For the uninitiated, Google Adwords are the ads on the top and side of Google when you enter in a search. Entrepreneurs are constantly seeking to rank their website at the top of every search, but there are certain things that you need to know before getting started with Adwords. Here are three to get you started.
1. There are three types of keywords
In the online world, there are three types of keywords that consumers use when searching online that business owners need to keep in mind. First they do their research, then compare products and then search with the intent to purchase.
Research phase: In this phase, the person often has no idea what they want, searching only for generic and simple terms. Here they’ll learn about all kinds of brands and functionalities available, but they have no idea what brand they want yet.
Comparison: From the search results for generic terms, things start to get more specific. Now the consumer is reading reviews and pitting two products against each other.
Buyer: A customer often has their credit card sitting next to the keyboard as they’re searching. That’s why you need to come up with the right keywords that they are searching for. Most people know exactly what they want, just not where to find it. So they search. Using specific keywords. You can always tell you have a ‘buyer keyword’ when they use the following:
- Colour
- Size
- Make
- Model
- Brand name.
These are keyword phrases that people use with specific things about the product. If you know these keywords, you should be bidding on them as they usually lead to sales.
2. Try dynamic keyword insertion
You can save time when you use dynamic keyword insertion. Rather than writing lots of ads, you can shortcut the process by putting {keyword} in the ad. It can be used in a number of different places.
- The headline
- The description lines
- Display URL
- Destination URL.
Let’s say you have 1 000 keywords and you don’t want to write 1 000 different ads. All you have to do is add {keyword} and your desired keywords will appear. In most cases the keyword or keyword phrase will be the one the searcher just used while searching in Google.
In case you have a keyword that won’t fit in the ad, you can set a default word. If your default word was banana, then you do the following: {keyword:banana}. There isn’t a space between the colon and banana.
3. Ad position doesn’t affect CTR
Because I’m going to get a lot of slack for saying this, I want to make sure that you read this carefully. The range of ad position for the first page of Google is one to eleven. I’ve found that click-through-rate (CTR) isn’t affected by the ad position. Note that it doesn’t affect quality score either.
How can I make such a claim? Google bolds the keyword that is being searched for by a user. If I search for ‘Insurance’, the results will be bolded in search results.
A user sees your ad and sees that it’s relevant to them. The CTR will be the same, regardless of ad position. Make sure your keywords are in the ad somewhere, and preferably the title.
