An Introduction to Google AdWords

For those looking to extend their digital marketing efforts, delving into Google Adwords can be an effective and low-cost way of promoting your practice to potential new clients.



What are Google Adwords?
Google Adwords are the paid advertisements that appear at the top, right hand side, and bottom of the page when you perform a Google Search. They are indicated by a faint yellow background, and allow you to be listed at the top when users enter specific search terms that relate to your practice.



Why should you use them?
Creating ads for specific keywords provides an easy mechanism to allow your practice to be listed on Page 1 when a potential client enters relevant search criteria. As 97% of consumers search for local businesses (like yours) online, having a prominent placing on Google can help to ensure that you are found by existing and potential clients.



How much does AdWords cost?
There is no fixed price for AdWords, rather there is a “cost-per-click” associated with your advertisements, and you can set a daily limit to cap your spend. These costs all depend on how competitive your market is, however Google has made it very easy to get an estimated cost.



Picking Keywords
To start using AdWords, go to www.adwords.google.co.uk and sign up for an account. Once you are logged in, you can then start to pick your keywords and create a campaign.



Click on Tools & Analysis and then select “Keyword Tool”. Now you can enter every possible keyword combination that you think might be relevant to your practice, so include your speciality and your location.



For example we entered “Physiotherapy New York” and you can see that there are 12,100 searches performed for that phrase and competition is “High” as you might expect.



Consequently the Cost per Click (CPC) is reasonably high at £3.04. However, this needs to be considered in the context of what your probable fee income will be from a course of treatment.



For example, if you have a New:Review ratio of 1:6, Initial Consultation cost of £40 and Follow-up Cost of £35 your average fee income per client is going to be £215. If your Click to New Client ratio is 100% (i.e. every click converts into a new client) then £3.04 is a small price to pay, however if your conversion rate is 1% you’re going to lose money!



Decide on some specific keywords, and then you can start to create a campaign.



Creating your First Campaign
When logged in, click on the “Create your first campaign” button you should see in your dashboard.



To try and keep it simple in the first instance, don’t change too many of the factors on this screen, but do name your campaign, selecting a “Standard” Type. The “Location” will be set to United Kingdom by default, but you may wish to localise this to your area.



You will be asked to specify a maximum daily budget. Without being too flippant (or wasteful), start off by picking a budget that you prepared to “write-off”, say £5. Obviously, this won’t work too well if the Keyword Tool tells you that your estimated CPC for your preferred keyword phrase (Cost per Click) is £7.50. Pick a sensible budget that you can afford, and don’t forget that you can modify this over time.



On the next page, you need to craft your advertisement that links to your site. Include your URL, and specify a headline (max 25 characters) and 2 description lines (max 25 characters each).



Then, based on your previous research, select your Keywords. Keep the tips in mind, and look towards Google-provided resources such as How to build the best keyword list.



Finally, enter your billing information, and you’re ready to go!



Refining your Campaign
Run your campaign for a week or so and see what you the results are like. AdWords provides you with a whole host of analysis tools. From these you will be able to review key measures like:



- The Average Position of your Ad

- The Number of Clicks you received

- The Number of Impressions – these indicate how often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the Google Network

- The effectiveness of your ads – you should create multiple ads with different messages so that you see which yield the best results

- Which keyword combinations are yielding the best results (i.e. most clicks and conversions)



Getting more Complex
Once you have got the hang of Adwords through refining your campaigns, you can begin to get more complex by setting up several that run simultaneously, or optimising them for different devices. Google provide lots of excellent, free resources to help you get the best out of your experience.

I hope this is useful!

Nat
www.writeupp.com

Edited by pathwaysoftware - Dec 03 2013 at 11:05am