By João Pedro Andrade
At any given moment people all around the world use Google’s search tool to find what they’re looking for – be it a new dress, how to lose weight or that trip of their dreams.
Now, imagine you as a business owner being able to put the name of your company visible to these people at the moment of their search. You can get all the way to the top of the search results with the help of SEO techniques or by paying for this service. This is Google AdWords and it is exactly what it offers.
The service works based on the selection of keywords that the potential customers or clients could be using to search for the service that you offer – for example, “trainers for running”, if you are a sports gear retailer. The top of the search results will display a link to your company with an offer of the product searched for. Next to the link, will appear the additional information “Ad” which indicates that AdWords have been used.
Most probably, you will not be the only company to have opted for this specific keyword and will have to share the space with some of your competitors. To put your ad at the very top of the list, or even eliminate the ads of you competitors, you, as advertiser, have to offer bids, just like at a regular auction.The cost is calculated as CPC – cost per click.
And the highest bid wins? Maybe. But not always. Apart from the value of the bid, Google also takes into consideration the relevance of your page in relation to what was searched for. The number of recent clicks and the connection between the term searched for and your content are some of the factors that are considered.
As a result, research shows that around 81% of Google users click on AdWords ads. 40% of these are not aware of the fact that they are clicking on an ad. Knowing this, we can see that it can be a very useful and important tool for those who wish to make use of new technologies to grow their business.
