While all things social advertising, especially Facebook have been growing at a rate of knots, Google Adwords has for many (like me) been eclipsed by showier social channels. Which is kinda nuts if you think about the billions of eyes and clicks that go through Google each day, all contributing to their all knowing view of what we like and don’t like, need and don’t need.

Google Adwords is the platform that allows you to access paid advertising through Google’s advertising network. By purchasing paid advertising on search engines, you can ensure that your advertisement appears either beside or above the organic search engine results. 

Google Adwords can also work with your existing social pay per click (PPC) campaigns, enhancing and amplifying results in a coordinated and strategic way.

The thing about Google Adwords and search engine advertising is that it’s success relies heavily on your use of keywords. Remember back in the day when you were building your first website and every sentence was crammed with keywords for SEO? Algorithms have changed wildly since then, but the Google bots still love keywords, and the rule of thumb is to know what your industry and businesses top keywords are, and use them to get the best value from your ads.

This might take a little time and testing to get it nailed, which is fine as the thing about this type of advertising is you can be responsive and ruthlessly test out which ads work best using Google’s excellent analytics without burning too much coin. When you know your keywords, use them to the best effect you can. Headlines that sell best are ones that are shocking, fear or greed inducing, curiosity provoking. Like a good novel, your headline makes your customer want to turn the page – or in this case click through. Remember the saying that .80c of your dollar is spent on the headline. So use your words and make it a good one.

Work out which keywords and placements have the highest sales rate. You can do this by using Google’s Valuetrack Parameters. If you aren't familiar with how tracking works there is some more information here. 

Use your findings to calculate which keywords are making you the most money (as ultimately its all about the conversion to sales). This will then allow you to bid more aggressively on certain keywords. Once you have found the golden keywords, you have to keep exploring your data. By looking at Google Valuetrack parameters, you can track everything from geographical locations to devices and more. When you have data it can help you to streamline your conversion channels and stop wasting money on things that you know are not going to convert. Remember, don’t get tied up in numbers. Only track data that you can action to make your demographics more precise. Don’t get blindsided by how much you are paying per click on AdWords - the more important question is how much are you earning per click? To know whether your ads are being primed for sales, you have to assess the cost each click is earning you. Determine this by working out the average revenue for each individual click on all of your ads.

Once you get your clicks through, make sure there is a clear and compelling call to action or CTA in your ad. Depending on what your goal for the ad is you might have a download, or a free consultation, a checklist, cheat sheet, how to or any number of things that will make a customer give over their information to a landing page, or click the buy button on your website. Your landing page needs to be super optimised to take advantage of all the customers coming through your Adword campaign, so make sure that you have all your pages in a row when you kick it off.

Google have excellent guides to help you get the best value and nail your audience, so go to the source when you are starting out. Here is a quick checklist completely free of charge with no hidden tricks to extract your data to get your started with Google Adwords.

• Know your key keywords
  
• Use analytics to drill into the ads that perform best
  
• Ensure your search terms and keywords match
  
• Know which keywords are worth bidding on
  
• Capture attention with killer headlines
  
• Offer something of compelling value
  
• Pay attention to your landing pages