It used to be in the past that small business owners invariably struggled to afford campaigning or advertising for their new product launches or service offerings. However, the scenario changed dramatically with the advent of Google AdWords. It provided an inexpensive and attractive way to create the buzz and to spread the word about your brand.

But with its rising popularity, the competition too got stiffer, making things difficult and challenging. Many businesses spend thousands of dollars on Google AdWords with little to show for it, wondering where it all went wrong. It is very vital to understand the basics, which is exactly what we are going to do in this post.

Do proper planning when creating Google AdWords campaigns

The point is: If you fail to do proper planning and are careless in your execution of the strategy, you won’t get the desired results. First and foremost, let us understand the basic parameters of Google AdWords and how the whole concept works:

Google AdWords are basically keyword-driven ads, which get displayed along the right hand side of any Google search page just under the rubric called ‘sponsored links’. Online users who search for keywords that are related to those you choose – say, for example ‘widgets for sale’ – will notice your ad just alongside the results of their specific search.

And how high up the ad will be there on the list of sponsored links will depend, to an extent, on how much you are ready to spend on your ad campaign. Simply speaking, the more you are willing to spend and the more relevant (or focused) your ad, obviously the higher it will get ranked.

AdWords follows pay-per-click model

You will pay Google only when a user clicks on the ad posted by you. This is because AdWords, as we all know, is a service that follows pay-per-click model. When you launch your ad campaign, you make a text-only ad. It will incorporate a link to your website.

You will then select the keywords, which will decide which segment of searchers (your target audience) sees your ad on Google. You can and should ideally specify how much you are going to spend before you ahead. Other things to consider are what language/s it will appear in and also its geographical reach. This will ensure that your ad serves its purpose.

Google also provides you with the opportunity to post the ads through its popular content network, AdSense. It will place your ad on websites, which offer content, which relates to your specific keywords.