Setting up a Google Adwords Campaign
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
People in our industry seem to have many questions about advertising online. The process seems shrouded in mystery...when, in fact, the process is insanely simple.1. Create a Google Account (If you have a gmail account then you are good to go).
2. Choose your Account type. I suggest choosing Standard Edition (it may be a bit more complicated, but it allows for more customization and control)
3. Choose your target area (English, United States).
4. Create your Ad. 
5. Choose your Keywords. These are the words that determine when your ad will show up. If you choose "public relations" for example, and you have a good enough bid (I will talk about this in following points) then when a user searches Google for "public relations" your ad will show up. 
6. Set your budget and default cost per click (CPC). Here you can set your daily budget (what is the maximum you would spend per day on Google Ads), and what you would like to be your default CPC to be. I suggest, if you are just starting, choose around $25 as your daily budget and 10 cents as your default CPC. What you have to realize is that you are participating in an auction. Others may be bidding on the same keywords as you, and the high bidder will get there ads displayed (or better positioned ads). 
7. Review and create your Adsense Account.
At this point you have created your Google Adsense account. You will still need to log in and do a few more steps.
8. Verify billing information. I would suggest that you prepay for ads. To do this you will need to use a credit card and put a certain retainer of money into your account. Once the account reaches 0 then no more ads will display. This method stops you from spending more than your budget would allow on ads.
9. Review your campaign. If you click on your campaign you will be able to see many details about your ad. You will be able to see what your ad looks like, create ad variants, and change your bid on certain keywords.
It is very important that you prioritize your keywords - bidding higher on words that are more important to your cause.
In a later post, I will discuss the steps you need to take to manage your Adwords account to get the most out of it.
Labels: adwords, Google Ads, howto, online, politics, PR, press
