Google Adwords

Get Traffic with Google Adwords

Introduction to Google Adwords
Ahh finally ... we get down and dirty with the first paid traffic generation method on TrafficPillar. Without a doubt, one of the smartest things one can do for their business is to invest and grow it and that's what many have done with Google Adwords although not many are doing it the right way. If you've never heard of Google Adwords, it is one of Google's main businesses.

It allows anyone (people like you and me) to get more traffic to webpages and websites by spending money, hence the term PPC (pay per click). In other words, you pay each time your ad gets clicked. So far so good?

Fact is, we can never have too much traffic on our websites. If there is no traffic, there will be no use having a beautifully designed and attractive site.

With truckloads of traffic to your site every single day, you'll be well positioned to land yourself more businesses. Not all traffic is created equal though. To get quality leads, we first need to drive quality targeted traffic.

So what is targeted traffic you ask? Well ... to put it simply, it is traffic that is hungry for your products or services (warm market) and is willing to fork money to get it from you.

One of the best ways to drive targeted traffic is to use an advertising channel such as Google Adwords. It will be worth every cent if done correctly and that is what we hope to help you out with in a bit. It is currently the most widely used advertising method on the Internet. Try doing a search on Google for "car rental" or "auto insurance", I'm sure you'll be bombarded with huge amounts of ads on the right hand side of the screen.

How Does Adwords Work?

First off, you need an Adwords account (goes without saying but just in case). With that done, you need to pay a fee depending on the keywords you're targeting (amongst other factors). You can choose to either prepay or postpay it. It's totally up to you.

With your campaign live and running, each time a searcher searches on keywords that you've targeted, your ad will show up. You don't actually pay for the number of times your ad is seen. Instead you pay each time your ad gets clicked on. That's PPC for you (pay per click).

To drive targeted traffic, you need to use accurate keyword phrases (some call it longtail keywords). Many tools (both free and paid) exist for this purpose but I only recommend one and that is Adwords Analyzer. I use it a couple of times every week and it has helped me to make pretty decent profits so far. Imagine you wanted to market your guitar courses online but have no idea how people are searching for them, that's where tools like Adwords Analyzer comes in. If you can't afford Adwords Analyzer or don't wish to spend for the time being, you can give free tools like SEOBook or WordTracker (free version) a shot.

Tips and Tricks for Google Adwords Success:

1) Don't overspend. Stick to a pre-planned budget.

2) Ignorance is very expensive with Google Adwords and other PPC models. It's wise to invest some money to learn it before going live. Recommended courses mentioned at the end.

3) Learn to spy on your competitor's keywords. There are some free and many paid tools for this purpose. Check out KeywordSpy for a kickstart. Don't do things blindly. When spying on keywords, think about whether they actually relate to your niche business and site.

4) Fine tuning your proper keywords is a must for several reasons. Primarily to get the best ROI (return on investment) for your money. If you have a sports website but you're bidding on keywords such as "increase web traffic" and "get targeted traffic" (this is silly i know but I'm just bringing home a point), I can bet you that you won't be selling anything anytime soon.

5) Another reason for getting your keywords right is the cpc (cost per click) you'll be placing on them. Let's take insurance for example. Insurance has to be one of the most competitive markets around. If you are simply bidding on "insurance", you'll be screwed because you would need to bid upwards of $7 for that (i'm using a conservative figure for this) per visitor. By searching for more specific keywords like "florida home insurance", you only pay $2-$5. And what's more, you're getting your real target audience. With me so far?

6) Start out small in the beginning. Gradually increase as you go along and know what you are doing. A lot of it is trial and error I can tell ya. You'll need to be tweaking your ad groups every now and then to improve your campaigns.

7) As mentioned in point #2, mistakes can be very costly. So start small and be sure you've picked up the basics before even embarking on your first live campaign.

8) As a guideline, set your daily budget at your profit margin. This means if you get a sale that's worth $30 to you, you should not be spending upwards of $30 as your daily budget. Again, this is just a guideline. Once you've proven to yourself that your campaign is working well, only then do you increase your budget.

9) Your ad copy is limited to xx number of characters. Make full use of it by describing briefly your product or service. Every character counts. By clarifying your product or service, people who aren't looking for your product or service won't be inclined to click on your ad and wasting your precious dollars in the process.

10) If you're getting clicks but no sales, the problem has to lie with either your ad copy or keywords. If your keywords are indeed relevant, you need to separate the non-buyers from the buyers crowd by using words like "purchase", "order" and even prices in your ad. This will signal to them that your product costs money and if they're freebie seekers, they should not by clicking on your ad.

11) Don't increase bids on inactive keywords unless you've changed your ad copy for your landing page to increase the QS (quality score). If you increase bids to activate inactive keywords and don't change anything to increase your quality score, it won't be long before your once inactive keyword becomes inactive again.

12) You need to gauge how many clicks you require per sale. For example if your sales conversion is 1% and you make $40 per sale, you should not be spending more than $0.40 as your maximum cost per click (max CPC) otherwise you'll be LOSING YOUR PANTS.

1 click = $0.40

100 clicks = $40

1% conversion on $40 spent = $40 sale (No gain, no loss)

P.S Be sure to pick up the basics of copywriting if you haven't done so ... it's one of the most important skills to have (both online and offline). And it's especially applicable for ad copies.

P.P.S If you've never seen Adwords before, the program basically produces what you see below.