Google's AdWords Select™ Groundbreaking
Program
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
Reprinted with permission from Intelective Communications - this
article may be reprinted freely, provided this attribution
box remains intact. (c) 2001-2002 by Intelective Communications,
Inc.
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