PPC Advertising Explained!

PPC advertising explained! Here I will tell you some things to consider when you set up your first Google AdWords campaign. Because 80% of all internet users have used Google, I think you would agree that it is a good place to start your PPC campaign. Just head over to adwords.google.com with a credit card ready and set up your account.

Once you have your account all set up, you should be in the "campaign management" tab. Click on the "campaign summary" link at the top of the "campaign management" tab (if you are not there already). This is where you will set up a new campaign. Select "keyword-targeted" next to "create new campaign" in the summary area. You can also select "site-targeted" if you would like, but most, if not all of your ppc advertising campaigns will be keyword targeted.

You will enter New keyword-targeted campaign setup. Here you will target customers, create ads, choose your keywords, set pricing and review and save your ppc advertising campaign.

Create a Campaign and an Ad Group

Name your campaign

Name it whatever you wish.

Name your ad group

You will normally set up more than one ad group per campaign. It is a good idea to name each ad group so you are reminded of the keywords they target. For example, if you were running a fitness campaign, you might have one ad group named weightlifting that would target keywords related to weightlifting and another ad group named bodybuilding that would target keywords related to bodybuilding.

Target by language

Obviously, you want to choose English here. Your ad will only show in countries where English is the primary language.

Target by location

Choose Countries and Territories for worldwide campaigns. You may not want to select all countries because you might find you get a lot of clicks from countries where the people cannot afford to buy your product. Since you pay every time they click your ad this can get costly. You may want to only select the US, UK, Australia and Canada.

Create Your Ad (A text ad is the best way to go here.)

Text ads

Image ads

Local business ads

Mobile text ads

Click to play video ads

All of the ads except text and local business ads show on the content network only, not in the Google search engine. The content network consists of websites in Google's AdSense program. Google tries to post your ad on websites where it will be relevant. Local business ads are for those who want to target locally. They allow you to be on Google maps, in the search engine and in the content network. Because you want your ad to show in the search engine, choose text ads. To create your text ad, you will have to fill in the following:

Headline

Description line one

Description line two

Display URL

Destination URL

After filling in the information, but before you move on to the next step, it is always a good idea to create another ad for the ad group. You will be able to optimize your ads more efficiently if you always run two competing ads at the same time and see which one performs better with your keywords. Google will show the ad with the higher CTR automatically (if you tell them to - more about this later). When you select "Continue" Google will test your links and continue with your ppc advertising campaign setup.

Choose Your Keywords

Keyword selection is of the utmost importance to the success of your Adwords ppc advertising campaign. You want good, relevant keywords that are not too competitive so you will be able to bid lower and still get a good amount of traffic. The most competetive keywords are also the most expensive (for obvious reasons). Google does offer some help with your keyword selection. Google will scan your site and show you some keyword categories that they think are relevent to your site's subject matter. You can add them if you like. Google also has a tool that allows you to enter in a keyword and it will show you related keywords. Once you have made your decision as to which keywords to use, add your keywords into the box, each one separated by a carriage return.

Set Pricing

There are two schools of thought on the pricing of PPC ads. One says that you should set your daily budget high and control your spending with your bid prices. This means your ad will show all of the time without interruption, but may mean that you are placed lower in the rankings. The other school of thought says that you should control your spending with your daily budget and set your bid prices higher to put your ad in the 5th position or higher. This puts you on the first page of search results. The idea is that it is best to spend more over a short period than a little over a longer period which thins out your budget. The method you choose is up to you. So, these are your pricing options:

Daily budget

Setting depends on your strategy. When your daily limit is reached, your ad will stop showing shortly after.

Max CPC vs. Preferred CPC

Max CPC: you set the maximum amount you would like to bid. Preferred CPC: you set the amount you would prefer to pay for a click and the system will adjust your ad placement to meet your price the best that it can. The default is Max CPC. If you would like to use the Preferred CPC method, you must click on "advanced settings" and make your selection.

Default CPC bid

Max or preferred depending on what you choose.

CPC content bid

Max or preferred depending on what you choose. This is the amount you are willing to pay to have your ad posted on websites in Google's content network.

You can also choose a different price for content bids, but this is optional.

In the grey box below your pricing options, you will see "want to purchase the most clicks possible" which shows the daily budget and max CPC settings for getting the most clicks. Using this tool can get quite expensive and I do not recommend you use it. You can also click on "view traffic estimator" to see your keywords, their predicted status (active/inactive/etc.), your estimated average CPC, your estimated ad position, your estimated clicks per day and your estimated cost per day. This is a great way to get your costs just right.

When you are done setting your pricing options, review your ppc advertising campaign settings and selections, then save your campaign. You are now up and running! You may want to check your campaign settings to be sure your campaign will run exactly how you would like it to run.

Check Your Campaign Settings

To check on your ppc advertising campaign settings, click on "edit campaign settings" to edit your campaign. You have many options on this page. Here are some suggestions:

Budget options

Best to do standard and show ads evenly over time

Advanced options

Ad serving: optimize, show better performing ads more often (The ones with the higher CTR, we talked about this earlier). This is how you will optimize your ads.

Networks

Check the box labeled content bids because it is best to set separate prices for content clicks so you don't waste money (you may have done this already in campaign setup). You will probably want to set the content bid low unless you find they work well for your product or service. Don't forget to click "save changes" at the bottom.

To see your ppc advertising campaign stats, click on the name of your campaign, then the name of the ad group you want to view. A summary of your stats will be presented to you. You will see summary, keywords, and ad variations tabs here. Click each tab to see that information. For example, you can edit your ads easily by clicking on the "ad variations" tab and choosing the ad you would like to edit.

Now, that is ppc advertising explained! I recommend that you read all of the online help inside Google AdWords to get the most out of your ppc advertising campaigns, but this should be a pretty good start!

"Google AdWords" is the trademark of Google, Inc. Newbie marketing is not associated or affiliated with Google, Inc. in any way.

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