What is Adwords?
As per Google Partners Adwords Fundamentals: Exam Study guide – Adwords is Google’s online advertising platform that can help you drive interested people to your website. Adwords allows us to take advantage of the millions of searches conducted on Google each day.Here we can create ads for our business and choose when we want them to appear on Google above or next to relevant search results.
The concept is simple we have to enter words that are relevant to our products and services and then Adwords shows our ad on Google when someone searches for that or related words. So how does Adwords works – lets take an example, we want to attract customers in our local area, using Adwords we can select when and where we want to show our ads that is we can target our ads so that whenever people in our state, region, City or neighborhood search for business like ours, our ad show up next to their search results as per the below image.
Adwords search result
Top 10 Fundamentals of Adwords:
1. Keywords
How Keyword works: Keywords are words or phrases that are used to match our ads with the terms internet users are searching.Selecting high quality & relevant keywords for our advertising campaign helps us reach the customers we want and when we want.In adwords our ads only show up when a customer searches a word or phrase relating to the product or service and only if that word or phrase is included in our accounts keywords list.To get our ads to appear when people search,the keywords we choose need to match the words or phrases that people use,or should be related to the content of the websites customers visit. But here we must remember that there is a cost associated with each keyword,we have to pay Google per click as per the rate of that keyword,each keyword has a CPC bid amount.These bids specify the maximum amount we are willing to pay each time someone clicks our ad.Hence its recommended by Google to choose keywords carefully i.e they should be directly related to the theme of the ad and the page customers are directed to.
Keywords Match Types: It is a setting provided by adwords for each keyword which helps us to control how closely the keyword needs to match a customers search term in order to trigger our ad.Each keyword uses a matching option and by default its “Broad match”
Broad match: selecting this match type for our keyword our ads show for searches on similar phrases and relevant variations, including synonyms, singular, plural, possible misspelling, stemming, related searches, and other relevant variations. Example : if we have selected a keyword “Pen” with broad match in our campaign then our ads will show for searches that match : “Pen”, “Pens & Markers”, “Pen stand”, “Buy a pen”, “Parker Pen” etc.
Broad match modifier: This matching type allows our ad to show for searches that include our broad match keyword or close variations of our broad match keyword.This type requires a “+” symbol before the keyword. Example: for keywords +adopt +kitten, ads will show for searches like adopt kitten, how to adopt a kitten, best kitten to adopt.
Phrase match: This matching type allows our ad to show for searches that include the exact phrase, or close variations of that exact phrase, with additional words before or after. This type requires a “” i.e double quotes to the keyword. Example: for keyword “adopt a kitten”, ads will show for searches like adopt a kitten, how to adopt a kitten, best kitten to adopt.
Exact match: This matching type allows our ad to show only for searches that use that exact phrase, or close variations of that exact phrase, and no other words. This type requires [ ] i.e brackets to the keywords. Example:[adopt a kitten], ads will show for searches like adopt a kitten, adopt a kiten.
Negative match: This type of match type ensures that our ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term.This match type requires a -negative sign at the start of the keyword. Example: If we select -free as our keyword then our ads will not show for any search which contains the word “free”.
2. Googles advertising network:
Adwords allows us to show our ads on one or both of Google’s advertising networks which are the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network. We have to select which network we want advertise on while creating our campaign in adwords.
Search Network: This network includes Google Search, other Google sites such as Maps and Shopping, and other non-Google search partner websites like AOL that show Adwords ads matched to search result.This network type allows us to show our text ads next to Google search results and is very effective to reach customers actively searching for our specific product or service.
Display Network: This network includes a collection of Google websites like Google Finance, Gmail, Blogger, and YouTube, other partner sites and mobile sites and apps that show Adwords ads matched to the content on a given page. This network type allows us to use appealing ad formats (Text, Image, Rich media, and video ads) to reach a wide range of customers with broad interests, build brand awareness and customer loyalty, increase engagement with customers, and choose more specifically where our ads can appear and to what type of audience.
3. Where and how ads appear:
Adwords ads can appear in different places across the web depending on how we target them, to whom we choose to show them, and the types of ads we create.
Search ads format: Search ads are triggered when someone searches for terms that are similar to our keywords and appear alongside or above search results on sites that are part of the Search Network.There are two types of ads that can appear on Search Network sites-
Text ads: This is the simplest and most common kind of search ad, text ads are made up of a headline, a display URL that shows the address of the website and a description.
Text Ads
Ads with extensions: Ad extensions are visual enhancements to search ads that display information about our business, like phone numbers, locations, or links to other relevant content.
Text ad with extensions
Display ads format: Display ads are triggered when someone searches for terms that are similar to our keywords and appear on specific websites or placements that we choose, or on the Google Display Network websites based on the targeting methods that we choose, such as keywords, placements, audiences, and topics in different format such as
Text ads
Image ads
Rich media ads
Video ads
Mobile & Specific audience: Adwords allows us to reach potential customers as they search or visit websites on mobile devices, We can show text ads on mobile devices when keywords are searched on Google and other Search Network and we can show text,image and video ads on Display Network websites when keywords are searched from high-end mobile devices.Using Adwords we can choose to show text ads to customers in any specific entire country, a certain geographic location, and even to customers who use names of locations in their searches. We can also target our campaigns to the languages that our potential customer speak.
4. Quality of your ads:
As per Hal Varian the Chief Economist at Google , Google uses a competitive bidding system to classify the ads that appear on the search results page and determine the cost of a click on the ad. Google users want to see relevant ads, without being bothered by ads which are not closely related to the theme of their research. Advertisers want to show relevant ads so that users click on it, Google wants to provide a positive experience for its users and a good value to its advertisers so can they continue to use their services.Hence to show the best & relevant ads besides the auction bib amount Google considers other two important factors as stated below:
Quality Score: An estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing page. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions. The components of Quality score are – expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience.
Ad rank: A value that’s used to determine your ad position (where ads are shown on a page) and whether your ads will show at all. Ad Rank is calculated using your bid amount, the components of Quality Score and the expected impact of the extensions and other ad formats.
5. What you Pay:
Adwords gives us control for the cost of advertising and there is no minimum amount that we have to spend.Here we can set a daily budget and choose how we want to spent it.
Choosing a bidding strategy: Choosing how we spend our money means choosing how we would like to bid. Google recommends we should choose a bidding strategy based on our goal, such as whether we want to focus on getting clicks, impressions, or conversions.Below are the types of bids:
Cost per Click (CPC) – If we want to focus on clicks on our ads and drive traffic to our website then we should use this type of bid.
Cost per thousand Impressions (CPM) – If we want to focus on impressions i.e. the number of times our ad shows and increase awareness of our brand then we should use this type of bid. CPM bidding is available for Display Network campaigns only.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) – If we want to focus on conversions which is when people take a specific action on our website after clicking one of our ads example Filling up a Contact form,Downloading a PDF etc. then this type of bid should be used.
Setting up daily budget: Our daily budget is the amount we are willing to spend each day, on average, for each ad campaign in our account. This is first step while creating our campaign in Adwords and the amount is entirely up to our choice,we can edit it whenever we want.
How much you are charged: The Final amount we are charged depends on what type of bidding strategy we choose. If we are using Cost per click or Cost per thousand impressions, the actual amount we will be charged is no more than what’s needed for our ad to appear higher that the advertiser immediately below us. If we are using CPA bidding, the actual amount we will be charged might exceed our specific bid because the actual amount depends on factors outside Googles control, such as changes to our website or ads, or increased competition in ad auctions.
6. Types of Campaigns:
Campaign creation is the initial setup we need to do to start or Adwords Advertising, When we start setting up our Adwords campaign, we will need to choose a campaign type and a campaign sub-type. The campaign type determines things like where our ads can show to customers on Googles advertising networks, and what format they can be in, text or video. Campaign sub-types are more specific and have additional settings.Campaign sub-types include “Standard” , “All features” , “Remarketing” , “Ads in Mobile apps”
Search Network only campaign : This type of campaign allows us to create ads which can appear throughout sites on the Google Search Network. This campaign type works by linking our Adwords keywords to the words or phrases someone uses to search on Google, then showing relevant text ads on search results page.
Display Network only campaign : This type of campaign allows us to show ads throughout Google Display Network by matching our ads including text, image, rich media and video ads to websites and other placements like YouTube and mobile apps, with content related to our targeting.
Search Network with Display select campaign : In this type of campaign we can show our ads including text, image, rich media, and video ads with search results on the Google Search Network and relevant placements within the Display Network.
7. Structuring your campaign:
Google suggests that its important to learn how Adwords is structured, a well organized account can help us create effective campaigns that target the right audience and help achieve our advertising goals. Adwords is organised into three layers as below:
Account: An Account is associated with a unique email address, password, and billing information.
Campaigns: Each campaign in our account has its own budget and settings that determine where our ads will appear. We should organize our account into separate campaigns, with each campaign focusing in a single business goal. An effective approach is to organize our campaigns to reflect the structure of our website.
Ad groups: Each ad group within a campaign contains a set of similar ads and keywords that we want to trigger our ads to show. Similar to campaign structure we should create separate ad groups for each theme or product that we are advertising.
8. Creating Ad groups:
An ad group contains one or more ads which target a shared set of keywords. Each campaign is made up of one or more ad groups. We should use ad groups to organize our ads by a common theme. First we create an Account then Campaign and inside each campaign we have to create an adgroup containing keywords which then trigger our ads. Ad groups lets us easily manage the status and default bids for one or more related ads as well as their shared set of keywords.
9. Measuring result:
After creating a campaign we should measure our ad performance. In Adwords we can analyse basic account, campaign, and ad group information using different data and reports available. There are also advanced reports that go beyond the number of clicks or impressions we are getting, it allows us to see the impact Adwords has on our business.
Customize our data : There are several ways that we can customize data in Adwords like- adjusting date ranges, columns, segments, filters and graphs.
Dimensions tab : We can use Dimensions tab to look at data across our entire account, an individual campaign, or an ad group. We can use different dimensions such as different times of the day or days of the week.
Search terms report : This report allows us to see the terms people were searching for when our ad was shown. We can use this report data to optimize our keywords and ads as it provides info on new keywords,negative keywords,match types & ad text.
Top movers report : This report shows us which campaign have the biggest change in terms of increases or decreases in clicks, costs, and conversions, and shows us some possible causes for those changes. This report helps us identify which campaign and ad group we need to take action on.
Paid & organic report : With this report we can see how often pages from our website are showing in Google search results and which queries triggered those results.But for this report we need to link our Search Console account to our Adwords accounts. This report helps us to discover additional keywords, optimize our presence on high-value queries, measure changes holistically.
Auction insights : We can use Auction insights reports to compare our performance with other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that we are. With the Auction insights report, we can see how often our ads rank higher in search results than those of other advertisers, and how our share of total possible impressions compares with others.
10.Tools to measure performance:
Conversion tracking : In adwords we can get the basic statistics like clicks, impressions, and clickthrough rate which tells us how well our ads attract visitors to our site. But by measuring conversions, we can see how many of these visitors became our customers. Conversion tracking is the simplest way to measure our conversions. Its a free tool that can measure what happens after a customer clicks on our ads, like whether they purchased our product, signed up for newsletter, or filled out a contact form. This helps us make better marketing decisions.
Google Analytics : It is a free Google product that provides indepth reporting on how people use our website. It shows us how people found our site and how they explored it, it gives us ideas for how to optimize our website. By linking our Google analytics and our Adwords account we can get an entire view of our customers behavior, which helps us know how much sales has Adwords generated.Using google analytics data we can also create remarketing campaigns in Adwords.
Campaign experiments : Adwords Campaign Experiments allow us to test changes to our account, such as our keywords, bids, ad groups, or placements.After the experiments has been running for a short time, we can view the results and take necessary actions as per our business goals.
Hence learning about the above 10 fundamentals of Adwords will help us understand how and why we should use Googles Adwords, and what are its benefits.
Image Credits: Google
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