Getting a Great Ranking With Google AdWords

Discover how you can optimize your ads so they get seen by the greatest number of targeted customers--without having to pay sky-high click-through fees.

By Corey Rudl

If you've ever done any research on how to promote your site online, you've no doubt read about pay-per-click search engines and how they can really boost your sales. If you're not familiar with them, let me explain: A pay-per-click search engine allows you to bid on keywords that relate to the contents of your site. If you're the highest bidder on a given keyword, your site will appear at the top of the "results" page when someone types that keyword into a search engine.

Many of you may have also heard of Google AdWords--which isn't exactly a pay-per-click search engine, but it is an advertising model that's proven extremely powerful. Google is quite simply the largest advertising network on the Internet, so if you use Google's pay-per-click service, your ads can be seen by huge numbers of people all over the world.

Just what is Google AdWords? You've probably seen Google AdWords advertisements on countless sites on the net, particularly on Google itself. They're the little rectangular ads that often appear to the right of the "organic" (free) search results.

AdWords members create their own ads and bid on the keywords they want to trigger the appearance of their ads on Google and its member sites. Each ad consists of a headline--up to 25 characters, including spaces--and a product description--up to 70 characters, including spaces.

Once you submit it, your ad is posted within minutes and may be featured as one of the "sponsored sites" listed to the right of the organic free listings whenever one of your targeted keywords is plugged into the Google search engine. Unlike pure pay-per-click engines such as Overture, Google's AdWords' ranking system isn't based solely on the amount of money you bid on the keyword. Instead, Google's ranking formula looks something like this:

CPC (cost per click) x CTR (click-through rate) = Ranking

By factoring the click-through rate into the equation, Google is trying to ensure that the top positions are filled by ads that are actually pulling traffic and producing meaningful results. Google doesn't want the companies with the largest advertising budgets to buy up all the good spots and leave their competitors--who might offer quality products and services--in the dust. Google simply wants to deliver good search results to searchers.

Why use Google AdWords?

AdWords ads are everywhere. The Google Network reaches more than 80 percent of regular internet users, so a well-written ad with a great keyword list has the potential to reach a huge number of people. Your ad will not only get great exposure on Google's search page--which gets 81.9 million unique users a month, or 2.73 million a day--it will also appear in the following high-traffic places:

• The Google network: Google actually supplies the search results for a number of different search engines. AdWords ads are featured on all the Google Network search sites, including AOL, Netscape, The New York Times, CompuServe, EarthLink, AT&T, AskJeeves, Shopping.com, USNews.com, About.com, Lycos, Forbes.com, ABC.com, Economist.com, InfoSpace, FoxSports.com, Allrecipes.com, Lowestfare.com, Viacom and MacWorld.com.

• Google AdSense member sites: AdSense is Google's affiliate program. Member sites add a field to their home page or other site pages, and Google serves a rotating selection of content-specific AdWords ads to be displayed in the field. Whenever a visitor to the site clicks on one of the ads, the AdSense site gets a percentage of the profit. (That's another reason why Google factors the click-through rate into its ranking equation--it wants to make sure its AdSense members are making a decent profit, so they stay with the program.)

• "Gmail": As you may know, Google recently launched its own e-mail service, Gmail. As a way to generate extra revenue, Google features AdWords ads within the body of Gmail messages, using software to target the ads to the content of the e-mail message. This ensures that AdWords ads are being seen by an even larger number of people.

If you've decided you want to try using Google AdWords to get the word out about your site, know this: Because Google factors an ad's click-through rate into its ranking equation, the best way to optimize your listing without paying more money is to make sure your ad compels as many people as possible to click on it. Here are seven of the best ways to ensure your ad has a high click-through rate:

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