Get Google Adwords

Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.
com>
Chandler Nguyen
In Get Going with Google AdWords, author Chandler
Nguyen introduces you to the AdWords phenomenon,
where you can bypass weeks or months of attempts to
get your site to the top of Google search queries by
bidding for keywords.
This book will help you get started with setting up
simple, water-tight campaigns to promote your blog,
website or business. Youll learn all the ins and outs
of launching and reporting on a campaign, under-
standing the search behavior of your target audience,
and how to generate more traffic to your site!
Find out why and how so many people are using
Google AdWords to help them get the measured
results they want!

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Rockablepress.com
Envato.com
Rockable Press 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or redistributed in any form without
the prior written permission of the publishers.
Table of Contents 3
Contents
Introduction 7
What to Expect from This Book 7
Why Buy the Cow When You Can Get the Milk for Free? 8
Get on the First Page of Google in Minutes 11
What is Google AdWords? 12
How Does it Work? 13
The Functionality 13
Search Engine Marketing 13
What Can AdWords Do for Me? 14
Pricing 15
Keyword Research 17
Example One: ThemeForest 17
Step 1: What is Your Audience Searching For? 18
Step 2: List Potential Keywords 19
Step 3: Build Up Your Keyword List 20
Step 4: Add and Download a List of Keywords
You Want to Use 24
Step 5: Checking Out the Competition 26
Example Two: ActiveDen 26
Step 1: What is Your Audience Searching For? 26
Step 2: List Potential Keywords 26
Step 3: Build Up Your Keyword List 26
Step 4: Add Your List of Keywords 28
Step 5: Checking Out the Competition 29
Generic vs. Specic Keywords and Search Terms 29
Setting Up an Account with Google 32
Sign up to Google AdWords 32
Signing in to Your AdWords Account 33
Creating Your First Campaign 34
Campaign Settings 34
Table of Contents 4
Ad Copy 37
Making Your Ad Bold 40
Googles Ad Ranking Formula 41
Understanding Quality Score 44
A Note on Your Landing Page 47
Select Keywords 47
Billing 48
Making Your Campaign Live 50
Navigating and Monitoring Campaign
Performance 54
Creating Another Campaign 57
Using the Campaign Tab 58
Changing Graph Options 59
Filter and Views 61
Viewing Reports 63
Return on Investment 67
A Note on Conversion Tracking 69
The Google Content Network: Frequently
Asked Questions 72
Why do other sites partner with Google? 73
Which sites are in the Google Content Network? 73
How can I put my ads on these sites? 74
How much does it cost to advertise on the Network? 75
How do I monitor my campaigns performance? 75
Can I stop my campaign? 75
Can I use rich media ads? 75
Table of Contents 5
AdWords: Frequently Asked Questions 77
Can I purchase a higher placement for my search ads? 77
How can I get my ads to display above search results? 77
I chose postpay for payment. Can I change to prepay? 78
How does Google decide the cost per click I will pay? 78
Why do my ads only appear intermittently? 79
Pre-launch Checklist 81
Meaningful Campaign and Group Names 81
Separate Campaigns for Google Search and Google Content 81
Correct Target Market and Language Settings 81
Correct Account Timezone 81
Account Currency 82
Daily Budget and End Date 82
Other Campaign Settings 82
Show Relevant Addresses With Your Ads 82
Demographics 83
Position Preference 83
Ad Rotation 83
Frequency Capping 83
Appendix A: The Google AdWords Editor 85
Appendix B: Further Reading 86
About The Author 87
INTRODUCTION
Introduction 7
What to Expect from This Book
There are two ways to get search traffc from Google. The frst is
to publish web content compelling enough for other sites on the
internet to point readers to it through the use of hyperlinks. The
more hyperlinks your content receives, especially if those links
contain the words and phrases typed into Google by searchers,
the higher your content ranks in the Google search results,
increasing your traffc in proportion.
The second, faster way to bring in search traffc is to buy it. By
paying for Sponsored Results (ads) that display both above and to
the right of the 10 natural search results on a Google page, you
can bypass weeks or months of attempts to get your site to the top
of Google. You can actually bid for search queries that people type
into Google anything from yoga dvd to how to get out of debt
to divorce attorney melbourne.
These search queries are generically referred to as keywords, and
some keywords are more attractive to advertisers than others due
to the number of times theyre searched, or by how likely they are
to result in click-throughs to the advertisers websites. Keywords
purchased from Google to trigger ads in Google Search Engine
Results Pages (SERPs) or on websites using the Google AdSense
program are called AdWords.
This book will help those of you who are completely new to Google
AdWords, to set up simple, water-tight campaigns to promote your
own blogs, websites or businesses. Youll get a comprehensive
introduction to AdWords, and a thorough walk-through of how it
works. Youll learn all the ins and outs of setting up an account,
getting it live, and reporting on your campaigns.
Introduction
Introduction 8
Why Buy the Cow When You Can
Get the Milk for Free?
Each page in Google contains 10 web page listings that achieved
their positions by the frst method of getting Google traffc. These
listings are called organic results, since their positioning is the
result of Googles PageRank algorithm, and not purchased
placement. The top listings are ostensibly the best or most relevant
results for your search query, so publishing great content should
obviate the need for spending on AdWords at least in theory.
Since Google AdWords costs money, lets frst address a valid
question: Why you would pay Google money to drive traffc to your
site when you can get free traffc from Google by just having a
site out there live on the Internet, and letting people fnd it through
natural organic search at no cost to you?
Its a question many have asked, and its a good one. Organic
search traffc is important for your site, but relying only on traffc
from organic search is putting all of your eggs in one basket, and
can often take some time. Using Google AdWords is a reliable and
measurable way you can source customers you can rely on.
There are other reasons. Statistically, the #1 result in Google for
a particular keyword gets 42% of the total search traffc for that
keyword the highest percentage you can achieve in the organic
results. So even if your page is #1 in Google, you can augment
your search traffc percentage by purchasing a sponsored result,
giving you an additional opportunity to reach the 58% of searchers
who dont click on your #1 result.
Furthermore, Google ads not only appear in search result pages,
but on millions of websites using AdSense sites collectively
known as the Google Content Network. AdSense is the fip side
of AdWords: advertisers bid on AdWords, and the revenue from
Introduction 9
AdWords spending is split between Google and the websites in the
Content Network. Even if you were to get top search listings for all
of your keywords, topically related websites are powerful traffc
sources that you should consider leveraging with AdWords.
This book will help you understand the search behavior of your
target market or audience. For example, what do people search
for most often in your market? Does your site already rank well for
certain queries? Is there a relevant query you arent yet targeting,
but should be?
If your website doesnt appear on the frst page of search results
for queries you want to target, then you cant expect to get real,
worthwhile traffc from search engines. According to a study from
iCrossing published in 2010, 95.3% of Google search traffc comes
from the frst page. Clearly, the frst page of results is where you
want to be, and not only the frst page but preferably at the top of
the frst page. If you arent there, and most of us arent there yet,
then Google AdWords may be the right solution for you.
Get on the First Page of
Google in Minutes
A common strategy for bringing more search traffc to a website is
to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the practice of making
your websites content more appealing to search engines for higher
rankings.
Unfortunately, SEO is not easy to implement, especially if you are
new to the game. It takes time for your SEO work to be effective.
Many say three to six months is the standard waiting time before
you begin seeing results for competitive search terms. If youre
targeting keywords many other people are competing for, expect
the going to be tough. The more valuable the keywords you target,
the harder it is to get your site on the frst page of results. Everyone
else has heard the same statistics, and everyone else wants to be
there too.
Waiting for weeks or months for certain keywords to reach the frst
page of Google can be a serious liability if your keywords havent
been tested in the marketplace. Some keywords get high search
volume, but dont convert well, meaning that some lookups are
primarily for free information rather than something to purchase:
e.g. weight loss tips vs. weight loss system. You might fnd that
weight loss tips gets far more searches to your landing page, but
that a much higher percentage of visitors from weight loss system
search traffc actually click on your Buy button.
Google AdWords offers a quick and relatively easy way to boost
your targeted traffc. Compared to SEO, it produces results
quickly. You can test conversion rates on different keywords,
headlines and subtitles in one or two weeks sometimes in a
matter of days.
Google AdWords is
often referred to as SEM
(Search Engine Marketing),
PPC (Pay Per Click) or
CPC (Cost Per Click)
advertising.
What is Google AdWords?
Google AdWords is a consolidated advertising platform that allows
advertisers to reach their target audience in over 150 countries
using English or local languages. The platform was originally
created to serve text ads on Google Search results pages under
the Sponsored Links section only (Fig. 1-1).
Over time Google AdWords began to allow advertisers to also
purchase ads across the Google Content Network. The network
is made up of millions of sites and
reaches approximately 75% of global
internet users.
This Pay Per Click format, where
advertisers pay for each click-through
Google generates for them, has
expanded to cover image ads, fash
banners and video ads.
Fig. 1-1. This screenshot shows some examples of AdWords in the wild.
How Does it Work?
The Functionality
Google makes it easy to start using AdWords. Choose some
keywords you like, write an ad, defne your target audience and
youre ready to roll. Every time someone does a Google search
using your keywords, your ad appears in the Sponsored Links
section beside their search results.
The concept is simple, but that doesnt mean creating a successful
AdWords campaign is easy. It takes effort and careful planning to
help your AdWords campaign reach its full potential.
Search Engine Marketing
The end goal of search engine optimization is to push sites to
the top of the organic results in search engines. Search engine
marketing (SEM) expands on this concept, encompassing not only
organic search listings, but sponsored listings as well.
Fig. 1-2. An example of a banner ad.
There are thousands of search engines in operation, from Google,
to Baidu (China), to Naver (Korea), to Yahoo, to Bing. They all have
one thing in common: people use them
to fnd what theyre looking for.
Because of this, SEM is a unique
marketing strategy because consumers
are already looking for the product
or service right at the moment your
ad is shown to them. While most
advertising is interruptive, trying to
grab the audiences attention whether
they want to give it or not, search
engine marketing connects products
and services with the people who are
actually looking for them.
What Can AdWords Do for Me?
Lets talk about the main benefts of using Google AdWords.
You reach the right audience. By selecting the right
keywords, you can capture searchers who are already
looking for a product or service like yours. For example, a
searcher looking for a website template will probably search
for HTML template or CSS template.
You promote the right message. By using a headline
and two lines of descriptive text in your ad copy, you have
the opportunity to communicate the main benefts of your
website, service or product, to potential customers before
theyve even visited your site.
You only pay for engagement. You only need to pay if
someone clicks on your ad, but your ad will still be displayed
on search results regardless.
Google AdWords
(or Search Engine
Marketing in general)
is effective because it
helps advertisers reach
interested audience at the
precise moment that they
indicate their need.
We often refer to this as
the magic moment.
Campaigns are easy to start and manage. Anyone with a
website and a credit card can have their ads live on Google
in 15 minutes. You can stop campaigns whenever you like
and make changes and tweaks easily.
Pricing
Text ads are charged on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis. This means
that every time someone clicks on your ad, you have to pay a set
amount to Google. This ranges from $0.02 to over $100 per click,
depending on your chosen keywords. Youll always know what
your cost per click (CPC) will be before you launch your campaign.
Googles PPC advertising has been enormously successful,
unfortunately meaning that the CPC of many popular keywords
has skyrocketed over the last few years.
Keyword Research 17
Keyword Research
The keywords you choose to target will determine who sees your
ad. You need to pick keywords that are already being used by
your target audience to look for websites, products or services like
yours. This may sound a little like mind reading, but its not as hard
as you think.
First, lets quickly go through the fve key steps to picking the best
keywords for your campaign:
1. If someone was using Google to look for your kind of
website, product or service, what would they type into the
search box?
2. What other searches could someone plausibly use? Each
search, such as low fares, cheap tickets or discount
travel is a keyword. List potential keywords to describe
your product.
3. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to generate
additional related keywords from your initial keyword list.
Well walk through the Keyword Tool in-depth very soon.
4. Add and download the list of keywords that you want to use.
5. Scout your competition.
In order to better understand the steps involved in creating a
campaign, lets go through a couple of examples.
Example One: ThemeForest
Our frst example is ThemeForest, an online marketplace for
website themes. The themes are much cheaper than a unique
web design and are ideal for website owners who dont have the
Keyword Research 18
time to create a design for their site, or the money to hire someone
to do it for them. Aside from theme buyers, the site also tries to
attract theme creators to sell their theme fles in the ThemeForest
marketplace. In this example well set up a campaign to attract
buyers of themes.
Step 1: What is Your Audience Searching For?
Were hoping to attract people who want to buy website themes
in particular, WordPress themes, Joomla themes and Drupal
themes. These are only the most basic keywords that a searcher
might type into Google, but theyre a good starting point for further
brainstorming.
Fig. 2-1. ThemeForest.net
Keyword Research 19
Step 2: List Potential Keywords
Next, begin listing keywords that describe your product and are
likely to appeal to your target audience. Think of as many as you
can, but if youre having trouble, three or four different keywords
or phrases should be enough to get started with.
Our target market is most likely to be searching for the specifc
type of theme they want to fnd. Our example list of search phrases
looks like this:
html template
wordpress theme
joomla theme
drupal theme
Note that plural versions of the above search phrases are key-
words in their own right. There are many keywords whose plural
version has a much higher or lower monthly search volume
than the singular version. At the time of this writing, the Google
AdWords Keyword Tool reports that html template receives
14,800 exact match searches per month (exact match means
that only the keyword was typed into Google, with no additional
words or characters), while html templates receives 27,100
searches per month. Never take small differences between
keywords for granted. Consider the context: since searchers are
looking for a selection of themes and templates, it would make
sense for the plural versions to get more searches.
Now, defne the objective of your Google AdWords campaign. In
this case, it is to attract potential buyers who are looking for cheap,
high-quality website themes and templates. If your main goal was
to sell WordPress themes youd need to tweak your keywords
Keyword Research 20
accordingly. Your keyword choices should always be guided by
your campaign goals. Lets make our list more specifc:
cheap html templates
premium wordpress themes
premium joomla templates
best drupal themes
Were trying to make educated guesses about how searchers
would most likely express their intent. One hypothesis is that
people are more likely to enter premium wordpress themes into
Google than high-quality wordpress themes.
Step 3: Build Up Your Keyword List
Were not search engines, so it can be tough to guess at the many
hundreds of different search terms a person could use when
looking for something like your product. Fortunately, Google has
created their excellent Keyword Tool to help us. You can access
it at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
Note that the default language setting and location in the Keyword
Tool is English and United States. You can change these default
settings by expanding the advanced options directly above the
Search button. Click the + sign to the left of Advanced options to
reveal these options (Fig. 2-2).
Change the language setting if your audience speaks more than
one language. To select multiple languages or countries, hold
down Ctrl or Cmd as you click (Fig. 2-3).
One quick way to generate a list of relevant keywords is to enter
the URL of your closest competitors site into the Website feld.
While this can provide you with some good keywords, theyre not
Keyword Research 21
necessarily the ones being used to capture search traffc in the
sites AdWords campaign. The competitors ads might use more
unique keywords than the ones that appear on the site. In fact, the
keywords used to trigger the ads might not even appear in the ads
themselves. The competitor might bid on the search phrase best
wordpress themes while displaying premium wordpress themes
in the ad copy.
Fig. 2-2. Your default language setting.
Fig. 2-3. Changing the default language setting.
Keyword Research 22
The more commonly used method for generating an extensive
list of keywords is to enter your initial keywords into the Word or
phrase feld, then click Search (Fig. 2-4).
This book will only use this more common method. Lets say you
want to see what the search volume is like for keywords related
to cheap html templates and premium wordpress themes.
The screenshot below is an example of the results youll get after
clicking Search (Fig. 2-5).
The search results provide us with a wealth of useful information:
The frst column lists suggested keywords. They are sorted
by relevance to the keywords you type in.
The next column indicates advertiser competition, i.e. the
amount of bidding activity, in relative values for Australia
(your target market).
The third column shows an estimate of how many Australia-
based searches have been carried out for each term.
Fig. 2-4. Entering keywords to check their popularity.
Keyword Research 23
The fourth column is an estimate of the global monthly
search volume for all countries and languages.
You can sort the data based on a particular column by clicking on
the columns header the frst click will sort in descending order,
the second click will switch it to ascending order. You can also sort
by clicking the button to the right of the Sorted by caption, which
is necessary to return to sorting by Relevance (for which theres
no column header). The question mark icon next to each column
header contains an explanation from Google about what that
particular column means. In our case, the result shows that there
are a lot of people searching for website templates in Australia and
the competition among advertisers is ferce.
One useful column to add thats not visible by default is the
Estimated Avg. CPC. Select this by clicking the Columns button,
above and to the right of the headers, then selecting the Estimated
Avg. CPC checkbox followed by the Save button. The Cost Per
Click not only tells you what you can expect to pay to advertise on
a particular keyword, but also signifes how valuable it is to other
advertisers. In this niche of website themes and templates, you
Fig. 2-5. Keyword popularity results table.
Keyword Research 24
should pay closer attention to the keywords with a CPC higher
than $0.05, since theyre more likely to have commercial intent.
If you see any keywords you like, click Add. The keyword will
appear on the far right column under Selected Keywords (Fig. 2-6).
If you add any keywords by accident, click Remove next to the
keyword and it will disappear from the selected list.
Step 4: Add and Download a List of Keywords
You Want to Use
After adding in all the keywords
you have for html template
or website template, click
Download All to save the
results as text, CSV (for Excel)
or plain CSV (comma separated
values) format (Fig. 2-7).
Though the demand for website
templates is huge in Australia,
the competition for this phrase is
ferce. Researching more specifc
Fig. 2-6. Googles suggestions for alternate keywords appears to the right.
Fig. 2-7. Download the list in
one of several formats.
Keyword Research 25
keywords can help you fnd choices
which better target traffc and have less
competition. In our case, we should
do a keyword analysis for premium
wordpress themes, premium joomla
themes and best drupal themes to
see how their traffc and competition
compares. Lets focus on Drupal
themes and templates for the moment.
The phrases drupal theme and
drupal template yield the following
results (Fig. 2-8): while the search
volume is substantially reduced, so is
the level of competition. Searching for
more specifc keywords is a great way
to fnd new phrases for your campaign.
Its important that you
download the selected
keyword list after youre
done with each keyword
topic, rather than trying
different keyword ideas
and lumping everything
into one big list of key-
words. If you dont do this,
it will be tricky to separate
these mixed keywords
into different ad groups
later on.
Fig. 2-8. Keyword results.
Keyword Research 26
After you have completed your analysis of local traffc (in this case,
from Australia), you can move on to investigating your second or
third regional market.
Step 5: Checking Out the Competition
The Advertiser Competition column doesnt tell you much. It wont
help you to fnd out who is advertising and what ads they are
running. For this reason, its important to run your own Google
search for your keywords and inspect the results. The results that
appear under the Ads heading are your competitors.
Example Two: ActiveDen
Step 1: What is Your Audience Searching For?
Like ThemeForest, ActiveDen is an Envato Marketplace (Fig. 2-9).
People use it to buy and sell royalty-free Adobe Flash and Flex
fles. The site is home to a bustling community of Flash designers
and developers and has the largest Flash library on the web. In this
scenario, we want to market the site to people in Singapore. Well
assume that the most likely search queries wont differ much from
country to country: fash templates, fash fles and fex fles.
Step 2: List Potential Keywords
Think of a few more specifc keywords: fash template library,
professional fash templates, fash components, and maybe
fex code.
Step 3: Build Up Your Keyword List
Using the Google Keyword Tool again, we type in fash templates
to search for related keyword ideas. If your search volume is too
Keyword Research 27
low, try broadening the search term. If the competition is too high,
try getting more specifc. As a general rule, broad terms go with
high traffc and specifc terms go with low competition (but usually
lower traffc as well).
Unlike our last case study, wed select Chinese (Simplied) and
Chinese (Traditional), as well as English under Languages. Our
keywords and advertising will only be in English, but keep in mind
that the languages we add here refer to the language being used
by the searchers browser software. We want our English language
ad to be shown even if the searchers browser software language
is set to Chinese.
Fig. 2-9. ActiveDen.net
Keyword Research 28
Looking at the results (Fig. 2-10), not all the keywords are relevant,
so well have to pick and choose carefully. For example, we dont
want to attract people looking for free fash templates because
theyre unlikely to purchase the paid templates we have on offer.
Step 4: Add Your List of Keywords
Keyword analysis should be done carefully, thoughtfully and
accurately, but you can always go back and do another keyword
analysis again whenever you want nothing is set in stone. Dont
focus too much on perfection. Your goal is to fnd keywords
you can get started with. You can (and should) refne your list of
keywords later on.
Fig. 2-10. Related keyword search.
Keyword Research 29
Step 5: Checking Out the
Competition
For the ActiveDen example, wed
search for terms like fash templates
and see who is advertising in the Ads
section of search results.
Generic vs. Specific
Keywords and
Search Terms
The Keyword Tool can provide you with so many good keyword
choices that it can be overwhelming. Here well talk a little bit
about how to select a good mix of keywords.
The purpose of keyword research is to identify the search queries
your target audience is using to fnd products and services like
yours. These keywords can be either generic or specic.
Generic keyword terms, like website templates or blog themes,
are very broad. These examples could refer to anything from an
eCommerce theme to a blog layout. The more generic a keyword,
the more search volume it has.
Specifc keyword terms like premium drupal themes clearly
demonstrate the intention of searchers. But because there are
fewer people who want premium drupal templates than those
who want website templates, search volume and competition
is lower.
A well-formulated keyword list will contain a mix of generic and
specifc keywords. Specifc keywords are important because your
click-through rate will be higher (if your website is well-matched
Dont ignore keywords
that come back with Not
enough data to estimate
search volume. This
often means the term is
very specic and could
be perfectly targeted to
your site.
Keyword Research 30
with the keyword) and, because of this, Google is more likely to
give your ad prominence in search results.
The drawback with specifc keywords is that you may not get the
search volume that you need for a successful campaign because
people with a general interest may not know the specifc keyword
that perfectly describes your website or product. A novice is
more likely to look for website templates rather than drupal
themes, and probably wouldnt understand the benefts of typing
in premium drupal themes. What people type in isnt necessarily
what they want in terms of how they search for it. Thats why
combining specifc keywords with generic keywords is a sound
strategy. Generic keywords give you access to a higher search
volume, though your click-through ratio on generic keywords may
be lower.
In some industries, like travel, consumer electronics and fnance
(from banking to insurance), advertiser competition can be extreme.
The best practice is to start with very specifc keywords in these
industries. Click-throughs can be expensive when competition is
ferce, so you want to make sure your ads are only reaching your
target audience, and that your budget isnt burnt up too quickly.
Setting Up an Account
with Google
Sign up to Google AdWords
The site is located at http://adwords.google.com/. Follow the sign-
up process by clicking Start Now (Fig. 3-1).
1. Create a new Google Account or use an existing account.
2. Select your time zone and country. Please choose carefully
because you cant change the time zone or the currency
of your account later. The selected time zone will be used
for your account reporting and billing. You will be making
payments in your selected currency.
Once you are done, youll see something like this (Fig. 3-2):
Fig. 3-1. Where to start.
Signing in to Your AdWords
Account
Take a few minutes to watch the tutorial video, Getting Started
with Google AdWords (Fig. 3-3). Its a useful introduction to the
interface.
Fig. 3-2. Dialog after creating an AdWords account.
Fig. 3-3. The AdWords video tutorial.
Creating Your First Campaign
Once you are ready to create your frst campaign, proceed by
clicking on you guessed it Create your rst campaign (Fig. 3-4).
Campaign Settings
Before you go on to the next step youll need to take care of a few
things.
1. Be as descriptive as possible for your campaign name.
You could, for example, use your main keyword topic as
the name of your campaign. If you advertise in multiple
countries, you could also include the country code in the
campaign name, such as AU, SG, US or UK.
Fig. 3-4. Ad campaign settings step.
Under Location, Languages and Demographics:
2. Select the targeted country or countries by clicking Select
one or more other locations. Next, select your chosen
languages for the campaign.
3. Networks, devices, and extensions. Its important to
choose the Network carefully because you dont want to
mix Content Network and Search Network. As described
earlier, the Content Network displays ads on Googles
partner websites. The Search Network displays them in
the Google search results pages. Uncheck the Content
Network option (Fig. 3-5).
If you choose Devices, make sure to test out your actual
website on an iPhone or another smartphone before opting
to display ads in mobile browsers.
4. Bidding and budget. Even if this is the frst time youve
used AdWords, choose manual bidding for clicks to give
yourself a greater level of control over the campaign
(Fig. 3-6). Knowing your cost per click ahead of time will
allow you to determine whether or not your campaign is
Fig. 3-5. Specifying your network.
potentially proftably, given the price point of your product
or service. Allowing AdWords to automatically bid to
maximize your clicks can lower your return on investment.
To work out your daily budget, take the amount you are
willing to spend per month and divide it by 30.
If you are not sure how much your daily budget should be,
put in a low fgure. Be safe in the knowledge that you can
revise it upwards later.
Under Position preference, delivery method (advanced),
dont change anything for now. Its not recommended to
alter these settings until you are extremely familiar with how
Google AdWords works.
Under Advanced Settings:
5. Start date/End date: Its very important to set an end date
because if you dont your ads will run indefnitely or until
you max out your credit card!
6. Ad scheduling: leave it set to Show ads all days and hours.
(Fig. 3-7)
7. Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping. Leave these
settings at default.
Click Save and continue, then click Create ad and keywords.
Fig. 3-6. Setting your budget.
Ad Copy
Though we have the ability to create image ads, lets stick to text
for now. Each text ad has four available lines:
1. Headline: maximum of 25 characters including spaces.
2. Description line 1: maximum of 35 characters including
spaces.
3. Description line 2: maximum of 35 characters including
spaces.
4. Display URL: maximum of 35 characters.
Destination URL specifes the page you want people to be taken to
when they click on your ad.
Though there are plenty of different ways to create a good text ad,
common sense suggests that the ad should:
1. Be specifc and relevant to search queries and the content
of your landing page. For example, if someone searches
for free fash templates they are unlikely to click an ad for
$49 Flash Components.
2. Clearly and concisely explain unique selling points. What
makes your product, service or website different from all
Fig. 3-7. Setting your ad scheduling options.
its competitors? Maybe its your
super-fast delivery, high quality,
rock-bottom prices, or your
100% money-back guarantee?
3. Be led by your current promo-
tions (if you have any). For ex-
ample, if youre running a sale,
you should mention youre giving
a 10% discount.
4. Be time sensitive, meaning the
searcher will miss an opportunity
if they dont click.
5. Represent your brand accurately.
The style and tone of your copy
should refect how the customer should experience your
product or service. If your brand is serious and authoritative,
dont load your ad copy with smiley faces and exclamation
points.
6. Comply with Googles guidelines. In most cases youll
satisfy this requirement without even trying, but if youre
unsure, make sure to read the guidelines for what is
acceptable to advertise.
In addition, your ad copy should serve as a flter for traffc. You
pay for every click, so you need to get a return on your investment
for as many clicks as possible. Dont use cheap tricks to attract
people to click, only for them to fnd your site, service or product
isnt relevant to them, or not what you advertised. Youll only end
up paying for clicks that dont lead to purchases.
Next, lets look at some real-life ad copy. Go to the Google home
page and type in local forist. You can imagine that someone
would use that search phrase when looking for a service to help
Scout the competition to
see what theyre using for
ad copy.
Pay special attention to
the Sponsored Ads that
appear on the left-hand
side of search results.
These ads all have a high
Quality Score, meaning
that theyre working well
and generating good
click-through rates.
them fnd forists in their area. At the time of writing this, the follow-
ing ads appear on search results page for http://google.com.au
(Fig. 3-8).
You can see that results are displayed more prominently at the
top of the search results, and less prominently to their right. The
ads at the top have parts of their title in bold, which is very good
for catching your eye. They display their
unique selling points clearly in each ads
descriptive text: huge range, same day
delivery, etc.
On the right, we see another ad for the
same keyword (Fig. 3-9).Unfortunately, this
ad isnt relevant to some one in Australia
searching for local forist. The lower
Fig. 3-8. Sample search results for local orist.
Fig. 3-9. An ad using
the same keyword, but
not quite relevant to
this search.
relevance of the ad copy would result in a lower Quality Score (see
the Understanding Quality Score section later in this chapter),
which might explain why the ad is stuck in the right-hand sidebar,
rather than being displayed with the most relevant advertisers at
the top of search results.
Making Your Ad Bold
Words in your ad will appear in bold when they match or closely
resemble the users search query. We searched for local forist
and the headline for one of the ads was Find Local Florist. It
displayed it as Find Local Florist because the words in bold
were also in our search query.
For the same search query, one of the ad headlines was UK
Florists. Though we searched for forists singular, the plural
version of most words will also appear in bold.
If we accidentally searched for shangrri la and the display URL
for one of the ads was www.shangri-la.com, this would partially
display in bold. Common abbreviations and misspellings of search
terms will also often appear in bold.
A few things to note:
1. Taking advantage of the ad bolding feature is the only way
for your ad text to appear in bold. You cant manually create
bold, italicized, underlined, or any other kind of formatted
ad text.
2. Any part of your ad has the potential to appear in bold,
including the title, body, and display URL.
Your ad copy can strongly affect how likely people are to click-
through to your landing page. Google has provided this helpful
table of suggestions for ad copy testing, and comparisons you can
make to review your ad.
Creative
B
e
g
i
n
n
e
r
Include special offers in ad text
Creative Test brands in ad text
Creative Test Dynamic Keyword Insertion/static in ad text
Creative Test Call To Actions in ad text
Creative Test seasonal creative
Creative Match online and offine messaging
Creative Deep link to relevant landing pages
Creative Relate the creative to the keywords
Seasonality Have an annual seasonal plan
Seasonality Have seasonal keywords and creatives ready
Creative
I
n
t
e
r
m
e
d
i
a
t
e
Include delivery details in ad text
Creative Test offine messaging in ad text
Creative Test prices in ad text
Creative Test number of products in ad text
Creative Include Third-Party Awards where possible
Creative Test capitalization variations
Creative Keep trialing different creatives
Creative
A
d
v
a
n
c
e
d
Test punctuation variations
Creative Test visible URL variations
Creative
Automation
Automatically generate creatives: link creative
generation with stock levels/prices
Creative
Automation
Automatically fag creatives with poor
CTR/Conv rate
Googles Ad Ranking Formula
Sponsored ads that appear above search results get more
exposure than ads on the right-hand side. Because they appear
above results, they seem almost like an extension of what is
returned in the organic search listings. They also get a colored,
shaded background, making them stand-out more in Googles
primarily white and blue user interface.
To learn more about
Googles Ad Ranking
Formula, watch this
video by Google Chief
Economist, Hal Varian:
Introduction to the Google
Ad Auction
( http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=K7l0a2PVhPQ ).
Here are a few facts about ads
appearing above search results:
No one can guarantee your ad
will appear in the main column
of results. Googles algorithm
decides which ads appear on the
left and which ads will appear
on the right.
Whether your ad appears above
the organic listings or on the
right-hand side, you will only
pay when someone clicks on the
ad. You dont pay a premium for having your ads displayed
above the search results.
The maximum number of ads above the search results is
three, while the maximum on the right-hand side is eight.
Your ad automatically has a greater share of the space.
Normally, sponsored links only appear on the right-hand side of
results. In these cases, the ads are ranked 1, 2, 3, etc. (Fig. 3-10).
When we have ads above results, the ads are ranked frst above
the search results, and then continue on the right. The highest
ranked ads always appear above search results (Fig. 3-11).
The formula is this: Ad Rank = CPC Quality Score.
CPC stands for Cost Per Click. This is the value you put in
the system under max CPC.
Google gives an individual Quality Score for each keyword
in your account, rather than one Quality Score for each
campaign, or each account.
The Quality Score ranges from 1 to 10, in ascending order from
worst to best.
Fig. 3-10. Sponsored links appear to the right.
1
5
2
6
3
4
Fig. 3-11. Ads shown above results have the highest rankings.
1
5
2
6
3
4
7
8
9
Understanding Quality Score
Without a Quality Score, ad rank would be determined by CPC
alone: whoever pays the most per click has the best ranking.
Though this system might make Google more money on a short-
term basis, it goes against the companys emphasis on providing
the most relevant results for users, whether for organic search or
advertisements.
Quality Score is the way in which Google quantifes the relevancy
between search queries, advertisers ads and their keywords. The
higher the Quality Score, the more relevant your ad is to users
queries from Googles point of view. Quality Score is independent
from bid price, so you cant purchase a higher Quality Score.
The next question well consider is: What affects your Quality
Score?. The following is an explanation from Googles AdWords
Help section ( http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/ ):
1. The historical Click Through Rate (CTR) of the keyword
and the matched ad on Google. If the ad is appearing on
a search network page, its CTR on that search network
partner is also considered.
2. Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all
the ads and keywords in your account.
3. The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group.
4. The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group.
5. The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the
search query.
6. Your accounts performance in the geographical region
where the ad will be shown.
7. Other relevance factors.
Basically, Google is letting users decide which ad is more relevant
to a particular search query by looking at Click Through Rate as
one of the main factors.
Click Through Rate (CTR): clicks per number of impres-
sions. An impression is counted each time your ad is
displayed to a user.
If users click on your ad 20 times instead of 10 times out of 1000
impressions, your CTR is 2% instead of 1%. People only click on
ads that they fnd relevant to their search query. An ad with a CTR
of 2% is more relevant than an ad with a CTR of 1%. The higher
the CTR, the better the Quality Score.
Other factors determining your Quality Score are the keywords in
your ad copy, and the keywords in the landing page linked to from
your ad.
Lets say two companies were advertising for the same phrase:
career advice. Company A has a Quality Score of 5, and bids 50
cents for the keyword. Company B has a Quality Score of 8, and
bids 40 cents. Which company will rank higher?
According to the ranking formula, these are the results:
Ad Rank (A) = 5 0.5 = 2.5
Ad Rank (B) = 8 0.4 = 3.2
Since 3.2 is greater than 2.5, Company B ranks higher than Com-
pany A even though they pay 20% less per click.
The same goes for keywords with more than two advertisers bid-
ding on them. Google performs this ad rank calculation every time
a search query is entered to determine who will rank 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
and so on.
At this point, you may be wondering how you can get your ads
featured above the results. But before answering that question,
well need to determine whether the top level placement is always
the best location for your ad.
If what you want is traffc, ads above search results receive
more clicks than those on the right-hand side. Eye tracking
studies consistently show the top left quadrant of Google
SERPs as the hot zone (for a time-lapsed heat map, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cwUxYvpmfw), so these
ads are often viewed before our eyes reach the organic
search results.
If what you want is traffc at the cheapest price, then it
doesnt really matter whether the ads appear on the left or
right-hand side. Cost Per Click depends on your Quality
Score and the level of competition only.
If you care about conversion rates (the ratio of those who
perform your desired action after clicking on your ad, such
as buying your product), recent studies from Google show
that conversion rates are independent of your ad position,
but you should do your own testing.
Now, lets move back to the question of how Google decides
where to place your ad.
For each keyword, Google has a minimum Quality Score and CPC
threshold for the ad to appear on the left-hand side. The higher
your existing Quality Score, the lower the CPC threshold required.
This means that even though your Quality Score may be 10, your
ad will never appear abovve the search results if your bid price is
too low.
A Note on Your Landing Page
While the content of your ads landing page doesnt have as
strong an infuence over Quality Score calculations as Click
Through Rates do, it does contribute to the calculation and, more
importantly, affects the users experience. A generic or even
completely unrelated landing page will cause any ad to convert
poorly.
If your search query and ad copy are about productivity at work,
you should direct click-throughs to a page specifcally about pro-
ductivity at work, rather than a generic home page. Your landing
page should be specifcally relevant to the keywords you are
targeting.
Make sure your landing page has a strong text element, which
Google can use to fnd relevant keywords. Without enough text,
Google may have a hard time concluding that your landing page is
relevant enough to your keywords. Remember that Google will
also have diffculty interpreting images and Flash content unless it
has been carefully optimized.
Select Keywords
Once you are done with your ad copy, enter the keywords you
researched earlier. You should leave Advanced option: match
types at default settings for now (Fig. 3-12).
Next, put in your bid price: the maximum Cost Per Click that you
are willing to pay for each click of your ad. If youve only entered
a bid price for search, the content bid price should be grayed out
(Fig. 3-13).
Continue by clicking on Save and continue to billing.
Billing
First select the country or territory of your billing address (Fig.
3-14). After choosing your country or territory, youll have to choose
your payment method (Fig. 3-15).
You can choose to either prepay or postpay your AdWords cam-
paign. Postpay is a safer option until you get more experience with
AdWords. Its easy to stop a campaign at any time if you postpay,
but if you prepay, you will be forced to use up all your clicks.
Another potential downside to prepaying is that your ads will stop
appearing if your credit runs out. This may happen at inopportune
times like when youre asleep!
Fig. 3-13. Setting the Maximum Cost Per Click.
Fig. 3-12. Keywords can be matched in variety of ways.
Fig. 3-15. Setting up your payment options.
Fig. 3-14. Selecting the country or territory of your billing address.
When you get more confdent with AdWords and begin larger
volume campaigns, you may decide to start prepaying.
After choosing your payment method, youll need to accept the
terms and conditions and enter your credit card details. Congratu-
lations youre ready to start your campaign!
Making Your Campaign Live
Each time you create a new campaign, its a good idea to run
through the following checklist before you make it live. Some of
the most common mistakes in AdWords campaigns are addressed
here:
1. Did you choose the right currency and time zone for your
account?
2. Does your campaign and ad group have a meaningful,
descriptive name?
3. Did you choose the right target audience and language for
your campaign?
4. Did you uncheck Content network and choose only to run
Search ads?
5. Did you set an appropriate daily budget for your campaign?
6. Does your credit card have a high enough limit to pay for
your campaign?
7. Did you put in the correct landing page for your ad?
There are two ways to see if your campaign is live. The simple,
informal way is to visit the Google domain for your campaigns
target country and search for the keywords you have bid on.
The offcial, more informative way is to click on your AdWords
accounts Campaign tab and choose Keywords (Fig. 3-16).
Move your mouse over the status icon and youll see the current
keyword status (Fig. 3-17).
Fig. 3-16. The Keywords tab shows what keywords are currently running.
Fig. 3-17. Pop-up help on a particular keyword campaign.
Googles system will tell you if your ad appears for a particular
keyword. It also shows you the Quality Score for that keyword
and tells you its assessment on your keyword relevance, landing
page quality and landing page load time. If your ad is listed
as not showing, Google will explain some possible reasons
why (Fig. 3-18).
Fig. 3-18. If an ad is not showing, Google will suggest some reasons why.
Navigating and Monitoring Performance 54
Navigating and
Monitoring Campaign
Performance
The basic structure of an AdWords account is represented in the
following diagram (Fig. 4-1):
Youll want to create new ad groups for thematically related head-
lines that point to the same landing page. One ad group might
be for Mountain Bikes, with individual ads for Cannondale
Mountain Bikes and Bianchi Mountain Bikes, both pointing to
www.YourSite.com/MountainBikes. Another ad group might
target Touring Bikes, containing the ads Cannondale Touring
Bikes and Bianchi Touring Bikes, pointing to www.YourSite.com/
TouringBikes.
If you are not sure whether you need to create a new campaign or
a new ad group, the following points should help:
Fig. 4-1. Keeping it organized.
AdWords Account
Campaign 2 Campaign 1
Ad Group 1 Ad Group 2 Ad Group 3
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
keywords,
ad copy
Campaign 3
1. You can only change the target market, target language
and budget at the campaign level. If you want to try a new
market, or set different daily budgets for different projects,
youll need to set up a new campaign.
2. Always create separate campaigns for search and content.
The two advertising methods work differently and your ads
will need to be tailored to ft the one you choose.
3. If you are running short-term promotional campaigns, youll
need to create new individual campaigns to more easily
manage cost and duration.
4. If you want to promote different services, products or
concepts, you will need separate campaigns.
Next, lets take a closer look at the navigation for an AdWords
campaign. As you might expect, most of the action is in the
Campaign tab, where you can check keywords, ads and other
campaign settings.
If you need to make changes, you can add in new keywords,
change existing keywords, and edit ad copy.
Here, you can see how easy it is to add in a new keyword (Fig. 4-2):
This screenshot shows how to add or edit advertisements
(Fig. 4-3):
Fig. 4-2. Adding new keywords to your campaign.
This screenshot shows how to change your campaign settings
(Fig. 4-4):
Fig. 4-4. Change your campaign settings when needed.
Fig. 4-3. Easily add or edit ads in your campaign.
Creating Another Campaign
If you only have one campaign, you will
see the Create a new campaign button
in the top left corner of the interface
(Fig. 4-5).
Google will present you with several
options once youve clicked on the
Create a new campaign button (Fig.
4-6).
From here, you can easily replicate the settings of your existing
campaigns (Fig. 4-7).
You can check your campaigns performance at any time by either:
1. Using the Campaign tab.
2. Running a report under the Reporting tab.
Fig. 4-6. New campaign options.
Fig. 4-5. Create a new
campaign by starting
here.
Using the Campaign Tab
The Campaign tab gives you an overview of your campaigns
performance.
All of your active campaigns will be displayed here. If you cant fnd
a particular campaign perhaps because it was deleted or has
ended you can click Show All on the right, below the graph.
Fig. 4-8. The selected Graph Options and Timeframe determine the extent
of your graph.
Fig. 4-7. Replicating a previous campaign makes it easy to tweak settings.
Take note of the timeframe you are viewing. To change the time-
frame, edit the dates in the top-right corner of the interface
(Fig. 4-8).
Changing Graph Options
To see different metrics or change your graph settings, click on
Change Graph Options at the top left of the screen and youll be
given the following options: (Fig. 4-9)
You can choose to view results for one metric over time by clicking
on One Metric.
Fig. 4-9. Graph Options.
Metrics that often go together on a two metric graph are:
Impressions & Clicks
Clicks & CTR
Clicks & CPC
Clicks & Conversion
CPC & Avg. Pos. (average position in search results)
Lets revisit the defnitions of the most important metrics for your
AdWords campaigns.
1. Impressions: the number of times your ad is shown.
2. Clicks: the number of times your ads have been clicked.
3. CTR (Click Through Rate): the number of times your ad is
clicked divided by the number of times your ad is shown in
Google search results. Your ads and keywords each have
their own CTRs unique to your campaign performance.
Keyword CTR is a strong indicator of the relevance of your
keyword to the user and the overall success of the keyword.
CTR is also used to determine your keywords Quality
Score. A low CTR may point to poor keyword performance,
indicating a need for ad or keyword optimization. Google.
Since CTR is so important, its useful to know the difference
between a good and bad CTR. Unfortunately, the CTR
standards vary from niche to niche (i.e. some markets have
audiences that are much less likely to click on ads, for
whatever reason), though as a general rule, more specifc
keywords yield higher CTRs, while more generic keywords
get more volume, but yield lower CTRs. For specifc
keywords, CTR can be as high as 810%. Conversely, if
your keywords are broad, the level of competition is high, or
your bid price is very low, your CTR could plummet to 0.5%.
In general, a campaign that starts with a CTR of 1.52% is
doing fne.
4. Cost: total cost incurred for each campaign.
5. Avg. Pos.: average position. Dont be surprised to see that
you have an average position with a decimal point, like 1.5
or 2.3. If your position is 1.5, this means your ad usually
appears somewhere in the top two positions.
Filter and Views
Filter and views is a powerful tool available in the new AdWords
interface (Fig. 4-10).
Filter and views has the following functions:
1. Hide/show graphs
2. Customize columns
3. Filter campaigns, ad groups and keywords
4. Segment or hide segmentation
Fig. 4-10. The Filter and views menu.
Since Hide/show graphs is self-explanatory, lets look at the
Customize columns functionality (Fig. 4-11).
Google divides each of these metrics into two groups:
Performance: these metrics refect how your campaign
performs in Google Search.
Conversions: these metrics are used to help you identify
the Return On Investment (ROI) of your AdWords campaign.
You can arrange the order of columns by dragging and dropping
within the Preview section. Once you are done, click Save.
The Filter campaigns/ad groups/keywords function allows you to
get multiple flters at the same time so that you can zoom in on
different areas of the campaign.
Fig. 4-11. Column customization options.
Finally, lets talk about segmentation the key to gaining action-
able insights from your data.
Without segmentation, you could see that there have been fve
thousand clicks in your campaign over the past two months.
Cumulative data like this doesnt allow you to identify any
meaningful trends. Segmentation allows you to break the data
down by days in the week to understand if there is a pattern.
Maybe the majority of your clicks happen on Mondays and
Tuesdays, suggesting that you should allocate a higher daily
budget to those days.
After you have been running your campaign for six months or
so, you can check how different months compared against each
other. If you discovered that people searched more actively at the
beginning or the end of the month, you could allocate a higher
budget to that period.
Viewing Reports
The reporting function is very comprehensive, to the point where it
can seem overwhelming for people just starting out with AdWords.
The best way to begin customizing your reports is to frst gain an
understanding of the different report types available to you.
The 10 reports offered in the Reporting tab are extensive, and
beyond the scope of a basic tutorial, but the best report to get
started with is Campaign Performance.
In the Reporting tab, click Create a new report, then select
Campaign Performance. In the Settings section, Under View (Unit
of Time), select Summary; under Date Range, select This Month;
and under Campaigns, select All Campaigns. You can also view
individual campaigns once youve familiarized yourself with the
reporting function. The same applies for the Advanced Settings
(Optional) section. Leave the defaults as-is until you have a specifc
reason to omit certain criteria.
Before generating a particular report, ask yourself the following
questions:
1. Can the reports and graphs be generated under the
Campaign tab interface? This section covers: Clicks,
Impressions, Click Through Rate (CTR), Average CPC,
Average CPM, Cost, Average Position, Conversion, Cost
per Conv., Conv. Rate (many-per-click), View-Through Conv.
and more.
If you dont know the difference between any of these
things like Conversion (many-per-click) and Conversion
(1-per-click) you can customize columns under Filter
and Views, select both metrics to be displayed, then click
on the question mark icon next to the metric you dont
understand. Google will provide a concise explanation of
what it is (Fig. 4-12).
Fig. 4-12. Pop-up explanation of the Conversions (many-per-click) metric.
2. Ask yourself so what? three times. I learned this useful
concept from Avinash Kaushik in his book Web Analytics:
An Hour A Day. Kaushik meant that before looking at
specifc data or running a report, we need to ask ourselves
whether knowing this data will help us get better results.
If no actionable insight can be drawn from a report, that
report is not worth making.
Lets say you run a report that tells you one of your destina-
tion URLs has more impressions than others. So what?
If your answer is nothing, then move on to something
else. Its easy to get sucked into harvesting interesting but
meaningless data the so what? question can help you
avoid this pitfall.
Return on Investment
Running AdWords campaigns is a constant balancing act between
your ad spending and the returns you get on that investment. What
are your customer acquisition costs? What is the value of the
actions people take after they click on your ads versus how much
youve spent to get them to take that action? These are important
metrics to track, otherwise you can be running a loss-making
campaign without even knowing it.
Whatever metrics you use to defne a successful conversion,
tracking your results is essential. If you cant do this with your
current analytics provider, sign up for Google Analytics. Its
designed specifcally to work well with AdWords campaigns. You
can sign up for free at http://www.google.com/analytics/. If you
use the same account for Analytics that you use for AdWords, your
accounts will be linked automatically. Youll then be able to use
Google Analytics to view campaign statistics at a keyword level,
such as revenue per keyword and cost per sale.
The table below shares some of the more common metrics you will
encounter in Google Analytics.
Metrics
Numeric
Values Formula
Total number of clicks 10,000 click
Average cost per click $0.30 CPC
Conversion rate
(Click to Sales)
2.00% = sales / click 100
Total number of sales 200
= conversion rate
click
Average basket value $50.00 basket value
Total revenue $10,000.00
= number of sales
average basket value
Proft per sales 50%
percentage of basket
value
Total proft $5,000.00
= percent proft per
sales total revenue
Total cost $3,000.00 = CPC click
Return on Investment 67% = (proft cost) / cost
Maximum Cost per Click $0.50 = total proft / click
Conversion rate or onsite conversion rate is measured
by taking the total number of sales or sign-ups divided by
the total number of clicks and multiplying that fgure by 100.
Your conversion rate and your return on investment are
inextricably linked.
Comparing the difference in ROI between a 1.5%
conversion rate and a 2.5% conversion rate underscores
the signifcance of conversion rate optimization. Even a
seemingly small percentage increase like 1% can result in
a 60% increase in the revenue of your AdWords campaign,
which can mean the difference between loss and proft.
Your conversion rate is strongly affected by two factors:
how well targeted your click-through visitors are, and
how effectively your landing page converts. Youll need to
examine both of these factors to increase your conversion
rates.
Average basket value: This is how much you make per
conversion. This is the second of three ways to increase
the ROI of your campaign (the frst is to increase your
conversion rate, which we just covered. The third is to
increase your total volume of conversions).
Prot per sales: Though you may earn a certain amount
per conversion, how much of this is actually proft, based on
your campaign and other expenses?
Maximum Cost Per Click: This fgure is calculated based
on your total proft divided by the number of clicks. Its the
maximum amount you can afford to pay per click and still
break even. If you ever fnd yourself with underperforming
ads and you want to increase your CPC to give them more
exposure, make sure you have this Max Cost Per Click value
in mind.
Once youve found a campaign model youre happy with, monitor
the campaign with Analytics to make sure the reality is matching
up to your earlier predictions.
At least once per week, start plugging in real numbers like total
number of clicks, average CPC, total number of sales and total
sales revenue to calculate your campaigns return on investment.
If you fnd that your initial conversion rate is surprisingly low, that
you have a negative ROI or worse yet, no sales at all dont
panic. First, look at your eCommerce report in Analytics to see
how your individual keywords are performing. You might fnd that
some are performing well, while others may need to be culled
or replaced. You may need to try using more specifc keywords,
tweaking your ad copy, or adding more calls to action in your
ads for example, using the words Buy WordPress Themes
rather than just WordPress Themes.
Now that you are carefully tracking your campaign metrics, the
only way for your campaign to go is up. You can constantly fne-
tune your keyword list and tweak your ad copy to improve results.
Ideally you will have a high volume of clicks, low average cost per
click, high conversion rates, high average basket value, a high total
number of sales, a high proft margin and, best of all, a high ROI!
A Note on Conversion Tracking
Googles conversion tracking tools can help you measure how
often visitors to your site perform the action that you ultimately
want from them. This might be buying your product, signing up
for your newsletter, or commissioning your services. Conversion
tracking is free and integrated with AdWords. If tracked properly,
you should know which campaign keywords drive conversions and
how much each conversion costs you.
The Google Content Network: FAQ 72
The Google Content
Network: Frequently
Asked Questions
We conduct web searches many times a day, but we want to
spend as little time as possible using search engines. Theyre a
means to an end: fnding exactly what were looking for.
To provide options outside of search results, Google has partnered
with hundreds of thousands of websites to serve ads on behalf of
advertisers. This is Googles Content Network: one of the biggest
ad networks in the world.
This section answers a number of frequently asked questions
about Googles Content Network.
Why do other websites need to partner with Google?
Which websites are part of Googles Content Network?
How can I put my ads on these sites?
How much does it cost to advertise on the Network?
How do I monitor my campaigns performance?
Can I stop my campaign at any time?
Can I use Flash banners and other rich media types as
well as text ads?
Lets go through each of these questions.
Why do other sites partner with Google?
For revenue sharing vis-a-vis Googles AdSense program. Web-
sites that partner with Google and become part of the Network
are called publishers. Publishers make a commission every time
a Google ad on their site is clicked. Google claims the remaining
share of the revenue.
Which sites are in the Google Content Network?
The best way to answer this question is to use Googles Ad Planner.
Go to http://www.google.com/adplanner/, complete the sign-up
process, and log in. Youll be greeted with the interface shown in
this screenshot (Fig. 6-1). Select Search by audience, add your
target territory, then go to Filter. Under Ad item select In Google
Content Network and click OK. Youll see all the sites that are
under Googles Content Network in your chosen territory (Fig. 6-2).
Googles Ad Planner is a powerful tool. Experiment and see what
you can learn from it.
Fig. 6-1. The Google Ad Planner interface.
How can I put my ads on these sites?
You can get your ads on Google Content Network sites by setting
up placement targeting campaigns in Googles AdWords interface
rather than using a keyword targeted campaign.
However, the steps are the same as those for creating a campaign,
except when you choose where to display your ads. Instead of
selecting Google Search or Search Partners, you will choose
Content Network (Fig. 6-3).
Fig. 6-2. Search by Audience in the Google Content Network.
Fig. 6-3. Get your ads on the Google Content Network.
Its wise to set up search campaigns and placement campaigns
separately. In the long-run, this will give you greater fexibility to
add, remove or customize your different campaigns.
How much does it cost to advertise on the
Network?
You can decide how much you want to pay for your Content
Network campaign and the metric you wish to use: impressions
or clicks. You have the ability to choose the maximum Cost Per
Thousand Impressions (CPM) or Cost Per Click (CPC) you want to
pay. This is a real-time auction system, so if your bidding price is
too low your ads may not be displayed at all. As with most auction
markets, prices are determined by supply and demand.
How do I monitor my campaigns performance?
A placement campaign, if you set it up right, has its own campaign
name and you can view the statistics the same way you would with
a keyword campaign. But remember: you cant interpret the data in
exactly the same way.
Can I stop my campaign?
Yes. You can pause and restart your campaigns at any time.
Can I use rich media ads?
You can also use any common rich media format, such as Flash
ads, image ads and video ads.
AdWords: FAQ 77
AdWords: Frequently
Asked Questions
Though some of these questions have been answered previously,
this section will help you review what youve learned so far.
Can I purchase a higher placement for my
search ads?
No, you cant. Googles formula is the only factor that determines
how different advertisements will rank for the same keyword.
Ad rank = CPC Quality Score.
If your ad appears higher than other ads, it means the product of
your bid CPC multiplied by your landing pages Quality Score is
higher than the ad below it. However, you cant be sure of higher
placement all of the time for all your keywords, even if you bid with
a very high CPC.
How can I get my ads to display above search
results?
Your Quality Score and bid price are the only deciding factors in
ad placement. Having your ad appear above the highest ranking
organic search result yields bigger CTRs. Because of this, Google
wants to be sure that these ads are highly relevant to the search
query (in other words, that they have a high Quality Score). Google
doesnt want to compromise the very reason people use their
service: to fnd accurately what theyre looking for.
AdWords: FAQ 78
I chose postpay for payment. Can I change to
prepay?
Not at this time, though you can change to payment via credit card
or direct debit for postpay, and credit card or bank transfer for
prepay.
How does Google decide the cost per click I will
pay?
Google runs its Ad Ranking Formula to determine the Cost Per
Click every time a query is searched. This is how it works. Lets
say Advertiser A and B both bid for the keyword phrase best hotel
package in Maldives. For this keyword, Advertiser A has a Quality
Score of 5 and bid price of $2.00. Advertiser B has a Quality Score
of 8 and a bid price $1.60.
Based on the ad ranking formula:
Ad ranking A = 5 $2.00 = 10
Ad ranking B = 8 $1.60 = 12.8
Since 12.8 is greater than 10, Advertiser B will rank higher than
Advertiser A.
The CPC for Advertiser B is actually lower than $1.60. Google
calculates the minimum CPC Advertiser B has to pay in order to
outrank Advertiser A by one cent. If we take the ad ranking for A
(10) divided by Advertiser Bs Quality Score (8), we get $1.25.
Advertiser B will pay one cent higher than $1.25. This means $1.26
instead of $1.60.
AdWords: FAQ 79
Why do my ads only appear intermittently?
Based on your daily budget, the popularity of your keyword list and
volume of searches, Google will display your ads intermittently to
ensure the total cost of clicks wont exceed your specifed value.
Technically, your daily costs can be up to 120% of the daily budget
you set, but Google will make sure that you wont be billed more
than your monthly budget for any 30 day period.
In most cases when you search for one of your keywords and
your ad doesnt show up, it means that your budget for the day
is running out. You can check your account statistics to see how
much you have spent on any given day.
Pre-launch Checklist
Before you launch your newest AdWords campaign, make sure to
run through this checklist of essential campaign elements.
Meaningful Campaign and Group Names
Give your campaigns and ad groups meaningful names. Instead of
generic identifers like Campaign #1, use terms that correspond
to the unique aspect of your offer, like Dozen Roses, or 20%
Discount. This will help you to understand at a glance which
campaign or ad group you are looking at.
Separate Campaigns for Google Search and
Google Content
Whenever you set up a new campaign, Content Network is on
by default. Check your campaign settings to see if you have
accidentally activated a Content Network campaign by mistake.
Correct Target Market and Language Settings
When copying the settings of a previous campaign to create a new
one, your previous target market will be carried over. Make sure to
check whether you need to update your target market for the new
campaign.
Correct Account Timezone
Once you choose a time zone you cant change it. Your time zone
will affect everything from the accounts date, month and year, to
reporting and the billing cycle.
Account Currency
Make sure that you choose the currency you want to use to pay
Google. Its a good idea to use the same currency as your credit
card or bank account to avoid dealing with exchange rates.
All AdWords prices, such as Cost Per Click, will be listed in your
selected currency.
Daily Budget and End Date
Setting a daily budget and end date will help you keep control of
your AdWords campaigns. By default new AdWords campaigns
are set to run indefnitely, so youll need to specify an appropriate
end date. If youre unsure of when you need your campaign to end,
try setting a date 30 days from the start time.
If youre not sure what your daily budget should be, focus on the
maximum amount you are willing to pay each month and divide
the fgure by the number of days in the month. But remember: your
daily budget will affect how frequently your ads appear and how
much traffc you get. For example, if you set your daily budget at
$10/day and the estimated CPC is $0.30, you can expect to receive
approximately 33 clicks per day or about 1,000 clicks per month.
Other Campaign Settings
Show Relevant Addresses With Your Ads
This option allows you to display additional information about
your physical address within your AdWords ad. This is not
recommended unless you want people to visit a physical store
location.
Demographics
This option is only available for Googles Content Network and in
selected countries. Google allows you to select who will see your
ads based on factors like gender, education level, income level,
and so on.
Position Preference
This option allows you to choose the position range in which your
ads will appear. If your ad position is out of the range you specify,
your ad wont show. Beginning AdWords users should leave this at
default settings.
Ad Rotation
You can choose between Optimize, show better performing ads
more often and Rotate, show ads more evenly. If you have more
than one ad in an ad group and want to test out which one works
better, choose Rotate.
Frequency Capping
This is only available for the Google Content Network. If you run an
image ad campaign with the purpose of raising brand awareness,
you may want to limit the number of times the ad is shown to each
unique user. This means your ad impressions will be spread across
as many unique users as possible.
APPENDICES
Appendix A 85
Appendix A:
The Google AdWords
Editor
Once youre familiar with how Google AdWords works, you should
download the AdWords Editor ( http://www.google.com/intl/en/
adwordseditor/index.html ). Its a free tool developed by Google
that allows you to create and edit AdWords campaigns within
a desktop client, then upload them to your AdWords account. Its
much more robust and effcient than using AdWords standard
web interface.
I use it almost exclusively now to check statistics and manage and
optimize my AdWords campaigns.
Visit Googles YouTube channel to see lots of great videos
that teach you how to use the AdWords Editor ( http://www.
youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists&search_
query=adwords+editor&uni=1 ).
Appendix B 86
Appendix B:
Further Reading
Congratulations youre at the end of this book, and youve
already learned enough about Google AdWords to drive traffc to
your offers in a cost effective manner. This list of resources will
help you take your knowledge to new levels.
What better way to learn about Google AdWords than from
Google itself? Take the time to visit the AdWords Learning
Center ( http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.
py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs )
Googles Business Channel on YouTube contains lots of
videos on how to optimize your campaigns ( http://www.
youtube.com/user/GoogleBusiness#p/p ).
Google AdWords Blog: To keep you up to date with new
AdWords developments ( http://adwords.blogspot.com/ ).
Search Insider from MediaPost: Writers on this site often
discuss in-depth how to optimize your AdWords campaigns
( http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Archives.
showArchive&art_type=30 ).
Search Engine Land has a fantastic Pay Per Click
information section ( http://searchengineland.com/library/
how-to/how-to-ppc ).
Avinash Kaushiks blog about web analytics. Your ability
to analyze and interpret data will be a key factor in your
success with AdWords ( http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ ).
The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, Perry Marshalls
classic eBook on AdWords is still as relevant today as when
I frst read it six years ago ( http://www.perrymarshall.com/
adwords/ ).
About The Author
Chandler Nguyen has worked in
the online industry for the last
several years, mainly focusing on
Affliate Marketing, Search and
Web Analytics.
He has worked on numerous
projects specifcally targeting
the Asia-Pacifc region for multi-
national companies like Apple,
ClubMed, and Citibank.
He also contributes regular articles to several magazines, and
lectures at the BMG International Education in Vietnam, where he
currently resides.
You can check out his blog at: http://www.chandlernguyen.com/
or email him at: chandlernguyen@gmail.com
Chandler Nguyen
In Get Going with Google AdWords, author Chandler
Nguyen introduces you to the AdWords phenomenon,
where you can bypass weeks or months of attempts to
get your site to the top of Google search queries by
bidding for keywords.
This book will help you get started with setting up
simple, water-tight campaigns to promote your blog,
website or business. Youll learn all the ins and outs
of launching and reporting on a campaign, under-
standing the search behavior of your target audience,
and how to generate more traffic to your site!
Find out why and how so many people are using
Google AdWords to help them get the measured
results they want!

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