How to get started with Google Adwords for your Small Business

If you’re a small business, you’ve probably heard about, are considering, or are currently using Google AdWords to bring in customers.

AdWords can be a great way to reach customers in a highly targeted, local campaign that drives traffic to your site. It can also be a huge waste of time and money, if done without planning and customer research.

What is It?

AdWords is Google’s main source of revenue. Google offers PPC, or Pay-Per-Click advertising.

When a user does a search, depending on the search words and their location, up to 12 small ads, or “sponsored links”  will appear along with the search results. They are usually on the right of the screen, but can sometimes be on top. Ads also appear in the Google Display Network which includes other websites, news pages, and blogs that partner with Google.

The CTR, or Click-Thru-Rate for the first ad in the list is about 8%, meaning 8% of those seeing the ad, will click on it. As you go down the list of ads, the CTR rate drops, the 2nd is 5%, the third is 2.5%, etc. It’s also called a Conversion Rate.

So what determines the ad ranking on the page? Two Factors, advertisers select search words, or keywords and make PPC Bids, usually something less than $1, on those words. They higher your bid, they higher your chance of being #1. The second factor is a “quality score” which is based on historical CTRs, account history and other things. The actual formula for the “quality score” is a bit of a mystery and known only to Google. The combination of these two factor will determine the ad’s position.

What’s the Benefit?

Go Local – One of the great things about this kind of advertising is that you can adjust settings so your ads to appear only within a particular city, region, or country. So you can target people within a 20 mile radius, nationwide, or globally.

Live within your Means – It’s all under your control, you set the bid rate on PPCs and a daily total maximum. Also, you only pay when your ad is clicked on.

Get Reports – Google gives you lots of detail in reports. The top three are: Placement Performance, Impression Share, and URL Performance. You can read how to use them here.

How about an Example – OK, Let’s say you have a Music Store that offers lessons and you have a website that let’s people sign up for classes. But no one goes to your site. You could set up a short Adwords campaign, where you pay $5 a day for key words like music lesson, guitar lesson, etc. which would draw potential students to your site and sign up for courses.

Getting Started

You can create a Google Adwords account here.

Don’t let the admin interface throw you off. One of the most common complaints about Adwords is that the administration page is too complex. Google has loaded it with tons of features and it can be daunting for new users. They even offer certification for advanced users. But if you just focus on the key elements, it’s not that bad.

The other thing you should be aware of is there is not a lot of  help available from real Google people if you have issues. There is however plenty of online help.

Once you have an account, the process is fairly straightforward. You enter a daily budget, write your amazing, attention-getting copy (Usually a title, two lines of description, and your web address). Then select your keywords.

Be careful when choosing your keywords.They should be specific words that match the theme of your landing page. Include variations, like plurals, alternate spellings, slang terms, and model numbers. Try Google’s keyword tool to to help with this.

Bidding Strategy

Check your keyword competition – You can do that with a quick search. The last ad on the right will usually have the minimum bid. If there isn’t one, you can get the first position with a minimum bid. Take a look at how they write their copy,  check out their landing pages. Monitor changes in their ads. Ads that run a long usually mean they are successful.

Test Bid Rates – Since you can easily change bids, you should try different rates. Do a quick test with higher rates to see how it changes your results. You can then come up with an optimum strategy.

Best Position – It may not always pay to be first. If you want your ad to be primarily delivered to partner sites, you may want to be ranked lower on the first page.

Consider your Budget – Once you get an idea of the conversion rate (CTR) you’re getting with different bids, you’ll be in a better position to set your daily budget. Stay within your means, but don’t bid too low or your effort will be wasted on a small percentage of search results.

Quick Tips

  • Start small in a local area and expand if you see results.
  • Try to use keywords your competition has overlooked. This will allow you to bid lower with the same results.
  • Stick to your budget – It’s easy to go overboard too early.
  • Constantly review and adjust – the great thing about Adwords is that you can easily make changes on the fly.

Summary

It’s important to constantly monitor your Adwords campaigns, especially if you have rapidly changing inventory, as you will have to frequently change your keywords.You may even want to consider outsourcing your campaigns if it takes too much of your time.

Google Adwords may or may not be effective for your business, but because the low cost of entry, it’s well worth consideration.

Suggested Readings and Resources:

If you’ve had some experience using Adwords, please leave a comment below about how it’s affected your business.