Tips For A Better Quality Score In Google AdWords

Whether through good planning or sheer luck, the challenge of successful ppc advertising becomes slightly easier by staying in favour of Google's QS policy. Falling foul of it can open a Pandora's box of problems which are better avoided than cured.

Why do I need to understand AdWords QS? Put simply, there are direct consequences for your advertising costs and campaign outcomes.

Underpinning Google's QS regime in AdWords is what they call user experience (UE) and like a number of Google nuances, there is a degree of ambiguity surrounding a precise definition and measurement of UE.

My own definition of a user is; an internet searcher - who may lack expertise in your product, service or industry - seeking the most relevant information available, quickly and in the least number of clicks. My own definition of good UE is; aligning the page content closely to the expectation in the searcher's mind, then delivering it quickly and in the fewest number of clicks possible.

The benefits of achieving higher QS include:

being awarded a higher ad position, but charged a click price similar to a competitor with a lower QS being awarded a cheaper click price for a position similar to a competitor with a lower QS

Practices with possible positive influence on QS:

unique, quality content on each page; there is a single, identifiable theme for each page; there is an intelligent balance between text and image content on each page; little (or preferably no) 3rd party advertising; offering visitors collateral (such as PDF downloads) without having to surrender their contact details; creating ads which are congruent with both the keywords you are bidding on and the page content you are landing on.

The disincentives associated with lower QS include:

being charged a punitive click price for a position similar to a competitor with a higher QS and; being awarded a lower ad position, but charged a click price similar to a competitor with a higher QS

Practices with possible negative influence on QS include:

duplicate content. Publishing content which appears the same elsewhere on the web is an infraction - affiliate marketers beware! publishing content and navigation which is deceitful or opaque. Page redirects are an example which will see your ad quickly suspended in AdWords; attempting to promote get rich quick or questionable work from home schemes (there are also other categories which are frowned upon;) using an excess of flash animation on the page; making unrealistic claims and using heavy handed sales techniques; failing to declare how personal information collected will be treated; serving pages which are slow to load; bidding on keywords which are too generic or only vaguely related to the theme of the page, and bidding on your competitors' brand names as keywords.

It can be frustrating - occasionally it doesn't seem to make sense - but frankly most of the time it does. Perhaps Google policy contends that UE is higher when the searcher finds the most relevant information available, in the shortest possible time, with minimal navigation steps.

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The Secret To A Flourishing Business - Google AdWords

There is little doubt that most businesses, big and small require the support of marketing to grow. Most small businesses do not have the capacity to afford traditional forms of advertising because of restrictive costs and hence either grow slowly or remain stagnant and perish. In most cases, those businesses that did undertake the traditional forms of advertising either wonder how much they worked or did not work.

With the birth of the internet and, more so because of Google, advertising has become easier, and even affordable. When Google, launched Google AdWords, the advertising media had a new challenger, one which would stay unchallenged for years. Data quickly for analysis, control over ads, budgets, measurement metrics combined with excellent tracking tools make Google AdWords a perfect marketing medium for businesses.

Google AdWords ads are shown on the right hand side of a Google search engine results page under the heading "ads". At times you may find highly relevant ads right on top of the page too. The ads are shown when a potential customer is searching for terms related to those selected by the advertisers for displaying such ads. AdWords follows a unique pay per click model and thus you are charged only when someone clicks on your ad and not when your ad is viewed.

Thousands of businesses have managed to expand and continue to grow with the help of the Google AdWords advertising program which is also popularly known as SEM or Search Engine Marketing or Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. This is a great way for many businesses to drive prospects to their business converting them into loyal customers. This is an excellent low cost medium for wide reach and customer acquisitions.

No matter the stage at which your business is, AdWords can help you get more.

While it's not very simple but its not too complex either. Getting started with an AdWords campaign can be done as detailed below:

• Create an account at http://www.google.com/AdWords. You can use your Gmail id to simply login and create an account.

• Add your billing details like company name, address etc

• Add funds to your newly created AdWords account using credit card/net banking etc (the payment rules and policies may differ from region to region). Remember Google AdWords is a prepay model. You can get an invoice from the AdWords account itself at the end if each month for the amount spent.

• Create a basic keyword list (these are words or phrases which you expect the search engine user to search for when he is in need of a product or service you provide)

• Write keyword relevant ads which will appeal to the prospect

• Now you need a destination page URL where the prospect will be taken when he / she clicks on the ad. This could be a website or a web page specifically created for the campaign. This page is also called a Landing Page.

• Now you need to add the keywords, text ads with URL's to the AdWords account

• While doing this you can select keyword match types "Broad", "Phrase", or "Exact". (Define each in as few words as possible)

• Now you select the target regions (country, state and city)

• Finally you specify the daily spend and the maximum bid amounts for the keywords you have decided to target.

Now you are all set to get started

The above mentioned points are the mere basics and can help you run a small AdWords campaign. A lot more managing and optimizing a Google AdWords account is needed if you intend so invest large amounts in customer acquisition. Given that most businessmen are busy managing their business, one of the options would be to outsource AdWords campaign management to an efficient Internet Marketing agency.

Why should you outsource Google AdWords campaign management?

Setting up, monitoring, and analyzing an AdWords campaign requires a lot of effort. This, calls for expertise and experience to make sure that the error ratios are low and decision are implemented asap. Outsourcing allows the businessman to concentrate on other business and management issues. An Internet Marketing agency is well equipped with experts and technology and is always up to date on the latest developments which allow them to provide better value for the marketing money spent.

Choosing Pay Per Click or Organic Search   Pick Up Business With The Right Kinds Of Internet Marketing   Creating a Sales Funnel for a New Product: Part I   PPC Campaigns - The Mistakes to Avoid   

6 Google AdWords Tips Just For You

While AdWords seems to be the only game in town for PPC marketing these days, it is just as easy to lose with AdWords as it is to win. Here are some basic Google AdWords tips you'll want to follow as you venture out into the world of AdWords.

1. Avoid Broad Matching to begin with. Broad matching means that if you list a keyword like soda pop in your list of keywords, then your ad could appear any time a user searches for either soda or for pop as well as for soda pop.

You ad may also appear when they search for related terms, like seltzer water, or something else that may or may not connect to your site.

Expanded match is for experienced advertisers, those who are acquainted with negative keywords and focusing a campaign, and may be used by lazy advertisers who just don't want to take the time to really cull good keywords. If you're neither of those, then forget the broad matching.

2. The next of the Google AdWords tips is to make use of the Dynamic Titles option. These are easy to do, don't add any cost to your ads, and are generally effective at gaining clicks and conversion. The exact phrase entered by the individual who initiated the search will be used as the title of your ad.

In order to utilize this feature, simply put {keyword:your backup title here}. This also saves you the trouble of coming up with a new title for each ad.

3. Use some global negatives to narrow searches. For example, use 'Free' as a negative search word if you have a product to sell, not give away. It seems a bit obvious, but if you do some sample searches, you'll discover that it's a real problem.

You can do this for other words that you don't want to waste an ad on. If you are trying broad matching, then you'll definitely want a long list of negative keywords.

4. Avoid using the 'content targeting' and 'search network' features until you are well acquainted with Google. If you don't know anything about a site, you probably won't profit from it. Each varies widely on conversion rates and CTRs. If you ask for Google AdWords tips, you will often hear the advice to avoid advanced features at first.

5. Don't rely on the default positioning for ads. You want to try different positions for your ads and different keywords for different locations. You need to know where your ads work the best.

The only way to find out is to test the ads in different positions. Think about your return on investment needs (ROI) and test each ad to see in what position it is most effective.

You can also run tests with different ads. Rewrite your copy several times and see which version brings in not just the most clicks, but the highest ROI.

6. Perhaps the most useful of the Google AdWords tips here is to optimize the landing page for each keyword term. If you're selling photographs, you should have a different landing page for 'flowers' and another for 'landscapes' while still another for 'portraits,'

You don't want to use your home page for the landing page for each search term unless it specifically deals with what you're selling.

If you follow these Google AdWords tips, you're likely to have more success with your AdWords campaign.

Choosing Pay Per Click or Organic Search   Pick Up Business With The Right Kinds Of Internet Marketing   Creating a Sales Funnel for a New Product: Part I   PPC Campaigns - The Mistakes to Avoid   How to Create a PPC Ad in Microsoft AdCenter