For business owners, consumers, and others, online advertising has become a part of our daily lives. Because of this, online marketing has become an increasingly important strategy for businesses, and for a variety of organizations and groups. The bottom line is that online advertising is an essential method for getting a product, service, or idea into the world and in front of consumers. One great way to utilize advertising online is to create a campaign with an advertising service, such as Google Adwords.
Paid Search
Even if you aren’t familiar with Google Adwords, you’ve most likely seen the program in action. The service makes it possible for a user’s website to appear on a search engine results page (SERP) by paying for placement. There are organic ways to appear in SERPs that don’t require paying for placement, such as optimizing your website using search engine optimization (SEO) tactics (For more information about optimizing your website to rank organically, check out our article on Improving Search Engine Results). Advertisers often recommend using a combination of paid and organic marketing. So how does Google Adwords work?
Quality Score and CTR
Creating an effective Google Adwords campaign requires more than just payment. In brief, to create an advertisement using Google Adwords, the campaign manager must choose relevant keywords to rank for, and then draft an advertisement that will appear on a SERP generated by a consumer search related to those keywords (To learn how to find the best keywords to use for your campaign, see Targeting High Value Keywords). However, keywords aren’t the only aspect of an effective Google Adwords campaign. Your advertisement will also need to have an appropriate quality score, which is partially derived from your website’s click through rate (CTR). These terms are explained below:
- Click Through Rate (CTR): Your advertisement’s CTR is measured by dividing the number of times the advertisement is clicked on by the number of times it appears. The more clicks recorded, the more relevant your advertisement is considered.
- Quality Score: Your advertisement’s quality score is made up of several components, including the advertisement’s CTR, relevance, and landing page experience. The better your quality score, the more often your advertisement will appear. It can even end up ranking higher than other campaigns targeting the same keyword, as explained in the next section.
CPC and Placement on SERPs
A Google Adwords quality score can affect where an advertisement appears on a SERP. Because of this, it pays to have a high quality score. You already know that Google Adwords is a paid service. Advertisers using the service pay a specified amount each time their advertisement is clicked. That specified amount is the cost per click (CPC). More than one business or organization might bid for the same keyword, and could show up on the same SERP. If your advertisement has a higher quality score than a competitor’s advertisement, yours will potentially rank high on the SERP, regardless of CPC. By ensuring that your advertisement has a high quality score, you can get more traffic on your website and have a lower CPC than potential competitors targeting the same keywords.
There are many strategies for getting higher traffic and conversion rates on your website, and Google Adwords is only one. However, if your campaign is managed effectively, the results can boost your website’s ranking and performance significantly. For more information about utilizing Google Adwords, or to request a consultation, contact tekRESCUE, located in San Marcos, TX.