How to market your website

Google AdWords

This information is a follow up to the web site marketing training I recently gave in Bristol. If you're unfamiliar with the terms I use here, or if you have further questions on how to make Google AdWords work for you, then please contact me and I'll help.

So, to reiterate, if you haven't been on one of my courses, then this might be a little hard going for you. Even if you have been on one of my courses, you should know that this is a time consuming process and there are pitfalls, but there is a big ROI if you get it right. If you want to get it right first time, I can set it up for you, contact me and I'll tailor make a search marketing package for your organisation.

Enough with the pre-amble, let's get started!

1. Set up Google AdWords

First go to this webpage: https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/Login and if don't have a Google AdWords Account, click "Sign up now"

If you're a beginner here, you should choose "Starter Edition" and "I have a webpage". (If you're tempted to select "I don't have a web page yet", the web consultancy can find a web design team for you, so stop now and get in touch with us). It is worth filling the optional business information, as Google will use it on Google Local Business Centre if you choose to appear there in the future. NB - Throughout Google AdWords you can get more help and definitions by clicking "Help" at the top right of the page.

2. Set up your advert

If you've already signed up to AdWords or Google Local Listings, then your business may well be in their index, in which case your business details will show on this screen otherwise they won't be there, so click the button that is relevant to you.

When choosing territory and Ad language bear in mind your realistic geographical reach. For example a pizza restaurant with a delivery range of 5 miles only needs to select "Bristol", but a company looking to acquire customers in the rest of the UK or world would need to select one of the larger areas available.

Input the URL (web address) of the page where people who click on the ad will be sent. This may not necessarily be your homepage. It is often best to send the visitor to the page that has the most relevant content.

Now, write your ad. Try to ensure you put your main "keyphrase" in the headline or in line 1 for best results. Also, it's good to have some sort of "salesy" type text in line 2, so if you give something away for free or have a seasonal discount include that if possible. However, don't talk about "free offers" on your advert unless they are referred to in some detail on the website, otherwise Google will not allow your ads to run.

3. Choosing your initial sponsored keywords & keyphrases

Google will check your site and your ad, and suggest some keywords.

You can use Google's suggestions or, do what I've done here and add your own. Be quite sparing here as we'll choose more keywords later.

4. Set your Adwords budget

After you have selected your billing currency you will need to choose a budget that you can afford. Google is very clever, so you will never spend more than your daily budget in any given billing period. So occasionally, if your budget is £3.00 per day, you Google might allow a spend £3.50 on a couple of days but other days will only have a spend of £2.50 to make up for this. So go ahead now and choose your monthly budget.

Now complete the final stages of setting up your Google AdWords account.

5. Researching keywords

Once you have completed the account set up, you can look at the volume of searches for some more keyphrases. So before you enter your billing information (you can do this at any time), click on "Review ad first".

You'll now see a list of the keywords you've already chosen, a mock up of your advert and a link that suggests "Add more keywords".

Now there is a screen that you're already familiar with. Here you need to click "Advanced tool".

Insert a keyword or keyphrase in the search box, and press the "Get Keyword Ideas" button.

Using the drop down box, select "Show Estimated Ad Position" and then, again using the drop down box, select "Show Estimated Avg CPC".

Now you can see the terms people are using to search (in the keywords column), where your ad might show, the estimated cost per click, the advertiser competition, the volume of searches last month and the average search volume. In the example shown I'm going to add the second and third keywords in the main list to my list of keywords as they have little or no competition, but reasonable search volumes. Which means that lots of people are searching using these terms, but very few of my competitors are advertising to those people. Therefore my Ads will place higher on the page, for less money! Hurrah! To add them, I simply click "Add" in the last column.

To make this easier clicking any of the column titles will sort the keywords into that order. So, to sort by the ads with least competition click Advertiser competition, click that column title. This will show those keywords with most competition, click it again to view those keywords with the least competition. Bear in mind though, that any searches with a low search volume will not return many clicks, however few competitors you have! Finally click the relevant button on the right of the page, to save the keywords you have selected.

Repeat this keyword researching process as often as you like, and return to it at anytime by logging into your Google AdWords account.

In the future, to get best results you should create one or two ads for each of your products and services (within reason!). Keep your list of keywords quite focussed on just one of your services or product ranges for your initial ad and then select "create another ad", to create more ads. This will require an upgrade to the "Standard Edition". Go to this page for a comparison of the two editions here: https://adwords.google.co.uk/support/bin/answer.py?answer=31774&hl=en_GB

The simplest thing to do now is to stay with the Starter Edition, provide Google with your billing information to get your ads running. Once you're happy that you have an understanding of how making changes to your budget and ads have an impact on your number of visitors and conversion of those visitors to customers, then it's probably worth upgrading to the standard edition.

If you would like to get Google AdWords sorted right now, until December 31st 2007 I can set up your Adwords account, research the best keywords for you using even more powerful tools, suggest a daily budget and create and optiimise your first 3 adverts for just £200. PLUS Google will give you £50's worth of free clicks if you work with me, subject to status and while stocks last! Call 0845 643 0977 or email me for more details.

website health plan search marketing website usability website accessibility website security online marketing website planning

home services about us contact us blog