Google Launches New Pay Per Click Ads Program
By Jill Whalen - February 21, 2002 (From the Rank Write Roundtable Newsletter)

~~~Search Engine Optimization~~~

Google Launches New Pay Per Click Ads Program

Looks like Google is going to give Overture a run for their money with pay-per-click (PPC) ads, folks! As of February 19, Google began offering a program called "AdWords Select." This gives advertisers the opportunity to pay for their ads on a click-through basis, as opposed to an impression basis.

As I said last week, PPC is a form of advertising, not a form of search engine optimization (SEO). So, how does this new program affect those of us in the search engine optimization game? Here's the little known, inside scoop. Now, for a very minimal amount of money (they charge a $5 set-up fee), you can set up a Google account and find out which keywords might be the best to target in your regular SEO campaign! You can learn how many people type in your particular keyword phrases at Google by looking at how many impressions your chosen keywords receive. You don't pay anything unless someone actually clicks on your ad. With the old AdWords program, you had to buy impressions and pay, whether or not your ad was clicked. This new program is also a cheap way to create "branding" ads. Many people don't click on ads just because they're ads (raising my hand as one of the many!). But that doesn't mean they don't notice them or read them. With this program, you're not paying anything for branding your site under the keywords of your choice. Hard to beat that!

So how does this new Ad Words Select program work? Well, I decided this was a good opportunity for my first foray into PPC land, and signed up for an account late last night. (It's a good thing I did this last night, since today their AdWords Select pages have collapsed under the weight of all the press they got this morning! As I write this, it's apparently "down for maintenance.") Sign up was super easy, and you don't have to give any credit card info until you've got everything set the way you want it. The first thing you do is set up your ad. This consists of the top line, which is your clickable link, and two text lines underneath it, plus your URL line. You can even have your ad visibly show one URL but have your link actually go to another URL (presumably within your site). Another cool thing about this program is how easy it is to change your ad. Simply click edit, make the changes, save them, and they're made throughout the system instantaneously. They even save a copy of your old ads, so you can easily revert back to one of them if the mood hits you. Beware; it's easy to get caught up with tweaking your ad because it's actually pretty fun. (Yes, I'm easily amused!)

Once you've created your ad, it's time to choose your keywords. You can choose broad keywords or very specific keywords. For instance, if you simply use "search engine" as your keywords, your ad will appear for all phrases that have the words "search engine" in them; e.g., search engine optimization, search engine spider, search engine meatloaf , etc. You can limit your exposure by putting your keyword phrase in brackets like this: [search engine optimization]. When you do this, you'll only be targeting that exact phrase. This makes sense if you don't want to have your ad appear for phrases that aren't really relevant to you. So if someone searches for "search engine optimization in Arizona," your ad won't appear if you had your term in the brackets, but would appear if you didn't have it in brackets. Google has all sorts of other neat tricks you can do with your keywords, which you can read about in their documentation.

After you've chosen your keyword phrases, you then have to choose a maximum click price. If you have a bunch of different phrases targeted, the click price will be different for each phrase. If you choose a price that's too low, some of your more highly searched-upon keywords will be disabled. However, if you choose a higher price, you're not locked into paying that high price for every keyword phrase clicked. Google only charges you the minimum per-click charge for each individual keyword phrase. It's a bit complicated to explain, but the gist of it is that Google uses what's called an "AdWords Discounter." This automatically monitors your competition and lowers your cost per click to one cent above theirs.

Only after you've done all of the above, do you have to give them your credit card info. You will be charged a $5 set up fee, and that's it until someone clicks on your ad! No monthly minimums, no paying for impressions, no expensive campaigns. As of right now, 109 visitors have seen my wonderful ad, and I haven't had to pay anything other than the set up. Granted, no one has visited my site, but I'm not really sure I care about that right now. In fact, I just as soon not pay for those clicks! If you type in my phrases, my ad comes up, branding me as somehow being important for them. I think that's pretty cool. There is a caveat, however; the click through rate for each keyword phrase needs to stay above 0.5% or they will eventually be disabled.

Once my ad has been up and running for a longer period of time (and I can reliably log into my account), I'll be able to see just how many people search for my specific keyword phrases. If I want, I can then tailor my own regular optimization efforts towards the more searched-upon phrases and tweak my site accordingly. Pretty cool for five bucks! [Oh wait...just got in their system. I got a click...whoohoo...it cost me 42 cents.]

Google's AdWords Select program.

Have fun!

Jill

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