Google AdWords for Small Business Owners

Using Google AdWords for small business owners

Google AdWords allows web site owners to pay for top position on the search results. When presenting these results, Google clearly shows the natural searches (based on keywords and link popularity) differently from the paid AdWords campaigns. These are clearly labelled as "Ads".

The AdWords service from Google is also called "PayPerClick". This is because the web site owners do not pay until a user clicks on one of the ad snippets that are displayed. Your position on the Ads section depends on how much you are prepared to pay for each Click. The higher you maximum bid is, the higher your ad appears. The actual amount you pay when your ad is clicked depends on the bid of the next lowest one. This means that the amount charged to you is often less than the maximum that you bid.

Google make it extremely easy for someone to set up an AdWords campaign. First of all you have to register with Google and enter your card details for payment to be deducted on a periodic basis. When creating a campaign, you can set up a number of parameters such as Locations, Daily budget and Ad scheduling,

Once you have set up these and any other parameters that are of interest to you, you can set up various Ad Groups under this campaign, to share the daily budget of say £25. For each Ad Group, you will need to set up a number of keywords for which you want the Ad to appear. Google provides a number of operators such as "broad match", "exact match" and "Don't match" to maximise the chance of presenting your Ad to relevant search queries and minimise presenting it to searches where it is not relevant.

At this stage you will also be able to set a maximum amount that you are willing to pay when your Ad is clicked on. Google will attempt to estimate the position of your Ad based on your bid. This is not always accurate and it is advisable to check your Ad's position later by entering the relevant search string in Google. Remember not to click on your Ad though as you will end up paying for this click.

One of the really powerful features of Google Adwords is the ability to track conversions. Once set up this feature will track the number of visitors that actually go through to make a purchase on a website. This is done by inserting some "tracking code" on the order confirmation page. This allows users to continuously fine tune their keywords to maximise the return on investment.

Another nice feature is the ability to try out different ads. Goggle will automatically cycle through the various ads and in time will concentrate on presenting the ad that has the best click through.

Summary: Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a powerful advertising tool that allows highly targeted traffic to a website. Many companies spend thousands of pounds a month on Google advertising campaigns because the tools provided make it easy for them to see the number of visitors that come to the site using the different keywords and how many of them make a purchase. This information can then be used to constantly fine tune the keywords and the Ads to maximise returns from the money spent on the campaigns.