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No Comments Written by Atila on August 27, 2008 – 10:44 am

In February 1998, Bill Gross of Idea Labs launched the first pay-per-click, or PPC, search engine, GoTo.com. The GoTo.com search engine pioneered the process of pay-per-click advertising, which allows advertisers the option of bidding on how much they would be willing to pay to appear at the top of results in response to specific searches.

GoTo.com later became known as Overture, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo and renamed Yahoo Search Marketing. In the fall of 2000, Google followed suit and introduced its own PPC service, Google AdWords. Similar to Yahoo Search Marketing, Google AdWords lets prospective advertisers sign up and show advertisements triggered by keywords on the Google search engine and its syndicate partners. Within the matter of a few years, Google AdWords quickly became the largest and most used PPC advertising platform in the United States and remains so to this day. The basic concept of PPC advertising is very simple. Although the goal of search-engine optimization, or SEO, is to rank “naturally” for any given keyword, PPC allows advertisers to bid against each other for a particular keyword or phrase.

Advertisers therefore compete for the highest ad placement in the sponsored results, which typically appear above and to the right of the organic results. Organic results are the nonpaid results located below the sponsored listings on the center of the search results page. Testing has shown that having both a high sponsored and high organic ranking greatly increases the credibility of your Web site and, therefore, increases the traffic to your Web site. If you think of the search results page as a piece of real estate, a powerful strategy is to get your company’s name onto that piece of property as many times as you can.

Structure an AdWords Account

There are three major levels within a basic Google AdWords PPC account: account, campaign, and ad group. This chapter will help you understand the basic structure of a PPC account, why some advertisers choose to open multiple accounts, and why Google sometimes requires advertisers to do so. AdWords allows you to manage multiple accounts with a Client Center, which is specifically designed for larger advertisers.

Open an AdWords Account

When you open a Google AdWords account, you should be prepared to create your first campaign, ad group, text ad, and keywords. If you have not already created a Web site for your product, you must do so before you can create a PPC campaign. Be prepared to fill in the required information including names for your campaigns and the text ad that will be shown on the search results. You should have a pretty good idea about what you want to accomplish before you begin.

Target Your Campaign

You can use targeting when you want your text ads shown only to a specific geographic area. You can also target specific languages. Google lets you implement advanced targeting strategies, which is one of the major reasons advertisers have embraced the AdWords online advertising platform. Google allows you to target your PPC ads to virtually any geographic location you want, including local, regional, state, national, and international location targeting.

Write Effective Ad Copy

Text ads are the link between your Web site and the search results pages. The more targeted and effective your ad copy is, the more quality customers will be directed to your Web site. There are many approaches to writing ad text. You will want to come up with a few variations and test them against one another. PPC advertising platforms such as Google AdWords simplify the process of creating and testing ad copy.

Set Bidding Strategies

When you set a bid within the Google AdWords platform, you are telling what you are willing to pay for a click. Setting the right bids helps your PPC campaign succeed. There are various bidding strategies that you can choose from; you can explore different options while you experiment with your account. Do not be afraid to spend a little more if the return is worth it.

Run PPC Reports

One of the major benefits of advertising online is robust, real-time, keyword-level PPC reporting. Google AdWords is no exception to this — it lets you run PPC reports on an account, campaign, ad group, and even keyword level. All the information you will ever need to make intelligent decisions is at your fingertips. In order to master PPC advertising, you first have to master the art of reporting.

Using Keyword Matching Options

An important aspect of optimizing your PPC account is selecting the correct matching option for each keyword. There are three main options: broad, phrase, and exact. These matching options determine how much and what kind of traffic your text ads receive. Negative keywords help you eliminate unwanted clicks from users who will not benefit from your site. Whether you are trying to get rank organically or with paid search, the keywords you choose are a large factor in your online marketing strategy.

Track Conversions

In order to run the most valuable reports for your PPC account, you must be able to track what customers are doing when they visit your site. The installation of conversion tracking code on your Web site allows you to track visitor behavior and Web site conversions, including e-commerce transactions, e-mail submissions, lead form completions, or any other conversion that you choose. You can track whatever information is important to you and your online efforts and make decisions based upon this data.

Using Google Adwords Editor

As your AdWords account grows larger, it also grows more difficult to manage. AdWords Editor is an offline tool that allows you to bulk edit and seamlessly manage your campaign so that you can make the most of the time you spend working on your PPC account. The program is offered by Google for free and can help you bulk edit Google AdWords keywords and ad copy. Google Editor is the tool that professionals use, and it is very easy to use even for a beginner.

Optimize Your Account

Do not forget that once you have your account up and running, you still have a lot of work to do to get things moving in the right direction. You must maintain your PPC account on a daily basis if it is going to grow and succeed. Try a lot of different approaches to see what works best based on your particular needs. When you combine all the available options of PPC advertising, you possess a powerful marketing tool that can hardly be matched. Your text ads can reach the widest audience you choose, or the thinnest; the range is up to you. Remember, however, that these accounts cost money in real time.

If you make a change, you need to watch that change and how it affects your account. A careless mistake that slips through the cracks can cost a lot of money before anyone notices. PPC advertising could be a valuable tool in your toolbox if you take your time and build a high-quality account. Combined with your organic traffic, PPC traffic can help you capture all the clicks available for your particular list of keywords. If there is a term you just cannot seem to get your site ranked naturally for, PPC is the answer. The more important thing to remember is to be creative. Find the keywords that nobody else is bidding on. Write the ad copy that sets you apart from the competition. Drive your traffic to the most relevant destination page on your Web site. What you take away from your PPC campaign depends on what you put into it.