Google, which is used more than 150
million times per day to conduct
searches has announced its entrance
into the pay per click arena with
the recent introduction of its new
"Ad Words Select" program. The old
"Ad Words" Program was based on
paying per impressions of your ad,
not clicks thus the addition of the
word "select."
The ads paid for are text ads that
appear next to Google's search
results, in the far right hand
column and are labeled "sponsored
links." Your ads are only shown to
users searching for specific words
you have placed a bid on. With
Google's syndication program your
ads will also appear on their
partner sites, Earthlink ( http://www.Earthlink.com
) and http://www.Sympatico.ca. This
is Google's first syndication
advertising relationship and it may
give Overture (formerly Goto.com)
some sorely needed
competition.Earthlink had been an
Overture client but decided not to
renew their contract, going instead
with Google.
Registration is simple: it costs
just $5.00 (US) to open an account.
You will have to surrender your
credit card information for future
billing. If you were an original Ad
Words customer you'll need to
re-register in order to become a
"Select" customer. In fairness to
the original "Ad Words" CPM clients,
"Select" customers cannot purchase
keywords unless their CPC rate is
comparable or higher than what is
currently being paid for the same
keywords by Ad Words customers.
Before choosing your key-phrases
you'll need to write your ads.
Titles can be up to 25 characters
and you get 2 lines of text at 35
characters each -- plus your URL. No
images or offensive language are
allowed in your ad copy. Each ad is
called an "ad group." An ad group is
defined as a set of ads that appear
for the same keywords and share the
same CPC. You can create multiple
ads within each ad group and they
will be rotated in use. Ads that
receive the most clicks eventually
get shown more often and rise in
position. Changes can be made to
your ad copy at anytime.
Upon setup you select the countries
and language markets that you want
your ads displayed to. You can
target more than 250 countries and
up to five languages: English,
French, German, Italian and Spanish.
After setting up your ads you'll
need to select the key words or
phrases you wish to bid on. You'll
want to choose words users are most
likely to type into Google's search
box when looking for your
products/services. Options can be
set for when your ads will appear
depending on what the searcher types
in.For example, if you only wanted
your ads to appear when someone
types in "ezine advertising" and not
"free ezine advertising" you will
need to
surround your key phrases with
square brackets like this {ezine
advertising}. This tells Google it
must be an exact match for your ad
to appear.
You're in charge of how much to pay
per click with $0.05 being the
minimum you can bid. Their "Ad Words
Discounter" ensures you never pay
more than is necessary. If the cost
per click you picked is higher than
what is needed for your ad to keep
its place, the CPC you're charged
will be automatically lowered.
You'll never pay more than one penny
over what your competition pays.
This is unlike Overture, where you
constantly have to monitor and
re-adjust your bidding.
Also unlike Overture, where you must
bid a set amount on each
keyword/phrase, with Ad Words Select
you set a "maximum cost per click"
which applies to all of your
keywords. If you want to assign
different amounts to them you'll
have to set up a separate "ad group"
and set a different maximum cost per
click. There are no monthly minimums
and you set the maximum daily amount
you wish to spend.
The position of your ads on the
search results page is based on two
things; the maximum CPC you bid and
your ads' clickthru rate. Both of
these factors together will earn you
a higher position. Keywords will be
disabled if their click rate falls
below 0.05%, so you'll want to make
sure your ad copy pulls.If some of
your key phrases get deactivated,
you can make changes to your ad copy
and reactivate them again. There is
another charge if this happens more
than once. Reports on your ads'
activities can be viewed online by
logging into Google at anytime.
From what I've seen Google's new Ad
Words Select Program has a lot of
potential and great features that
should make Overture sit up and take
notice. Between the "Ad Words
Discounter" and the no minimum
monthly to spend, I think Google may
just become a major player in the
pay per click field.
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