|
||
How To Setup A Google Adwords Account
To setup a campaign, go to www.adwords.google.com. When asked between a starter and standard edition, choose standard. After choosing your language, you will be asked to choose how you will target customers by location. This is very important.
Be sure to choose the “customized” selection. This allows you to select a radius around your practice that your ads will show up on. This ensures someone from 500 miles away isn't clicking your ad and running up your bill with Google. You can decide how far to go from your practice, but I recommend 15-30 mile radius depending on if you practice in the city or a small town.
You'll then be asked to setup your first ad. You only get 25-35 characters for four lines of text, two of which are your headline and website address. Here's the proven formula for your ads:
• First line should contain your keyword in a headline type phrase
• Second line should be a benefit you offer, for example “Get Rid Of Migraines” •Line three should describe a feature offer, like “Without Drugs Or Surgery”
• Line four is your URL, with each word capitalized and using a keyword in your landing page address if possible
The next step is choosing your keywords. These are the words that your ad will show for when people type them into the search engine. For now just choose the keyword “chiropractor yourtown” (replace yourtown with your actually town you practice in, like “chiropractor Dallas, TX).
Choose your daily budget. Be sure to set a daily budget that you are comfortable with, like $10-20 per day for now. Once your daily budget is reached, your ad stops running.
If set too low, your ad might stop running in the most important part of the day. In the last step, you will be asked to set your maximum cost-per-click. This is the most you will bid on your keywords.
The maximum cost per click will apply to all the keywords you chose earlier. I can't tell you exactly what to bid on your keywords, as it will be different depending on where you practice and the keywords you choose. But I will show you how to determine what you should bid and how to get lower bids. Now your campaign is ready to go.
What keywords should you use? Choose keywords that you feel are important to your practice. What type of conditions or niches do you want to bring in to your practice? Bid on those keywords.
Keyword Matching One thing about keywords that may interest you is the different types of matching you can use with Adwords. The three types of keyword matching are broad, phrase and exact. You should also use negative matching to exclude those search terms that don't apply to your Adwords campaign. Here is how Google describes their keyword matching…
• Broader matching options tend to give you more impressions but accrue higher costs. Therefore, include other matching options (like phrase- or exact-match) along with broad-matched keywords in an ad group.
• Broad-matched keywords should be at least two-word phrases (gourmet coffee or organic coffee beans).
• Narrower matching options tend to give you fewer clicks and lower your costs. It's still important to use descriptive words for these matching options.
• Negative keywords work well in most cases when you know a term doesn't apply to your business.
To use broad matching, you simply enter in the term by itself. Let's use the word chiropractic for example. Here's how the broad, phrase and exact match would work for the search term chiropractic
Broad match = chiropractic (any search typing which includes chiropractic will show your ad, including searches like chiropractic marketing, chiropractic tables, etc)
Phrase Match = “chiropractic Dallas, TX” (Enter this with quotes around it into your Adwords account. Any search that includes this phrase exactly will show your ad, including for example “chiropractic Dallas, TX clinics”, “advanced chiropractic Dallas, TX”, etc
Exact Match = [chiropractic Dallas, TX] (This match is entered into your Adwords account with brackets around it. This means for your ad to show up, someone will have to type this phrase in exactly like you input it, so your ad will only show for the search chiropractic Dallas, TX.)
Negative keywords = a word with a negative sign in the front of it, like “–tables”, without the quotes. When combined with the above broad and phrase match this will prevent your ad showing when someone types in “chiropractic tables”.
Which of the above match types should you use? All of them have their place. If you have a lot of competition for Adwords bid prices in your area, then the phrase and exact matches will allow you to beat out your competition and you will pay less for bids on keywords
Choosing between Pay-Per-Click Marketing and Search Engine Optimization is not a matter of measuring return on investment. There are major differences between the two approaches and the choice between one or the other is based on different factors; you must understand the differences before a final decision is made. Here are the steps to choosing between the two.
Many web marketers who have used pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, bothered by the ever-increasing cost of PPC or stung by instances of click fraud, are turning to search engine optimization (SEO) as a substitute or replacement for their PPC efforts. The problem is that many of these advertisers then start comparing their returns on SEO and find these lacking.
Comparing PPC to SEO is like comparing an IBM AS 400 mainframe to an Apple Powerbook – there is simply no comparison. They have distinct differences; they may be similar in that both are computers, but the differences outweigh the similarities.
Choosing between PPC and SEO is not a matter of tossing a coin or playing rock-paper-scissors. You must have a clear understanding of each approach and how to measure the return on investment of each before making a decision.
--- Step 1: Understand PPC Marketing ---
The key to PPC marketing is to think of it in the same way as ‘conventional' advertising – the money you pay out results in the ‘display' of your ad for a specific period of time. PPC marketing certainly works in the same way – the moment terms are settled between you and the internet ‘channel' you selected (e.g., the search engine) your ads can appear. The moment you stop paying, your ads will be removed.
Results for PPC advertising are immediate and measurable – you start getting results within days of your ad being posted on the search engine page and (most of the time), people stop visiting your site the moment your ad is removed.
--- Step 2: Understand Search Engine Optimization ---
An SEO campaign, on the other hand, may have a defined start and end point (defined by the terms of the contract between you and an SEO group) but the results can last beyond the contract's termination date – simply because the measures put in place are, to a large extent, “permanent.”
Think of an SEO effort as your typical brick-and-mortar establishment – you have the place and the merchandise, while the SEO company paints the building, sets up window displays, puts your merchandise on display and then waits for the customers to come in. If your SEO team did the job properly, people will ‘wander' in.
You may decide to let your SEO group go after this and leave everything as is, but people will still drop by because their attention will still be called by your site's window displays, exterior paint job, merchandising display, or word-of-mouth even after the SEO team has left for other assignments.
--- Step 3: Understand the Differences between PPC and SEO ---
Therein lies the difference between the two. You can think of PPC as advertising – a major investment with immediate impact and results, since people's attention is called to your site – and people forget about you when the advertising is taken down (out of sight, out of mind); SEO efforts, on the other hand, is a long-term investment that takes time to set up and implement – but will last until long after the effort is completed.
From this perspective, it is not a matter of ‘choosing' between one and the other – there are specific conditions where one is preferable to the other (for example, if you need immediate results then PPC is the way to go) or you can opt to go with SEO until you have the means to invest in PPC.
As was said, choosing one or the other is not a matter of a coin toss – there are other factors to consider.