<< INDEX

Chapter 1

Introduction to AdWords

AdWords Basics

Google and Google AdWords

• Google is a search engine
• Google uses keyword based advertising to target your ads to users searching for your product or service
• The text ad headline is limited to 25 characters (including spaces)

Basic AdWords Features

• The CTR helps determine whether your ad is effective
• If you elect to show your ads on the Google content network, your ads will be eligible to show on websites that contain content related to your ad.
• Google ads can be targeted to any language or location available worldwide.

           
Benefits of AdWords

• There is no minimum spending limit with Google AdWords
• AdWords allows an unlimited amount of changes to an account per month
• Google Ads appear primarily on the right hand side of the screen or above the search results and are titled “sponsored links”
• Your ads will appear when a user’s search query includes a keyword that is part of your ad campaign
• You control the budget for your advertising campaign. You can set a daily budget and Google will stop showing your ad when you reach the daily limit.

AdWords Policies

Link Policy

• A Destination URL must
• Link to a working website
• NOT link to website under construction
• NOT require users to download software
• Sites can not have pop-ups on the landing page
• An example of an appropriate URL would be www.gmail.com

Editorial Policy

• Punctuation Policy allows only one exclamation point in ad text
• Google allows certain common misspellings or variations of words in ad text (for example: E-Z or foto). If you can find the word in an online dictionary, it is probably ok
• Prices stated in ad text must be supported within 1-2 clicks of the landing page.
• Free offers in ad text also must be supported within 1-2 clicks of the landing page
• Superlatives are only allowed in ad text if the claim can be backed by a legitimate third party.

Image Ads Policy

• Text in image ads must adhere to editorial policy guidelines
• A display URL is NOT necessary to include in an uploaded image
• Image ads are NOT allowed to be rotated or inverted
• Image ads must be rated family-safe only
• Images must be clear and readable
• No mock animated features may be included in an image ad

Trademarks

• Google trademarks are not allowed in ad text. Google, Froogle, Gmail, Orkut, keyhole, and PageRank are all trademarks owned by Google.
• Advertisers are responsible for their use of other companies’ trademarks in their ad text and as keywords
• Google encourages trademark owners to resolve trademark disputes with advertisers directly, but will begin a limited trademark investigation after all mandatory information included in a claim is received

Copyrights

• Google’s policy on copyright claims applies to ads, search results, and Google group postings.
• You can send a Google copyright claim form by ground mail or by fax

Google Invalid Clicks Policy

• Repeated manual clicking, use of click robots, or automated clicking agents or tools are prohibited
• Invalid clicks are used to inflate publishers’ earnings through AdSense or drive up an AdWords advertiser’s costs.
• Google closely monitors campaigns for invalid clicks and automatically filters them out of any reports before you are charged
• If Google discovers you were accidentally charged for invalid clicks, you’ll receive a credit for those clicks

Identifying Invalid Clicks

• If your web log shows identical IP addresses, it does not necessarily mean you have invalid clicks.
• Possible reasons for increase in clicks:
• Users may be comparison shopping
• AOL, Earthlink, and Comcast assign identical IP addresses to multiple users in the same geographic region
• Your ad may be too general
• Competition may have decreased
• Your ad may have been approved for the search or content network
• Seasonal products may be more desirable at certain times of the year
• Increase in CPC bid will show your ad higher on the page and increase clicks
• You should suspect invalid clicks if:
• Review your account for suspicious activity
• 2 or 3 times normal amount of clicks on a single day
• Number of impressions is equal to number of clicks
• Compare your clicks over time
• If one week is unusually different from another and can’t be explained
• Compare web log to Google reports
• Web logs should not have higher number of clicks than Google reports show
• If you suspect invalid clicks contact click quality control with the following info:
• Campaign, ad groups, and keywords associated with suspicious clicks
• The dates and times of the suspicious clicks
• A paragraph explaining why you believe the click activity is invalid according to trends in logs or reports
• Data in weblogs or reports that indicates invalid clicks

Pricing and Ranking

Paying for AdWords and Ad Ranking

• No minimum spending requirement.
• One time $5 activation fee
• You control your cost through:
• Daily budget
• Bids
• Quality score
• If your daily budget is set to less than the recommended amount, your ads may show intermittently throughout the day, but will not stop showing completely
• Higher quality score = lower CPC minimum bid
• You can set your CPC for each keyword or ad group in your campaign
• Keyword targeted ads are positioned based on rank number
• Rank number is determined by your quality score and CPC bid
• Google determines your quality score by considering:
• Your CTR
• The relevance of your ad text
• Historical keyword performance
• Your ad will never be locked out of top ranking position solely based on price

Terms To Know

Search Engine – A website that gathers and sorts information from the Internet based on a specified topic
Search Field – Input box in the middle of the Google homepage
Search Query – The keyword(s) a user types into the Google search engine to find information on the Internet
CPC – Cost per Click – You are charged every time a user clicks on your ad, but not every time your ad appears in the search results
CPM – Cost per Impression – You are charged every 1,000 times your ad appears on Google whether it is clicked or not
CTR – Click Through Rate – Clicks/Impressions x 100 = CTR%
Keyword Based Advertising – Advertisements that are triggered by users search query
Daily budget – The daily spending limit for an AdWords campaign
Text ad headline – The title of your ad - used to attract users interested in your product or service
Display URL – Last line of an AdWords ad. It indicates the URL of the website the ad is linked
URL – Uniform Resource Locator (also called web address)
Affiliates – People who get paid commission to promote a merchants website
Superlatives – Words that emphasize superiority over others (i.e. Best, Greatest, etc)
Call-To-Action Phrase – Example “Buy here” or “Click here” are not allowed in ad text because they are unrelated to the content of the site
Image Ad – A Google ad that includes an image
Trademark – A word, phrase, logo, or symbol that identifies and distinguishes a product or service from others in the marketplace
Copyright – The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work
Invalid Clicks – Clicks generated through prohibited methods often with the intention of driving up advertiser’s costs
Rank Number: The result of your CPC bid x Quality score
Daily Budget: Spending limit you set on each campaign

<< INDEX

Chapter 1: Introduction to AdWords
Chapter 2: Getting Started with AdWords
Chapter 3: Targeting
Chapter 4: Costs and Billing
Chapter 5: Tracking Ad Performance
Chapter 6: Optimizing Ad Performance
Chapter 7: The Adwords Toolbox
Chapter 8: Google Analytics
Chapter 9: Managing Client Accounts


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