What is Google AdWords?
Google AdWords for beginners can be well defined by Wikipedia’s definition – “an online advertising service, developed by Google, where advertisers pay to display brief advertising copy to web users”. It offers services such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) advertising.
For some companies, Pay Per Click advertising is their most effective marketing channel. It brings a comparatively lower cost per acquisition than other channels and consistently brings high-value customers. Naturally, advertisers spend a lot of time thinking about their ads. What gets people to click, will the words “free shipping” sell more than “10% off”?.
Benefits of Using Google AdWords:
The benefit of using Google AdWords is that as compared to other forms of marketing, where you have to look for customers, here customers come looking for you. Other benefits are :
- You can target your ads on the basis of location, certain keywords, interest, frequency , date, time and even on the basis of devices used by the audience.
- You can also control the cost for each ads displayed online in search results, as you will pay only when someone clicks your ad.
- You can keep a track of your success,i.e., if someone clicked you ad, you will know, if they clicked you ad and did something valuable to your business – purchase, downloaded your app, or order something, etc – you can track that too.
- You can manage multiple AdWords accounts using an AdWords manager account, which is a powerful tool that could save you a lot of time. You can also manage your AdWords account offline with AdWords Editor.
In this blog on Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, we will be seeing what AdWords is all about. As the title says “A Step by Step Guide on Google AdWords for Beginners”, we will be covering the know-how of AdWords.
As the title says “A Step by Step Guide on Google AdWords for Beginners”, we will be covering the know-how of AdWords.
Step-by-Step Guide on Google AdWords for Beginners
1st Step: Set your Goals
I’ve read somewhere – “A Goal without a Plan is just a Wish”. Hence first set your GOAL.
Understand specifically what you’re looking to achieve with your campaign. Is it the number of people visited your page, or the number of clicks on your keywords, or the number of conversions. The reasons may be unlimited, but you have to understand your goals first, as they will affect how you will set up and manage your campaign.
2nd Step: Do your Research
The next step after setting your goal is to do your RESEARCH. This is where you will be spending most of the time while setting up a new campaign. Now there are 3 types of research.
Keyword Research: Use keyword tool to find the most relevant keywords people use to find your product /service/company. Spend some quality of time on this, as it is the foundation of your campaign.
Competitive Research: Do a complete research on your competition i.e. studying from the keywords that they have used to products they are offering. Note there ad and offers, visit their website, sign up for their mailing lists, purchase their product, rate their service quality and so on.
Audience Research: Lastly, do not forget to research your target audience, as they are your end results. Do a complete research on your target audience, what product or services are they buying or reviewing online. Read their reviews, their likes dislike about the product/ services and plan your next activities accordingly. This is important step in any Google AdWords guide.
3rd Step: Landing Page Offer
The most important step after research is the Landing Page.
A landing page is like a movie and you can’t afford to have people stepping out on you. Both movies and landing pages need to be visually appealing and engaging to draw people in. Both are also judged by their audiences in two main parts: The pre and post trailer for the movie; and the pre and post ad experience for your landing page.
An irresistible offer in the landing page can help you overcome a lot of other deficiencies in your AdWords campaign. During your research you can see what your competitors are offering. Now it is up to you what different/unique/special can you offer to your audience?
4th Step: Use Exact Match Keywords
When starting out with AdWords keep your list of keywords small ( 5 – 10) and focused (the ones people are ready to buy / review / collect information from are the most searched keywords). Add all these keywords to your campaign as the Exact Match keywords i.e. your ad will be displayed when someone types the exact term into Google. Overtime eliminate the keywords that aren’t getting clicks/conversion and expand the ones that are.
Example: If Nike is launching new shoes in running category; add more Exact Match variations to it, like Running Shoes by Nike or Nike Running Shoes or Woman Nike Running shoes or Men running Nike shoes, etc.
5th Step: Group related Keywords into Ad Group
Each Keyword in your campaign represents a conversation going on in the mind of your prospective consumer. The more you continue that conversation in the ads and landing page, the more likely you’ll get the conversion.
Ideally every keyword would be in its own ad group with unique ads that leads to a unique landing page. But that’s not practical in all situations. So group your keywords into tightly related ad groups based on the searchers intent.
Example:
6th Step: Segment Your Traffic
Search Network traffic may differ from Display network traffic. Mobile Network may differ from Laptop or Tablet. Also, keywords used in India may differ from that of US or UK. Keywords that convert are much different than those that don’t. This is an important step in the step-by-step guide Google AdWords for Beginners.
Segment the types of traffic that are most important to you out into their own campaign. Give them their own budget, landing page, keywords, etc.
7th Step: Go With Relevant, and Unique Ads
Make your ads highly relevant to the keywords they are being displayed (including the exact term possible).
Example: buy women’s formal shoes online.
Stand out from the competitors by putting different offers, benefits, etc on the search ad and show/reflect the same in your landing page.
Example: clearance sale, 50% off, but 1 get 1 free and so on.
8th Step: Track Conversion
Whatever are the goals of your campaign, track your conversion and check for your results. Track downloads, newsletter, signups, etc with AdWords conversion tracking and phone calls using Call Tracking Service. Use AdWords, Google analytical tools or Excel to track your performance of your conversion with respect to your goals set. And make necessary adjustments to your campaign as required from your findings.
Hope this guide on Google AdWords for Beginners will assist you to excel well.. good luck!
Nice blog. Informative and helpful.
thanks for sharing.