You are probably aware that Google AdWords three-line text ads (that look similar to search listings) appear on Google and other search engines above the organic, unpaid listings and along the right hand side of search engine results pages, like this Audubon Birds ad for my client Ship The Web:
But Google AdWords offers many other advertising options besides search engine text ads and I'm running multi-faceted online campaigns for several clients right now. In fact, you can run a pretty broad online advertising program entirely through AdWords.
Here is a quick rundown of some of the additional Google AdWords ad options:
- Text ads on Content Sites - You can run the same text ads on thousands of sites in Google's network, which is one of the largest in the industry. The ads would be shown on pages with relevant content to the keywords you select, so for example if someone were to blog about Wild Republic's Audubon Birds the ad above might be displayed next to the post.
- Banner ads on Content Sites - If you have banner ads you can run them on content sites in the Google network that accept banner ads and you would pay the same price as with your text ads. Don't have banners? Google's Display Ad Builder will enable you to create simple banner ads yourself.
- Text & Banner ads on Placements (Specific Content Sites) - Want to pick specific websites for your ads like The New York Times, MySpace or the Wall Street Journal? No problem! Google's Placement Tool will let you browse sites in their network by category, topic (keyword), URL or demographics and add them to your campaign.
- Local Business Ads - These ads are associated with a specific Google Maps business listing and appear in Google Maps with an enhanced location marker as well as on Google and content sites in a text only format. Great for reaching people searching for a business in their area! You can even upload your logo and additional information such as business hours.
- Mobile ads - Trying to reach users via their mobile phone? Google offers text and graphic ads and you can choose to direct people to a regular website or a mobile website if you have one.
- Click to Play Video Ads - These are ads that allow you to display a static image which folks can click on to play a video right in the space of a regular banner and then click through to your website. The kicker, like all of the other types of ads, you only pay if people click though to visit your site, so if someone watches the video but does not click through it doesn't cost you anything.
So as you can see, there are a lot of options available. There are several advantages to running an online advertising program through AdWords, but the key advantages are the price savings and being able to manage and track your campaigns in one place.
Since you are buying your advertising in AdWords and only paying for clicks (rather than for all the "impressions" or whenever your ad appears on a web page) and you are not having to negotiate a price with a sales rep from the content site directly, you'll more often than not pay much less. In my experience the savings here can be HUGE!
Since you can log in 24/7 and see your all your ad results in one place and AdWords integrates very well with Google Analytics (you can link your accounts and view your site's Analytics data right in AdWords) it is much easier to manage multiple campaigns.
There's a quick snapshot of what you can do right now in Google AdWords. I didn't go into a lot of detail due to this being a blog post, but if you have a question about something I have covered here or are interested in learning more about what might make sense for your business please leave a comment or call me at 937-312-1400 and I'll do my best to help you.
