Use Google AdWords to find new clients and customers

Whatever it is that you (or your clients) do, you can always find new customers over the internet – even if you’re a niche business or you only work in a specific area or region. In this 3-part guide to AdWords Marketing Manager Rob Watson tells us how to increase our clicks, get ahead of other first-time advertisers and what you need to do to make Google AdWords work for you.

Why use AdWords?

If you use the internet, the chances are you’ll be aware of Google AdWords. After all, in the UK Google has an estimated 90% share of all searches made on the internet and AdWords ads (or ’Sponsored links’) have been appearing on their search results since 2002. There is more to AdWords than people realise, and it’s very easy to get it wrong and spend a lot of money, or get no traffic to your website, so I’m going to explain how to get the basics right.

Before we get to the technique of using AdWords though, in this first post let’s briefly explain what AdWords can do for your business.

• Deliver targeted traffic – AdWords lets you target people right at the moment they are looking for what you have to offer. You simply choose your keywords and your ads will show when that keyword or phrase is searched on.
• Fast results – getting your site on to page 1 of Google through Search Engine Optimisation can take months or years if you get there at all. AdWords gives you a way to get on to page 1 quickly and cheaply.
• Advertise when it suits you – your ads can be set up in minutes, and turned off at any time. You can even auto-schedule them to appear at certain times – to suit your office hours for example. And if it goes too well, and your ads bring in too many enquiries you can stop them instantly!
• Target customers by region – if you operate locally you won’t want to advertise to the world. With AdWords you can advertise within a specific radius of your address, or even draw on a map the precise areas you want to advertise to, down to street level.
• No minimum budget – you can pay as little as you want to start with, and set a budget per day, month or both. You can leave your campaign running without the costs running out of control.

So as you’ll see, AdWords is very versatile and can meet the needs of even small, niche or local businesses. In the next post (tomorrow), I’ll explain the basics of starting a campaign and how to avoid the most common mistakes.

By Rob Watson of www.clicktosale.co.uk

Come back tomorrow for part two of this three-part-guide to Google Adwords