Google's
AdWords Select (tm) Groundbreaking Program
by Lee Traupel
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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