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 ad) 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
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