In This Chapter

• Finding out about AdWords, Google’s grass-roots advertising plan

• Creating an account and writing your first ad

• Activating a created account and running your ad

• Managing an ad campaign

• Using the Keyword Suggestion tool and the Power Posting tool

Throughout the history of the Web, the game has been to compete for traffic. Perhaps I sound cynical. But anybody who makes the effort to put up a Web page wants somebody else — and preferably many people — to see it. In the Web’s earliest days, before companies took a commercial interest, traffic was generated through link lists that were, themselves, popular Web sites. In those giddy and informal days, putting up a great link list, and keeping it fresh, was the ticket to Web fame. At the same time, such a page funneled visitors to the sites it promoted.

Link exchange is still a good way to trade traffic, and the strategy has gained a second wind with the advent of link-intensive Weblogs. But as the Web took hold beyond college campuses (students were its early adopters), surfing traffic began to be valued commercially. That’s when paid advertising entered the picture. It was thought, at the beginning, that large banner ads would motivate great interest and drive traffic (clinically called eyeballs) through the ad to the sponsoring site. (When an ad works, and somebody clicks it, that event is called a clickthrough.) How mistaken that presumption was. Banner advertising never fulfilled the hope surrounding it, though the Web is still clogged with millions of them. Becoming more insistent, perhaps in desperation, the industry has turned to hateful pop-up ads.

Companies still pay good money for banner placement and for the development of new interactive features within banners. But their effectiveness has been devalued, and in the Web’s amateur, semi-pro, and small-business space, the supposed effectiveness of banners has largely been debunked. New ways of reaching individuals with targeted, relevant links is what’s needed. The natural placement of a highly relevant promotional link is on a search results page, because the person viewing that page is obviously looking for something and is ready to click through to another online destination.

Purchasing placement on search results pages is not new, and the history of this business strategy is rife with disrepute. Many a pre-Google search engine ruined its reputation by polluting its search results with advertisements that were difficult to distinguish from the real listings.

Google aggressively sells space on its search results pages. Several aspects of Google’s ad business distinguish it and make it amazingly popular:

• The ads are clearly separated from search results, keeping Google’s integrity untarnished.

• Google enforces language and style guides that create accurate promotions in the true spirit and tone of the search results page.

• Anybody can get in on the game, at a price of their own choosing.

• The ads are distributed across all Google search areas, enhancing their impact and effectiveness. Some ads (the advertiser chooses which) are also eligible to appear on Google search pages run on partner sites.

• The ads are text-only presentations, which don’t slow the display of search results.

• Ads are not charged upon display. Advertisers pay only when an ad works — that is, upon clickthrough. This policy differs from traditional online advertising, which is billed by impressions — in other words, whenever an ad is displayed. (Google sponsorships, which appear across the page above search results, are priced by impression.)

• The ad-purchase process is almost totally automated and interactive, putting all control of price and frequency in the hands of the advertiser.

Google offers two types of search advertising: AdWords and sponsorships. This chapter concentrates on AdWords, which has quickly dominated the amateur and small-business advertising segments of the Internet. Even large enterprises use Google AdWords as part of their online advertising strategy. With Google’s immense traffic flow (more than 200 million searches every day) and superbly targeted search results, reaching eyeballs on the search results page is an essential promotional tactic for Web sites of all shapes and sizes.