10 Steps to Setting up an Adwords Account Part 1
10 Steps to Getting Google Adwords Up and Running.
Steps 1 - 5 With this article I'm going to break down what I see the essential steps are of going from no Adwords to your first campaign. If you are experienced with Adwords this might not be for you but then again it might be worthwhile to make sure you are not missing any steps.
1. Look at your schedule.. When will you work on your Adwords Advertising?
Believe it or not this is a critical step. For every marketing effort you've got to set aside time to focus on the campaign. Adwords will run by itself, but just left to run on its own with no monitoring you will end up spending too much money and getting no results. Before you do anything with Adwords, pull out your calendar and block off 1 hour / week to work on your account.
2. Sign up for an account - Standard Version, not Starter
There are two additions that you can sign up for with Adwords. You need to sign up for the Standard Addition, not the Starter addition. In a nut shell the starter edition is for people that maybe don't even have a website and are not that interested in tracking their results with Adwords. Aslo the Starter edition is going to limit some of your budgeting options as well. Trust me, you need the Standard Edition.
3. What are you Advertising? No really what are you advertising.
This is a critical step. It is important to look at what it is that you have for sale. Think about your product or service in laymans terms. You live and breath your product and service every day, but the rest of the people in the world do not understand your jargon or industry specific terms. It is important to take some time and think hard about what you have. Listen to the way your customers talk about your product or service. Take time to look through your emails for those important trigger keywords that relate to your service.
4. Crafting Your Landing Page - Call to Action
This step is obviously going to take you a considerable amount of time. Creating a good landing page is not going to happen over night. Here are some important things to consider when you are creating your custom landing page.
- Let me emphasize custom - Do not send visitors to your homepage!
- Write a clear and compelling headline. You have 8 seconds to grab your visitors attention and you headline is the primary way to encourage visitors to keep working through your site.
- Think in terms of narative when you are writing your copy. Features are important but people want to see themselves in the story.
- Include a call to action above the Fold. Once I visit your site, what do you want me to do? Bookmark it? Fill out the Form? Drop you and email?
5. Identifying your keywords
Now that you are sure on what you are selling and have your landing page started it is time to dig in and find out what keywords people will search for to find your site. Keywords are the way that your ads are triggered with Adwords. Someone searches on Google for a Keyword Phrase and then your ad shows. It is critical to find the right keywords for your particular product or service.
Here's how you do it.
Go to this tool http://adwords.google.com and plunk in some of the words that you listed above in Step 3. Let's say you are selling a house in Vancouver. In the keyword tool, type house vancouver. That is going to be quite broad but it maybe a good starting place for your keyword search. Next you might search, house kerrisdale, since the house you are selling is in Kerrisdale. This is obviously more specific and will yield fewer results but the results will be more relevant. Now try 2 bdrm house kerrisdale, 2 bdrm house kerrisdale for sale, etc. Look for unique and specific keywords to save to your list. We will ad the keywords later when we create your actual ad.
That is all for steps 1 - 5 In the next installment we will look at the following 5 steps to complete the Setup of your adwords account.
6. Organizing your Keywords
7. Where in the World do You want your ad to show?
8. Checking out the Advertiser Competition
9. Write Your Ad title (keyword.. and compelling)
10. Monitor, Track, & Test