It’s its own proprietary research tool that provides data on the popularity of keywords from the search engine itself.
It also opens up your seed keyword and recommends suggestions like long tail keywords that you can further organize into ad groups.
You can also use Google Analytics to check and monitor any related keywords associated with your established online properties.
These terms can be used to find products and will likely be reflected in the terms that are used on Google to look for your product or something similar.
When doing your keyword research, it’s important to pick on quality over the quantity of keywords.
You don’t want to feel overwhelmed with a slew of keywords that you need to organize, and you want your Adwords campaigns to be hyper focused.
Also, think about your budget.
Some keywords have a high cost per click that can quickly dwindle your budget.
As mentioned before, successful Adwords campaigns hinge on advertisers thinking like a consumer.
Simply don’t assume that the terminology associated with your product is the only way to describe your product – most people are going to use more laymen terms to describe features of your services and products.
Keep it simple.
When using planners like Google Keyword Planner, you can further categorize keywords by the match type.
Exact match will give you information for search queries that exactly match your keyword.
A phrase match triggers ads when a user searches for a matching keyword that is close to your seed keyword.
However, they also trigger ads that include additional words before or after the keyword.
Broad match is ideal if you’re looking for synonyms or words and phrases associated with your niche in any order.
When conducting a keyword research, broad match may or may not be a viable choice.
Broad match tends to be particularly effective if you are a larger brand that already has an established base.
Consider your target and interpretation.
Building an effective keyword list will take time and will require an ongoing effort to weed out cost effective keywords to use in your campaign.
Search Terms
The search term report will allow you to see how your created ads perform when online searches trigger them. This is viewed within the confines of the Google Adwords search network. You’ll be able to identify new search terms that have potential to galvanize your campaigns and add them to your keyword list to use later. You can also monitor negative and irrelevant terms and use them as negative keywords to further filter your list. Some people may confuse the difference between a keyword and a search term. In the context of a Google Adwords, a search term is an exact phrase or word a customer uses when entering Google. A keyword, on the other hand, is a set of words or a word Adwords advertisers used to create ad groups to target their consumer base.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords exclude certain search terms from your Google Adwords campaign so that it will give you the opportunity to focus on keywords that actually work and have excellent conversion rates. When selecting negative keywords for your campaigns, look for terms that are similar to your seed keyword but might cater to a different sort of consumer or a customer in a different state in the sales funnel. For example, let’s say that you are a car salesman who sells aftermarket parts. In this case, you may want to add negative keywords for particular terms like “truck sales.” This will make sure that your exact keywords are hyper focused.
All about the Campaign Manager
The campaign manager allows you to have an overview of all of your accounts all in one interface. You will be able to manage all accounts from a dashboard that allows you to save time while cross referencing your accounts. Once upon a time, Google Adwords was stratified, with several different levels clients their management system. The Manager Accounts tab allows you to access your account with one login form. Formally named My Client Center, advertisers can manage individual accounts and view all of the data all in one place.
One of the unique benefits of the Campaign Manager is that it allows advertisers to grant control to their platforms, allowing experts, coworkers, or clients to gain access via administrative rights. Adwords Manager understands that businesses have different departments and will need several contact points for it to run efficiently. It built on the premise of larger organizational needs, giving advertisers the opportunity to create nested sub manager accounts to assure access. All parties involved will monitor performance and share reports amongst themselves.
Difference between Adwords Express and Adwords
Google Adwords Express is a peripheral advertising product that allows you to manage your advertisements without the daily monitoring. It works on the premise of potential customers already searching for services that your online properties already offer. Adwords Express helps prospective customers find your business right on Google maps or on the search engine results page. To differentiate between Google Adwords and the Google Adwords Express, it’s important that you know how Google Adwords Express works.
For entrepreneurs who already have an established business, they may not have the time to oversee the day-to-day tasks of their advertising efforts. This is where Google Adwords Express comes into play. On this platform you write an ad, decide on your budget, and let Google Adwords do the rest, including conjuring up a list of hyper-focused search phrases. After that initial setup, Google Adwords will manage your ads automatically. Google Adwords Express underlines automation, and give you the opportunity to attract more customers to your websites with minimum ongoing management.
How to Convert Adwords Express to Adwords
There may be instances where you may want to have a more hands on experience with Google Adwords by switching from a Google Adwords Express to the traditional Google Adwords platform. Thankfully, this is relatively straightforward but not so prominent on the Google Adwords site.
Click on the three dots in the upper corner. If you do not see the three dots in the top corner of you Google Express interface, then contact support and let them migrate your account. This may be required if you have several accounts that have several levels to them. The migration process may be complicated. Thankfully Google support can migrate your account in a relatively short amount of time while mitigating any errors.
Why Google Adwords Versus Other PPC Channels
There has been a lot of debate when it comes to Google Adwords and other advertising platforms. One of the main rivals of a Google Adwords is Bing Ads. Bing Ads works similarly to Adwords, giving you the opportunity to advertise. Bing Ads tends to be more affordable if you are working within the confines of a competitive industry. However, there is less a reachability. It simply does not have the gravitas and girth of tools like Google Adwords.
Google Adwords offer superior ad extensions. Ad extensions are useful because they help Internet users decide which aspect of the advertiser’s website they wish to land on. It allows for more control over their online experience. Google Adwords also dominates when it comes to traffic levels when compared to Bing. Simply put, Google has been here for longer than Bing, and that veteran status shows in his traffic levels. A study in 2015 by SearchEngineLand indicates that the Google controls about 65% of online search, while Bing services a paltry 33%. Another aspect that Google Adwords tend to shine in is its remarketing strategy. Google Remarketing allows advertisers to use data to find out which demographic spends more time on their site and which market does not. This allows them the opportunity to hone in on profitable strategies that will reel in more customers with the right keywords.
Google Adwords Guidelines
Like other products from Google, the search engine wants to support, underline, and be on the side of the online user and consumer. Which means that the policies are going to be slanted to benefit the online user and not the advertiser. This makes sense – the online user is not only your bloodline, but it’s also the target market of Google’s products.
Editorial policies. When it comes to using the text ad format, there are certain styling and spelling requirements that you need to understand. It’s important that your ads don’t contain promotional content and that text does not run into the display URL. It’s important that you adhere closely to the text field. For example, use the email field to put your email address and not your phone number. If you use each field of the ad for its intended purpose, then you won’t violate any policies set forth by Google Adwords. Grammar needs to be concise and consistent.
The importance of picture quality for visual ads. If you’re going to use images or video, is important that the image quality is up to par. This means that your images are centered and recognizable. Some advertisers use mousing effects that react to mouse movement. This is allowed as long as the user initiates these reactions.
A word on trademarks. Some advertisers want to ensure that their design isn’t being stolen and used for incredulous use, with some using a trademark in their ads. Google’s approach to trademarks is on a case-by-case basis, with Google reviewing any complaints and enforcing certain restrictions. For smaller businesses, it is best to stay clear of trademarks. Even though some of may bypass the review process, Google Adwords will eventually catch on.
How to Cancel Google Adwords
You might’ve discovered another advertising platform that meshes better into your marketing plans. That’s fine – Google Adwords gives you the option to cancel your account at any time. Once you initiate the closure of your account, all ads will automatically stop running within 24 hours. You’ll still need to pay any accrued costs on your account, with any money in your account being refunded within four weeks. If you want to reinstate your account, you can reactivate any time. Thankfully, you do not need go through the cumbersome process of creating a new account, as Google Adwords will save your details. To cancel your account, you will need to have administrative rights. Before canceling, make sure that you turn off notifications, add a new email address associated with your account if you’d like to reuse your email on a different Adwords account in the future.
Sign in to your Google Adwords account and click on the gear icon and select “Account Settings.”
Click on the “cancel this account” towards the bottom of the page. If you do not see this option, it means that you do not have administrative rights to do so. Contact support or the original creator of the Adwords campaign.
You will be presented with a form where you can troubleshoot common problems or other aspects of your Adwords account. To cancel your account straight away, simply click on “cancel my account.” Any funds remaining in your Google Adwords account will be refunded. Any promotional funds allocated to your account want to be refunded.
How to Manage a Google Adwords for Others
Google Adwords allows you to manage another account via its Manager Accounts tab. The manager accounts tab was built for organizations, creating nested sub accounts to share access with other managers and clients. Thankfully, managing another person’s account is relatively straightforward. Here’s how to create a Manager Account and link an Adwords account.
Click on “Manager Accounts” and then select “Start Using Manager Accounts.” Fill up the form, including inserting your email address that you want to use for your manager account. You have the option of giving your account a name, and position your accounts to manage others or as a branch off to your own multiple Adwords accounts.
Selecting the currency that you would use with your account. This is to ensure that billing is consistent. Click on “Save and Continue.” Once your email address has through, your manager account will be live and will be able to link to other Adwords account.
Linking to a Client Adwords Account Via the Manager Account
To link to an Adwords account, obtain the customer ID which will appear on of the top corner of your client’s Adwords account.
Sign in to your manager account and click on the performance sub tab under the accounts tab. To initiate the merge of accounts, click on the +Account button. Select “Link Existing Accounts” click continue then submit. Both of the associated accounts will receive a notification via email that invites them to link up to your manager account. It’s important to know that all involved parties will need to have administrative rights to each invited or linked account.
How Does SEM Benefits SEO
SEO and SEM actually complement each other. Your efforts for SEO marketing are for organic listings, while your SEM efforts help to create targeted advertising campaign. SEO allows you to earn traffic through free and unpaid listings, while SEM allows you to buy into traffic through paid search listings.
Google Adwords and Google Analytics
Google Adwords and Google Analytics, when used together, will give you a coherent framework to help you understand how these tools fit into your marketing strategy and workflow. Together, these tools give you a plethora of tools to give you a vantage point over your competitors.
Google Analytics gives you the opportunity to identify opportunities to engage with your core audience, as well as assist in determining the best audience group if you are unsure who to target. Google Analytics allows you to attract new customers to your website by finding relevant keywords to use in your posts, improve your target’s landing page experience and mitigate high bounce rates, as well as help further enhance your site’s flow and design.
One of the incredible benefits of Google Adwords is that it automatically includes conversion rates as a standalone metric. However if fall short in its ability to tell you which particular ad achieve a conversion goal or what were the main causes that contributed to low or high conversion rates. This is where Google Analytics steps in. Analytics helps you fill in those information gaps by showing you a user’s behavior throughout the process. You will be able to observe the behavior between the time they click on your advertisements and the time they actually converted to a purchaser. Here’s how you can merge your Google Adwords account and Google Analytics.
Sign in to your Adwords account and click on the gear icon. Go ahead and select “Linked Accounts.” Click on “View Details” to see a list of properties that you have access to. By choosing the “set up link” you will be able to connect to your Analytics account.
Click on “Import Site Metrics” to see data from your Google Analytics account in Adwords reports. You can import reporting columns to your account or pick on multiple views to see a list of properties that you can link. Click “Save” to finish the process.
Using Google Adwords to Collect Data for Keyword SEO
By merging data from your Google Analytics into your Adwords reports you can observe engagement metrics and performance stats, allowing you to weed out profitable keywords that inspire your readers to engage in preferable actions. Google Analytics metrics like bounce rates and page sessions helps you see how effective your campaign and groups are. For example, observing the bounce rate of your ad groups alongside the click through rate given by Analytics can provide an overall sense of whether your customers are seeing what they expect once they land on your landing pages, post click. Here’s how you can add certain columns from Google Analytics and insert them into your Adwords account for a more comprehensive look at your advertising efforts.
Sign to your Adwords account and click on campaigns. Click on any particular tab that you want to add from Google Analytics. You can select modify columns from the drop menu and select Google Analytics under “Select Metrics.”
To add a column, select the arrow icon next to each appropriate column. After that, you have merged only the relevant information from Google Analytics into your Adwords report.
