why Adwords

1. We hav e previously discussed how theAdWords interface has a three level system, which comprises of the Account level, Campaignlevel andAd Group level.
Let’s take a closer look at the campaign and ad group level here:
 At the ‘campaign’ level, a user can create a new campaign, assign an appropriatebudget, set network, language, location and other settings that
control when and where y our ads will show.
 At the ‘ad group’ lev el, a user can create ad groups. Each ad groupshouldcontain a tightly themedset of keywords that are relevant to the ad texts
contained in that group.
Remember! It’s important todefineyour advertising goal prior to create your campaigns and ad groups. Once your campaigns are running, your goals shouldbe
kept in mind when managingthe campaigns, reviewing statistics and making changes.
Some common advertising goals can include: increasingthe flow of traffic to your website; boosting sales; increasing awareness of your brand or meetingspecific
ROI goals. Depending on the goal you may have in mind, you can use AdWords reports and statistics to benchmark your performance and strive to get the best
perf ormance from your ad campaigns/advertisingbudget.
Account organisation is of paramount importance with AdWords, It’s important to focus on structure from thebeginning.
You should have separate campaigns for different products, and for different geographic locations. Each of thesecampaigns should contain tightly themedad
groups and keyword lists that are relevant to yourad text.
Try ing to restructure a badly set out account at a later date can have a negative effect on performancebecause you will lose someof thevaluable datayou have
accumulated on the account when edits are made.
Google recommend that campaigns can be most effectively organisedby mirroring the structure of thewebsite that youwant to advertise. Campaigns canbe
created and organised to represent thedifferent products you sell, with each ad group focusingon the different types of the specific product. Forexample, a
campaign that sellingladies socks could havethree ad groups: one forthermal socks, another for trainer socks anda third for knee high socks. Getting the
structure right is essential to thesuccess of your advertisingefforts with AdWords.
Creating Campaigns
During the campaign creation process, you will nameyour campaign, chooseall of the essential campaign settings that will control the network(s) in whichyour
ads can appear, as well as geographic locations andlanguages forthe targeting of your ads. You will need tospecify your campaigns daily budget amount and
add a def ault bid amount, and you will have the option to createad extensions and use advanced settings such as ad scheduling and advanced delivery methods
too.
When y ou choosea campaign ‘type’, you will also need to choose a ‘subtype’which will affect the availability of certain features and functions withinyour
campaigns. Google Search andDisplay network campaign types and subtypes currently include the following:
Campaign type Sub-Type
Search Network only Standard
Search Network only All Features
Display Network only All f eatures
Search Network with Display SelectStandard
Search Network with Display SelectAll f eatures
Search Network only Shopping
Search Network only Call-only
Search Network only Dy namic Search ads
Display Network only Mobile Apps
Display Network only Remarketing
Display Network only Engagement
It’s important to remember that youcannot switchbetween certain campaign types within AdWords, for example you cannot switch from a ‘Search Network only’to
a ‘Display Network only’ campaign type, or vice-versa. You also cannot switch from a ‘Display Network only’ to a ‘Search network with Display Select’ campaign
ty pe or vice-versaeither.
Switching f rom one campaign subtype to another canalso cause certain issues, such as features that youwere previously using becoming unavailable.
For example, switching from a ‘SearchNetwork only - All Features’ campaign type and subtypeto ‘Search Network only – Standard’ campaign type and subtype
can remove the ability to usethe ad scheduling feature or select a delivery method, as well as many other features too.
Campaign Delivery Method
As mentioned above, you can choose a basic delivery method during campaign creation: eitherstandard or advanced.
 Standard is the default option, the aim of the standard setting is to make surethat your budget is evenly used throughout the entireday.
 The adv anced option should be selected if you wish your ads to show your ads as quickly as possibleuntil your daily budget is reached.
There are also adv anced delivery settings which will affect how often particular ads in your ad groups are shown dependingon what you want to achieve. There
are f our ad rotation settings available: ‘optimize for clicks’ or ‘optimize for conversions’, which will show ads that are expected to deliver the highest amount of
clicks or conversions, respectively. Rotate evenly will show ads evenly for 90 days and then automatically optimize based on account data, and rotate indefinitely
will show the higher and lower perf orming ads at an even rate with no optimization.
Campaign statuses to be aware of
There are a number of statuses that can be displayedin the status column of your campaigns. These statuses include: Eligible, Paused; Removed; Pending;
Ended; Suspended and Limited by budget. To pause, delete or enablea campaign, you shouldselect the check box next to therequired campaign titlein the list,
and complete your action by choosing the appropriate optionfrom the ‘edit’ drop-down. Statuses suchas Pending; Ended; Suspended and Limited by budget will
each require specific action that will depend on the status that you seefor your campaign.
Tip: Can y ou see all of your campaigns listed when you view the table on thecampaigns tab? If not, you can adjust your view of this table to view either ‘all’, ‘all
enabled’ or ‘all but deleted’ campaigns.
Creating ad groups
The purpose of an ad group is togroup theads you havecreated by their theme. An ad group contains its own list of keywords, which should tightly match the
theme of the ad text.

2. Upon clicking the ‘+Ad Group’button, the AdWords system requires that you name thead group, write yourfirst text ad and add a list of appropriate keywords. If
y ou have chosen the manual bidding option, you will also be required to state thedefault bid* for the ad group. Next, you will want to givethis ad group more text
ads and possibly keywords too. To add more ads you can click the ads tab and then select the‘+Ad’ button. To add more keywords, choose the ‘+Keywords’
button.
*If usingthe manual bidding option: Do youplan to set keywordlevel bids? If so, it’s important to remember that these keywordlevel bids will override the ad group
def ault bid that you haveset.
Ad group def ault bids canbe editedindividually at thespecific ad group level, and also from thead group list of the ad groups tab under the column ‘Default Max
CPC’. Keyword level bids can be set for each individual keyword by clicking the monetary figure in the ‘Max CPC’ column for yourchosen keyword. You should
leav e the field blank if you wish to use the default bid amount.
Tip: You can alsoset and use bid adjustments togive more control over where and when your ad shows. You can raise or lower your bids for ads that can appear
f or certain locations, days and times, and mobile devices.
Ad Group statuses to be aware of:
There are a f ew statuses that couldbe displayed in the status column for your ad groups. These statuses include: Eligible, Paused; Removed; Incomplete;
Campaign Paused; Campaign Removed, Campaign Suspended; Campaign Ended and CampaignPending. To pause, delete or enable an ad group, you should
select the checkbox next to the required ad group title in thelist, and completeyour action by choosing the appropriate option from the ‘edit’ drop-down. Statuses
such as Incomplete; Campaign Paused; Campaign Deleted, Campaign Suspended; CampaignEnded and Campaign Pending will each require specific action that
will depend on the status that you see for your campaign.
You do not have to drill down tothe specific campaign level to view thestatus of its ad groups. It’s possible toview the status of all ad groups in an account by
clicking ‘all online campaigns’ and thenselecting the ad groups tab. This will present a list of every ad group available with its status displayed in the appropriate
column.

3. Targeting your ads
Language and location targeting
Location targeting settings allow you tochoose the geographical locations in which your ads can appear to users online. Languagetargeting settings allow youto
show y our ads to users who speak thelanguage that your ads are written in.
Bef ore choosing your location and language settings, ask yourself: Where are your customers likely to be based? It’s vitally important to the success of your
campaigns to choose appropriate areas to target.
You should ensure that you target users who speak the same language that you have usedto write your ads, because GoogleAdWords will not translate yourads
into other languages.
The AdWords system will use either the searchers physicallocation, or the location they have shown interest in, to show your ads. The AdWords system
determines a user’s physical location by either IP address or device location for mobile devices. Location of interest can be determined by whether a searcher
includes the location name in their search term, uses a country specific domain for the search, uses Google maps to search a specific area or sets a custom
location f orGoogle Search results. By default, the AdWords system will target using both methods unless you specify otherwise within the ‘advanced location
setting’ of the campaign.
When choosing locations to target in AdWords, you can select countries, specific areas within a country, radius targeting or location groups. This allows you to
make sure your ads will only be seen by the users in theareas you want to do business.
Location exclusions can alsobe used to exclude certain areas where you do not want your ads to show.
For example, if you have targeted the state of Floridawith yourcampaign, but you cannot provide your product or service to the Southern-most counties of
Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe, youcan still target the state of Floridain locations, but you would need to exclude the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade and
Monroe.
Keywords
Key words are a vital component of an ad group. When creatinga keywordlist in your ad group, it’s important to think about theterms a user would usewhen
searching online for the product or serviceyou offer. When a user performs a search, your keyword should match as closely as possible withthe users search
query in order for your ad to trigger. Relevant keywords are vitally important, youdon’t want your ad toshow in response to an irrelevant query.
Each key wordis reviewed by the AdWords system for relevancy and performance amongst other factors and it is awardedwith a Quality Score.
You can pause, enable and remove keywords depending on how effective they are in your ad group. You canapply changes toindividual keywords, you can also
make bulk changes using the check boxes next tothe keywords and the Edit menu to either pause, enable or remove them. When you edit keywordtext, the
prev ious keywordis removed, and the keywords historical statistics will only show with the removed keyword. The edited keywordstatistics will start fresh.
Key word match types allow youto control which types of searches triggeryour ads to show. There are a variety of match types available, and advertisers can
choose to add matchtypes to individual keywords as appropriate. Notice the different keyword match types below and the way in which they have been written:
Broad match
+Broad +match +modified
“Phrase match”
[Exact match]
-Negative match
Keywordson the Display Network
When running Display network campaigns, if youwant to choose specific sites or pages of sites where you can display your ads, youcan use Managed
placements. This allows youto add specific site URLs where you would like yourads toappear.
If y ou don’t want to choose specific sites, but want to appear on any sites that are relevant to your specific product or service, you can use Automatic placements.
This allows y ou to use keywords in your ad groups, which are then used to match your ads with relevant sites on theDisplay network.
Key words and placements can work independently of each other as mentioned above, but they can also be usedtogether. When they are used together, the
specif ic site URL you have stated will ensure that the ad only shows on that site, and the keywords will ensure that the ad only shows when the pages display
content that is relevant to your keywords.
Other targeting methods for the Google Display Network
It is possible toadd othertargeting methods to Display Network campaigns and ad groups, such as topics, interest categories, remarketing, ageand gender.
Something to consider
Key words work differently depending on whether they are used on theSearchNetwork or the Display Network. Keywords on the SearchNetwork are used to
match your ads to theSearch queries that users submit. Keywords on the Display Network are used to decide whichpages of content are a best match before
display ing your ads on those pages. Also, it’s important to note that keyword match types cannot be used on display network only campaigns. For this campaign
ty pe, all keywords will be treated as broad match keywords. Keywords are not case sensitive either, they will match with a user search query regardless of whether
the search query uses upper or lower case letters.
It’s important to pay attentionto thestatus columnof your keywords tab. As well as giving you general information about whether the keyword, ad group or
campaign is active, it can also alert you toa number of different issues that may need addressing. These issues caninclude disapproval, sitesuspension, below
f irst page bid estimate and rarely shown due to quality score. Eachof these statuses would require actionto address them.
When a key word is ‘below first page bid’, you may not always find that its worth raising the bid to the suggested amount. You will need toassess the worth of this
key word before changing your bid to determine if the extra cost is justified.
When a key word displays the message‘low search volume’, it will not triggeryour ads to show because the keyword is not used as a searchwith very often. It is
howev er possible for these low traffic keywords to become active and start to trigger ads, if activity on that search term picks up. Remember, you don’t necessarily
need to take action with low search volume keywords.
Any keyword withthe status ‘site suspended’ should be addressed with urgency. Details of thesuspension can be revealed by hovering overthe status bubble.
The suspension must be addressedin accordance with the appropriateAdWords policy which can be found in the AdWords policy centre.
If a keyword status shows ‘rarely shown due to quality score’, you should modify or delete the keyword. It’s not considered good practice to retain low quality score
key words on your account.

4. Budgets and Bidding
Budget is set at the campaign levelwhen using AdWords, and when choosingyour budget amount you will need to enter a figure that you are comfortablewith
spending per day . The amount you enter can be edited at any time, there’s complete flexibility when setting a daily budget.
Daily Budget
The most common senseapproach to deciding a daily budget can be to decide an amount that youwant to spend on the advertising campaign for the month, and
div ide that figure by 30.4, whichis the averagenumber of days in a month. This will giveyou a figure that youcan enter into your daily budget f ield. Upon setting
y our daily budget for your campaign, you can be assuredthat yourcampaign will stop running for the day if the charges accrued meet thedaily budget limit you
hav e set. This system allows the advertiser to be in complete control of their spending limits.
Note: Because user traffic has a tendency to fluctuate, this can mean that campaigns can get more traffic on some days than others. Because of this, the
AdWords system can allow up to 20% more clicks than the daily budget would permit on higher traffic days, to compensatefor lower traffic days where the daily
budget was not met. Regardless of this 20%, an AdWords advertiser will never be charged more thantheir campaigns daily budget amount multiplied by 30.4.
When setting your budget, you will alsoneed to choose your basic biddingstrategy. The available options are Manual bidding or Automatic bidding. If you choose
manual bidding, you will be able to set andmanage yourown cost-per-click bids, which you can control at the ad groupand keyword levels. Choosing automatic
bidding will only allow y ou to set a daily budget amount on the settings page. Youwill have the option to set a bid limit later.
Deciding on a bidding option and setting bids
When adv ertising with Google AdWords, the bidding options available that can be suitedto most advertiser’s goals are:
 Cost-per-click bidding:If you are focused on driving traffic to your site, cost-per-click bidding(commonly abbreviated to 'CPC' bidding) allows you to
pay f or every click through to your site from your AdWords ad. This bidding option can be usedon the Search Network, and the Display Network too.
This option is av ailable as 'Automatic' or 'Manual'. With automatic CPC bidding, you can set your daily budget and maximum CPC bid amount, and the
AdWords system will determine and adjust your cost per click bids as necessary. Google advise that Automatic Cost Per Click bidding will bring the
most clicks possible for yourstateddaily budget. With Manual CPC bidding, you set your own bids at the ad group level, as well as for specific
key words or placements too.
 Cost-per-thousand impressions bidding: If you want to get your brand message in front of as many people as possible andyou are not so
concerned about clicks through to your site, cost per thousand impressions bidding (commonly abbreviated to 'CPM' bidding) is a good choice. You
will only pay each time your ad accrues 1,000 impressions (views). This bidding option is only available on the Google Display Network. CPM stands
f or 'Cost Per Mille' whichmeans 'Cost Per Thousand'in Latin. CPM bidding will let youset your own bids at either the ad group level, or forindividual
placements.
 Cost-per-acquisition bidding: If you want users toclick through to yoursiteand complete a specific action (such as a purchaseor a subscription
sign up) y ou can use cost per acquisition (commonly abbreviated to 'CPA'bidding) bidding. Whenchoosing the CPAbidding method, you set a
monetary amount that you are prepared topay for your conversion. However, CPA bidding canonly work when conversion tracking is set up, and it’s
recommendedthat conversion trackingshouldbe running for at least a couple of weeks beforeyou consider CPA bidding. Once you have at least 15
conv ersions showingon the campaign within a 30 day period, you will be able to start implementing this bidding strategy.
When using manual CPC bidding, you have the maximum level of control over bids for your campaign. You can set bids at the ad group level, or for specific
key words and/or placements. If youchoose toset a bid at the ad grouplevel only, this is known as your ad group default bid. All keywords in that ad groupwill
f unctionin the ad auctionaccordingto that ad group level bid. You canhowever issue specific bids to individual keywords/placements withinthat ad group, and the
specif ic bid you set per keyword/placement will overridethe ad group default bid.
Something to consider:
By setting a maximum CPC bid amount, this ensures that an advertiser will never pay morethan the amount stated for a click on his AdWords ad.
It's also important to remember that advertisers using the CPC bidding method seldom pay the maximum bid amount that they havespecified after an auction
takes place. They only pay the actual CPC amount that is determined after the ads are ranked.
For example, if advertiser A has been awarded position 1 on the page andhas bid $2.00, and advertiser B has been awarded position 2 and has a bid of $1.50,
adv ertiser A will only pay $0.01 more than advertiserB appearing below him, which means that advertiser A's actual CPC would be $1.51.
There are many features and tools within AdWords that canhelp you to decide on appropriate bids and also whether you should raise or lower specific bids,
including the use of the opportunities tab, the bid simulator, conversion tracking and enhanced CPC.
The Opportunities tabcan be used to get ideas for new keywords and make edits to improve your bids and budget. When you navigate tothe opportunities tab,
y ou may find suggestions that are based on your account history. However, if your campaigns arealready optimised, or if you have only recently started running
ad campaigns, you won’t see suggestions in the opportunities tab.
ECPC is a bidding feature that increases yourbid by up to 30%(and never more) if the system deems theauction could lead a sale. It can also lower your bid by
more than 30% if the system determines that an auctiondoes not look promising.
ECPC only works for campaigns that use conversion tracking, because it uses historical click and conversion data to determine whether an auctionis promising or
not. ECPC canbe used on all Search and Display Network campaigns, except for the Display Network – Mobile apps campaign type.
Conv ersions are actions taken on your site by visitors that you as an advertiser find valuable. A conversion can mean a purchase, a sign up, or even a view of a
specif ic page on your website. To measure conversions, you can use the free Conversion Tracking tool available in your AdWords account.
In order to set up and use conversion tracking, you will need to adda snippet of code between the<body> </body> tags of theHTML for theconversion page of
y our website (this page is more commonly known as the“thanks for your order” page). Youshouldnot be concerned if you do not have knowledge of editing
website HTML and Javascript, becausethere aretwo options when generating the code snippet within your AdWords account. You can choose “I make changes
to the code” if you want to add the code snippet yourself, or “someoneelse makes changes to the code” if you want to email the codesnippet tothe person
responsible for managingyour websitecode. Once the code is implemented, and a userclicks your ad and completes a desired action that you have defined as
the ‘conv ersion category’ duringthe conversion tracking set up process, a conversion will be registered for your campaign.

5. Introduction to AdWords
Upon submitting a query intoGoogle Search, results are returned in the blink of an eye. The results comprise of Google ads, and also regular search results.
Search results and ads are not the same. They appear in different positions of the page, look different, and are ranked based on separate criteria:
 Google Ads are different in appearance: they are marked with a small orange box featuringthe word ‘Ad’, and they appear at the top, to the right side
or at the bottom of a page. These listings are paid links, which are created through the AdWords interface.
 Search results are displayedon the middle of the page, they do not have any distinct markings that label them as non-paid links. They are matchedto
the query searched by link and page text relevancy. They are ordered by popularity andrelevanceto the query searched.
There’s a lot that happens ‘behind the scenes’ between the user typingthe search query and before these ads are displayed in the results.
Upon the query being submitted, any ads in the AdWords system that areconsidered relevant to the query are located, and the system determines which of these
ads are appropriate to be shown to theuser based on factors like the ads approval status, language of thequery submitted, location of the user etc. After this
process takes place, the amount of ads that are eligible to the query is smaller, and at this point the system needs todetermine the orderin which the ads should
be shown.
This f inal stage is completedvia an ad auction, whichis not determined solely on price.
With AdWords, you must attain high quality (a high ‘quality score’), as well as stating a suitablebid amount amongst other criteria to achieve a high position in the
search results. This is known as the‘Ad rank’formula.
‘Ad Rank’ is based on Quality score, bid amount andexpected impact of ad extensions andother ad formats. They are matched toa user search according to your
choice of campaign settings as well as by your keyword selection.
An adv ertiser cannever be locked out of the top positionbasedon price. Because of theAd rank formula that is applied when deciding the position in which ads
will appear, the AdWords auction creates an environment where advertisers withlarge or small budgets can have a fairchance at appearingin a prime position on
the f irst page of results.
For example, if an advertiser has a bid of $1.50 and high quality scores, but his competitor has a bid of $2.50 and lower quality scores, he could still achieve a
higher f inal ad rank on the results page than his competitor.
Something to consider:
The Google Search Network and the Google DisplayNetwork - what’s the difference?
AdWords ads canappear on theGoogle Network. However, to really understand what this means, it’s best to look at the different aspects separately.
 The Google Search Network includes Google Search, Google Images, Google maps, Google shopping etc. It also includes partner search sites such
as AOL, which are known as ‘search partners’.
 The Google Display Network is a collection of over 2 million websites, which include GoogleAdSense publisher sites, DoubleClick ad exchange
publisher sites and Google sites likeGoogle Maps, Google Finance, Gmail and blogger.
You can choose to show your ads to users who are actively searching for your products and services using the Google SearchNetwork. You can also gainthe
interest of viewers who are browsing websites but not actively searching for yourproducts when usingthe Google Display network.
Upon signing up for your new AdWords account
You can navigate theHome, Campaigns, Opportunities and Tools tabs from the main pageof yourAdWords account. To navigateto Billing or account settings,
y ou must click the gear icon and select theappropriate title from the drop down menu.
An AdWords account uses a three level system. There are essential actions that must be completed at each of these levels before a campaign canrun. The three
lev els are: Account level; Campaign level; and Ad Group level. In this learningpoint, we will f ocus on the account level.
Remember! At the ‘Account’ level, a user can set a password, complete or edit billing information, edit notification settings, account preferences, and manage
account access of other users.
Because AdWords is extremely customizable, you can change your account language, and change the number format of your account.
It’s worth noting that numberformat can vary by country. For example, in the USA the fully writtendate of 18th February 2014 would be stated in numbers as
02/18/14 whereas in the UK, it would be stated as 18/02/14. The number format setting allows AdWords users in different parts of theworld to display figures in an
appropriate f ormat for them.
The time zone f or an account can in fact only be changed oncein the ‘life’of the account, and must be completed via contacting AdWords support. However, the
currency of theaccount cannot be changed once it has beenset. The time zone setting at the account level affects account administration only as it is the base
time zone setting for your account.
Currency options can vary according tothe country you chose when setting up your account. Only certain currencies can be used in certain countries. Also,
choose y our currency carefully! Because this canaffect your payment options.
Try this:
You can check availability of options usingthe interactive form below:
https://adwords.google.com/select/AfpoFinder
There are a number of ways you can edit your sign in information, including changing your password; making a change to the email address you use to sign in to
y our Google account; adding an additionalemail address that is not the primary email address to sign in to a Googleaccount, you canalso give access to other
Google account email addresses to allow access to yourAdWords account.
Remember! The changes that can be applied to your sign in details will affect thesign in details across all of theGoogle products you use.
When y ou giveanother person access to yourAdWords account, it is very important to fully understand the different types of access that can be granted to a user
and also the different actions that a user couldcarry out on the account as a result of thelevel of access granted.
When granting access toyour AdWords account, thenew user will need a Google account that is not already associated with an AdWords account in order to
successfully gain access to your account.
AdWords account notifications allow you to determine when there is actionrequired on your account, and canbe differentiated by the icon they appearwith.

6.  Alerts with a red triangle: these giveinformation about critical issues that could prevent your account from remainingactive.
 Notif ications with a blue infoicon: these give informationabout new interface features and updates to the AdWords system.
 Notif ications with a yellow light bulb ion: these give suggestions foredits/improvements that could have a positive impact on your campaigns/account.
You will notice that your notifications can be accessed from a bell iconat the top right of your screen. When urgent notifications are present such as alerts, you will
see an exclamation point appear with the bell icon. When othernotifications are present, you will see a number appear close tothe bell icon, which indicates the
number of notifications that require your attention. Upon clicking toview your notifications, eachnotification will appear with a ‘view’ button, and a ‘dismiss’ button.
Critical alerts are always sent as emails toyour Gmail account, but you can choose to opt in/out of receiving other notification types by email if you wish.
There are a large number of terms and abbreviations that are used with reference toAdWords, it’s essential to havea good understanding of what these terms
mean.
You can learn more about theseterms and abbreviations by visiting the AdWords Glossary.