Learning Google AdWords - How Does it Work?

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a paid advertising tool that can be used to increase traffic to your website. Once you have created your free account with Google you can start creating ad campaigns. Once your ad is setup, whenever someone performs a Google search using keywords that you rank well for, your ad will be seen in the browser. AdWords ads are shown above and to the right of the organic results. Where your ad appears depends upon your quality score (more about this later).

There are two types of ads that you can use when setting up your campaigns: a text ad and an image ad. A text ad consists of a clickable title, two lines of descriptive text and a url. An image ad consists of a clickable image which can be in multiple sizes. The biggest difference between text ads and image ads is that image ads appear on the Google Display Network sites. Image ads are targeted ads that can be either keyword-targeted or placement-targeted.

Choosing a Title

Choosing the right title line for your text ad is very important. This is the key text that can capture the attention of a potential visitor. It is effective to use questions or calls to action in your title line. There is a real skill involved in writing a good attention grabbing title since you have limited characters available. A good question would be one that targets the “problem” that your web site or product is meant to solve. For example, “Having Trouble Losing Weight?” would be a great targeted question. Another method is to offer a solution to the problem in the title, for example, “Fix Your Squeaky Floor”.

Inserting Your URL

There are two different urls that need to be inserted into your ad once you have your title and description lines in place. The display url is what will show in your ad and the actual url can be more specific. For example, the actual url can include an affiliate link in the url. You cannot place just any urls in your ad. The display url has to match the domain of the site that you are sending the visitor to. If you try to display a different domain, your ad will not be approved. Of course you have to be sure that the page you are directing your traffic to is relevant to the ad copy and your keywords. If Google perceives that the landing page is not very relevant, it will cost you in quality score.

Quality Score

Quality score is calculated for each of your keywords every time a search will potentially display your ad. The keywords have to be extremely relevant to the search and your ad copy needs to contain some of the keywords as well to score high. The most important reasons to be concerned about a good quality score are the placement of your ads on the search page and the cost per click. If you have a low quality score but broad keyword phrases you could end up spending a lot more money than you had intended. You will want to make sure that you set a daily budget amount that will be within your means. It is always best to start out with a smaller budget until you have your ads optimized properly.

Joshua Smith is the co-owner of Mirror Image Marketing and Mirror Image Branding. To sign up for a Free internet marketing course, Visit us today!