How to Use Google AdWords Effectively

Using Google Adwords effectively is important to marketing success.

As complex as it is, entire novels could be written about how to use Google AdWords effectively. Don’t let that intimidate you, though. As the most powerful and effective pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising option out there, it’s a crucial part of any marketing strategy. By researching the basics of using AdWords before getting started, you can lay the foundation of an effective and lucrative campaign.

Know Your Product

Like most people, you’re probably going to use AdWords to drive traffic to landing pages that will help you sell specific products and/or services. It would seem obvious that you’d need to understand those products and services first, but website owners often fail to give the matter enough thought and doom their campaigns to failure.

Sit down and think about the product you’re trying to sell. What makes it so special? Why should someone buy it from you instead of from your competitors? Jot down the things that come to mind when you ask the question, “Why would I buy this product?”

Know Your Target Audience

Once you have a firm grasp on what your product or service is all about, turn your attention to the people who would actually need, want and use it. As nice as it would be to create a product or service that everyone wanted or needed, that’s just not how it works. You need to come up with a profile of your ideal customer. Think about things like age, gender, income and the like. What does he or she like to do for fun? How might he or she use your product or service? What kinds of things are likely to appeal to him or her? Again, jot down your thoughts while brainstorming.

Develop a Unique Selling Proposition

Now that you know the best things about your product and have identified your ideal customer, you’re ready to develop a unique selling proposition, or USP. This basically boils down to one question: Why should someone buy your particular product from you? Online shoppers are fickle. They can easily click away to competitors’ websites. When your AdWords ads appear, they’re going to need to immediately demonstrate why people should buy the product from you, and that’s where your USP comes into play.

Don’t stop with coming up with a great USP. Write notes as you work on it, and save them. They will come in handy during the next step.

Engage in In-Depth Keyword Discovery

AdWords campaigns revolve around the use of targeted keywords. While setting up your campaign, you’ll have to bid on keywords that will be used to trigger your ads to appear on the search engine results pages.

First, browse through the notes you’ve written during your brainstorming sessions. You’re likely to see some words appear again and again. These are likely to be the basic keywords you should consider.

Next, avail yourself of the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool. Go into Advanced Options and set the location for best results. This tool will help you expand your list of keywords considerably.

Create an Effective Ad

Your Google AdWords ad will consist of four parts: a headline, two lines of descriptions and a visible URL. The rate at which it is shown – and the amount you will pay, or the cost per click – largely hinges on its Quality Score. The Quality Score is heavily influenced by the relevance of your keywords and the text in your ad to your landing pages. Put simply, Google wants people to find what they need quickly. When Google sees that your ads are relevant and useful, it will award them higher Quality Scores, and you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to knowing how to use Google AdWords, but it’s sure to get you off to a great start.