- A search engine helps users find the things they're looking for online. The user types a word or phrase, called a query, into the search engine, which then displays a set of results that are relevant to the query.
Most search engines provide two types of results listings in response to the same user query: organic (also called "natural" or "free") listings, and paid listings (i.e., advertisements). Google keeps these two types of listings separate, and ads are noted by the phrase "Sponsored Links" appearing above them.
Most search engines rank the results within each type of listing -- in other words, they determine in what order to show the listings on the results page -- according to how relevant the result is to the user's query, with the most relevant appearing at the top of the page.
Each search engine calculates relevancy in a different way for each type of result (organic and paid). This is one of the main differences between one search engine and another, and it's a factor in many users' decisions about which search engine to use.
On Google, although both organic and paid results appear in response to the same user query, the results are independent of each other. The ranking of an organic search result has no bearing on the ranking of any ads, and vice versa. This makes it possible for an advertiser to perform well in the paid listings and have an ample online presence, even if their site isn't present in the top organic search results.
In Google's organic results, relevancy to the user's query is determined by over 200 factors, one of which is the PageRank for a given page. PageRank is the measure of the importance of a page based on the incoming links from other pages. In simple terms, each link from site A to a page on site B adds to site B's PageRank.
Google AdWords also uses a combination of factors to rank paid listings, which will be explained in depth later in this lesson.
2. How Online Advertising Works
Although SEM refers to placing ads just on search engines, online advertising as a whole is much broader. The possibilities of online advertising include placing ads on nearly any type of website or page a user might browse, such as news, blogs, reviews, entertainment, online magazines, and marketplaces. In AdWords, these other sites make up the Google Content Network.
Ads on the Google Content Network can be in a number of formats, such as basic text ads, graphical image ads in a variety of sizes, audio streams, or interactive and video ads. You can also choose many different targeting options for your ads: whether defining the user's device (a computer or a mobile phone) you'd like your ad to show on, or specifying the user's location, language, or demographic.
Online advertising offers so many options that it's useful to define your advertising goals before beginning. This can help you determine where to place ads (search engines, content pages, or both) and what format of ads to place, and also help guide your budgeting decisions.
3. How Search Engine Marketing Works
Each type of listing -- organic and paid -- has a type of marketing approach associated with it.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) involves building new websites, or changing existing websites, so that they rank highly in a search engine's organic listings when users search on terms that are related to the site's content. To learn about SEO for Google organic search results, visit Google's Webmaster Central site.
Search engine marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the process of promoting and marketing a website through paid listings (advertisements) on search engines.
In order to create an ad for a given search engine, you need to create an account with the advertising product or branch of that search engine. For Google, this product is AdWords. After creating an account, you then create your ad and enter a list of user search queries -- called "keywords" -- that can trigger your ad to be shown.
Ads on most search engines operate on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning that you pay only when a user clicks your ad, and not for the ad impression (the instance in which the ad appears on the page). The other common pricing model in online advertising is cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), in which you pay per impression, not for any clicks on your ad.
Site owners often choose to advertise their site instead of, or in addition to, optimizing their site for placement in the organic search results. Although it's necessary to pay for the clicks your ads receive, advertising allows you to be proactive about when and where a listing for your site appears. Creating an AdWords account takes minutes, and ads can run almost immediately in response to keywords that you choose.
4. Direct Response vs. Branding in Online Advertising
Online advertising goals generally fall into one of two categories: direct response or branding.
Direct response
If your goal is direct response, you'd like a user to perform an action after clicking through your ad to your website: make a purchase, sign up to a newsletter, or request a quote, for instance. The completion of your desired action by the user is called a conversion.
To manage your online advertising strategy and costs, it's useful to define a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) that you'd like to achieve per conversion. You'll then be able to monitor the performance of your ads to ensure that they're meeting your CPA goals.
Branding
If your advertising goal is branding, your main reason for advertising online is to raise awareness and visibility of your product, service, or cause. To achieve this, you'll want to aim to place your ads in front of as many people as possible within your target audience.
Use cases
Although just about anyone could use online advertising for any reason, here are some of the best use cases:
§ An online retailer without a physical store location:
Use online advertising to drive traffic to your website. Show ads both in response to relevant keywords on search engines and on content webpages that your target customers would be likely to visit.
Use online advertising to drive traffic to your website. Show ads both in response to relevant keywords on search engines and on content webpages that your target customers would be likely to visit.
§ A small business that cannot afford expensive, traditional advertising methods:
Use online advertising to narrowly target your ads to a particular audience, and to closely control your costs and track your return on investment (ROI).
Use online advertising to narrowly target your ads to a particular audience, and to closely control your costs and track your return on investment (ROI).
§ A large business that would like to build brand awareness:
Show image ads or multimedia ads on content webpages that your target audience is likely to spend time on.
Show image ads or multimedia ads on content webpages that your target audience is likely to spend time on.
About Google and Google AdWords
5. Introduction to Google and Google AdWords
As a search engine, Google gathers and organizes a multitude of information from the Internet, then makes this information available to users throughout the world who are searching online.
Users can visit the Google homepage or other Google properties, enter a search query (terms related to information they'd like to find) into the search field, and click "Google Search." Google returns a variety of search results -- including lists of files, articles, documents, and websites -- that are all highly relevant to the query. (If a user clicks "I'm Feeling Lucky," the user goes directly to the first website or document in the Google search results.) Users can also search for results within Google Images, News, and other specialized Google services.
Search results appear on the left side of the page. Google doesn't accept payment to place websites or documents in search results. However, advertisers can purchase Google AdWords ads, which appear on the right side of the page, and sometimes above the search results.
Google AdWords is Google's advertising program. AdWords lets you create simple, effective ads and display them to people who are already searching online for information related to your business.
6. The Benefits of AdWords
Because AdWords offers precise targeting and measurability, as well as tremendous reach, it's possible to achieve a high ROI on a large scale. Let's take a closer look at each of these factors:
Relevance
One of the biggest benefits AdWords offers is the ability to precisely target ads to users based on their interest, as well as a number of other factors like location, language, and demographic. The result is that the user sees highly relevant ads, which they are more likely to click on. And because ads on search engines show only in response to a user's query, the user is also more likely to be further along in the buying cycle, and more likely to be ready to convert.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Online advertising is thoroughly measurable, making it easy to tell whether or not you're meeting your advertising goals. Every user's click is tied to a particular ad, keyword, and search query, all of which you can track and decide to improve whenever you like. If you spot a trend, you can create, modify, or delete keywords, ads, and campaign targeting selections within seconds. This allows you to be more responsive and more in control when it comes to improving your ROI.
Reach
Every day, Internet users conduct millions of searches on Google. When you use Google AdWords, you have the opportunity to capture any segment of that broad worldwide audience that's actively looking for products, services, information, and websites. By giving your products or services a presence during relevant user searches, you're ensuring that you're visible in a crucial point in the customer's buying cycle -- when the user is actively searching for what you're offering.
7. How AdWords Targets Audiences
So how is it possible to show your ads only to the most relevant audiences? The answer is keyword-based advertising.
When a user visits Google and enters a query -- say, "good beginner guitars" -- Google displays a variety of relevant search results, such as links to articles containing guitar purchasing advice, or websites dedicated to novice musicians. Google also displays AdWords ads that link to online businesses selling guitars, music lessons, or other products and services related to the query.
For example, imagine that you own a music store carrying a large selection of guitars. You could sign up for an AdWords account and create ads for entry-level guitars in your inventory. For each of your ads, you might select keywords (single words or phrases related to your ad's message) such as "beginner guitars" or "entry-level guitars".
Once you activate your account, your ads are eligible to appear. That is, the AdWords system selectively matches search queries related to the keywords you've selected, then display your ads to highly targeted audiences. In short, you'd be advertising directly to an audience already looking for you.
A significant benefit of AdWords is the ability to target your ads to almost any language and location worldwide. For example, you can target your ads to Spanish speakers in California or to Portuguese speakers in Brazil. This language and location targeting functionality lets you tailor your ads and promotions to increase your business's appeal to a variety of audiences.
AdWords offers two ways to trigger your ads to appear:
§ In response to keywords (called keyword targeting)
§ On specific placements (called placement targeting)
Keywords and placements are both available in AdWords campaigns. You can target keywords only, placements only, or both keywords and placements to reach the audience you most want for your ads.
Keywords
Keyword targeting is Google's traditional advertising model, whereby advertisers select keywords that can trigger their ads to appear on Google search pages and on the Google Content Network. (Unless otherwise specified, most of the content in the Learning Center focuses on keyword-targeted advertising.)
In addition to choosing your own keywords, you can specify how closely you want your keyword to match the user's query on Google search pages:
§ Broad match: Allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations of the keyword.
This is the default option. If your ad group contained the keyword 'tennis shoes,' your ad would be eligible to appear when a user's search query contained either or both words ('tennis' and 'shoes') in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations.
§ Phrase match: Allows your ad to show for searches that include the exact phrase of the keyword.
If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in "tennis shoes," your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, with the words in that order. It can also appear for searches that contain other terms as long as it includes the exact phrase you've specified. Phrase match is more targeted than broad match, but more flexible than exact match.
§ Exact match: Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively.
If you surround your keywords in brackets -- such as [tennis shoes] -- your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches for the specific phrase 'tennis shoes,' in this order, and without any other terms in the query. You likely won't receive as many impressions, clicks, or conversions with exact match as you would with broad match. However, if you've carefully constructed a comprehensive keyword list, the traffic you do receive may be more targeted to your product or service.
To determine where your ad may show on the Google Content Network, the AdWords system uses contextual targeting. This simply means that your keywords are used to place your ads next to content that matches your ads.
Placements
Placement targeting lets advertisers choose individual sites in the Google Content Network where they'd like their ads to appear.
A placement can be an entire website, or it can be a subset of pages or ad units on a site, as defined by the site's publisher. For example, a news site might offer you the chance to place your ads across its entire site, only on its front page, or just in ad units on the upper half of its sports pages. Placement targeting gives advertisers even greater flexibility to control exactly where their ads show.
8. How Ads Are Ranked
Ads are positioned on pages based on their Ad Rank, which is a combination of your bid and a relevancy metric called Quality Score. The ad with the highest Ad Rank appears in the first position, and so on down the page.
A Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query -- that is, every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad. Quality Score is a formula that varies based on your bid type, where your ad is showing, and targeting type. However, the main concept remains the same. Because Quality Score measures relevancy, a high Quality Score generally means that your ads will appear in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
In other words, AdWords rewards well-targeted, relevant ads. You also can't be locked out of the top position as you would be in a ranking system based solely on price. Having relevant keywords and ad text, a strong clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google, and a high CPC bid will result in a higher position for your ad.
9. AdWords Costs and Payments
AdWords Costs
There's never a minimum spending commitment for AdWords, and no minimum contract requirements or other "lock-in" rules apply. You have complete control over the maximum amount that you want to spend per click, impression, or day. You can also pause your campaigns or cancel your account at any time.
Google charges a one-time AdWords activation fee upon account creation to ensure that our advertisers are committed to creating well-targeted advertisements. The fee also helps cover the costs associated with creating, maintaining and, if applicable, cancelling an account. The activation fee is non-refundable, even if an account is open for a short time only.
Use the Account Fees and Payment Options Finder to find out about AdWords costs and payment options. After you select your currency and location, we'll show you exactly what spending requirements you can expect from us (there aren't many) and which payment options you'll have. You'll see that you can pretty much spend as much or as little as you like.
Here are a few basic things to consider when trying to assess the cost of your AdWords campaign.
Set your budget
§ There's no minimum spending requirement--just a nominal, one-time activation fee.
§ You set the limit on how much you're willing to spend each day -- called a daily budget -- per campaign.
§ You specify how much you're willing to pay per click or per impression: this is called your maximum cost-per-click (maximum CPC) or maximum cost-per-thousand-impressions (maximum CPM).
Pay only for results
Choose to pay only for clicks on your ads or only for impressions your ads receive.
Take advantage of automatic discount features
AdWords includes two automatic pricing discount features:
§ Smart pricing -- a feature that automatically reduces the price advertisers pay for clicks if our data shows that a click from a Content Network page is less likely to result in a conversion
§ AdWords discounter -- a feature that monitors your competition and automatically reduces your actual cost-per-click so that you pay the lowest price possible for your ad's position on the page. After each auction is run and your ad is ranked, the AdWords discounter adjusts your actual CPC so you pay the minimum amount required to exceed the rank of the next ranked ad
Avoid the guesswork
Use the Keyword Tool to explore keyword search traffic and cost estimates and make informed decisions about choosing keywords and maximizing your budget.
After you set your daily budget and maximum CPCs or CPMs, you know you'll stay within your budget. From there, you can access your account at any time to adjust ad text, keywords, placements, campaign settings, CPC and CPM bids, and daily budget to make sure you get the best performance for your money.
AdWords Payments
Available payment options depend on the country of your billing address and the currency with which you make payments. Select your country and currency on our Payment Options page to see what's available to you.
Google payment options are divided into two types: postpay and prepay. One or both will be available to you depending on your country and currency. Note that you won't be able to switch from a postpay option to a prepay option or vice versa, so be careful when selecting your payment method as you set up your account.
If you select a postpay option, you'll make payments only after you accrue advertising costs. You'll be automatically billed either 30 days after your last payment or when your account costs reach your billing threshold, whichever comes first.
If you select a prepay option, you'll pay for advertising in advance of receiving any clicks or impressions. You can add funds to your AdWords account whenever you like, and we'll deduct costs from that balance. We'll notify you when your balance is running low. If you do run out of funds, your ads will stop showing until you make another payment.
Basic AdWords Features
10. Ad Formats
Google AdWords offers a variety of ad formats. The most common format is text ads, followed by image (and animated) ads. Additional formats available include video ads and mobile ads.
A typical AdWords text ad looks like this:
Try Google AdWords
Maximize your ROI. Attract
new customers. Sign up today.
adwords.google.com
Maximize your ROI. Attract
new customers. Sign up today.
adwords.google.com
Text ads generally contain the following elements:
§ Headline (25 characters, including spaces): The title attracts users who might be interested in your products or services.
§ Description (two lines of up to 35 characters each, including spaces): These two lines contain your product, service, and other details (such as promotions). The content in these lines should be clear enough to communicate your intent and compelling enough to convince the user to click your ad and visit your site.
§ Display URL (35 characters, including spaces): This line indicates which website the user will visit if he or she clicks your ad.
§ Destination URL (up to 1024 characters): This is the actual page where users land when they click your ad. The URL won't appear in your ad. Many advertisers link their ads to particular destination pages within their website, but use the simpler URL of their homepage as the display URL.
Certain wide characters and double-byte characters will reduce the number of characters permitted per line.
11. About the Search and Content Networks
With Google AdWords, your ads are eligible to appear on the Google Network -- comprising thousands of high-quality search and content sites and products across the web -- in addition to Google search results pages. Electing to show your ads on the Google Network can greatly expand your marketing presence to customers you might not have reached on Google alone.
The Google Network is divided into the Google Search Network and the Google Content Network. Advertisers can choose to show their ads on either or both of these networks.
§ Google Search Network: Includes Google search pages, search sites, and properties that display search results pages, such as Google Product Search and Earthlink. AdWords ads can appear alongside or above search results, as part of a results page as a user navigates through a site's directory, or on other relevant search pages.
§ Google Content Network: Includes news pages, topic-specific websites, blogs, and other properties -- such as Gmail and The New York Times -- that allow you to extend the reach of your ad campaign to pages where users are actively engaged with content, not just doing searches. AdWords ads can appear on a webpage if the content and URL of that page match the keywords in the campaign.
12. Ad Performance and Monitoring
You can measure the performance of your AdWords account on many levels: from the performance of your keywords, to your overall return on investment. The definition of good performance will also depend on whether your individual advertising goal is direct marketing or branding.
Quality Score and CTR
Within your account itself, two useful performance metrics are Quality Score and clickthrough rate (CTR). Quality Score lets you know how useful AdWords believes users will find your ad when it's triggered by that keyword.
Clickthrough rate is one component of Quality Score, but it's also a useful metric to look at by itself if your advertising goal is direct response -- that is, driving users to your site to carry out an action.
CTR is calculated by the number of clicks your ad received divided by the number of impressions it received within a given time period, so it's a basic indicator of how appealing your ad is to users. Because what's considered to be a "good" CTR varies widely among the multitudes of search terms and industries, it's best not to focus on a single benchmark rate.
Within your own account, you should seek to constantly improve your CTR in relation to its past performance. A decline in CTR is an indicator that you need to take a deeper look into your account to determine the causes, so that you can continue to improve your account.
Report Center
To help you take an in-depth look at your account performance, your AdWords account is equipped with ample reporting functionality in a Report Center. This allows you to run reports on nearly every aspect of your account's performance.
Each report allows you to customize its parameters, taking into account all your targeting options and features, from the keyword level on up to the campaign level.
Conversion Tracking
The final measure of success for any advertising program is whether it brings you profitable sales or meets your overall marketing and branding goals. To help you evaluate this, AdWords offers a conversion tracking feature that allows you to clearly identify the ads that bring you customers.
In your AdWords account statistics, conversion tracking displays the number of conversions and the value per conversion that you receive from your advertising campaigns. Reviewing this information can help you:
§ Determine the best budget and CPC bids for your advertising goals
§ Identify keywords and ads that are receiving untargeted clicks
§ See whether your ads are driving branding-related user behavior you deem valuable, such as a sign-up or page view
Find a full overview of conversion tracking in Lesson 10 Performance Monitoring and Conversion Tracking.
Google Analytics
We also recommend that you create a Google Analytics account, if you haven't already done so. Google Analytics is a free web analysis tool that provides detailed conversion data. In addition, you'll learn useful information such as how people found your site and how they explored it.
13. Common AdWords Terms
Using Google AdWords for the first time will introduce you to some new terminology. Here are a few of the most commonly used AdWords terms:
Keyword
The keywords you choose are the terms or phrases you want to prompt your ad to appear. For example, if you deliver fresh flowers, you can use "fresh flower delivery" as a keyword in your AdWords campaign. When a Google user enters "fresh flower delivery" in a Google search, your ad could appear next to the search results.
The keywords you choose are the terms or phrases you want to prompt your ad to appear. For example, if you deliver fresh flowers, you can use "fresh flower delivery" as a keyword in your AdWords campaign. When a Google user enters "fresh flower delivery" in a Google search, your ad could appear next to the search results.
Placement
Like keywords, placements are another way for you to control where your ads appear. A placement is usually a website where you'd like your ad to appear. For example, if you select www.example.com/sports as a placement, your ad could appear on that site.
Like keywords, placements are another way for you to control where your ads appear. A placement is usually a website where you'd like your ad to appear. For example, if you select www.example.com/sports as a placement, your ad could appear on that site.
Image ad
A graphical ad, which can be static or animated, that runs on the Google Content Network. Also called a display ad.
A graphical ad, which can be static or animated, that runs on the Google Content Network. Also called a display ad.
Campaign & Ad Group
AdWords accounts are organized into campaigns and ad groups. You start with one campaign, which has its own daily budget and targeting preferences. You can have multiple campaigns running and might choose to create one campaign for each product or service you want to advertise. Within each campaign, you have one or more ad groups, which are sets of related ads, keywords, and placements.
AdWords accounts are organized into campaigns and ad groups. You start with one campaign, which has its own daily budget and targeting preferences. You can have multiple campaigns running and might choose to create one campaign for each product or service you want to advertise. Within each campaign, you have one or more ad groups, which are sets of related ads, keywords, and placements.
Impression (Impr.)
The number of impressions is the number of times an ad is displayed on Google or the Google Network. Monitor your impressions to see how many people your ad is shown to.
The number of impressions is the number of times an ad is displayed on Google or the Google Network. Monitor your impressions to see how many people your ad is shown to.
Click
If a customer sees your ad and clicks on it to learn more or to do business with you, it is recorded in your account as a click. Monitor your clicks to see how many people choose to enter your website from your ad.
If a customer sees your ad and clicks on it to learn more or to do business with you, it is recorded in your account as a click. Monitor your clicks to see how many people choose to enter your website from your ad.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
Your clickthrough rate (CTR) is a metric that helps show how your ads are performing. The more relevant your ads are, the more often users will click on them, resulting in a higher CTR. The system calculates your CTR as follows: Number of ad clicks/number of impressions x 100.
Your clickthrough rate (CTR) is a metric that helps show how your ads are performing. The more relevant your ads are, the more often users will click on them, resulting in a higher CTR. The system calculates your CTR as follows: Number of ad clicks/number of impressions x 100.
Cost-per-click (CPC)
Under the cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model, AdWords charges you for each click your ads receive. You won't incur any costs if your ad is displayed and users don't click it. CPC bidding is the default for ads running on Google and the Search Network. Most advertisers also choose it for their campaigns that focus on getting a direct response from their audience, whether a sale, sign-up, or other action.
Under the cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model, AdWords charges you for each click your ads receive. You won't incur any costs if your ad is displayed and users don't click it. CPC bidding is the default for ads running on Google and the Search Network. Most advertisers also choose it for their campaigns that focus on getting a direct response from their audience, whether a sale, sign-up, or other action.
Maximum cost-per-click (maximum CPC)
The highest amount that you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. You can choose to set a maximum CPC for individual keywords or for all the keywords within an ad group.
The highest amount that you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. You can choose to set a maximum CPC for individual keywords or for all the keywords within an ad group.
Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM)
With some campaigns, you can choose to pay for views of your ad rather than clicks. The maximum CPM is the most you're willing to pay for each thousand impressions, or views of your ad. CPM bidding is only available for campaigns that target the Content Network and not Google search or search partner sites.
With some campaigns, you can choose to pay for views of your ad rather than clicks. The maximum CPM is the most you're willing to pay for each thousand impressions, or views of your ad. CPM bidding is only available for campaigns that target the Content Network and not Google search or search partner sites.
Quality Score
Quality Score is the basis for measuring the quality of your keyword and ad and determining your cost-per-clicks (CPCs). Quality Score is determined by your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower the price you'll pay per click.
Quality Score is the basis for measuring the quality of your keyword and ad and determining your cost-per-clicks (CPCs). Quality Score is determined by your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower the price you'll pay per click.
First page bid estimates
Your AdWords account will show a first page bid estimate for each of your keywords. This metric estimates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to reach the first page of Google search results when the search query exactly matches your keyword. The first page bid estimate is based on the Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that keyword.
Your AdWords account will show a first page bid estimate for each of your keywords. This metric estimates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to reach the first page of Google search results when the search query exactly matches your keyword. The first page bid estimate is based on the Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that keyword.
Optimization
An optimization is the process of creating/editing keywords and ad text (or adjusting other parts of the account) to improve the performance of AdWords ads.
An optimization is the process of creating/editing keywords and ad text (or adjusting other parts of the account) to improve the performance of AdWords ads.
2. Overview of Search Engine Marketing & Online Advertising
Objective: Learn about search engines and understand the basics of online advertising.
3. About Google and Google AdWords
Objective: Learn about Google search and Google AdWords, and see how AdWords relates to the concepts of Internet search engines and keyword advertising.
4. Basic AdWords Features
Learn about the fundamental parts of an AdWords account.
2. Getting Started with AdWords
Signing up for AdWords
1. Creating an AdWords Account
If you're new to online advertising, the first step is to establish your advertising goals. You'll probably find it easier to build your account once you can answer these questions:
1. What does your company (or division) do? Do you have different product lines? What are they?
2. Who's your primary audience (target market) for your products and services? Do you need to reach different audiences with separate sets of keywords or ads?
3. What are you trying to sell or promote? What do you want people to do (buy, visit, download, subscribe)?
4. What results would you like to see? What would you consider a good return on your investment?
To sign up for an AdWords account, visit the AdWords homepage at https://adwords.google.com. Click Start now to begin, then follow the guided steps to complete your account setup.
If you have an existing Google Account, you'll be able to use that account for AdWords. Note that any existing Google account you enter must not have previously been linked with AdWords.
Note: When you set up an account, you're asked to select a permanent time zone and currency for the account. Your time zone and currency settings can't be changed after you set up your account, so please choose carefully.
2. AdWords Account Access
To sign in to your AdWords account:
1. Enter your email address and password in the appropriate fields, and click Sign in. (If you're already signed into Google or AdWords with this information, Google skips this step and takes you directly to your account.)
If you have trouble accessing your account, click I cannot access my account below the sign-in form.
If you forget your password, you can request a new one. Note that if you use other Google products like AdSense or Checkout with the same Google Account username, changing your AdWords sign-in information will also update your sign-in information for those services.
AdWords accounts have several levels of account access.
§ Administrative: This is the highest level of access. These users can view, edit, and manage any part of an account and its campaigns (with the exception of sign-in information and language settings). Only those with Administrative Access may invite and disable access for other users, view pending invitations, and change another user's level of access.
§ Standard: Standard Access users have almost the same capabilities as Administrative Access users, except that Standard Access users cannot invite others to share access, change user access levels, or disable access to the account.
§ Reports: Reports Access users have the lowest level of access to an account; they can only view and run reports.
To view or change access levels for your account, go to the My account tab and select Account access.
It's important to know that only the original account creator can edit his or her sign-in information and language preferences from within the My Account tab. No one else can edit these settings, regardless of their access levels.
If you manage multiple clients' accounts, you can use My Client Center (MCC) to handle all of them. Learn more about MCC in Lesson 13. Managing Multiple Accounts.
3. Activating an AdWords Account
Once your AdWords account is created, activate your account by creating your first campaign and providing your billing information.
First, follow these steps to create your ad campaign:
1. Click Create your first campaign.
2. Follow the guided steps to create your campaign. You'll find more tips for creating an effective campaign in Section 2. AdWords Account and Campaign Basics.
Next, provide your billing information on the Billing tab of your account. Your ads may begin running only after you've entered your billing information.
4. In order to preserve the quality and diversity of ads running on Google, individuals advertising for themselves or for their own businesses may only have a single AdWords account unless explicitly advised otherwise by Google.
This means that we don't allow advertisers or affiliates to have any of the following:
§ Ads across multiple accounts for the same or similar businesses
§ Ads across multiple accounts triggered by the same or similar keywords
Only client managers (such as third parties or search engine marketers) who use a My Client Center can have multiple AdWords accounts. All associated accounts must be linked to the manager's MCC account.
5. Creating Accounts for Others
My Client Center (MCC) is a powerful tool for handling multiple AdWords accounts. MCC is ideal for large advertisers with more than one account and for third-party agencies, such as search engine marketers (SEMs), search engine optimizers (SEOs), and automated bid managers (ABMs). You can think of MCC as an umbrella account with multiple AdWords accounts (also called "managed accounts" or "client accounts") linked to it.
Each account managed through the MCC program has a unique email address associated with it. Note that the holders of the client accounts cannot view or access other client accounts.
My Client Center account managers may wish to use the AdWords API (application programming interface) to update their client accounts. The AdWords API lets developers build applications that interact directly with the AdWords server. With these applications, advertisers and third parties can more efficiently and creatively manage large or complex AdWords accounts. The API is designed for developers representing large, tech-savvy advertisers and third parties who want to automate reporting or campaign management. Since the AdWords API takes technical know-how and programming skills, advertisers with programming knowledge, or who employ developers, will achieve the best results.
To access the AdWords API, you must be an AdWords advertiser, or a developer who represents one, with a My Client Center account.
Hiring Someone to Manage Your Account
1. Working with an Agency or Contractor
A client manager works with client accounts through the My Client Center (MCC) program. The information below describes how client accounts and client manager accounts compare.
AdWords client accounts
If you've set up your own AdWords account and your client manager has linked your account to his/hers, both you and your client manager have access to your account. You can access your own account at any time and can unlink your AdWords account from your client manager's at any time.
If your client manager sets up your AdWords account for you, then you should ensure that your client manager does so under your personal sign-in email and password. That way, you can also access and maintain control over your own account. Also, if your sign-in email is your own, we may periodically send you important updates concerning your account.
Client managers can update campaigns, manage account tasks for their clients, and view billing summary history information for AdWords accounts. However, client managers don't have access to proprietary client information such as credit card information.
Client manager accounts
Only a client manager has access to the client manager account. By extension, a client manager will also have access to information regarding all related accounts via My Client Center. Like clients, a client manager can unlink a client account from his/her account at any time.
2. Getting Help to Create Ads
You can use the Ad Creation Marketplace to get help with your ads. The Ad Creation Marketplace offers a selection of industry professionals who can provide script writing, editing, production, and voice-over talent at an affordable package cost. You can access the Marketplace from your AdWords account, and it's free to search for and send project bids to specialists. You aren't under any obligation to work with them until you accept a bid.
2. Signing up for AdWords
Objective: Learn how to create and activate an AdWords account for yourself or others.
3. Hiring Someone to Manage Your Account
Objective: Learn how to locate qualified third parties to manage your account.
