Maximizing Your Paid Advertisement With Google

by Prabuddha S Raychaudhuri

Google occupies nearly 55% of the global search engine market-share. In fact, according to the recent news from the search engine industry, the widening difference of the market-share between Google and #2 Search Engine is a major cause of concern for many people.

So, what is so unique about Google?

• Google’s search algorithms always provide relevant information for any keyword you type in.

• Beside providing its regular search facilities, Google offers other features like  “Google News” (recent happening news throughout the world), Froogle (Google’s shopping search engine) etc which makes it stand apart from other search engines.

• Google has the biggest database in the search engine world. As per the latest news, Google until now has indexed more than 3 billion web pages.

• Google offers the options of free as well paid listings (Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships).

1. What are Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships?

Google offers the facilities through which you can bid for your position for a particular keyword like other Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engines (Example Overture), through its paid services, namely Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships.

Google Paid Advertising - Google offers two online advertising programs: Google AdWords and Google Premium Sponsorships.

Google AdWords - Google's advertising program based on cost-per-click pricing model.

Google Premium Sponsorships - Premium Sponsorship ads run above the search results. These campaigns are based on CPM-based model.

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(Source: www.google.com)

2. Where do sites belonging to the Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships appear?

Sites belonging to Google AdWords Campaign appear in the right hand side of the search pages, with boxes and having “Sponsored Links” as captions whereas sites belonging to “Premium Sponsorships” are placed right at the top of the search results, and just below the blue strip containing “Web, Images, Groups, Directory, News”. No more than two enhanced text links appear at the top of the Google results page under “Premium Sponsorships” whenever the keywords or phrases you have purchased are searched for by one of the users.

3. Reasons why you may opt for Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships

(A)    For getting hits-transformed-to-sales, your site must be ranked within the top 3 pages of the Google. Put in other words, if you are not in the top 30 positions in Google for the keyword(s) that represent your business, then you are missing quality business leads. With Google’s free listing, your site may not always appear in the top 30 search results. But, with Google AdWords, you are guaranteed that your site will appear in the Page #1.

(B)    You get only genuine business leads. For example, say your site is selling footballs and you are running a Google AdWords Campaign. Now, in this scenario, if a person types in “buy football online” and gets to your site, then the chances of the surfer buying your products, namely football, is more. Here the surfer knows what he is looking for --- therefore focused search results in more relevant search results, which ultimately transforms into more genuine business leads. On the other hand, it is often found through log file analysis, that a website gets hits for keywords which are non/less relevant for its business.

Here is a live example of a search engine optimization company. This company is targeting the coveted top 30 spots in Google for the keyword “search engine optimization” for the last 6 months. In fact, it did all the necessary aspects for getting top ranks in Google (e.g. title, description, link popularity etc). But sadly, as of today, it gets hits for keywords like “meta tags writing” which does not bring sales. Herein is the advantage of Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships. You know who your target audience are, and therefore focus your effort in that direction to procure more business leads.

(C)    Google AdWords and Sponsored Listings help you to attain the top spots instantaneously. This is a big advantage. With Google free search listing, your site may take 3-4 months for getting top ranks --- a time-period which you cannot afford to wait. You want instant sales from your site, and that can only be done through Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships.

(D)    Many webmasters do not know much about Google search engine optimization, therefore jeopardizing the chances of the site’s top rankings in Google. However, with Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships, you do not have to pay hefty amounts to various search engine optimization companies for your site-promotion. You can all do it alone.

(E)    Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships are also a “welcome” for some sites, like sites that use Flash etc. Normally many corporate sites prefer using Flash for giving a professional look, thereby hindering the chances for getting top tanks in Google. However, with Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships, you can always use Flash as well get business leads.

4. How is the Google AdWords program different from other Pay Per Click Search Engines?

Google AdWords is different because -

1. Under Google AdWords, no one can remain # 1 forever. This is because your position is dependant both on Click Through Rates (CTRs) as well as Cost-Per-Clicks (CPCs). The most relevant ads will always hold top positions.
2. Your price is automatically lowered to one cent more than your closest competitor, through a feature known as “AdWords Discounter” which automatically monitors your competition and lowers your CPC to one cent above theirs, thereby bridging the “Bid Gaps” to a minimum. Bid gaps occur when someone lowers their bid without you realizing it, costing you money. For example, suppose you were bidding on a term to be #1 at USD 0.9 per click, above the second place person at USD 0.89. The scenario changed below the #2, allowing them to drop down to USD 0.8. Now you are paying 10 cents more.

ORIGINAL BID HISTORY

Bidding Sites	Bid Amount (in USD)
Your Site	0.90
Competitor #1	0.89
Competitor #2	0.75
Competitor #3	0.72

WITH OTHER PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES

Bidding Sites	Bid Amount (in USD)
Your Site	0.90 (Bid Gap of 10 cents to remain at #1)
Competitor #1	0.80
Competitor #2	0.75
Competitor #3	0.72

WITH GOOGLE ADWORDS DISCOUNTER

Bidding Sites	Bid Amount (in USD)
Your Site	0.81 (You never pay more than 1 cent more than the ad below yours)
Competitor #1	0.80
Competitor #2	0.75
Competitor #3	0.72

Bid gaps pose such a big problem at Overture that special software tools have emerged over the past year, to help advertisers eliminate them. The Google AdWords "Discounter" tool is a solution to this problem. It automatically watches to ensure that you never pay more than 1 cent more than the ad below yours.

3. Google offers tools through which you can select your keywords as well as calculate the costs involved.
4. You can target your ads to specific countries (over 250 countries) and speakers of specific languages (over 14 languages offered).
5. You can run multiple ads with the same keywords. Google will monitor individual ad performance to determine which one is the most efficient.
6. With $5.00 total startup cost and no monthly fee or minimum deposit to pay upfront, it is still the most cost effective Paid Campaigns in the PPC Search Engine World.
7. Signup process takes less than 15 minutes and ads go live instantly, unlike other PPC SEs where it may take 3-5 days to activate the account.
8. It only bills advertisers after a user click on their ads, and not merely on the impressions appeared.

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