Google is the largest search engine in the world and has a daily user rate of OVER 5 BILLION! Google Search is a huge and powerful tool when used smartly by the business owner.
You can combine both your organic listing and your paid listings to optimize your traffic and income.
Ways to Advertise on Google
Google has different classifications for the ads they offer
Search (includes retargeting)
Display
Mobile
Video & YouTube
Plus they have their Google shopping for eCommerce
Each one has it’s own nuances and individual targeting methods which you will find out in more detail further down the page.
Why Advertise on Google?
Why advertise anywhere at all?
To get traffic of course! But not just any traffic. You want to be able to get in front of and appeal to your ideal client for your market. Paid ads on Google get you the prime viability areas on the users screen. You get to decide what your ads say and the exact call to action.
The amount you bid and the Quality Score of your landing page will play a large role in determining where your ads are placed. Competition also plays a part in how often and in what position your ads will appear.
You can use your Google ads for the purpose of driving traffic or branding you or your business.
Advertising Using Google Search
Assuming you already have an account with Google your first step is to sign in to your AdWords account.
If you have never advertised before it could be a little intimidating. Fortunately they do offer tutorial videos to help you get started. They also have account managers that will walk you through getting your advertising going.
Free Google advertising credits are available from Google and usually offered to you when you sign up for a new account. Your hosting company will probably offer you credits as well as other companies can give you a few hundred dollars in advertising credits (mine included).
The obligations attached to these credits change from time to time. As in, you have to spend $100 to get $350 free credits etc.
Before you place your first ad you really need to know the keywords you are targeting as well as WHO you are targeting. This way you can determine where you want to place your ads.
You can set your ads so they can show in the Google search engine and their Search Partners. Search partners like Ask.com and AOL (subject to change) will show the ads in a very similar fashion. They don’t send as much traffic and you can choose to exclude them if you want to.
Testing and tracking your traffic and your returns from particular combinations of traffic source, location, times, and landing pages is necessary to optimize your ad champagnes.
Google ads can also show up on privately owned websites who are Google AdSense affiliates.
Advertising Using Google Display Ads
The display advertising is a bit of a different kettle of fish. Display ads are similar to the old style print ad. Like you see in magazines. While the style may be similar the approach is different. Paid search using the display network combines eye catching advertising with the pin-pint accuracy of a well researched market.
A successful display ad campaign requires little bit of science using “best guess” then measuring the results. Testing and tweaking will help get the most out of every ad dollar spent.
There is a good reason why paid advertising is a full time business. Just throwing up a banner ad will not get you the results you hope for. A little bit of preparation will get you better results with your ad placements.
Another important thing is to stay on top of your analytics. Keep track and pay close attention to what type of traffic you are getting. Every change in Google algorithms can effect your ROI.
The Adwords platform keeps evolving as well. How you do things changes as best practices evolve. Stay on top of the current training and trends for improved results. The three most visible changes lately are the way you set up display ads (dynamic), the fact the images on this post are now outdated as the sidebar ads are not longer available, and the platform inside your account is very different from the old one.
You can easily spend hours every day working on your AdWords campaigns by just reviewing results and tweaking.
Google Mobile Ads
So far this platform is being grossly under-utilized! There is money to be made on this technically adept media. Google thought so too when they bought the major player AdMob in 2009. You can use it to promote and monetize your apps as well as advertising your products and business.
The importance in using mobile advertising is confirmed in the simple statistic that the split is almost even for the number of people using mobile devices to do most of their search.
Consider also the advantage to being mobile ready if you have a geographical location. Make sure your landing pages are optimized for mobile. Mobile advertising is good for text ads or banner ads. They can be targeted for a particular demographic or location too. For example if you are mobile ready with a physical brick & mortar store, a person searching for your product will only need to tap the screen for directions to your shop or to call.
Advertising your apps to encourage people to download them can play nicely with your other marketing ventures.
Advertising on YouTube
YouTube is another of Google’s great acquisitions that took place in 2006. YouTube is still underutilized and often misused in the marketing world. Done right you can see a great return. One of the reasons for this is because you ONLY have to pay when your ad is watched. This means that really, the only people who will see your ad will be the ones interested in what you have to say.
YouTube advertising can be targeted. Your ads can reach your demographic by location, age, and interests.
Another reason to have a mobile ready site is because according to Google’s recent study, 25% of all YouTube videos are watched on mobile devices. YouTube has its own Analytics tool to show you how people are watching your ads. It tells you duration and you can see where people are dropping out or clicking through.
One great bonus is you can also build your own audience with YouTube so you can communicate directly with people who “subscribe” to your channel.
YouTube Advertising Formats
YouTube has different formats to advertise.
Display ads – these are on the top right on the YouTube page and just above the search/related listings. You can advertise your business or product here using a 300×250 banner ad.
Overlay in-video ads – these are the text banner that is at the bottom of the video itself. They have a little ‘x’ on the corner so you can close them.
TrueView – two types of ads
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1.
2.
Non-skippable in-stream ads – Similar to the old time TV ads we are used to. They play before, during, and after the video. They play for the full length of the advertisement and cannot be skipped.
Cost to Advertise on Google
The cost to advertise on the Google network isn’t simple to determine. It isn’t the same as buying space in a newspaper or magazine. You pay Google for performance.
PPC – Pay Per Click or PPV – Pay Per View (impression)
This is why it is SO important to optimize your ads, where they are placed, and demographics. If you don’t do this and you have a compelling headline. You could pay for thousands of clicks from people who have no interest in buying what you are selling.
The way Google works is you set your daily budget. Google will then do their best to spend that for you. When a person clicks, your account gets charged for the amount that click costs. Depending on the competitive nature of the market you are in, a click can be a few pennies or one click can cost over a hundred dollars.
Of course you get to set the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a click but if you want your ad to show up you need to pay what your competitors are paying or more. If you want to show up at the top of the search results and more often, you need to pay more than they are.
You can cut your costs by doing relevant things to improve your quality score. When you have a high quality score you will see a reduction in your ppc fees. Do this right and you can have higher placements and pay less than your competitor, just by beating out their Quality Score.
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