Working Life > Self-Employment > Marketing > Google AdWords

Marketing with Google AdWords

Definition, Explanation

Online-advertising is a form of marketing products or services over the Internet. A very effective and popular marketing method is placing advertisements on

• the search pages of Google
• Google Search Network. These are websites that have partnered with Google and include product search
• Google Display Network. These are theme-based Internet sites, blogs, and news services etc., which allow Google to place ads on their pages. The website owners have registered with the Google AdSense program and added an ad code to their web pages. In return Google pays them a provision for placing ads on their web pages

Google AdWords is the tool for placing ads on the above mentioned theme websites. Google developed and supplied it. This method of advertising is called Search Engine Advertising (SEA).

With SEA Google Ads are placed on the search pages on the right hand side or above the search results. They are marked as "Google-Ads". These ad blocks consist of paid ads and are also referred to as sponsored or paid links. For advertisers it is fairly easy to place ads with Google AdWords. Therefore advertisers do not need any help from an advertising department or agency to run their ads.

Benefits of AdWords:

• Easy to handle
• Reach your target group directly
• Full control of your budget
• No minimum spending requirement
• No time commitment
• Ads are often not recognised as ads, because they match the search results and keywords
• Advertisers only pay when their ad is clicked by a customer, who is then fully aware of the advertisement (Cost-per-Click, CPC). Placing an ad in the print media is different altogether. Advertisers pay a price for the ad when it is printed, no matter if readers notice the ad or not
• Google does not charge anything for displaying your ad, although it helps you to become better-known. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad
• Ads are not regarded as disturbing or annoying, because they match whatever customers are looking for
• No time delay between searching for a product or service and finding a supplier

Why Online-marketing is worthwhile, even if you only run a "normal" shop:

• Customers, who are exposed to online advertisement, tend to spend more money in shops than those who do not see online ads
• Customers like to gain information about products and possible suppliers on the Internet first, before they decide to buy something
• Increase your customer base
• Extra business through additional sales, for example with a web shop
• Increase name recognition or brand awareness
• Higher number of quality visitors on your website
• Goal: To turn investments into positive profit (ROI, Return on Investment)

Problems with Google AdWords:

• Not reaching your goal, because your ad is lost in a big bunch of ads and not noticed at all
• Inability to use Adwords properly can lead to high costs

Alternatives to Google AdWords:

• Yahoo! Search Marketing
• Mirago
• MSN
• Because of Google’s dominant role on the German market, these alternatives should only be considered as supplements to AdWords

Procedure of Google AdWords:

• Create an AdWords account, confirm and add payment information and VAT-ID
• Refer to your own internet site. If you do not have a website, you can create one with Google Sites

Tips, Checklist

• Delve into Google AdWords before you start. Also use the Google AdWords-pages und help offered by Google, including the telephone support, and any other providers and appropriate forums.
• Define your goal, decide what do you want to achieve with a Google AdWords campaign? Do you want your brand to become better-known? Do you want to improve sales?
• Determine your marketing budget and be careful and thoughtful at the beginning. Before you invest a lot of money, start a test campaign to find out if it will bring the desired results.
• Determine where you want to advertise, on the normal Google search page on the right hand side of the search results or at the beginning of the page, on relevant pages of Google - Search Network or Display Network.
• Use the possibility of placement preferences, this means choosing contextually relevant Internet sites on which you want your ad to be displayed.
• If possible, localise your ads so they are only shown to certain areas. Sometimes it is not sensible to advertise in all locations when you only offer your products locally in Germany.
• Create small and specific ad groups with targeted keywords and texts, for example use “Bosch dishwasher” instead of "electrical appliances".
• Never run an advertisement with very common keywords, but use keyword combinations instead. Google offers a Keyword Tool in the section Adwords – Your Ad Perfomance. This will help you to find the keywords customers use, and which match and describe your products or services.
• Select suitable keywords to match your products as best you can.
• Use the possibility to exclude certain keywords. You can also use the keyword tool to find terms not matching your offer or product.
• Adjust the CPC to each keyword or keyword combination.
• Google runs ads around the clock. But when do you actually get quality clicks? For example: You receive most clicks before dinner time, because you advertise for quick and easy recipes. Then you can set an ad schedule for particular hours of the day.
• Try different texts for your ad and evaluate the results.
• Make sure to activate „Rotate“in the Ad rotation settings. It is not preset!
• Your ad does not necessarily have to be the number 1on the page, ranking on third or fourth place will do fine to ensure that customers deliberately choose your ad.
• Make use of Conversion Tracking. You can measure the success of your campaign with it. Then you will know if a keyword or an ad is really working for you.
• Optimise your campaigns regularly. Adjust the keywords, text, click prices, locations etc. every now and then.
• Use the analytic tool Google Analytics in combination with Google AdWords.
• In your account you will also find tips on how to optimise your ads, but be critical about them. Take a good look at them, especially at the keywords.
• If you should suspect click fraud, then contact Google.
• Try to find a niche with your keywords. This will ensure you do not have so many competitors and you will profit from a lower click price.
• Along with SEA also use Search Engine Optimisation SEO for your Internet site. If you do make it to the top one on Google search results with your keywords, then you could save costs for SEA. But using SEO as an option is also extremely time-consuming.

Last update: 07/19/2010