Audience targeting using Google AdWords

Marketing comes in different forms and it is usually with the purpose of advertising a product, brand or service. In this article, we will discuss one of those forms, namely: Google AdWords

What is AdWords?

AdWords is a system of marketing products and services on Google’s search engine and all Google-affiliated sites. It involves using text advertisement that shows up when words related to your product or service are entered into the search engine.

You have the power to determine where the ad will be seen by using paid search and the higher you pay per click, the more likely that you have your ad appear more – although this requires bidding against other marketers. Pay Per Click (PPC) simply means you only pay what you budgeted for advertising when someone clicks on your ad.

How It Works

There some elements that are key to maximizing Google AdWords and these are:

Quality Score

This is a score that is accessed by how relevant your ad is to the one searching and it shows how well your keywords respond to a search typed into the search engine. It is the likelihood of your ad getting clicked which determines the quality score and this also includes your landing page usefulness and how often your page was visited.

The quality score carries a lot of power in determining whether your ad appears first before the other competitors, regardless of the bid results. It is important to note that the higher your quality score, the lower your cost.

Bidding

The two options available for bidding on Google AdWords are:

Cost per Click (CPC) or Pay per Click (PPC)

This is the price you are willing to pay for a click on your advertisement; it is called Cost Per Click (CPC) or Pay Per Click (PPC). It is the most common method and it is within range of the budget for your CPC or PPC that Google uses to bring the maximum click you can get.

Cost per Impression (CPM)

In this case, you pay for every 1000 times your ad appears on the search result page (SERP) and has nothing to do with whether your ad was clicked or not.

What goes on behind the scenes from when the search is keyed in is that, an auction is held by Google AdWords and the ad with the highest bid and quality score is picked as the top ad which will be featured on the search page result all under 0.26 seconds

What you bid is not usually what you pay – what you pay is determined by the AdRank of the competitor lower than yours. So, actual Cost Per Click equals competitor AdRank, divided by your quality score.

How It Targets

For every product or service, there is a target market, so your advertising should be able to reach your targeted audience and communicate with them in a way that they will understand. Google AdWords enables you to use targeting methods that will determine where your ads will appear.

Target Methods

• Keyword targeting: Your ad will show only when certain keywords you have chosen are entered into the search engine.
• Device targeting: You may want to be more specific on how and where your adverts show up by choosing a certain type of device, time of the day, etc.
• Location and language targeting: This targets a particular race or location, depending on the geographical setting and language of your customers.
• Audience targeting: This targets people that have particular interests as they browse through the net on different apps; pick from the Affinity audience or In-market audience.
• Placement targeting: This requires picking the websites you want your ad to feature – websites your customers visit, or one that holds complimentary or contrasting services to yours.
• Topic targeting: With this, you target your ad on pages that are about certain topics selected by you.
• Remarketing: This allows you to target your ad towards people who have interacted with your business or websites before.

Steps to Add Targeting Methods

1.    Go to ‘Display Network’ found under ‘All campaign’
2.    Click ‘add targeting’ where you can choose your target method stated above
3.    Simply close to save your ad group

Target Controls

There are two options as well that must be set for each target method you choose and they are:

Target and Bid

Your advertisement only shows the target method you have chosen and you can only bid for each targeting method.

Bid Only

You are not restricted to your chosen target method, but you can only set bids for individual targeting.

Conclusion

It is important that you maximize your Google AdWords account by ensuring you create a highly targeted Ad group and be strategic with your bidding.

You are free to combine as many target methods that works for your products and services and depending on your setting, you are able to have your ad show on Google affiliate sites.

Google AdWords management may be helpful and necessary if you are still not sure on all the methods, target groups and strategies you need to engage, see Matter for transparent with AdWords management. You have the power to increase your sales and get your brand out there, so make use Google AdWords today.

Source: Audience targeting using Google AdWords