Google AdWords Review

Posted: August 24, 2003

Google’s name has become synomous with search. It is one of the most used search engines throughout the world. Their pay per click program is titled, Google AdWords.

Google’s word is relevancy. This is what they strive for in everything they do. Therefore it is no surprise that Google has taken a different approach to bidding compared to the other pay per click search engines, which makes it by far the most complicated program to run. (For the technical details, please see http://adwords.com FAQ)

Google has a very large distribution network. Their ads are shown across Google’s search engine, AOL, AskJeeves, Earthlink, Lycos, CompuServe, AT&T WorldNet, and NYTimes.com. They have syndication deals with many smaller publishers as well.

The Google AdWord Advantage

? Bids automatically lowered to minimum cost to maintain current position
? Ads can gain in position without raising max CPC by having a high CTR
? Low setup fee
? No minimum monthly spend
? Very large and growing distribution network
? Signup process takes a short amount of time
? Can test multiple ads to see which ones are more successful for the same keywords
? Has multiple keyword matching options
? Can make extensive use of negative keywords for more relevant exposure
? Regional Targeting within several countries
? Supports multiple languages
? Specify daily budget for individual campaigns
? Offers a large variety of advertising tools

The Google AdWord Disadvantages

? Can be very complicated to learn the system and understand the bidding and ranking process
? The tools are integrated into the account, and some are automatically enabled
? Ads are disabled if they do not meet minimum standards which can be hard to measure
? Poorly targeted keywords can affect your entire campaign

Google AdWords is one of the two pay per click search engines that we recommend everyone try (The other is Overture). It is easy to learn the basics and get ads up and running. It can be a very time consuming and difficult process to tweak ads and campaigns for maximum exposure.

Google AdWords works like a search engine with positive and negative keywords. Exhaustive research on both positive and negative keywords are necessary for the most relevant results. An overuse of non relevant keywords can cause your entire campaign to be slowed. Be very careful in picking both positive and negative keywords for the pay per click search engine.

The biggest advantage of Google AdWords over the other pay per click search engines is that you have an unlimited amount of negative keywords so you can specificy very exact search strings that will cause your ads to be displayed.

The other large advantage of Google AdWords over the other pay per click search engines is its ranking formula. It compares your maximum CPC (cost per click) and your CTR (click through rate) to determine your ad position. It is quite possible to pay less than other advertisers and yet have higher positioning ads. This is currently the only pay per click search engine where such an advantage exists.

Related Information:

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Written by · Filed Under Google AdWords, PPC Info