Google Advertising Tips

More than 200 million times a day, people use Google and its partner sites to find what they're looking for. Today, Google and Yahoo! are the dominant search engine and PPC advertising players on the Internet. So if you are looking for keyword related 'qualified' leads for your business related site, then it makes reasonable sense to consider using Google's current advertising tools.

Google AdWords™ enables any Web site owner to manage their own account or an Internet advertising agent to manage it on behalf of the owner.

With Google AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to tell Google's software where to show your ads and you pay only when someone clicks on the ad.

Google AdWords provides matching options for search keyword terms that allow you to refine your ad targeting, reduce your cost-per-click (CPC) and increase your ROI. While you can set your own daily budget and stop your ad at any time, there are some pitfalls for the uninitiated. In this regard, it is absolutely vital that you clearly understand Google's specific matching types and how they impact your costs and the type of referral.

Here are descriptions and examples of each keyword matching option reproduced from the Google help pages:

Broad matches.

If your keywords are broad-matched, your ad will show for all searches that include those keywords. Unless you select a different matching option using the special characters noted below, your keywords will be broad-matched by default. For example, tennis clothing will match tennis clothing sales & or and clothing for tennis tournaments etc.

Phrase matches.

If your keywords are phrase-matched, your ad won't show unless the user's search terms are in the same order as your keyword phrase specifies. Surround keywords that you'd like to phrase match with quotation marks (" "). For example, "tennis clothing" will show your ad when a user searches on red tennis clothing but not clothing for tennis tournaments.

Exact matches.

If your keywords are exact-matched, your ad won't show if the user's search includes any words besides the exact keyword or phrase that you've specified. Surround the keywords that you'd like to exact match with square brackets ([ ]). For example, [tennis clothing] will keep your ad from showing for searches on tennis clothing sales.

Negative matches.

If your keywords are negative-matched, your ad won't show if the user's search includes that word. Add the negative character (-) in front of the keyword you'd like to exclude. For example, if your keyword is tennis clothing and your negative keyword is -red, your ad will not show when a user searches on red tennis clothing.

Broad matching is the default method of keyword targeting for Google AdWords. If you choose this option, we recommend using the keyword suggestion tool and the other matching options to further refine your targeting. Broad matching allows your ad to appear for many searches that include your keywords without having to enter every possible combination in your keyword list. Your ad may be shown for searches that are not as well targeted or as useful as you might like. Be sure to create negative keywords for the terms that do not pertain to your business. This gives you more control over who sees your ads so you won't pay for clicks that are unlikely to produce well-targeted results.

Google AdWords™ recently launched "the next generation of broad keyword matching" according to them. Broad matching includes an expanded match capability that will automatically display ads for related terms, including plurals. Google claims that expanded broad matching will give you control over your keywords and free you from labouring over the perfect keyword list or wondering if you've missed an important term or phrase. It is the opinion of WCR that this new broad matching helps Google a lot more than the advertiser, in many instances. There are hidden dangers in the overuse of this feature. WCR recommends exact matching and specific max. bid rates per keyword in many instances.

The various keyword combinations for which your ad may appear through broad matching may have been targeted by other advertisers at higher CPCs. You could end up paying a high actual CPC for these words, which could increase your average CPC. Using exact, phrase or negative matches helps you keep your costs low.

We encourage you to experiment with paid advertising -- don't be afraid of it. Better still, pay WCR to experiment for you and let us take the risk out of it for you. Even shoestring e-merchants need to spend some money to make money. Your goal is to find an effective form of advertising for your goods and services that is affordable from a cost-per-sale perspective and therefore sustainable on a month-to-month basis.

When one of our clients is on an optimal Web Marketing Plan, we use the monthly income to design PPC advertising campaigns, working with copywriting skills, click-path analysis, link building and advertising skills to bring relevant, qualified leads to your business.

Your internet advertising campaign is ongoing, which means your businesses exposure online is continually growing.

Find out more about our internet advertising and marketing services.