Pay-Per-Click Copywriting – Google AdWords Beginner’s Guide

Pay-Per-Click Copywriting – Google AdWords Beginner’s Guide

Google AdWords allows you to bid for higher placement on search engine pages. If you do a great campaign, you can get top ranking. But as many an entrepreneur has experienced, it can cost a lot of money. Below are the basics on how to get started without overspending.

Before you get started on a Google AdWords campaign, there are three points to keep in mind.

First, AdWords can help you sell stuff. Pretty much anything. Copy machines, coaching services, cooking classes…all can be marketed through a good campaign with good ads.

So what’s a good ad?

A typical Google Ad is 4 lines long – it’s very short. People will find your ads by typing in keywords, which you can find using the free Google AdWords tool (see resources at end of article).

Naturally, the more popular the keyword, the more it costs.

You’re welcome to use the model below as a guideline:

First Line – Headline: Present a challenge your typical prospect faces.

Second Line – Benefit: Suggest you have the solution to the problem.

Third Line – Offer: What do they get?

Fourth Line – URL: the page you want them to go to.

As an example:

Does your puppy still pee on the rug?

Enjoy a well-trained dog!

Free 3-step report mailed to you.

**www.PeeNoMore.com**

So what’s a good campaign? That brings us to the second point.

AdWords can help you tap into what your prospect really wants. For example, if you’re offering a new book on Puppy Training, you can use AdWords to determine the best title for the book, the best marketing blurb, and the best offer.

A campaign is just multiple ads. This gets a little tricky, and I suggest developing two ads for every element you want to test. So if you want to figure out the best offer for the puppy ad, run two ads concurrently with each line identical except for the offer line.

For example:

“Free Checklist with every purchase” OR “Free teleclass with every purchase”. By running the ads at the same time, you can see which resonates with your audience. The more click-throughs an ad gets, the more popular. So if the checklist gets 4 times as many clicks as the teleclass, you know it’s more popular.

You can test different elements of the ad, by simply changing one line at a time. You can tweak to your heart’s content because Google allows for endless experimentation. Which brings us to…

Point #3: You can lose your shirt if you’re not careful. You need to set realistic daily budgets, and assume you’ll hit them every day. $ 10 a day may not seem like a lot, but it adds up. The good news is you don’t pay for posting an ad, you only pay when the ad is clicked on. And people who click through should be qualified prospects interested in your offerings. Warning: if you’re getting lots of click-throughs (and paying Google lots of money) but little return on investment, the problem may not be with your ad, but with your website copy.

NEXT STEPS:

1. Write 2-4 ads, using the model above.

2. Set up a Google campaign, and set a very low “practice” budget. It’s not difficult, and Google does a great job of walking you through the details. You can spend a lot of money very quickly, and you can make money very quickly, so start slowly.

3. Choose your keywords. Don’t get hung up on generating hundreds of keywords – you can always add more. For now, spend 30 minutes with Google’s Keyword Tool and generate a list of 10-12.

4. Post two ads right away. They should be identical except for one element you want to test – keywords, the headline, benefit, or offer. This is called split-testing.

5. Your ads will start to show within hours (or minutes), so monitor your results every day for the next week.

6. Track your expenditures against your AdWords income. Don’t panic if you spend more than you make the first couple of weeks, but do keep learning. Google has wonderful tutorials that take you through the process. After all, it’s their business.

RESOURCES:

Free Google AdWords Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Related Google Adwords Guide Articles