Chapter 10. Using AdWords

Creating Your Account

The new interface starts with you selecting the username and password that you would like to use with AdWords. If you already have a Google account (for example, with AdSense or Gmail), you can use that account to create your AdWords account and log in to AdWords.

Some people prefer to use a new login and password just for AdWords and Google (Figure 10-2).

Figure 10-2. To begin creating your AdWords account, choose a username and password

The next step is to set up the economics of your new ad. As shown in Figure 10-3, you’ll need to:

Select time zone country or territory
Select time zone
Choose a currency to pay for your new account

Warning

You need to ensure the time zone is relevant for your reporting in AdWords, as this time zone data is also imported into the Google Analytics reports. The currency or time zone settings cannot be changed after you set up your account.

Figure 10-3. Set time zone and currency preferences

The final step in the signup process is verifying your account via an activation email. After that, you will be able to sign in to your AdWords account using the email address and password you specified. When you sign in, you will be asked to create your first campaign (Figure 10-4) and enter your billing information to start running your ads.

Figure 10-4. First steps in creating your first campaign

First, in the “Locations, languages, and demographics” window (Figure 10-5), choose where you want your ads shown. Google tries to present you with good choices based on what it knows about where you are located (e.g., where the computer you are working on is located). You can always override Google’s suggestions, but it does make sense to carefully select only the area your business serves.

Figure 10-5. You can target customers in areas that Google hasn’t preselected

Note

For quite a few businesses, there are no geographic borders—in which case it makes sense to pick a wide geographic swath.

The initial choices Google offers include:

Country
Specific region, such as a state
Localities, such as a city

You can change the country Google has preselected for you using the “Select a different country or territory” link. You can also choose different areas within a country by clicking the appropriate link and entering a city, region, or postal code, as shown in Figure 10-6.

Figure 10-6. Select a location or multiple locations for targeting

Note

You can choose a language for your ad from the long list of available languages that opens when you select Another Language in the “Locations, languages, and demographics” window. You target multiple languages by selecting the relevant boxes from the list, but AdWords does not translate your ads to these languages.

The new interface allows some advanced settings as part of the standard campaign setup, which includes demographic bidding preferences on eligible content network sites. The next setting requires you to decide whether you want your ads for the initial campaign to show up on both the search and content network (Figure 10-7). AdWords recommends new advertisers select all available sites and devices, including iPhones and mobile devices, to reach the greatest potential audience.

Figure 10-7. Select what networks and devices to target

Bidding and Budget

The new interface requires initial bidding and budget decisions to be made before the selection of keywords or creation of the ads. There are two options for bidding: basic and advanced. Most users will find that the basic option with both optional automatic bidding and a focus on clicks will be suitable for their campaigns (see Figure 10-8).

Note

If you select the automatic bidding option, you are unable to use position preference or accelerated delivery of ads.

Figure 10-8. The new interface allows for basic or advanced options

The Advanced option is more suitable once the campaign has been set up, because you need to set up conversion tracking before you can use the Conversion Optimizer to focus on conversions. If you want to focus on impressions, conversion optimization is available only for content placement campaigns, not for those that are also running on the search network.

The most important step in the setup of your campaign is setting your daily budget. You can increase or decrease this budget at any time by editing campaign settings. AdWords does not give any guidance at this stage as to a suitable budget based on the keywords targeted in your campaign, but it does offer some help in the next step.

Note

The campaign daily budget is averaged over the month, so actual daily spending may vary.

Advanced Settings

One AdWords feature that most people should consider is Schedule, as it allows you to set up multiple campaigns.

Note

If you select to use the automatic bidding option, you cannot use said scheduling.

Frequency capping is useful for controlling budgets for CPM campaigns, so it is available only for campaigns running on the content placement network. This option allows for basic “per day” or “per ad group” settings. See Figure 10-9.

Figure 10-9. Ad scheduling allows for more flexibility when targeting specific customer markets

Creating an Ad

The next step is to create an actual ad using the window shown in Figure 10-10. First, specify the ad that will direct traffic to the website; you can create more ads later.

As you can see in Figure 10-10, an ad consists of the following elements:

The Headline: A Headline appears at the top of your ad and is a hyperlink. When the user clicks the link, she is redirected to the address you specify in the destination URL (specified in “What site will your ad link to?”). With the Headline, you have 25 characters to capture the eye of a prospect.
Two Description lines: Each Description line is limited to 35 characters. The Descriptions are the heart of your ad. Once an ad’s Headline has captured the attention of a prospect, it is up to the Description to provide enough specific information to motivate the prospect to click the hyperlink provided by the ad. It’s therefore important to think through how best to achieve this goal using the 70 characters available (which is not much) in the two Description lines.
The Display URL: The Display URL is the address that shows in the displayed ad, not necessarily the one the ad links to.
The Destination URL: This is the actual address that the hyperlink associated with the Headline element of the ad sends traffic to.

Figure 10-10. Google AdWords are terse, so make sure that every word counts

When a user clicks the hyperlinked Headline on your ad, an address on one of the Google ad servers is opened. The Google ad server then automatically redirects the user to the address you specified in the Destination URL field when you created the ad. This allows Google to meter the click throughs on your ad, so Google can assign you, the advertiser, a CPC-based charge and pay an AdSense CPC-based fee to the website on which your clicked ad appeared, as applicable.

Providing the ability for you to use distinct display and actual (destination) URLs also gives you some flexibility when you create your ads, particularly when you graduate to the Standard Edition and can run multiple ads. For example, you can use this capability to display a single, simple URL for your site while directing click throughs on different versions of your ad to different internal portions of your site.

Warning

Bear in mind that as soon as you enter your billing information, your account is activated, your ad will start running, and you will be charged for it.

Of course, the mechanics of creating an ad are not nearly as important as understanding how to craft an ad that will get people’s attention and make them want to click your link and buy your goods or services, and, at the same time, not violate Google’s editorial policies. (For more on Google’s policies, see the sidebar Google’s Editorial and Content Guidelines.)

Generally, you should realize that AdWords ads are very short. As noted, when you create an AdWords ad, you have 130 characters, including spaces and the display URL. These characters are divided as shown in Table 10-1. This terseness leads to a style that is possibly unique to AdWords CPC advertising, and may account for some of the success of the medium: there’s little room for hype, and you must get to the point.

Table 10-1. Keep the character limitations in mind when you create your ads

Line	Purpose	Maximum characters
1	Headline	25
2	Text of ad	35
3	Text of ad	35
4	Display URL	35

Crafting an Ad

If you stop to think about it, these four lines, with their rigid maximum number of characters, present a writing challenge a bit like that involved in writing a formal haiku (a Japanese poetic form with three lines and a specific, limited syllable count for each line). For example:

Fancy headline leads
Describe, interest, compel
My hyperlink: yes!

Note

Since the fourth line is used for the display URL, your ad really has only the 25-character headline and the 70 characters of text. This compares with the Japanese haiku convention of 5-7-5 syllables in three lines!

You’ll want to abbreviate and be as succinct as possible, while still being intelligible and inviting. The best AdWords ads don’t bang surfers on the head; rather, they appear to provide a solid and calm way to get information or services needed by the reader of the ad (who, after all, has already been prequalified by ad targeting). Good AdWords ads are pared down to the essentials.

The following guidelines are also basic to crafting good AdWords copy:

Try to include the keywords you targeted with the text of the ad.
Short, clear, nonrepetitive phrases work best.
Make sure the words in your ad are all spelled correctly.
Identify your unique selling proposition (what makes your site special?). Refer to Chapter 2 for ideas about creating short pitches that identify your value proposition.
Provide a call to action using words such as “Buy,” “Shop,” or “Join” (e.g., “Join our photo club!”).

For example, the ad:

Shop Wi-Fi Antennas
Large selection, good prices
Immediate shipping

will probably generate a respectable CTR if properly targeted. The ad is clear, simple, and informative and contains a call to action.

In contrast, the following ad for the same merchandise is poorly written and contains too much jargon (although perfectly acceptable under Google’s editorial guidelines). Most prospects will probably be unclear about what the ad is selling and what benefits clicking the link will provide:

Wireless Boosters Blog
IEEE 802 standard devices
Rectify and amplify

Choosing Keywords

The next step is to choose an initial 10 to 20 keywords or phrases that you will be running your ad against, using the window shown in Figure 10-11. The keywords or phrases you select will determine which search results pages your ad appears on. Users will see the ad when they search for the keyword or phrase in Google. If you’ve elected to display your ad on the Google AdSense network as well, your keywords are used by Google to determine relevancy for placement purposes. (See Ad Groups for information about targeting Google search, content, or both with an ad.)

Figure 10-11. Google suggests categories of keywords to make your selection easier

The easiest way to add keywords is to expand one of the categories that Google suggests based on a scan of your site (as shown in Figure 10-11), and add some of the specific keywords suggested. The keywords or phrases you choose will also partially determine the cost of your ad (if the keywords cost more than your budget, then your ad won’t run), as well as its quality score. To make the process easier, the new interface offers a simplified estimated traffic summary to help you understand more about approximate campaign costs.

If you already have a list of specific websites on which you wish to place your ads, the new interface saves you time by allowing you to add managed placements through a simple text box. Later in this chapter we examine in more detail the new layout for managed placements, which are now supported by an enhanced placement tool.