What it Is
When you search for something on Google, you’ll notice a few results at the top, marked “Ad.” Companies paid to get these results at the top of the list. They’re called pay-per-click (or PPC) ads. Essentially, you designate how much per click you are willing to pay when someone searches for a particular keyword that relates to your business.
Some keywords are more competitive than others, and therefore can cost upwards of $100 per click. It’s important to find the balance between how much you are willing to spend on a click (essentially a lead) and your desired profit margin.
Why AdWords Work
Sometimes you don’t have months to build up your content marketing arsenal to attract people the old-fashioned way. Or you want to test out a landing page to see if it appeals to your target market. That’s where AdWords come in handy: you can get in front of your audience faster than you would with traditional marketing, and you can use your ad as market research.
If you only attract a few hundred visitors to your blog, investing in AdWords advertising can help you reach more people faster.
You can also get specific about who you target with your ads, ensuring that the people who click on your ads are the ones most likely to buy from you. And another perk is how easy it is to measure results! You can view how many clicks a campaign received, what you spent on it, and how many clicks resulted in sales. This gives you an exact breakdown of your return on investment.
A Few Terms to Know
It’s really not that complicated to use Google AdWords, but you’ll want to get a few vocabulary terms down before you get started.
Click Fraud
When someone (sometimes a competitor) clicks on your ad to incur costs to you, this is considered click fraud.
Conversion Rate
The percent of the people who click on your ad that actually make a purchase or take a particular action.
CPA
Cost per action. Rather than being charged for each click, you are charged when a specific action occurs, like someone making a purchase.
CPM
Cost per thousand impressions of your ad. You can opt to pay a set price per CPM or per click.
Impression
The appearance of your ad on a web page.
Keyword
The search words or phrases you bid your ad on. When someone searches a particular keyword, your ad will appear, ranked based on your budget.
Landing Page
Clicking the link in your ad takes visitors to a particular web page, called a landing page. It should be targeted for a specific product or audience.
PPC
Acronym for “pay-per-click.” Refers to an ad where you as the advertiser pay a set amount each time someone clicks on your ad link.
ROI
Your return on investment. Refers to how many customers you’re getting per your PPC spend.
Tips for a Successful Google AdWords Campaign
It’s worth spending some time reviewing other ads in your industry before embarking on your own campaign. The wording you use — in a very limited space — will have a significant impact on whether people click to learn more about your products or not.
Use short, to-the-point language that immediately reveals the benefit of clicking on your link or buying your product, like in the examples below:
Create a sense of urgency by using words like “buy now” or “limited time offer” so that people feel like if they don’t click your link, they’ll miss out on something phenomenal.
Choose keywords that make sense. What would a customer search for to find your website? The more specific, the better targeted your ad will be, and the less competition you’ll have for the top spot. Let’s say you run a bakery in Philadelphia. Selecting the keyword “bakery” will not only have more competition, but it will be used by people who live everywhere, not just in Philly. But choose the keyword “Philadelphia bakery,” or even better: “gluten free Philadelphia bakery,” and you’ll be able to secure the top ad position without spending too much money because fewer bakeries are vying for those keyword phrases.
Once you launch your campaign, keep an eye on it. You may want to run an A/B test on the ad, meaning you create two different ads with different verbiage that lead to the same link. You can see which nets better results, then direct all your ad traffic to that site after a few days or weeks.
It’s key to pay attention to whether the clicks are converting to sales. If they’re not, make sure you’re properly targeting your audience with the language in the ad as well as what they find on the landing page. It’s possible people click expecting one thing and get something else. Make sure your ad and landing page line up with customer expectations, and you should have no trouble converting.