Google dominates the search engine industry with over 75% of all 6 billion searches made everyday. If you’ve spent anytime on the internet, you’ve almost certainly see a number of different ads served by Google.

In addition to advertising on Google search results, there are a variety of other forms of Google Adwords advertising which we’ll introduce you to today.

Search

Google Search ads are something you should be familiar with, as the first form of advertising from Google launching in 2000. When you type in certain phrases in Google, the results page will show the 10 best articles for your query. In addition to these results are a various number of ads that are related.

These ads vary in shape, size and placement depending on the type of search requested.

Rather than relying on SEO, you are guaranteed placement on the first page (where the highest chance of receiving a click through is) if you have a high enough bid. You get charged when someone clicks through to your page.

Mobile

Adwords for mobile is gaining popularity as the use of mobile devices continues to increase. The way people use desktop for search is different for phones, wearables and some tablets therefore it’s usually best to separate ads for mobile and desktop. Mobile users swipe and tap rather than scroll and click.

Before you start your first mobile Adwords campaign, ensure your website is mobile friendly. A non-mobile friendly website will make your campaign ineffective as people leave non-optimised mobile websites quickly.

Choosing keywords for mobile is different to search as the general rule is people enter less keywords when they search on mobile.

Shopping

Google Shopping allows you to show your products in Google search feeds for those who are looking to buy specific products. You can upload your entire product catalog to Google Shopping and you don’t need to choose any keywords.

Rather than keywords you fill out a document with special formatting as required by Google and they take your products directly from the spreadsheet and display them in relevant search results.

Rather than using keywords for bidding, you can create product categories and set bidding prices based on each product and then they may appear in search results. This means for high profit items you can bid larger prices (generalisation).

Google Shopping still requires ongoing upkeep as the prices in the spreadsheet must reflect the prices on your website otherwise Google will not display your products.

Keywords still matter, as the product titles and descriptions are used to determine relevancy. Keep an eye on this early on as your products might end up in some weird search results.

A few tips to remember before getting started:

• Make sure your products are accurate if using international currencies (if you have multiple currencies you’ll need to create a product feed for each)
• Product images must be high quality to convert. Avoid watermarked images and focus only on the product
• Start with a small number of products in your feed and expand your products as you develop further understanding

Video

As Google AdWords competition has increased, the price for popular keywords has increased making margins smaller across the board. Google AdWords for video has yet to see intense competition so popular keywords can be purchased for low cost.

These videos show up in YouTube search results and either before, during or after YouTube (or Google Display Network) videos.

The three types of video ads can be broken into three categories, In-Stream, In-Search and In-Display.

In-Stream: These videos appear before, during or after YouTube videos. For video ads less than 30 seconds, you’re charged if the user watches the whole video. For longer videos, the user must watch at least 30 seconds before you’re charged.

In-Search: These videos appear when someone searches a specific keyword. The video only plays when the user clicks on it, which is when you are also charged.

In-Display: These videos are labeled as an ad and appear on the YouTube watch page (next to other organic results). You are charged when the user clicks on your video.

One of the benefits of Adwords for video is the targeting option you can have. While you can only choose age, gender and interests, they’re useful if analyzed in detail.

Display

Google Display Ads are the banners you see on YouTube videos and other Google partner sites. The Google Display Network covers over two million sites, therefore there is extraordinary reach available. Given you only pay for ads when they are clicked on, the impressions you garner can earn you a wealth of brand recognition. There are a few ingredients that will get you on the path to success with the Google Display Network.

• Retargeting is effective for the display ads as it keeps past visitors to your site engaged and is affordable
• Managed placements allow you to individually choose the sites you want your ads on
• Create both text and image ads (separately) as not all sites support images

With such a vast network of websites on the display network, once you get started you can grow and grow.

Advertising with Google Adwords allows you to reach millions of people around the world everyday. Regardless of what you sell and who you sell it too, you can utilise Google as a advertising tool to target your buyers.

Filed in // Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing