Power of the web: Don't waste your AdWords cash

While many companies now use Google AdWords as a cheap and effective way to advertise online, some waste thousands of dollars a year on poorly planned and executed Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaigns.
We all know how a Google search works: you type a keyword phrase in a search field and Google brings back the top 10 results on the page. At the same time, Google Adwords finds the top eight bids, from businesses who want to advertise under the keyword phrase you've used, and displays a list of advertisements on the right side of the page. These ads show text and links selected by the advertising business, rather than by Google.
The advantage of Google Adwords to businesses is that they are guaranteed a focused audience - only those users who have searched for their selected keyword phrases will see their advertisement.
To ensure your business gets the best return from an Adwords campaign, there are some things you need to keep in mind: 1. The more popular the keyword phrase, the more you'll have to bid per click. Google Adwords works by letting businesses bid an amount they'll pay for every click-thru they get when found under specific keywords - the higher the bid, the better chance of being top of the list. To avoid overpaying for keywords, make sure you're only targeting the most popular phrases and use the "discounter program" Google provides, which calculates the lowest bid you need to make in order to stay ahead of the competition.
2. Make sure that the keywords you select to advertise under aren't too general or you will end up paying for visitors who don't have the need for your service. Equally, you need to ensure they're not too specific, or no one will ever see your ad. Advertising using Google Adwords will require you to spend some time trying different phrases until you find the ones that work best for you - don't just start a campaign and hope for the best.
3. When you are setting up your keywords, you can use quotes or brackets to focus your campaign. If you enter the phrase "web developers" in quotes, your ad will appear for people who search for those words, even if they search for a phrase like "great web developers in New Zealand". But if you use brackets (e.g. [web developers]), your ad will only show up for those who search for that exact phrase.
4.Use the localisation tool when setting up your Adwords campaign, so you can select to limit your advertisements to countries and languages that you can actually service. If you are a Napier-based law firm, you won't want your ad to come up when someone from Holland searches for "law firms".
5.Don't send users who click on your ad to your home page. To ensure you get the best possible return on investment, you need to create "landing pages" with content that ties back to your ads. For example, if your ad touts you as "the top design company in Hawke's Bay", you should link to a page that shows examples to back up this claim.
6. When setting up a campaign, you can dictate the maximum you will spend over a specific period. While this allows you to ensure you don't overspend, it can lead to campaigns that have such a restrictive budget that it is over within a day.
For more information, go to: www.google.co.nz/adwords.
*Wendy Schollum is a web strategist and Managing Director of Xplore - your web agency (www.xplore.net). If you have a web-related question you would like answered, follow Xplore on Twitter (www.twitter.com/xploreNET), join us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/xploreNET or call 0800 100 900.