Adwords is a fancy name for the ads that are listed on Google.  Bing and other search engines have their own version of Adwords as well.  Other words that are synonymous with Adwords is PPC (Pay Per Click) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).  The reason they call it Pay Per Click is because the basic idea of Adwords or any SEM campaign is that you list the words you want to advertise for and you only are charged if someone actually clicks on your ad.  Sounds simple right?  As with anything online, it’s NOT as simple as it seems.

How to Choose your Keywords

There are a lot of keyword generator tools available.  Just choose one of these resources, plug in your basic keywords and they will come up with a ton of word suggestions for you!

Google Keyword Planner

Wordstream

KeywordTool

SEMRush

What to do After you Choose your Keywords

Making sense of the lengthy lists of keywords and trying to figure out how to apply them into an adwords campaign is the tricky party.  You have to know if you need a Phrase Match, and Exact Match, Negative Keyword, etc.  Then you have to know how to assign a budget to each word.  Depending on the industry, the budgets will be MUCH different.  For example, the keywords for the Accident Attorney industry will be much more expensive then the keywords for a Lighting company.  The price of the keywords also depends heavily on the geographical location you are choosing.  The main city is going to be much more expensive then the smaller outlining cities.

You can Turn it On and Off

If you want to dabble with PPC on your own I would suggest starting with Google.  They have the most traffic and the most streamlined process.  The good thing about PPC is you can start a campaign, turn it on, and if you choose to pause it or stop it completely you can immediately.  PPC is so flexible because when you build your campaign you can even choose the days you want to run your ads and the hours you want your ads to show.

Should you hire a Professional for your PPC campaign

I believe every Adwords campaign is optimized better with a professional.  Usually the professional can easily create a list of keywords PLUS a list of negative keywords for your industry.  They will be able to give you a better idea of where to place your budget and what geographical areas are most cost effective.  USUALLY, a professional will end up saving you money on PPC, even with their service fees included.  There are so many variables that amateurs end up spending a lot of money on trial and error before they even start to streamline their efforts.

The post Introduction to Adwords appeared first on FLIP Marketing and SEO.