Google AdWords ™ - an Innovative Programme
Google is regarded as the top search engine today.
Ask Google to perform a search, and when you look at the results page,
you'll see some "Sponsored Links" down the right-hand side of the page. These
advertisements are placed by the AdWords programme - as are the "Ads by Google" on the
right-hand side of this page.
An advertiser only pays Google for the times when someone actually clicks on
the advert and goes through to the advertiser's website.
Google’s AdWords ™ advertising programme is perhaps the very best online
marketing process that is available to any business right now. You can get
immediate results within minutes of setting up. In what follows, we describe how
we would set up a Google advertising campaign for you - our Google AdWords Management process.
Determining Keywords
Together with you, we decide on the keywords that will determine when
your ads will appear. The keywords should describe what you offer, and
your ads will be displayed to a highly targeted audience on Google and
partner sites.
When selecting keyword phrases, the idea is to try to put oneself in the place
of your potential customers, and to think of what keywords they are likely to
search on. These are not necessarily the same as the buzz-words commonly used by
marketers in your market segment.
In any event, after the Google campaign has been running for a short while, it
will become clear which of the chosen keywords are actually being used most
often in searches.
So, with Google AdWords, we create your ads and choose keywords to tell Google
where to show your ads, and you pay Google only when someone clicks on an ad.
Google’s Pricing Model
It costs just £5 to setup a campaign and credit card details are required at
start-up.
Google charges on a "Cost per Click" basis – as we said before, you only pay for each clickthrough to your website from Google’s. You don’t pay for
"impressions" (number of times someone views your ad) – so you really are
paying by results.
Your overall spending is controlled by setting a daily budget, i.e. a limit
on the amount spent per day.
There are no hidden fees (other than VAT).
Keywords can cost anything from £0.04 to £12 or more. There is a minimum
cost-per-click assigned by Google to each keyword. This is based on market value
and performance history as measured by Google's programme. So you may have to pay
a considerable amount for popular keywords.
Google’s "AdWords Discounter" keeps track of your costs per click against
your competitors'. You determine the maximum amount you are prepared to pay for your
keywords. Your actual cost-per-click (what you actually pay per click) is
often less than your maximum cost-per-click (what you are willing to spend per click) and
often decreases when your ad starts to perform better.
Your Ad's Position
The position of your ad - i.e. how near to to top of the column it is placed
- is based on your selected cost-per-click and on the clickthrough rate. So the
more relevant your ad is, the more clickthroughs there will be - and your advert
will rise up the column above your competitors.
This novel feature helps to distinguish Google’s programme from other
"Pay-per-Click" programmes – most of these other programmes are set up so that
placement depends only on fees paid.
We continually monitor the position of your ads, and optimise your bid
cost-per-click against your competitors.
Setting up Your Ad and Keywords
There are two main parts to the setup process: creating your
"sponsored link" ad and selecting your keywords. We start by creating a
"sponsored link" ad that is subsequently inserted into Google’s search results
on the right hand column. Your ad will appear in the search results only when
someone has searched using a keyword we have selected.
It only
takes a few minutes to have your campaign go "live" after we’ve completed the
setup process.
It’s very important that we spend time creating your sponsored links, as
these are the "online ads" that people will view in the midst of search results and
any competing sponsored links. Google provides the facility to create a
short headline together with two lines of text of about 35 characters
per line. The headline should be to the point and the related text should
complement the headline with supporting words that put across the essence of
what goods or services your company provides.
We are experts in writing relevant ad copy that results in targeted click-throughs.
Since high click-through rates on Google improve your ad's position without
having to increase the cost-per-click, good ad copy is crucial in getting the
best return on your investment.
When we set up a new campaign we and you should take some time over keyword
selection. We work through multiple keywords to find those that you can afford. Your market
segment is also another important variable
that can affect 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 set up a campaign.
We have methods and powerful tools which we use to discover keywords with
high relevance and a low number of competitive bids.
How Many New Customers Would You Like?
We can construct or modify your website so that it tracks visitors, leads and
sales back to the advertisement which produced them. For example, when someone
buys a product from your site, or fills in your contact form, it is possible to
determine whether they clicked on a Google ad to arrive at your site, and which
ad they clicked on. Therefore you can compare your advertising costs with the
results.
As an example, on average, a spend of £5 on click-throughs on an ad might result in one new
customer and a sale bringing a profit of £10. So ... increase your budget on
that ad and gain yet more customers and sales.
A Similar Programme from Yahoo - Yahoo Search Marketing - Previously Known
As Overture
A similar programme to Google AdWords is Yahoo Search Marketing - previously
known as Overture. Again, you set the
price you're willing to pay for each sales lead and pay only when your customers
click through to your site. Ad placement depends only on fees paid.
Yahoo Search Marketing puts websites where customers are looking - in the search results
of leading sites like Yahoo, MSN, Freeserve, Ask and Lycos - enabling
sites to reach over 85% of active Internet users in the UK. This is a cost
effective way to drive targeted sales leads to your website.
Best Possible Position at Best Cost
If you would always like to get the best possible position for your bid, we
would set your maximum bid to what you're willing to pay, and Yahoo Search
Marketing will
ensure you get the best possible position for the best cost without exceeding
your maximum bid.
Guaranteed Position
Alternatively, we can bid to a particular position within the search
results. The maximum bid for your ad will automatically be set to £0.01 above
the bid of your competitor currently at that position. A limit can be set on
what you are willing to pay per click, which allows you to attain the best
possible position for that price.
Using this option does not automatically maintain your position when other competitors
adjust their bids. However, we will frequently check your listings and adjust
your maximum bid to ensure you maintain your desired position within the search
results.
Complementary Programmes
The Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing programs are complementary. Using them both gives you
comprehensive coverage across the top search engines. In fact, around 50% of all
searches are done with Google, and 45% using sites powered by Yahoo Search
Marketing.
We Can Help
We strongly recommend these two programmes to all our clients, and use them
ourselves for all our marketing campaigns. We set up and manage advertising
campaigns for our clients, and can do the same for you.
As an example, we have provided one of our clients with:
- 47 ads with Yahoo Search Marketing, with ad positions ranging between 1 and 5
(averaging 1.8) on page 1 of the search results for the corresponding keywords
- 79 ads with Google, with an ad positions averaging 4.7 on page 1 of the
results
If you'd like our help in any part of the whole process, please
contact us.
We can offer you £25 worth of free AdWords advertising when
we set up your account.
Our Services
Our services include:
- Analysing your business and identifying your online advertising goals
- Ad campaign planning
- Establishing a monthly budget
- Setting up an account for your business
- Research and determination of keywords which are optimal and affordable
- Writing ad copy
- Bid management and optimisation
- Tracking results - so that you can tell the number of leads or sales which
are the result of a click-through from an ad
- Modifying campaign as needed
- Analysis of campaign and return on investment
- Reporting results to you
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