Preface

AdWords is Google's online advertising product, allowing you to show your ads on search engines and other relevant websites, tablets, and mobile devices. It is a highly effective, accountable, and targeted method of connecting with customers, providing reach at the exact moment of relevance as people are searching for you.

Consumers are spending more time online, especially with the evolution of smartphones, and digital ad revenues have continued to grow at a rapid pace. Increasingly, there has been a need for businesses to have a solid online presence and engage with customers as they move through the research and purchase funnel. Google AdWords helps bridge this gap and build relationships with customers, helping companies create awareness and drive direct sales through the online marketing channel.

Although advertisers can start showing ads through AdWords in minutes, correct setup can help you avoid blowing through your budget without getting the desired results. The proper research, campaign planning, and ongoing management will help you get the most out of your investment, while understanding the available features will enable you to navigate the complexity of AdWords and make it profitable.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Researching the Market and Competition and Setting Goals, will help you with the basic research you should conduct as you consider advertising with AdWords.

Chapter 2, Setting up Your Account, will help create an AdWords account shell and customizing the various key settings for easier management and navigation.

Chapter 3, Tracking beyond the Click, will cover setting up AdWords conversion tracking and analyzing relevant data in Google Analytics.

Chapter 4, Structuring Your Account, will help you choose where to show your ads and how to target campaigns, including common ways to structure an account.

Chapter 5, Creating Relevant Keywords, will cover choosing keywords relevant to your business, using keyword matching options effectively, and taking advantage of available tools.

Chapter 6, Writing Compelling Ads, will provide tips for researching competitors' ads, writing effective ad text, and testing ad copy elements.

Chapter 7, Budgets and Bidding, will help in setting budgets and bids and adjusting them based on your goals and performance.

Chapter 8, Running Display Ads, will cover various options for setting up display campaigns and how they are presented, as well as features that can help you optimize and improved target display ads.

Chapter 9, Remarketing to Past Visitors, will help in reconnecting with users who previously visited your website as they go on to browse the Display network.

Chapter 10, Reporting and Analysis, will help you in analyzing ad performance, including when and where your clicks are coming from, and other useful reports.

Chapter 11, Optimizing Performance, will provide tips on improving relevance, Quality Scores, and ROI.

Chapter 12, Advanced Strategies and Features, will help in implementing advanced ad formats, experiments, and automation to boost performance.

Chapter 13, Managing AdWords, covers troubleshooting ad issues, reviewing past changes, creating alerts, and using AdWords Editor to streamline account management.

What you need for this book

AdWords is an online interface and requires a computer, an Internet connection, and a browser. You'll also need to download AdWords Editor, Google's free application that helps you manage and update your account offline.

Who this book is for

This book is for AdWords novices who are looking to get started with AdWords as well existing advertisers who need to optimize their campaigns and learn about advanced AdWords features and strategies.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "In the following example, we searched Google for PPC ads to figure out what websites are coming up in both organic and paid listings."

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Go to the Tools and Analysis tab, and click on Google Analytics."

Note

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Tip

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