|
project 03 :: Internet Marketing :: Advertising and PR 01
Google's AdWords Select Groundbreaking Program
When you think about adwords and
keywords, what do you think of first? Which aspects of adwords and
keywords are important, which are essential, and which ones can you
take or leave? You be the judge.
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.
Lee@intelective.com
You may not consider everything you just read
to be crucial information about adwords and keywords. But don't be
surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very
information in the next few days. If you've picked some pointers about
adwords and keywords that you can put into action, then by all means,
do so. You won't really be able to gain any benefits from your new
knowledge if you don't use it.
|
|
|
|
