Google Adwords made easy

Quite a few clients have asked me recently to explain the basics of Google's pay per click (PPC) advertising platform, Google Adwords. This prompted me to find a couple of decent videos explaining the auction concept behind the platform and how it's not just about paying big but also about relevancy.

A mistake commonly made by agency folk (myself included) is to assume that everyone understands the basic concepts and terminology that we use on a daily basis; quality score, cost per click (CPC), click through rate (CTR), and so on... and so on...

Obviously paid search advertising can be highly competitive and specialist when it comes to multi-million pound global brand accounts, but for some SMEs it can seem intimidating to even dip a toe in the water. As a result many tend to give it a wide birth, instead choosing to stick to more traditional channels they feel comfortable with. However the true beauty of Google Adwords is that it will only cost you what you are willing to spend and your campaigns can grow in complexity alongside your knowledge of the platform.

There are many advantages associated with using Google Adwords to promote your website, but I feel some of the most fundamental are:

• Potential page 1 visibility in Google search results (sponsored links)

• Ads can be created, published and amended instantly, at any time. This makes it very easy to tweak mid-campaign to include latest offers, price cuts, new products, etc.

• It can be instrumental in the success of your digital marketing strategy as the keywords that provide the best ROI can be found using Adwords and then incorporated into long- term search, social media and content campaigns.

• With a well-managed Adwords campaign, users’ searches provide you with highly targeted leads at a very low cost.

• The performance of any Adwords campaign can be accurately and thoroughly measured, providing info on how many times the ad was shown, how many times it was clicked and how many clicks are converted into defined goals (sales, completed registration forms, files downloaded, etc.).
  

So, getting back to the point of this post, I wanted to find some good, basic video tutorials to help make advertising on Google seem less frightening.

Below is an excellent introduction to the ad auction by Google's chief Economist, Hal Varian. Hal does a good job of explaining how the amount you actually pay per click for your ad is determined.

The second is actually a Google University presentation for Adwords beginners. This explains everything you need to know to get started with Adwords and can also provide more seasoned users with a healthy reminder of some of the key principles of the platform.

Remember, the key to success with any digital marketing campaign is to target the right audience and ensure the content you deliver to them is relevant to their needs.