Marketing Success With Pay Per Click Advertising – A Google AdWords Tutorial

If you have any experience with your business’s marketing, then you probably know what I mean by “PPC” or Google AdWords. That’s great, because you’re probably using one of the most effective marketing options available to businesses of all sizes. If you aren’t using PPC or Pay per Click advertising, then consider trying Google AdWords. Why let your competitors enjoy the benefits without you?Even if you use Google AdWords already, you might be able to achieve greater performance by optimizing your PPC advertising campaigns. Even if you already get more business than you can handle, you may be able to get the same performance for less by tweaking your Google AdWords strategy.Google AdWords is a very accessible and manageable form of Search Engine Marketing for anyone with limited time and technological skill. Google has made it easy and affordable to set up and administer an AdWords PPC campaign. You control how much you spend, and you can track the results.This page will cover how to set up a Google AdWords account, since it is a well-known PPC platform, and teach you to create a campaign, and share some PPC advertising tips that will help you be successful. AdWords Account SetupDuring the AdWords setup process, you’ll need to know your target market well. Where do your customers live? What needs does your business meet, and what do your customers look for when they find you? How much will you budget for Google AdWords marketing?To begin, visit adwords.google. com and find “start now.” Choose the “Standard Edition” if you have an existing website. Then use your email address and create a password and your Google AdWords account will be born. The set up wizard makes the rest easy. You’ll need to choose the language that your ads will appear in. Then target your customers geographically at any level of political boundaries: “Countries and territories”, “Regions and cities” or “Customized”. You can target metro areas and localities with “Regions and cities.” The customized setting has an option to restrict ads to customers within a set radius around your business location.Your ad text is next on the list. Choose your 25 character heading wisely. Do use attention grabbers like keywords, free, learn, discover, special offer, etc. The dynamic titles offered by Google AdWords that match the title to the search phrase will often improve response. The next two 35 character lines must compel searchers to click on your ad. One strategy is to highlight a benefit with the first line and make the second line a call to action. Lastly, you will place your url or your website domain where you want searchers to be taken to when they click on your Google Ad.Choosing keywords is the next step. Google AdWords has a useful keyword tool to help you find relevant keywords once you have already brainstormed an initial list on your own. The Google recommendations will augment your list with some keywords that you may not have originally considered to be relevant.You’re getting close to finished now. You need to select a currency, then set your maximum daily budget for Google AdWords to limit your exposure, and then determine how much to spend per click.That’s it! Make sure to check everything and then you’re done. That was easy! AdWords Strategy and Performance ManagementNow that your Google AdWords campaign set up, you need to manage your account. You don’t need to spend a lot of time, but you should regularly check the performance of the individual keywords, the different versions of your text ad, and your spending data. As you explore what AdWords has to offer, you can fine tune your campaigns. Make sure to:* Monitor your account – PPC advertising requires regular attention* Experiment with dynamic titles* Use the best possible landing page for your ad, which isn’t always the home page* Consider using negative keywords* Use Google provided code to track conversion data* Calculate your cost per conversion* Test results from display ads versus text ads* Customize and use campaign performance reports* Over time, tweak or withdraw your bids for underperforming keywords* Test everything! Especially your ads text and positioning* Track and analyze everything* Don’t focus on competitor bidding wars, but rather on your own campaign performance and data.Google AdWords is a logical place to begin with PPC advertising. Once you have solid performance with AdWords, consider these PPC options as well: Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft’s adCenter (Bing.com). Or consider expanding your Google AdWords account into Google’s content network, video ads, radio ads, TV ads, etc.). However, especially in these times, I believe a basic Google PPC campaign that is managed very well is an excellent small business marketing solution.