AdWords (an Introduction)

With the end goal always being quality traffic, Google AdWords is one option that seems to consistently stand above the rest (besides SEO, where you’re basically getting the traffic without bearing a direct cost).  We will cover the basics of Google AdWords only very, very briefly here.  Google’s AdWords Support area will give you all the answers to questions regarding how to this, or how to do that.  What we’ll be working through here is strategy.  In other words, how do you leverage AdWords to be a profitable traffic source?

Google AdWords are small ads placed on the search engine results pages.  The ad served is determined by the search phrase entered by a visitor to Google (this is very simplistic, but trust me, we’ll dive much deeper later).

Why is AdWords such a big deal when marketing your online business? Imagine walking into your favorite grocery store.  The automatic sliding doors open and an employee walks up to you with a cart full of all the items you have on your grocery list.  How inclined would you to be buy? Very!  Google AdWords comes very close to doing just this.  You find out what the customer is looking for before they land on your website and you serve them exactly what they want.

Your AdWords account is organized as follows:

• Campaigns – Campaigns are the highest level in your AdWords account.  You may run a specific campaign for your product during Christmas, the presidential elections, or the Fourth of July.  You may have multiple businesses where each campaign is for a different business.
• Ad Groups – Ad Groups are what you see circled above.  An Ad Group is where you determine the type of ad (text, image, etc.), what the ad will contain, and finally, which keyword searches will trigger that ad.
• Keywords – Keywords belong to a specific Ad Group.  Keywords are the most granular area of your AdWords pay-per-click management.  This is where you determine how you’ll find the people that are searching for what you’re selling (even if they don’t know it yet).