Google's Groundbreaking AdWords
Select(tm) Program
By Lee Traupel,
www.intelective.com
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 add) 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.
==============================================
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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