How to profit with Google Adwords
Now you know why Adwords is such a good thing, let's move onto how to actually use it in order for your business to make profit. First things first, you should determine how much you can afford to pay for a click. Doing this is important as it enables you to better understand the amount of money you can bid on keywords in Adwords while still remaining profitable. To do this your conversion ratio is needed, calculate your conversion ratio by dividing your monthly unique visitors by your monthly sales and then convert your answer into a percentage by multiplying by 100. Imagine in a month you get 20000 visitors and sell 500 products each with a gross profit for you of $50. Your conversion ratio simply put is (500/20000)*100 = 2.5%. This means that for every 100 people who visit your site 2.5 buy your product. Your gross profit per 100 visitors is calculated by multiply the gross profit on your product by your conversion ratio, to continue with the previous example - $50 x 2.5 = $125. Divide your gross profit per 100 visitors figure by 100 to determine how much you can bid in Adwords. In this case you could afford to pay up to $1.25 for a visitor and still break even. Rarely will you have to pay this much for a click, remember that the minimum CPC on Google Adwords is only 5 cent so play your cards right and you can have high profits.
Choosing your Google Adwords keywords
One of the most important tips I can give you regarding Adwords is regarding your keyword selection, so pay particular attention to the tips in the next paragraph or so. These are the words which when searched for will trigger the appearance of your ad next to the search results. Choosing the right keywords is imperative to the success of your campaign. A good approach to choosing the right words is to imagine what you'd search for if you were looking to buy a product similar to your own. Remember as with Overture, the more popular a word or phrase is the higher CPC you'll have to pay and generally clicks from general words convert to sales far less often than clicks from specific terms so it's always better to have a few highly focused key phrases that get clicks than to be number one for the most general word or phrase in your industry. In Googles own words. Do you want "few results"? You certainly don't so avoid the expensive popular words and stick with the less popular but more profitable keywords. Finding such specific key phrases can be time consuming, but it's worth it as research has shown that although much cheaper using specific phrases helps get more highly targeted people to your site and hence helps you get more sales. On Googles Adwords website they recommend using spelling variations and plural versions of your keywords to reach everyone in your target audience. I think this is a good approach as not everyone of your potential customers will search a keyword in the same way, some will use plural versions and others will use singular versions. Similarly some may use American English rather than traditional English; this of course only applies to certain words whereby Americans use different spelling than British, Irish and other English speaking people would.
Adwords keyword matching options allow you to refine further when your ads are shown by allowing you to choose whether your ads are shown for certain types of searches on your keywords. There are four types of keyword matching options available, these are broad, exact, phrase and negative. Assume your key phrase is 'marketing course'. With broad matching your ad shows when users search on the keywords 'marketing' and 'course', regardless of other search terms used or of the order in which they are entered. Broad matching is the default; you don't have to do anything extra to use it. Exact matching requires you to place square brackets around your keywords, like the following: [marketing course] your ad will show when users search only on the phrase 'marketing course' and will not show if other words are included or the words are entered in a different order. The third matching option is the phrase option, this is similar to exact search in the sense that the keywords must all be present and in the right order however your ad will still show even if other words are present in the search. To use phrase matching you must include your keywords in quotes, for example "marketing course". Negative matching is the fourth option available. It allows you to block your ad being shown if a certain word is present in the search query. If your keyword is 'marketing course' but your marketing course is to do with offline marketing and not internet marketing then by using negative matching you can choose not to have your ad shown for 'internet marketing course' as people searching for this are looking for something different than what you offer. In this case 'internet' is your negative keyword. You simply place a dash before your negative keyword to use this option (i.e. '-internet marketing course'). Now if a user searches for 'marketing course' on Google your ad will be shown, it will not however be shown when the term 'internet marketing course' is entered as the query. Using exact, phrase or negative keyword matching gives you more control over who sees your ads so you won't pay for clicks that are unlikely to produce well-targeted results so always try and use these options, doing so could result in lower CPC, higher CTR and higher ROI. To demonstrate this fact I conducted a dummy ad to find the prices using broad, exact and phrase keyword matching options for the term 'internet marketing'. The currency I used was the Euro; I left the maximum CPC at the default of €5. The results are as follows:
Internet marketing 11.0 €2.75 - Default broad search cost €2.75 a click and expected clicks is only 11.
"Internet marketing" 30.0 €0.80 - With phrase matching expected clicks per day was 30 and cost €.74.
[Internet marketing] 37.0 €2.50 - Exact matching cost €2.50 a click and expected clicks was 37 a day.
You can see from above that using both exact and phrase matching options resulted in a lower cost per click rate than simply using the default broad match option. I highly recommend using keyword matching options.
As mentioned earlier Google Adwords allows you to block your ads showing for searches conducted by people from certain countries and people who speak a certain language. There's no point in letting your ad be seen by people who won't understand it. Likewise if your product is only sold to a specific country than that country's residents should be the only people who get to see your ad, as if your company only sells products within America then any other nationals clicking on your ad are simply costing you money for nothing.
Creating your Adwords ad
Knowing which keywords to use and how to format them with keyword matching options alone will not make your Adwords campaign a success, you must of course also write a good ad which generates interest among those who will see it. To do this your ad must use attention grabbing copy such as 'free', 'new', 'sale', 'tips', 'limited offer' and give the advantages of your product at the same time. This however isn't easy as Google allows you a headline of at most 25 characters including spaces and only two other lines of at most 35 characters including spaces, so stick to the point as room is limited. Sticking to the point means avoiding using words like 'on', 'at', 'of' and 'an' unless you really have to. Your ad should target your key words; by this I mean it should include them. Always include your exact keywords in the title of the ad as this is proven to boost your click through rate immensely, the reasoning behind this I believe is that when users see the keywords they've just searched for in an ad particularly in the title of the ad they immediately associate that ad with a good find and will be more likely to click on it.
After just reading the previous paragraph you may be tempted to simply repeat your keywords somewhere else in the ad in an attempt to raise your CTR, however on Googles editorial guidelines page they state that they will not allow repetition of words or phrases in ads as ads without repetition are clearer. This doesn't however mean that you can't use closely related words similar to your keywords which you have used in your ad title, these similar words will help back up the searchers believe that he or she has found a very relevant ad. Avoid what's known as superlatives, these are phrases such as 'the best' and 'we're number 1', these serve no other purpose than to make you appear cheap and tacky, which will turn most potential visitors off. Apart from letting the searcher know your ad is relevant using your keywords in your ad has another advantage, namely that of making your ad stand out among the other ads also on the page. Your ad stands out as Google will highlight in bold any occurrences of the search terms not just within the main search results but on the page as a whole including within any Adwords ads present.
Try if you can to include a call-to-action phrase. A call-to-action phrase is a phrase that which as the name suggests provokes the reader to do something, in this case click on the ad and go to your site. Unlike a banner type advertisement you can't use generic call-to-action phrases such as 'click here' or 'visit this site' as this does nothing to help the searcher make up his or her mind as to click on your ad or not. To quote Google again: 'Click here' or 'visit this site' is not informative language; its language that simply wastes space and that does nothing to help you, the searcher or indeed Google for that fact. Take Googles advice into mind and. Remember your Adwords ad space consists of just a headline and two lines of text, you need to use this space efficiently to have a chance at success, so to recap I believe the best strategy to use this limited space is to include your exact keywords with or without other words in your headline, give a brief line about your product using words similar to your keywords in the first of the two 35 character lines and use a unique call-to-action phrase in the second. All that's left to do as far as creating your ad is concerned is to enter destination and display URL. Not really much I can talk about here, except to point out that your destination URL should be a landing page specific to the product or service dealt with in your ad and not simply your home page. Remember users have clicked on your ad because they're interested in what the ad offered and not necessary interested in what your company offers as a whole. Landing pages will always convert more clicks to customers than if you had simply linked to your home page.
Now you know why Adwords is such a good thing, let's move onto how to actually use it in order for your business to make profit. First things first, you should determine how much you can afford to pay for a click. Doing this is important as it enables you to better understand the amount of money you can bid on keywords in Adwords while still remaining profitable. To do this your conversion ratio is needed, calculate your conversion ratio by dividing your monthly unique visitors by your monthly sales and then convert your answer into a percentage by multiplying by 100. Imagine in a month you get 20000 visitors and sell 500 products each with a gross profit for you of $50. Your conversion ratio simply put is (500/20000)*100 = 2.5%. This means that for every 100 people who visit your site 2.5 buy your product. Your gross profit per 100 visitors is calculated by multiply the gross profit on your product by your conversion ratio, to continue with the previous example - $50 x 2.5 = $125. Divide your gross profit per 100 visitors figure by 100 to determine how much you can bid in Adwords. In this case you could afford to pay up to $1.25 for a visitor and still break even. Rarely will you have to pay this much for a click, remember that the minimum CPC on Google Adwords is only 5 cent so play your cards right and you can have high profits.
Choosing your Google Adwords keywords
One of the most important tips I can give you regarding Adwords is regarding your keyword selection, so pay particular attention to the tips in the next paragraph or so. These are the words which when searched for will trigger the appearance of your ad next to the search results. Choosing the right keywords is imperative to the success of your campaign. A good approach to choosing the right words is to imagine what you'd search for if you were looking to buy a product similar to your own. Remember as with Overture, the more popular a word or phrase is the higher CPC you'll have to pay and generally clicks from general words convert to sales far less often than clicks from specific terms so it's always better to have a few highly focused key phrases that get clicks than to be number one for the most general word or phrase in your industry. In Googles own words. Do you want "few results"? You certainly don't so avoid the expensive popular words and stick with the less popular but more profitable keywords. Finding such specific key phrases can be time consuming, but it's worth it as research has shown that although much cheaper using specific phrases helps get more highly targeted people to your site and hence helps you get more sales. On Googles Adwords website they recommend using spelling variations and plural versions of your keywords to reach everyone in your target audience. I think this is a good approach as not everyone of your potential customers will search a keyword in the same way, some will use plural versions and others will use singular versions. Similarly some may use American English rather than traditional English; this of course only applies to certain words whereby Americans use different spelling than British, Irish and other English speaking people would.
Adwords keyword matching options allow you to refine further when your ads are shown by allowing you to choose whether your ads are shown for certain types of searches on your keywords. There are four types of keyword matching options available, these are broad, exact, phrase and negative. Assume your key phrase is 'marketing course'. With broad matching your ad shows when users search on the keywords 'marketing' and 'course', regardless of other search terms used or of the order in which they are entered. Broad matching is the default; you don't have to do anything extra to use it. Exact matching requires you to place square brackets around your keywords, like the following: [marketing course] your ad will show when users search only on the phrase 'marketing course' and will not show if other words are included or the words are entered in a different order. The third matching option is the phrase option, this is similar to exact search in the sense that the keywords must all be present and in the right order however your ad will still show even if other words are present in the search. To use phrase matching you must include your keywords in quotes, for example "marketing course". Negative matching is the fourth option available. It allows you to block your ad being shown if a certain word is present in the search query. If your keyword is 'marketing course' but your marketing course is to do with offline marketing and not internet marketing then by using negative matching you can choose not to have your ad shown for 'internet marketing course' as people searching for this are looking for something different than what you offer. In this case 'internet' is your negative keyword. You simply place a dash before your negative keyword to use this option (i.e. '-internet marketing course'). Now if a user searches for 'marketing course' on Google your ad will be shown, it will not however be shown when the term 'internet marketing course' is entered as the query. Using exact, phrase or negative keyword matching gives you more control over who sees your ads so you won't pay for clicks that are unlikely to produce well-targeted results so always try and use these options, doing so could result in lower CPC, higher CTR and higher ROI. To demonstrate this fact I conducted a dummy ad to find the prices using broad, exact and phrase keyword matching options for the term 'internet marketing'. The currency I used was the Euro; I left the maximum CPC at the default of €5. The results are as follows:
Internet marketing 11.0 €2.75 - Default broad search cost €2.75 a click and expected clicks is only 11.
"Internet marketing" 30.0 €0.80 - With phrase matching expected clicks per day was 30 and cost €.74.
[Internet marketing] 37.0 €2.50 - Exact matching cost €2.50 a click and expected clicks was 37 a day.
You can see from above that using both exact and phrase matching options resulted in a lower cost per click rate than simply using the default broad match option. I highly recommend using keyword matching options.
As mentioned earlier Google Adwords allows you to block your ads showing for searches conducted by people from certain countries and people who speak a certain language. There's no point in letting your ad be seen by people who won't understand it. Likewise if your product is only sold to a specific country than that country's residents should be the only people who get to see your ad, as if your company only sells products within America then any other nationals clicking on your ad are simply costing you money for nothing.
Creating your Adwords ad
Knowing which keywords to use and how to format them with keyword matching options alone will not make your Adwords campaign a success, you must of course also write a good ad which generates interest among those who will see it. To do this your ad must use attention grabbing copy such as 'free', 'new', 'sale', 'tips', 'limited offer' and give the advantages of your product at the same time. This however isn't easy as Google allows you a headline of at most 25 characters including spaces and only two other lines of at most 35 characters including spaces, so stick to the point as room is limited. Sticking to the point means avoiding using words like 'on', 'at', 'of' and 'an' unless you really have to. Your ad should target your key words; by this I mean it should include them. Always include your exact keywords in the title of the ad as this is proven to boost your click through rate immensely, the reasoning behind this I believe is that when users see the keywords they've just searched for in an ad particularly in the title of the ad they immediately associate that ad with a good find and will be more likely to click on it.
After just reading the previous paragraph you may be tempted to simply repeat your keywords somewhere else in the ad in an attempt to raise your CTR, however on Googles editorial guidelines page they state that they will not allow repetition of words or phrases in ads as ads without repetition are clearer. This doesn't however mean that you can't use closely related words similar to your keywords which you have used in your ad title, these similar words will help back up the searchers believe that he or she has found a very relevant ad. Avoid what's known as superlatives, these are phrases such as 'the best' and 'we're number 1', these serve no other purpose than to make you appear cheap and tacky, which will turn most potential visitors off. Apart from letting the searcher know your ad is relevant using your keywords in your ad has another advantage, namely that of making your ad stand out among the other ads also on the page. Your ad stands out as Google will highlight in bold any occurrences of the search terms not just within the main search results but on the page as a whole including within any Adwords ads present.
Try if you can to include a call-to-action phrase. A call-to-action phrase is a phrase that which as the name suggests provokes the reader to do something, in this case click on the ad and go to your site. Unlike a banner type advertisement you can't use generic call-to-action phrases such as 'click here' or 'visit this site' as this does nothing to help the searcher make up his or her mind as to click on your ad or not. To quote Google again: 'Click here' or 'visit this site' is not informative language; its language that simply wastes space and that does nothing to help you, the searcher or indeed Google for that fact. Take Googles advice into mind and. Remember your Adwords ad space consists of just a headline and two lines of text, you need to use this space efficiently to have a chance at success, so to recap I believe the best strategy to use this limited space is to include your exact keywords with or without other words in your headline, give a brief line about your product using words similar to your keywords in the first of the two 35 character lines and use a unique call-to-action phrase in the second. All that's left to do as far as creating your ad is concerned is to enter destination and display URL. Not really much I can talk about here, except to point out that your destination URL should be a landing page specific to the product or service dealt with in your ad and not simply your home page. Remember users have clicked on your ad because they're interested in what the ad offered and not necessary interested in what your company offers as a whole. Landing pages will always convert more clicks to customers than if you had simply linked to your home page.
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