Denver Digital Marketing Strategy: Understanding the Basics of AdWords
July 11, 2018
AdWords is Google’s online advertising program that gives businesses around the world the opportunity to create pay-per-click advertisements. AdWords is fairly simple to use once you’ve found your way around the system. But, it can be confusing at first if you’re not sure where to begin or if you’re not familiar with some of the terms that Google uses to describe different elements of the campaign. If you’re incorporating pay-per-click ads in your Denver digital marketing strategy, these are the basic AdWords terms that you should know:
Campaign
The first thing that you will set up once inside AdWords is a campaign. A campaign can contain multiple ad groups (which will be explained below), and ads. Each AdWords account can run multiple campaigns at once. For example, let’s say you want to promote new products and the markdown of last season’s designer inventory on your website. In this case, you would set up two campaigns. The first campaign would be focused on promoting new products, and the second campaign would be to promote the markdown of old inventory.
Ad Groups
Ad groups exist within campaigns. Each ad group consists of keywords, targeting methods, and budgets for a specific pay-per-click ad. You can have multiple ads within each ad group.
Take another look at the above example. Within the markdown of old inventory campaign, you could have two separate ad groups. The first ad group could be focused on targeting men to shop the men’s sale items, while the second ad group could be focused on targeting women to shop the women’s sale items. Each of these ad groups could contain multiple ads targeted at the same audience. This is often done so marketers can test different copy or landing pages. For example, one ad within the women’s ad group could have a headline that reads, “Last Chance to Save on Designer Brands!” while another could read “25% off TODAY only!”
The Anatomy of An AdWords Ad
You will be asked to fill in the headline, description, display URL, and destination URL of your ad. If you don’t understand what these are, you could easily make a mistake that could affect the success of your campaign. Here’s a basic breakdown of the anatomy of an AdWords ad:
Reference this guide as you create your first ad to ensure you are inputting the right information. Learn more about Google AdWords here.
Daily Budget
AdWords will also ask you how much you want to spend every day, which is known as a daily budget. You will need to enter a daily budget for each campaign that you are running. If you set a daily budget of $10, Google will automatically stop showing your ads for the day once you have hit the $10 budget. It’s possible that you won’t use all of the money in your budget on a daily basis if traffic is low for the keywords that you’ve chosen.
Keywords
The keywords that you choose will determine who sees your ad, so this is a very important concept to understand. Think about your customer and what he is searching for in order to find a business like yours. Thinking back to the example above, customers may performing search queries with phrases such as “discounted designer clothing” or “designer clothes sale.” These are two basic keyword phrases that you can target with your AdWords campaign focused on selling last season’s inventory. This way, every time someone types in these keywords, you may appear as a paid ad the top of the search results.
Quality Score
Google will grade your ads and give each ad a quality score from 1-10. High quality scores will lower the cost-per-click, improve your ad positioning, and make you eligible for other features within the AdWords system.
How are these scores determined? One of the factors that goes into calculating a quality score is the relevance, which Google will determine by looking at the content of your ad and the intent behind users’ searches. If you are targeting people who are searching for “designer clothes sale” with an ad for a food product, Google will lower your quality score because your ad is not relevant.
Another factor Google will consider when determining your quality score is the landing page experience. Google wants users to have a good experience, so they will give you a higher quality score if your landing page is easy to navigate and relevant to what users are searching for.
Ad Rank
You are not the only company that will want to target the keywords that you have selected. How will Google determine which ads should appear when a user enters a set of keywords? Using Ad Rank. An ad’s Ad Rank is a value assigned to your ads that Google uses to determine which ads should appear and where they should be placed. Google calculates your rank by looking at the quality of your ads and the amount that you are willing to bid per click. If you have a high quality score and you are willing to bid more than your competitors, Google will most likely give you a high Ad Rank and put you at the top of the search results. Ad Rank is not a static number—in fact, it is recalculated every time your ad a situation occurs where your ad is eligible to appear in search results and there are other eligible competitors.
Are you ready to launch pay-per-click ads to promote your business? Let the experts help! At Denver Website Designs, our team has helped companies of all sizes grow their business using effective paid advertising strategies. Learn more about our process and how we can help your business grow with a comprehensive digital marketing plan!
Go Back Campaign
The first thing that you will set up once inside AdWords is a campaign. A campaign can contain multiple ad groups (which will be explained below), and ads. Each AdWords account can run multiple campaigns at once. For example, let’s say you want to promote new products and the markdown of last season’s designer inventory on your website. In this case, you would set up two campaigns. The first campaign would be focused on promoting new products, and the second campaign would be to promote the markdown of old inventory.
Ad Groups
Ad groups exist within campaigns. Each ad group consists of keywords, targeting methods, and budgets for a specific pay-per-click ad. You can have multiple ads within each ad group.
Take another look at the above example. Within the markdown of old inventory campaign, you could have two separate ad groups. The first ad group could be focused on targeting men to shop the men’s sale items, while the second ad group could be focused on targeting women to shop the women’s sale items. Each of these ad groups could contain multiple ads targeted at the same audience. This is often done so marketers can test different copy or landing pages. For example, one ad within the women’s ad group could have a headline that reads, “Last Chance to Save on Designer Brands!” while another could read “25% off TODAY only!”
The Anatomy of An AdWords Ad
You will be asked to fill in the headline, description, display URL, and destination URL of your ad. If you don’t understand what these are, you could easily make a mistake that could affect the success of your campaign. Here’s a basic breakdown of the anatomy of an AdWords ad:
- Headline: The headline is the hyperlink text that appears in blue at the top of your pay-per-click ad. This is the first thing that users will see, so it’s important to write an effective headline.
- Description: The text that appears below the link in a pay-per-click ad. This text should tell people why they should click on the link to visit your website.
- Display URL: Your website. This does not have to be the same as your destination URL.
- Destination URL: The URL for your landing page. If someone clicks on your ad, this is where they will go.
Reference this guide as you create your first ad to ensure you are inputting the right information. Learn more about Google AdWords here.
Daily Budget
AdWords will also ask you how much you want to spend every day, which is known as a daily budget. You will need to enter a daily budget for each campaign that you are running. If you set a daily budget of $10, Google will automatically stop showing your ads for the day once you have hit the $10 budget. It’s possible that you won’t use all of the money in your budget on a daily basis if traffic is low for the keywords that you’ve chosen.
Keywords
The keywords that you choose will determine who sees your ad, so this is a very important concept to understand. Think about your customer and what he is searching for in order to find a business like yours. Thinking back to the example above, customers may performing search queries with phrases such as “discounted designer clothing” or “designer clothes sale.” These are two basic keyword phrases that you can target with your AdWords campaign focused on selling last season’s inventory. This way, every time someone types in these keywords, you may appear as a paid ad the top of the search results.
Quality Score
Google will grade your ads and give each ad a quality score from 1-10. High quality scores will lower the cost-per-click, improve your ad positioning, and make you eligible for other features within the AdWords system.
How are these scores determined? One of the factors that goes into calculating a quality score is the relevance, which Google will determine by looking at the content of your ad and the intent behind users’ searches. If you are targeting people who are searching for “designer clothes sale” with an ad for a food product, Google will lower your quality score because your ad is not relevant.
Another factor Google will consider when determining your quality score is the landing page experience. Google wants users to have a good experience, so they will give you a higher quality score if your landing page is easy to navigate and relevant to what users are searching for.
Ad Rank
You are not the only company that will want to target the keywords that you have selected. How will Google determine which ads should appear when a user enters a set of keywords? Using Ad Rank. An ad’s Ad Rank is a value assigned to your ads that Google uses to determine which ads should appear and where they should be placed. Google calculates your rank by looking at the quality of your ads and the amount that you are willing to bid per click. If you have a high quality score and you are willing to bid more than your competitors, Google will most likely give you a high Ad Rank and put you at the top of the search results. Ad Rank is not a static number—in fact, it is recalculated every time your ad a situation occurs where your ad is eligible to appear in search results and there are other eligible competitors.
Are you ready to launch pay-per-click ads to promote your business? Let the experts help! At Denver Website Designs, our team has helped companies of all sizes grow their business using effective paid advertising strategies. Learn more about our process and how we can help your business grow with a comprehensive digital marketing plan!