So you want to make a Google ad but you are not sure of how it all works and what’s the deal with pay per click? It’s pretty straight forward really. Essentially you’re bidding on a keyword. Let’s take the words Thai Visa for example, two businesses have gone to the Google home page and set up a BUY GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNT, that part is pretty easy. They get the opportunity to enter what keywords that, when typed into to Google. They would most like to be associated with, again a no brainer.
For example, the forum Thai visa would put in Thailand, forum and maybe information. Now a Visa company that specializes in Thailand visas, would put in, say…. Thailand, Visa and maybe…. information. This is where pay per click bidding comes into play. The Visa issuing company would state that they are willing to pay 30c if a potential client clicks on their ad (it’s all paid monthly, usually 30 days from the initial set up).
Thai visa on the other hand would state that they are prepared to pay 40c per click. This would now put their ad at the top of the list, (the ads that come up on the side bar of the Google search page). If of course the credit card company Visa haven’t out bid them. But for the sake of example let’s say that they haven’t.
Now this doesn’t mean that Thai visa will always pay 40c. It means that until someone else bids between 30 and 40c they will pay 31c per click. However, if someone was to bid 45c per click Thai visa would then have to pay 46c. Which is 11c more to get back to the top of the list!
There is a little Google trick that they play though, they often make a recommendation on how much you should bid and in the case of ‘Personal injury lawyers Chicago this can be. As of 2006, $78.20 per click!. This can potentially be a lot more than you are willing to pay, I honestly am not sure if this is
1) A way of increasing a bid for the word
or
2) A suggestion of the maximum another bidder has on the word
Something to be aware of, Google value some words a lot more highly than others, for instance ‘Personal injury lawyer’. Keywords are a lot more expensive than ‘1963 cherry red mustang convertible’ keywords, generic costs. And that brings me to my final point, Keywords.
You have to be very smart about what keywords you choose, it’s important not to go “keyword crazy”. Try to resist the temptation to create long lists of irrelevant, generic words. For example, if you run an auto dealership then, it wouldn’t be in your best interests to target the keyword “truck”. The cost per click (CPC) for such a generic keyword would be much mch higher when compared to a more descriptive. And relevant keyword, such as “S-7232 Long wheel base extended cab.”
