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What Is Google AdWords?
Google AdWords is Google’s advertising program. For a fee, your advertisement shows up beside the ordinary search results when users input your set keywords into Google’s search engine.
For example, if you designate “cow” as your keyword, when users input the word “cow” into the search engine, you ad should appear along with search results for “cow.” The frequency of your ad showing depends on your set budget.
How much does it cost?
You get to set your own price and monthly budget. You spend as much or as little as you want. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad at the price you set. You can even set the price to “automatic” and the program will set a “optimal” price for you, based on Google’s formula.
Depending on your predetermined budget and price, your ad may not show every time the keyword is searched. In truth, most advertisers’ ads will only show once in a while because of the budget constraint.
When your budget is exhausted, your ad ceases being shown.
How many keywords are allowed?
You get unlimited keywords and you can list as many as you want. However, be warned that the more keywords you list, the more diluted your ad campaign becomes, especially when you have a small budget.
What’s the catch?
There’s indeed one: the positioning of your ad relative to others corresponds to how much you pay. In other words, advertisers bid for higher ranking. The more money you spend on a per-click basis, the higher your ad’s rank will be.
Competition for keywords is often intense, particularly for professional service providers like lawyers, dentists, and real estate agents. To this end, Google lets the market determine whose ad gets shown and where it’s placed under the same searches. So, the higher the price you set for the click, the more likely your ad will be shown – and at a higher ranking. In other words, there’s no set price that will guarantee placement at the top. The secret to achieving a high-rank position is to spending a penny more than the next highest bid.
The “bidding war” among advertisers puts small businesses at a disadvantage. Unlike mega-corporations that can dole out hundreds of thousands of dollars from their advertising budgets, small businesses are ill-equipped to compete on bidding price alone. Rather, clever marketing strategy and smart tactics are the keys to a successful campaign for small players.
Tips and Tricks for Using Google AdWords
Here are some tips and tricks that I stumbled upon when surfing the net:
- Rather than competing for the most obvious keywords, like “lawyer” or “dentist,” try to be more specific with keywords, such as “copyright lawyer” or “cosmetic dentist.”
- Choose less obvious keywords. For example, when people want to adopt a rabbit, 95% would search for “rabbit,” while 3% would key in “bunny,” and 2% would input “cotton-tail.” (My guessstimate.) If you are a rabbit adoption agency with a limited budget, your money may be better spent on the latter 2 keywords, rather than the first. Although your keywords are less popular, you catch the users’ attention of Google searchers who use those alternatives.
- Concentrate. For “hot” keywords, consider focusing on only a few, rather than spreading your budget too thin. Thinning out the per-click price will result in your ad being shown at the bottom position, which often leads to poor results. For example, your set AdWords budget may not be spent because few people bother to scroll down the screen and click on your ad.
- Be unique. The ads are text-based, meaning no graphics are allowed. For ad copy that attracts attention, try action words and catch phrases. For example, rather than “Rabbits for adoption,” you may want to say “Fluffy bunnies looking for sweet homes.”
- Go big or go home. For popular keywords, the fierce bidding may drive the per-click price sky-high. If your set price is below the market floor, your ad may be rarely shown. (Rumour has it that certain keywords like “Toronto lawyer” or “Toronto real estate,” may demand a ceiling of several dollars per click.) Accordingly, if your set price is below the floor, the keywords become useless.
- Contents matter. The ad may lead to your website but not necessarily a purchase. If your website lacks content or the users don’t see what they’re looking for, they may simply move on to another site. Your advertising dollars are then wasted.
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