While Google offers a number of ways to advertise, keyword targeted advertising using Google AdWords is easily the most common. Advertisers spend millions of dollars a year purchasing such ads in hopes of driving highly targeted traffic to their Web sites.
Google AdWords - Step-by-Step
The foundation of this form of advertising is the Google search function. While Google has evolved into a powerful corporation, its bread and butter is still its search engine. Keyword targeted advertising with Google AdWords takes advantage of Google’s massive search traffic.
The first thing an advertiser does is pick the keyword phrases that target the wanted demographic. For example, if an advertiser is selling flowers, the advertiser would pick keywords such as “buy flowers” and “flowers online”. An unlimited number of keyword phrases can be selected, however most advertisers don’t pick more than a dozen phrases.
Next, the advertiser bids on the amount of money that they are willing to pay per click. The amount of the bid will determine where the advertisement will be shown on the search results page. The higher the bid, the higher priority the ad is given.
The third step is to create the advertisement. Google AdWords on the search result page are text ads that must follow a certain format. Usually between two and three lines of text are used with the text linking to the advertiser’s Web site.
Monitor Your Success
At this point, the advertising campaign will become live. The advertiser can set a daily allotment to limit the amount of money spent on a daily basis. Through the reports provided in the Google AdWords interface, you can check to see how well the clicks are converting to leads or sales. Give the campaign a few weeks, and then make any necessary adjustments to improve your results by changing keyword phrases or the amount of money that you are willing to pay per click.
On the user end of this process, the advertisements fit in seamlessly above or to the right side of the search results. In the example of the advertiser selling flowers, when an Internet user searches “buy flowers” or “flowers online” in Google search, their ad will appear on the search result page.
This post is part of the series: Using Google AdWords for Marketing Success
Creating a Google AdWords campaign can drive traffic to your website, leading to repeat visitors and product sales.
