Here's R400 - let's start advertising on Google

Video: Setting up an AdWords account

Last week we talked about why pay per click and search engine marketing is the best way of making sure your marketing rands deliver results online. This week we encourage those of you who've never tried Google AdWords to join us in setting up your first account.

But first let's take a look at what Google AdWords is and explore some of the frequently asked questions.

What is Google AdWords?

When you search on Google, you see many results that are determined by Google scanning its index of the world wide web and applying numerous algorithms to return the websites that are likely to be most relevant to your search. We call these organic search results and they can't be paid for.

But you also see ads appear on the left and above the search results. These are Google AdWords ads and are paid for.

Why pay if you can appear on Google for free?

The web is a very big place and only a few listings appear on the first page of Google search results. Many people don't take the time to scroll past the first page.

Secondly, people don't always search for your product in the way you think they might. Even if you are the biggest chicken fast food chain in South Africa, for example, you still may not appear in the top search results if someone searches for "I feel like chicken tonight" - sites from Wikipedia to chicken recipes to YouTube videos advertising a product called "Chicken Tonight" may beat you. But you can choose to advertise on that search time, making sure your ad appears every time someone in South Africa searches for terms that may imply they actually feel like having a chicken meal. (We'll talk more about how to find out what terms customers are using to search for your product later).

Even if your business does come up on the first page of search results, AdWords can still help drive incremental visits. Google has done extensive search results on how AdWords complement and enhance your organic results - you can read more about it here.

Aren't search ads intrusive? Can we trust them?

Google takes advertising results as serious as they do search results. Ads only show if they are relevant to a search query. If there are no relevant ads, none will be shown. What's more, Google continually check's the advertiser's website to make sure that it is still active and that the content on there agrees with what they say they are advertising.

Ads are useful to users - they help us find the commercial content we're looking for. If I'm searching for "I feel like chicken tonight" because I really want to order a takeaway, then I'll happily ignore the organic search results that don't answer my query and zoom in on the ad that is displaying the information I really want to see: Order your chicken meal now!

<< last week's article: Pay per click - pay for results
<< Back to Google AdWords article index
>> next article: Creating your first Google AdWords campaign