Increase Your Sales
with a Highly Targeted Advertising Campaign

by Shelley Lowery

If you're looking for a low-cost, yet highly effective means of advertising your products and services, then Google AdWords may be your answer.

Google AdWords provides a simple way to purchase highly targeted advertising, regardless of your budget. Unlike other sites selling banner ad space and pay-per-ranking, AdWords provides advertisers with highly effective text ads that are displayed with the search results. Studies have shown that highly targeted keyword advertising produces an average of four times the industry standard clickthrough rate.

Google, one of the premier Search Engines, receives over 29 million searches each day. Their popularity most likely stems from the speed and accuracy of their search results. Needless to say, placing your text ad with Google Adwords will be a highly effective way to advertise your products and services.

It is a well-known fact that text ads perform much better than banner ads. What better way to target your audience than through a popular Search Engine? Your potential customer is there for a reason -- they're looking for something. When a Google visitor types in their keywords, they are almost instantly presented with their search results. On the right side of the results are colored text boxes containing targeted advertisements that match their search terms.

When you place your ad with AdWords, you will have the ability to select a list of tightly targeted keywords including all of the following:

Keyword Matching - Shows your ad when a search includes your selected words.

Phrase Matching - Shows your ad when a search includes your selected phrases.

Exact Query Matching - Shows your ad when a search contains your exact keywords and no others.

Negative Keyword Matching - Will not show your ad if a search contains certain words you select. This unique targeting technique will enable you to create a highly targeted ad campaign and test your ads with a high rate of accuracy. What's more, you can even target your ads to a specific country or language. The great thing about advertising with Google AdWords is that you will have complete control over your ad and how much you'd like to spend. You can open an account with a credit card with no minimum deposit required. Once you place your ad, it can begin running almost immediately.

Their advertising rates are very reasonable. The amount you spend on your advertising campaign will depend on two factors: (1) the number of times your ad is displayed and (2) the position, one through eight, in which your ad appears. The advertising rates are as follows:

Position 1 - $15 per thousand ads shown

Position 2 - $12 per thousand ads shown

Position 3 - $10 per thousand ads shown

Position 4 - 8 $8 per thousand ads shown

The position of an ad is determined by how well it is performing. Ads with a higher clickthrough rate will receive a higher position and in turn will cost more.

In order to increase your clickthrough rate and spend less money, try to select keywords and phrases that specifically target the product or service you're offering. Avoid using common words, as these will use up your ad displays very rapidly. Instead, select words that specifically target your product or service. For example, instead of using a general keyword like 'software,' use a keyword that focuses on a specific software such as 'FrontPage 2002.' Or, a little less focused, 'web design software.' In addition, make sure you use your keyword phrase (search term) as the title of your ad. This will increase your clickthrough rate considerably.

When you set up your account with Google, make sure you use a different ad for each search term. Not only will this increase your ad's relevance in the search results, but it will also increase your clickthrough rate.

Once you place your ad, you can easily track your ad's response rate and make adjustments instantly. This is a great, low-cost way to find out which ads are performing the best.

Google AdWords provides Internet marketers with a cost-effective alternative to banner advertising. If you want to increase your traffic and sales, give AdWord a try -- you'll be glad you did.

For further information, visit Google AdWords:
http://adwords.google.com

Copyright © Shelley Lowery 2002.

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of Web Design Mastery - Learn how to design a professional website in the easiest possible fashion -- with 100s of copy & paste codes. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing & Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

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