Introduction to Google Adwords

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is worlds biggest Advertising Network. It uses Pay Per Click price model.

I don`t even remember when was the first time I came across AdWords. Probably it was a few years ago. But the fact is I never took time to really understand it. I now decided to learn about AdWords from a beginners perspective and create my first campaign “by the book”.

How it Works?

Google really makes it look easy. You create your ads, your ads appear on Google, you attract customers.

In reality it is not so easy. Sure it`s easy to run ads, but we are affiliate marketers and we need to make money. This complicates things – a lot. You could be losing hundreds per day if you do not have enough knowledge and experience with Google Adwords.

Google Search vs. Content Network

Google AdWords enables you to target people on their search engine as well as people on their content network. You will notice that ads running on content network are cheaper, but have way lover CTR. This is normal, because visitors of content network have a different mindset than those who are performing search. This is very important.

Setting up an AdWords Account

Go to adwords.google.com and follow the instructions. Make sure you select Standard Edition and create a fake campaign to get into the system. You do not need a credit card to sign up with Google AdWords. It is free.

Important marketing Tools

Once inside, take a look around. There are many cool features and tools you can use for affiliate marketing.

Make sure you check the Tools section. Inside AdWords is a Keyword Tool which is the best and most accurate keyword tool available. It is completely free and all Internet marketers use it. I use this tool to find new keyword ideas.

Another great tool is called Traffic Estimator which tells you how much clicks you can expect for a selected keyword. I use this tool to estimate ppc price and click volume.

Creating a new Campaign

1. Name a campaign.
2. Name an Ad Group.
3. Target customers by location.
4. Write your ad.
5. Choose keywords.
6. Enter your budget and max CPC.

What effects ad price and ad position?

The most important thing to Google is quality of its results. Google wants to serve the best ads to their users. To do that they use a metric called Quality score to determine which ad is relevant and which is not.

Quality score consists of three components:

1. Click Through Rate (CTR),
2. Relevancy,
3. Landing Page Quality.

This is very important since your ad will not get a high ad position if you do not have a high quality score.

Bonus tips

• Turn off the content network until you understand it.
• Use different keyword match types and negative keywords.
• Try to be as relevant as possible. Relevant keywords > relevant ads > relevant landing page.
• Make sure you learn enough about AdWords before starting your campaign.

Resources

Google offers plenty of resources for Advertisers:

Google Business Channel on YouTube – you must check these videos.

AdWords Learning Center – they provide multimedia lessons and text lessons. Very good AdWords training that covers all of the features!

Official Google AdWords Blog – this is where they first announce new features and improvements.