Getting started with Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a cost-effective and easy means of pulling in targeted traffic to your website.

With a reasonably small amount of work and a little experimentation, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to significantly raise the number of downloads and sales from your website.

If you don't yet have an AdWords account, we recommend that you open one as soon as possible. Below are a number of tips to get you started.

First of all, a little planning.

The system is based on keywords of your choosing. People run a search for a keyword that you've selected, and the ads get displayed. You get charged according to the number of times the ad or ads are clicked.

The ads are setup in the following format:

Headline - 25 characters
Line 1 - 35 characters
Line 2 - 35 characters

The number of characters is in fact very limiting. The most important point is to have the ads contain as much info as possible.

A common mistake is that people try to lure in the visitors by implying that the software is free. Bad idea. You'll be bringing people in who will then not be interested in paying, and you'll be paying for each one of them.

A good ad is all about striking a balance.

You have to make sure that the ads are eye catching, that they contain enough information, that they make people click them, and that you conform to all of Google's rules!

I think the first step should be to create some ad ideas.

Google have a few tools to help here. Details:

https://adwords.google.com/select/tools.html

You should also take a look at their guidelines for what they will and won't allow:

https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html

There's also an excellent FAQ:

https://adwords.google.com/select/faq/index.html

And a good overview of the steps:

https://adwords.google.com/select/steps.html

Personally I wouldn't bother setting up the account until you're ready to go.

Once your ads are ready, create the account, and set them all up.

It's also important to setup some basic tracking for each ad, so that you can see exactly how each is doing.

Click on the campaign name that you wish to edit.

Then click on the name of the group you wish to edit.

Check the box next to "Keyword" so that all keywords are checked, and click on the button labeled"Edit CPCs/URLs".

From here you can set a custom destination URL for each.

So for example, you can set the four bids as follows:

http://yourdomain.com/index.htm?ref=ad-01

http://yourdomain.com/index.htm?ref=ad-02

http://yourdomain.com/index.htm?ref=ad-03

http://yourdomain.com/index.htm?ref=ad-04

Each of these will then show up with a distinct URL, enabling you to track each separately as required.

From this point on, it's a case of regularly logging into your AdWords account to see how each ad is performing, and comparing this with what you see in your log analysis.

A basic example:

Ad 1 is sending 200 people/day at a cost of $0.15 per visitor. Log analysis shows that these visitors spend an average of 8 seconds on the website, and only 1 in 150 downloads the trial version of your software.

Ad 2, on the other hand, sends around 10 people/day at a cost of $0.50 per visitor. Log analysis shows that these spend an average of over two minutes on your website, and around 1 in 5 download your software.

It's pretty clear which is the more productive of the two ads. Don't be misled by simple click counts and the cost per click. These are only part of the overall picture.

With regular monitoring, analysis and experimentation, there's no reason why you shouldn't be comfortably raising your daily budgets way beyond your original expectations. Be seen, be sold.