Week 15 MKTG 349: Chapter 8 Getting Certified!

Being Google Adwords certified is a great thing! It's free, it looks great on a resume, and it looks great on LinkedIn. In order to get certified you can look through Google's free learning material. Once you have studied you can take the test. You cant take it as many times as you want, as long as you wait a week in between each test. You can access it through your gmail. Gmail is a great tool to use because it offers many other features. Some of these include google docs, google drive, google calendar, and they are great at filtering spam out of email.

There are multiple exams you can take, but the one that we've been working towards is the Adwords Fundamentals Exam. Another great exam to do is the Search Advertising Exam. In order to be certified, you must pass both of them, not just one or the other. Having an ad campaign while you are studying for this test will help you pick up the material much faster.

The ultimate goal is to pass this test and get certified. If you have read all these blog posts and understand them, you are well on your way to getting yourself certified!

Week 14 MKTG 349: Chapter 7 Callouts

Last week we talked about Site links in my blog, and this week we will talk about Callouts. Callouts are another ad extension that are even easier to use than Site links. Basically all it is, is extra text beneath the ad. It will help you increase your CTR.

In order to add a callout you must click the ad extensions tab. Click the selection drop down menu, and select Callout extensions. Hit the "+ New callout" button, and start planning. Similar to Site links, you can plan callouts ahead of time or you can do it on the fly. Type in the text you want for your callout and hit save. You can add multiple callouts, its about finding which ones work for you.

One thing to remember with Adwords is to always click the question marks. They can be very helpful when you first start with adwords.

Week 13 MKTG 349: Chapter 7 Site links

Google Ad words offers an Ad extension function. This option can be highly beneficial. Chapter 7 talks about two couple forms of ad extensions: site links, and callouts.

Site links display links to sections of the site underneath the ad. In order to ad a site link, go to the the Ad extensions tab. You then click the selection drop down menu, and choose "Sitelinks extensions." They tend to increase the number of clicks to your ads, and raise the click through rate.

To add a sitelink simply click the "+ Extension" button and then click a campaign to add it to. Click done after it you select your add. You then must click "+ New sitelink." Paste your link, hit save, and your site link is done! Don't forget to look at suggestions that Google has to offer! Next week we will be talking about callouts.

Week 12 MKTG 349: Chapter 6 Campaign Strategies

When making a campaign, you are never alone. Google offers ample options to help your ad reach its full potential. The key is making sure you take advantage of these tools. One tool is the Google Support option. During business hours you can live video chat someone to help you with your problems. This is much faster than an email. The next option is a basic email. They will send you suggestions on how they believe you can better improve your campaign.

Another important aspect is the keyword matching option. This is used to help control how closely the keyword needs to match a person's search term in order to trigger your ad. Using these will help optimize the performance of campaigns.

The exploring suggestions feature is also helpful. If you select this function Google will scan your site and make a multitude of suggestions for you to take into consideration. Some things that they may suggest are new keywords.

You can also click on an "Opportunities" link. These will give you "learn more" links to help you familiarize and and understand google ad words.

Week 11 MKTG 349: Chapter 5 Keyword Planner

One great tool you have at your disposal is the "Keyword Planner." In order to access it go to the Tools menu, and select Keyword Planner. There are several sections, but we will be looking at the first two.

To help get ideas, click on the "Search for new Keywords using a phrase, website or category." You enter in some descriptive information to give google a starting point. Click the "Get ideas" button when you're ready and see what Google comes up with! They will come up with these words based on what you input, and show information about the average monthly searches, how much competition, and what the bidding is going for.

Another section we will be looking at is the "Get search volume data and trends." All you have to do is enter a keyword or keywords and then see how many searches are there. Google will show the average number of searches, how much competition there is, and a suggested bid range. One thing that I would suggest you do, is always click on the question marks. These will tell you what everything does, so it will help you learn and understand more about Ad words.

Week 10 MKTG 349: Chapter 5 Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

By now you can probably see how important keywords are. Since they are so important, we will spend another blog talking about them! If you want to further understand how to produce keywords, go onto google and pick a website. Then try and imagine what the keywords people would use to find the page. There are two situations for keywords. Situations where people might know a product or brand name, or situations where people might be interested in a type of product or service. It is important to think about both of these situations when creating an ad.

When creating keywords you want to get as high of a rank as possible, also known as, appearing on the first page of search results. The more pages people have to search through, the least likely your ad will be clicked on. Another thing to keep in consideration is search volume. While your keyword is very relevant to you, will people really be searching that? The only way to use your budget is to get people to click on your ad. If you want people to click on your ad, you need to have relevant keywords. I hope you have started to realize that keywords are VERY important!

Week 9 MKTG 349: Chapter 4 Reviewing a Campaign

When reviewing the performance of ads, it is best to start from general to more specific. You would start first with reviewing the campaign, then move on to the ads, then last focus on the keywords. If you ever  get lost in ad words just simply click the Campaigns link at the top left corner of the page. This will bring you back to the most broad feature of ad words. Once you click that tab you will then want to click individual campaigns to review. Once you have clicked on the individual campaign you can look at he ad groups that are on the campaign. Ad groups are a way to create ads and keywords that are closely related to each other. This will help you focus in on a target market helping you reach more clicks, and a higher click through rate. If you click on the Ads tab you can greater review a chosen ad.

The last area to look at are individual keywords. If you click on the keywords tab a list of all the words you chose will be displayed. This is the section that will need the most revision. Once you have reviewed these keywords you can decide which keywords work, and which do not. From there you can revise your keywords to make them the most efficient. Creating the ad is not the only thing you have to do, instead you also need to review and revise your campaign. If you want to reach the maximum potential on your campaign, then you need to constantly be reviewing and making changes on your campaigns.