AdWords are Changing the Advertising Game

A commercial before a song on YouTube, the list of advertisements before your actual search results on Google. Most people expect these commercials, but how do they get there? And why does Facebook know what you searched on Amazon? This is all because of Google AdWords.

AdWords is a Google service that displays a business’s advertisements online through Google partners. Some of these partners include YouTube and Facebook. Within online advertising, AdWords has become a buzzword and topic of controversial discussion. Advertisers love the ease of use and setup of the Google program, but Google tends to push against the legality of data mining.

When a Google program or app requires a login there is a term of service that asks for permission to access your account information. Most people automatically hit accept. Let’s face it, no one has the time to read the fine print on everything. But that fine print allows access to your age, location, gender, interest, and search history. The information even acquires the amount of time spent on a specific page. This information is used throughout Google programs to cater each page to the user’s needs. Google Analytics is another program that allows companies to see the analytical activity on their pages.

For some, the idea that so much information about us is available online is terrifying. For others, it is something to be expected. The end result is an online experience catered towards us personally, with the occasional intrusive advertisements we scroll past.

From a communications and advertising perspective, Google has created a gold mine for advertising. Google makes a large amount of money through the advertising but keeps the costs low so even small businesses are able to utilize the program. As a student and soon to be graduate interested in this field, I took a personal interest in becoming certified to boost my resume and my abilities within the workforce.

WebpageFX a web design and communications-based business in Harrisburg Pennsylvania held an event called, WebpageFX-U. This event informed on internet marketing. Adwords was one of the topics discussed. Angela Cremer a senior at Albright College attended the event and heard about AdWords for the first time. “I’m planning on getting my AdWords certification because I think it is important. It makes you stand out from the clutter of resumes and is a useful tool,” said Cremer.

There are three different ways to pay to advertise through AdWords: Cost per click, cost per acquisition, and cost per thousand impressions. The type of advertising a company uses is dependent on the goal of the advertising campaign. AdWords has a study guide available that explains these types of ad campaigns to their fullest extent here.

If the goal is to get people onto your website then cost per click is the route to take. You only have to pay for the ad whenever a person clicks on it. On top of this, the advertiser controls the amount of money spent per month and can view the analytic of the advertisement to see if it is worth the cost.

Costing a little bit more is the cost per conversion. This pays for the advertisement for each conversion to a purchase, guaranteeing success as long as the product is more expensive than the advertisement.

Cost per thousand acquisitions is mainly created in rebranding schemes or simply for a boost in publicity. An advertiser pays a certain amount for 1,000 ads. The placement of these ads is determined by the quality of the advertisement and bidding.

Bidding gives AdWords a competitive nature. Businesses can bid on the advertisement’s placement on a page. The higher the bid, the higher on the page it appears.

AdWords is an extremely advanced tool in advertising, but as the one New York Times article points out, it does not work for everyone. The article explains in one section how you have to advertise something people would look for on the Internet.

The types of advertisements vary from image to text, and sometimes video. The versatility of price, analytics, and medium makes AdWords extremely appealing to any business. Instead of having to concept test and spend copious amounts of money prior to the release of an ad, the success of ads can be analyzed on a day to day basis.

While this focused on certain aspects of AdWords, this article has barely scratched the surface. To fully understand all the abilities of AdWords, study the study guide and take the exam.

To access the free AdWords certification and test click the link below:

https://www.google.com/partners/?sourceid=awo&subid=us-ww-et-g_prt-helpcenter&utm_source=help_center&utm_medium=ep&utm_content=PartnersHC&utm_campaign=&utm_content=us-ww#p_certificationexam;cert=0;exam=0;