Adwords

What Is Adwords?

Basically, Adwords is a PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising programme run by Google.  Adwords, is the main source of revenue for Google and allows businesses to target their marketing, by places adverts on Google and other websites, that are related to their own niche services or products.  These adverts are usually text ads consisting of a headline and two additional lines, with a link to the advertisers websites.  Banner and image adverts can also be displayed.

Where Are The Adverts Placed?

Adverts are placed on Google's result pages and other websites whom are register with the Google Adsense Programme. (To read more about Adsense, please click here)

If you have ever used Google to search for a specific topic or item, I am sure you will have noticed that on the right hand side and also at the top of the page, there are usually adverts known as 'Sponsored Links'.  These adverts are from businesses who are registered with the Google Adwords programme and will be paying Google every time someone clicks on their advert.  Also, you may have noticed that when you visit a website, there are also adverts saying 'Sponsored by Google', these too are adverts from businesses using the Google Adwords programme.

How Does Adwords Work And Why Do Businesss Use It?

Advertisers bid on certain keywords that determine the ranking of their advert and also how much the advertiser will pay Google for displaying their advert.  Adverts are placed on the Google pages, once a search has been completed. 

For example:  Let's say you went onto Google and typed in the keywords 'hotels Florida'.  Google would display the results of your search.  There could be hundreds of thousands of pages but obviously, every business owner wants their website to be listed on the first page of those results.  Unfortunately, most businesses will have no chance of ever being ranked on the first page, so the option is to use Google Adwords to achieve this.

Remember at the beginning of this article I said Adwords is a PPC (Pay Per Click) programme?  Well, Pay Per Click, simply means that the advertiser only pays Google, when somebody actually clicks on their advert.  Now, if you were a business owner who's business was running a hotel in Florida, you would want to be on the first page of Google when somebody typed in 'Hotels Florida', wouldn't you?  The good news is, with Adwords, you can be but it will cost you and this could be anything from a few pence per click or several pounds per click. 

Obviously, if a certain keyword is typed in to Google a large number of times, the price for that keyword will be higher and I can imagine that 'Hotels Florida' is typed into Google quite a lot everyday.  This means, there will be a huge number of your competitors trying to by these keywords and therefore the bidding wars begin.  The process is fairly simple, you tell Google how much you are prepared to pay per click and if you are the highest bidder, you will be ranked at the top, above your competitors.  Once one of your competitors bids more than you, they will then be ranked above you and you will drop to second place.  If you would like to be placed back at the top, you must be prepared to pay the higher price of which your competitor is paying.

Summery:

Using Google Adwords is a fast and effective way to reach a targeted market and rank your business on the first page of Google.  However, you will need to know exactly how much money you need to calculate how many clicks you need and how much it will cost before you are in profit.  Using Adwords can also be a great way to build your mailing!