Cancong

Before you begin ...

Before you select your keywords, carefully review the variations returned by the tool. Ask yourself if someone searching on these keywords would be looking for your product or service.

If you aren't offering what some of the returned keywords describe, these keywords would be less relevant to your business. You can manually add them directly to your list as negative keywords. For example, if you only sell new books, you can add '-' to the keyword used, since you don't sell used books. Your negative keyword would be -used within an ad group featuring books.

Adding negative keywords can help reduce untargeted impressions for your ad and preserve your account's clickthrough rate (CTR). CTR is important because it's part of the Quality Score formula that helps determine your ad's position on the page.

Choose this option to generate keyword ideas from terms that describe your product or service. This option will be selected for you by default.

1. In the field provided, enter terms describing your product or service. Make sure that you enter only one word or phrase per line. For example, if you sell pies, you might enter the terms:
   home-made pies
   apple pies
   peach pies
2. Leave Use synonyms checked to get the widest range of keyword results. If you uncheck the box, the Keyword Tool will only give results that contain at least one of the terms you entered.
3. Click Filter my results to restrict the keyword ideas that the tool generates.
4. Click Get Keyword Ideas. The results will be organized in order of relevance to the terms you entered.
5. Follow steps 6 - 13 at the top of the page.

Choose this option to generate keyword ideas based on the content of any webpage.

1. Enter the full URL of a webpage in the field provided (example: http://www.google.com/index.html). In most cases, we would recommend entering your ad group's destination URL.
2. Check Include other pages on my site linked from this URL if you'd like the Keyword Tool to evaluate other webpages with the same domain that are one link away from the URL. For instance, www.mysite.com/apples has the same domain as www.mysite.com/oranges.
3. Click Or, enter your own text in the box below (optional) if you'd like to enter your own text rather than use a URL. A field will expand in which you can input text relevant to your product or service. For instance, you could enter seasonal marketing or advertising print copy that may not be available on your website for the entire year.
4. Click Filter my results to restrict the keyword ideas that the tool generates.
5. Click Get Keyword Ideas. The results will be organized into groups of related terms. The group most relevant to the webpage you entered will appear first.
6. Follow steps 6 - 13 at the top of the page.

Choose this option to generate keyword ideas based on one of your existing keywords that has earned a high clickthrough rate (CTR).

1. Click Filter my results to restrict the keyword ideas that the tool generates.
2. Click one of the keywords listed in the shaded area to get keyword ideas. The results will be organized in order of relevance to the keyword you selected.
3. Follow steps 6 - 13 at the top of the page.

I. Keyword Match Type

The tool automatically produces results based on the broad match variation of the keyword(s) entered. All views include a Match type column. You can change the match type shown and add other keyword matching variations directly to an ad group. However, changing the match type via this column won't actually change the broad match statistics shown, and is intended only to assist you in managing your keyword list.

II. Keyword Tool Views

To see the different statistics available for your keywords:

1. Select a view. Select a view from the drop-down box labeled Show column, in the upper right-hand corner of the table. The default view will be Keyword Search Volume.
   • Keyword Search Volume: Review statistics for advertisers bidding on the same keyword (Advertiser Competition), as well as user searches for that keyword on Google (Search Volume). The green bars shown represent a general low-to-high quantitative guideline to help you choose your keywords.

   It's important to remember that keyword selection for your campaigns should be based on quality versus quantity; more relevant keywords are more likely to get you results. High-volume keywords, or keywords with more advertiser competition, don't always provide more qualified leads and can result in high costs with a low return on your investment.

   • GSearch Volume Trends: Review global trends and traffic histories for your keywords (Avg. Search Volume) and fluctuations in traffic for a twelve month period (Search Volume Trends). The graph represents traffic trends during the last twelve months. Each bar in the graph is shown relative to the keyword's overall performance for the twelve month period. (The baseline for search volume is considered to be an average of 100%.) You can also see in which month a given keyword received the highest volume of traffic during the twelve month period (Highest Volume Occurred In).
   • Cost and ad position estimates: Review the predicted status, average cost-per-click, ad position, and search volume values for ads appearing for your keywords. (The estimates provided are based upon the maximum CPC you enter. Therefore, if the existing maximum CPC is below the minimum bid required for a particular keyword, the keyword status may be predicted as inactive for search.)
   • Possible Negative Keywords: Review keyword results (Keywords) based on your search. For any keywords that aren't relevant or specific to your business or service, you can add the corresponding negative keyword (Possible negative).
2. Sort by column. You can click on any column header within the table to sort up or down by the selected column.

The process is relatively simple: you name the sites where you don't want your ad to appear, and Google blocks your ads from appearing on those pages.

Exclusions are applied at the campaign level: you can exclude individual campaigns from a site, but not individual ad groups or an entire account at once.

• Don't navigate away from the proposal until you're finished with it. If you exit the proposal before applying your changes, your proposal will be lost.
• Review your proposal carefully. The proposal is automated, so some changes may not be relevant for your campaign.
• Check the Approve box next to the changes you like. Only changes that you approve will be applied to your campaign.
• You can also access the Campaign Optimizer from the Tools page on the Campaign Management tab. Click Campaign Optimizer, then select the campaign you want to optimize.

When you enter a keyword into the Traffic Estimator, you get estimates for your keyword's status, minimum bid, search volume, average cost-per-click (CPC), cost/day, and average position. By using this tool, you can better forecast your ad's placement and performance based on your CPC bid, targeting options, and other criteria.

To use the Traffic Estimator when creating a keyword in your account:

1. Log in to your AdWords account at adwords.google.com.
2. Click the campaign containing the ad group for the keywords you want to add or review.
3. Click the appropriate ad group.
4. Select the Keywords tab.
5. Click Edit Keywords at the top of the table.
6. In the field provided, enter your keywords so that each word/phrase appears on its own line.
7. Click Estimate Traffic. You will see all of the estimates for each of your keywords entered. If necessary, you can adjust your CPC bid and recalculate your estimates.
8. Click Save Changes to keep the new settings or Cancel to delete them (your original settings will be applied).

When using the Traffic Estimator from within your account, at the bottom of the estimates page you have the ability to make changes to your keywords and CPC bids, and then re-estimate the traffic.

Note that when using the Traffic Estimator from within your account, you will see the predicted status of your keyword. Please see the lesson on Keyword Performance for more information on the keyword status.

To access the standalone Traffic Estimator tool through the Tools page in your account:

1. Log in to your AdWords account at adwords.google.com.
2. Click the Tools link on the Campaign Management tab.
3. Click Traffic Estimator.
4. Enter keywords: In the field provided, enter your keywords so that each word/phrase appears on its own line.
5. Choose a currency: Select your currency, then enter a specific CPC bid for your estimates, or let us suggest a value. Our suggested value should deliver ads in the top position 85% of the time. If you feel you don't need your ad in the top position 85% of the time, you can reduce the CPC bid.
6. Choose your target languages: Select which languages you'd like to target.
7. Select Location Targeting (countries, regions and cities, customized)
8. Choose one or more target countries: Select which country you'd like to target.
9. Select if you want the estimates provided to be customized based on your account history.
10. Click Continue to see your estimates.

Keywords/Minimum Bid: Underneath each keyword, you'll see the amount that you must pay in order for your ad to run.

CPC/Predicted Status: Based on your CPC bid, this is the state your keyword will be assigned if added to the ad group. Keywords will return one of two states: active or inactive for search. If your keyword is listed as inactive for search, we'll list the minimum bid required to activate it.

Search Volume: Indicates the amount of search traffic received by your keywords. This information can help you determine how competitive ad placement is for a particular keyword. The green bar shown represents a general low-to-high quantitative guideline.

Estimated Avg. CPC: The average amount you'll pay for each click. The AdWords Discounter automatically adjusts your actual CPC so you pay only one cent more than the minimum amount required to keep your ad's position. Therefore, the displayed amount may be lower than your 'official' CPC bid above.

Estimated Ad Positions: The average position in which your ad may show. '1' is the highest position on the first page of search results. There is no 'bottom' position. Values may contain ranges because the Traffic Estimator displays estimates as averages based on dynamic keyword activity among advertisers. Also, average ad positions are not fixed; they may vary depending on bidding activity and your keyword's quality.

Estimated Clicks/Day: The number of clicks your ad may receive each day.

Estimated Cost/Day: The average amount you may spend per day.

The values provided by the Traffic Estimator are only estimates, not guarantees. They will vary depending on conditions such as fluctuations in user behavior and dynamic search and pricing activity. The Traffic Estimator works only for keyword-targeted ads; it does not work for placement-targeted ads with either CPC or CPM bidding.

For more information about cost control, overdelivery, and ad ranking, refer to the lesson on Pricing and Ranking.

The tool won't display the following changes:

• Maximum cost-per-click (CPC) adjustments made by the Budget Optimizer(TM)
• Changes made by the Ad Automator
• Ad approval or disapproval
• Password changes (for security reasons)

• You may see incomplete results if you request data for a time period that goes beyond three months prior to the date of your query, or if no changes were made to your account during the time period selected.
• It can take a few minutes for your changes to appear in My Change History. If you don't see your most recent changes, please check again later.

With the Ads Diagnostic Tool, you can search for ads that might not be showing for a particular search term or on a specific webpage.

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Click Tools beneath the Campaign Management tab.
3. Click Ads Diagnostic Tool.
4. Enter information for either Option 1 or Option 2:
   • Option 1 (Search Terms and Parameters): Use this option if you're concerned about all ads within your account that should be appearing for a specific search term on Google. Specify the keyword query, the Google domain, the display language, safe search setting, and user location.
   • Option 2 (Search Results Page URL): Use this option if you're concerned about a particular Google search results page that you believe should be showing one of your ads. Copy and paste the URL from the address bar on the search results page where your ad should be showing.
5. Click Continue when you are finished.

To perform a test search, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.google.com/adpreview.
2. Enter your search term. Click Go or hit Enter on your keyboard.
3. The search results and ads appear as they would on Google, except the links on the preview page aren't clickable.

• Click Details in the Disapproval Reason column to learn more about why your ad was disapproved.
• If your ad belongs to a paused or deleted campaign or ad group, this status will be included in the Campaign or Ad Group columns. In this case, you won't be able to make edits. However, you can click View ad to review the ad text.
• To edit an ad, click the Edit ad link in the far right-hand column. You'll be able to edit your ad from its corresponding ad group; once you save your ad, it will automatically be submitted for review.
• To remove ads from this page (but not actually remove them from your account), use the Ignore function at the top of the table. You can also use the drop-down box to view your disapproved ads: Show all campaigns, Show only active campaigns, Show all but deleted campaigns.

1. Select 'Chocolate Ad Group' in the tree view.
2. Click the Keywords tab.
3. Select the keyword you want to edit.
4. Type your new destination URL in the edit panel or directly in the data view.

• Edit campaign settings, such as budget, status (active, paused, deleted), network distribution settings, start and end dates, or language and location targeting.
• Change an ad group's name, status, or maximum CPC or CPM bid.
• Edit the destination URL for a text or image ad.
• Pause a keyword.
• Edit a negative keyword or site.

• To select more than one item, hold the Control or Command key and click the items you want to edit.
• To select a consecutive list of items, select the first item, then hold the Shift key and select the last item in the list.
• To select all items in the data view, go to the Edit menu > Select All.

• Enter your changes in the edit panel below the data view. Any changes made to a given field will apply to all selected items.
• Use the Advanced URL Changes or Advanced Bid Changes tools. (See the next section, entitled 'Advanced Editing Tools.')

1. In the data view, select the keywords, placements, or ads with URLs you wish to edit.
2. Click the Advanced URL Changes link at the bottom of the edit panel.
3. Specify your changes. You can:
   • Set a specific URL for all selected keywords, placements, or ads.
   • Append text to each URL.
   • Remove a specific URL parameter.
4. Click Change URLs.

1. In the tool bar, use the Choose stats interval: menu to download your recent account statistics.
2. In the tree view, select your account name.
3. Click Advanced Search next to the search box.
4. In the Performance Statistics section, use the drop-down menus to select specific metrics. For example, to find all keywords with a clickthrough rate lower than 0.5%, select CTR from the first drop-down menu, and is less than: from the second drop-down menu. Then type '0.5' in the text box.
5. Click Search.
6. To view the keywords that match your search, select the account or a specific campaign in the tree view, then select the Keywords tab.

Recall that the Google Network is split into the search network (which includes Google and other search sites like Ask.com) and the content network (like Gmail, newsletters, and HowStuffWorks). Together, the search and content networks make up thousands of search and content sites displaying targeted Google ads. See other sites where your ad might appear.

By default, AdWords keyword-targeted campaigns are opted in to the entire Google Network. You can opt in or out of the search or content networks at any time on your Edit Campaign Settings page (Sign in to your account > Check the box beside the campaign you want to edit > Click Edit Settings > Check or uncheck the boxes under the Networks section).

• Keyword-targeted ads can appear across search and content pages in the Google Network. Google uses search targeting to match keywords to search queries on search sites. For content pages, Google uses contextual targeting to match keywords to webpage content. (See details below.)
  
• Placement-targeted ads can appear only on pages in the content network. The advertiser chooses a specific audience and site, or portion of a site, to target. Therefore, placement-targeted ads are not contextually targeted. To learn more, see the Placement targeting lesson.
  
• Google displays ads in the search network and in the content network based on relevancy factors. You can test different results by creating two separate campaigns ― one targeted to the search network and one targeted to the content network. This lets you customize your ad text, keywords, and bids.
  
• The appearance of your ads may vary slightly among Google Network sites to match the look and feel of different webpages. Google automatically formats your ads for you. AdWords ads are always clearly labeled as advertising-related links.
  
• Text ads can appear on search pages and on content pages. Ads that contain graphics (like image ads and video ads) can only appear on content pages. To learn more, visit the Using Different Ad Formats lesson.
  

You can fine-tune your ads for search targeting by targeting specific areas and languages, choosing specific keywords, or assigning keyword match types.

As a result, contextually targeted ads provide useful information to readers and attract an audience with an established interest in your message.

You can fine-tune ads for contextual targeting by using the site exclusion function in your AdWords account. Site exclusion lets you choose sites, or types of sites, that you don't want your ads appearing on ― such as competitor sites, low conversion rate sites, or sites that conflict with your interests. To learn more about site exclusion, visit the Site Exclusion Tool lesson.

Our system looks at the following things to ensure quality ad delivery:

• Semantics: Google's language processing capabilities can untangle terms that might otherwise be confusing. When a page mentions Java, for instance, our system analyzes the context to distinguish between the coffee, the programming language, and the Indonesian island.
  
• Inappropriate Material: The AdWords system detects inappropriate or sensitive themes, such as tragedies in the news. In addition, ads do not appear on sites classified by Google as containing adult content, specifically sexual content pages. As such, you can be confident that your ads will not appear on sites that might damage your brand or image.

In addition, Google uses "smart pricing" technology for clicks made in the content network. Keyword-targeted ads in the content network sometimes return lower conversion numbers than ads in the search network. To make up the difference, smart pricing automatically lowers the cost of these content clicks.

If you find that you receive better business leads or a better return from ads on content sites than on search sites (or vice versa), you can enable content bids at the ad group level or campaign level. Content bids let you set one price for ads on search sites and a separate price for ads on content sites.

To learn more about smart pricing and content bids, visit the Cost Control lesson.

For contextual targeting, AdWords looks at the themes of the keywords in an ad group to decide whether to show your ad for relevant content. If one of your keyword themes matches the theme of the content, your ad might be shown. For search targeting, however, your ad might appear if any of your individual keywords matches the keyword entered.

Since keywords are analyzed differently, it's best to create two separate campaigns � one geared to search and one geared to content. This allows you to structure each campaign with different objectives in mind.

Here's a summary of some of the key differences between search targeting and contextual targeting. Remember these concepts when building your campaigns.

*Note: Content bids should only be used for campaigns that are targeted to both the search and the content network.

Campaign strategy: As discussed previously, create a separate campaign when targeting the content network. To do this, create a new keyword-targeted campaign in your account. Then go to your Edit Campaign Settings page, and select 'Content network' under the Networks section.

As always, make sure that your budget is set to a price you can afford and that you only target locations and languages to which your services relate.

Ad group strategy: Create at least three ad groups, each around a common theme. The idea is to bring additional traffic to your site by covering the entire market for which your products or services relate. For example, create one ad group around the exact product or service you're offering; a second ad group around similar products or services; and a third ad group around your audience demographics.

Next, create a keyword list that fits the theme of each ad group. It's useful to include both general and specific keywords.

Finally, create multiple ads for each ad group. Try intermingling different ad formats, like text ads with image ads. To keep everything related, choose the same destination URL for every ad in a particular ad group.

Here's an example of how a pet supplier might organize its account with the goal in mind to sell more dog supplies.

• Create separate campaigns for contextually targeted ads and search targeted ads.
• Set your bids at the ad group level.
• Base each ad group around a single theme.
• Test different ad formats (text, image, video).
• Point all ads in a particular ad group to the same destination URL. The more specific the landing page, the better.
• Create short keyword lists.
• Use negative keywords.
• Write compelling, specific ads. (See Writing Targeted Ads.)

• Create different destination URLs per ad group.
• Bid at the keyword level.
• Use keyword matching options.
• Include both singular and plural keywords.
• Have more than 50 keywords per ad group.
• Create just one ad group per campaign.
• Choose generic landing pages for each ad group.

To see how your ads are doing on various pages in the content network, launch the Placement Performance Report (PPR). This report shows performance statistics for your ads on specific domains and URLs. You'll get information on where your ad is shown, as well as the CPC, total clicks, and total impressions from sites where your ad appears.

Before running the report, try implementing either Google conversion tracking or Google Analytics ― both free programs accessible in your account. Conversion data often provides the clearest insight about how your ads are doing on a specific site.

Here are some tips for analyzing a PPR report:

• Implement Google's conversion tracking so you can understand how individual sites are converting for you.
• Don't focus on clickthrough rate (CTR). Remember: A low CTR on a site does not mean your ads perform poorly. Users behave differently on content pages than they do on search sites. For more telling information, rely on your conversion data.
• Respond to only statistically significant data. It may take several weeks before you can see how your ad is doing on a specific site. Wait until you have enough click and impression data before making decisions.
• Use the site exclusion tool to exclude sites that are not converting for your campaign.

Compare the features of a placement-targeted and keyword-targeted campaign below:

However, a placement-targeted ad always fills the entire ad positions (space reserved for ads on a page) itself. This means that only one placement-targeted ad appears on a content page. If you run a text ad, the ad would be expanded to its expanded text ad format so it fills the entire position.

To see how ads can be formatted on a content network page, visit our ad format page.

However, there are a few key differences in building placement-targeted campaigns:

• Placements: Instead of creating a list of keywords to trigger your ad, you create a list of websites or related placements where you'd like your ad to appear.
  
• Placement Tool: Instead of using the Keyword Tool to find potential keywords to advertise on, you use a Placement Tool to find potential placements where you'd like your ad to appear. You can list exact URLs or use other criteria to generate a list of available placements. This is explained in more detail below.

You have four options for choosing placements:

• Browse Topics: Shows sites and related placements that match categories (like Entertainment) or subcategories (like Music) that you select. For best results, narrow the topic by picking subcategories that most precisely match your ad.
  
• Describe Topics: Shows sites and related placements relevant to words or phrases you enter. For instance, a coffee merchant might enter topics like organic coffee beans, coffee, or coffee products. We'll then display a list of sites relating to the topics entered.
  
• List URLs: Shows placements that exactly match, or are related to, URLs you enter. For example, if you're advertising tennis equipment, you might enter the URLs of your favorite tennis or sports websites. If the sites you enter are part of the Google content network, we'll display those sites as available for targeting. If not, we'll display a list of related sites that may have a similar audience. Then you can pick the placements where you'd like your ad to appear.
  
• Select Demographics: Shows sites and related placements popular with the audience demographics you select. For example, choose an audience age range or income level. We'll display placements likely to target that audience.

Click Add next to placements where you'd like your ad to appear, or choose to add all sites. Placements you select move to the Selected Placements list on the right-side of the page. Click the Add Selected Placements button to save them to your ad group.

To match your ad to the most relevant placements, we recommend that you use all four methods above.

As it does with keyword-targeted ads, AdWords automatically lowers the actual CPM to the minimum price needed to place a site-targeted ad in a given position. In many cases, advertisers pay a price lower than their CPM bid.

For ads with CPC bidding, the AdWords system considers the ad's bid, clickthrough rate (CTR), and other relevance factors, all taken across 1000 impressions. The resulting figure is the ad's eCPM, or effective cost-per-thousand impressions.

For any available ad position, the eCPMs of ads with CPC pricing are compared to each other and to the CPM bids of any eligible placement-targeted ads with CPM bidding. The highest-ranking ad wins the position and is displayed to the user. A placement-targeted ad must outrank the eCPM of the top four keyword-targeted text ads in order to win the space.

No matter which type of ad wins the position, the AdWords Discounter monitors the competition and ensures that the winning ad is charged only what is necessary to maintain its ranking above the next highest ad.

To learn more about the AdWords Discounter, visit the Cost Control lesson.

When a user searches Google or sites across the Google Network, we'll determine to show your ad based on the user's:

• Google domain
• Query entered (called query parsing)
• Internet Protocol (IP) address
• Language preference

When a user searches on any of the hundreds of Google domains, AdWords displays ads according to the domain used. For example, if a user located in Spain searches on Google.fr, AdWords shows ads targeted to France.

For example, if a user in New York searches for hotels in Hollywood, the user sees ads targeted to the Hollywood area.

This search functionality only applies to ads that target certain areas worldwide.

We'll only use the IP address to show regionally (region and city) targeted or customized ads, or when a user searches Google.com from any location.

• Regionally targeted and customized ads: If a Google user searches plumbers from a New York area IP address, we may display regional or customized ads targeted to New York, even though New York isn't in the search query.
  
• Google.com searches: If a user with an IP address in France searches on Google.com, the user might see ads targeted to France, even though the user isn't accessing Google.fr.

For example, users who choose Spanish as their language preference see ads targeted to Spanish speakers.

Google does not translate ads. If an advertiser writes an ad in English and targets the Spanish language, the ad appears in English, regardless of the targeted language.

• Target countries or territories to reach a wide audience across one or more countries.
• Target regions and cities if your business serves specific geographic areas or if you want different advertising messages in different regions.
• Target customized areas to reach specific geographic areas which may not be available in region and city targeting, or if you want to define specific geographic areas.

To choose your language and location targeting options for a new campaign:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Click the keyword-targeted or site-targeted link next to 'Create a new campaign.'
3. Name your campaign and ad group.
4. Select one or more languages you wish to target.
5. Under Target customers by location, you'll see a default location. To show your ads to customers in a different place, click 'Change location,' then make your selection.
6. Click 'Continue.'
7. After you complete the targeting section, finish creating your campaign.

To change your language or geographic targeting settings for an existing campaign:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Check the campaign you with to edit, and click Edit Settings.
3. Select a language to target beside 'Languages.'
4. Click Edit beside 'Locations.'
5. Click OK if you receive a pop-up dialog box.
6. Select your new locations.
7. Click Finished.
8. Click Save Changes.

For example, if you sell Spanish books, you can choose to target your ads to the Spanish language. When we detect that a user speaks Spanish by one of the methods listed in the topic above (How AdWords Targets Users), we'll display your ad.

We recommend that you target the language in which your ad is written. For example, if your ad is written in English, target English-speaking users. Remember that Google won't translate your ad for you.

It's common for new advertisers to target all countries and territories in the hope of widening their reach. However, by doing this, you may target people who can't read the language of your ad or website, which creates low-quality clicks.

To help assess where and who you should target, answer these questions:

• Where does your business sell or provide?
• Who is your intended audience?

A good strategy is to organize and name your campaigns by country (such as Germany) and your ad groups by product lines (such as coffee products and tea products). Then, tailor your keywords and ad text to the intended audience.

Make sure that your keyword list and ad text for each ad group is in one language. This ensures that the ad appears in the same language in which the keyword was entered. For example, if a user enters a keyword in Japanese, the ad will appear in Japanese.

Double-byte characters need nearly twice the display space as single-byte characters. For example, the title line of an English ad has a 25 character limit. However, the limit for that same title line is 12 characters for a double-byte language. The second and third lines of English ad text are limited to 35 characters, while the limit for double-byte characters is 17.

Two other rules to follow when creating ads with double-byte characters:

- Use single-byte characters for symbols, such as punctuation marks and currency symbols.

- Use single-byte characters for alphanumeric characters.

When creating a double-byte character ad in the English interface, the character limit on the screen is wrong. To avoid receiving an error message, enter only the correct character length.

Figure: Japanese ad in U.S. AdWords interface

Figure: Single-byte characters and numbers inside of a double-byte ad

Region and city targeting usually works best for region-specific businesses, such as boutiques, stores, restaurants, or hotels. For example, if you sell flowers and only deliver in the New York City area, you should target your campaign to that area only.

Region and city targeting may not be offered in your country. The available options are displayed when you set up your campaign.

Here's how:

• Include the names of regions and cities you wish to target in your keywords, such as Seoul hotel and hotels in Seoul. When a user anywhere in South Korea searches for your keyword, your ad appears.
• Add the names of regions and cities you do not wish to target as negative keywords. For example, if your ad group contains the broad-matched keyword hotels, add -Sao Paulo as a negative keyword (with the hyphen) to prevent your ad from showing for the query Sao Paulo hotels.
• Include region and city names in your ad text to reinforce the local nature of your product or service. This way, if your ad appears for a user uninterested in the targeted region, the user won't click your ad.

Additionally, customized targeting doesn't limit you to the cities and regions offered by region and city targeting. For example, an advertiser owns a restaurant chain in Southern California. With customized targeting, the advertiser could choose to target the entire southern half of California instead of specific regions or cities.

• Enter a physical address: With this option, you enter a street or business address. (This option is available for the U.S and Canada only.) You then choose a distance (such as 50 miles or kilometers) that forms the radius of a circle around the address. Only users located within this circle, or those who include in their search the names of cities within this circle, will see your ads.
  
• Select a point on the map: Instead of entering an address, you can define the center of your advertising circle by dragging the interactive map to place a red marker on your location. This location will automatically be converted to exact latitude and longitude coordinates, which the AdWords system will use in targeting your advertising.
  
• Multi-point (or polygon): Multi-point targeting lets you click three or more points on an interactive map to outline the advertising region of your choice. (Again, the system will convert the points you select to latitude and longitude automatically.) Using multi-point targeting, you can create target areas of virtually any size and shape.

You can apply the following matching options to your keywords:

• Broad match
• Phrase match
• Exact match
• Negative match

*Note: Partner sites don't recognize keyword matching options. Therefore, all keywords on these sites are treated as broad-matched keywords.

Broad-matched keywords reach a wide audience and trigger your ad to appear whenever that keyword or similar term appears in a user's query. This means that your ad appears even if:

• Other words are included in the query
• Terms in the query are not written in the same sequence as your keyword
• The query is similar to your keyword. This includes plurals and synonyms.

Used book dealer
Buy used book
Used and rare book
Used book for sale
Used book finder

To enable phrase matching for a particular keyword, enclose it with quotation marks.

Example: For the phrase-matched keyword "used book", your ad will appear when users enter the following queries:

To enable exact matching for a keyword, enclose it in square brackets.

Example: For the exact-matched keyword [used book], your ad could appear when users enter the following query:

To specify a negative keyword, add a minus sign (-) before the keyword or phrase you want to exclude. Negative matches may not restrict your other keywords as much as phrase or exact matches might.

Example: For the broad-matched keyword used book and negative keyword -college, your ad could appear when users enter the following query:

Example: An advertiser selling Toy Story merchandise might use the embedded match option of a negative and exact match on -[Toy Story]. This way, the advertiser's ads appear for Toy Story dolls and Toy Story products, but not for the exact match Toy Story.

Here are some things to consider:

• Broader matching options tend to give you more impressions but accrue higher costs. Therefore, include other matching options (like phrase- or exact-match) along with broad-matched keywords in an ad group.
• Broad-matched keywords should be at least two-word phrases (gourmet coffee or organic coffee beans).
• Narrower matching options tend to give you fewer clicks and lower your costs. It's still important to use descriptive words for these matching options.
• Negative keywords work well in most cases when you know a term doesn't apply to your business.

Potential Broad-Matched Keywords

Used books
Used rare books
Used Shakespeare plays

• Use books is probably too general for this ad. The ad could appear for queries such as used biology books or used shelves for books. As a result, the ad would probably accrue many impressions but few clicks, which would return a low CTR. A better idea might be to try this keyword as a phrase- or exact-matched term.
  
• Used rare books and used Shakespeare plays are better broad-matched keywords. They're multi-word variations that provide more detail about the nature of the ad. The result would be more relevant clicks and a higher CTR.

"used books"
"Shakespeare books"

• "Used books" as a phrase-matched term works better than a broad-matched term because you'll reach only people looking for different variations of used books. It ensures that the ad appears only if users search on the terms used books in that order. The ad could appear if users search on Shakespeare used book or used books of play.
  
• "Shakespeare books" is also an effective phrase-matched keyword, as it represents types of books available.

Shakespeare plays
-performance
-auditions

The broad-matched keyword Shakespeare plays doesn't differentiate between users searching for books of Shakespeare plays, performances of Shakespeare plays, or auditions for Shakespeare plays. Adding the negative keywords -performance and -auditions would eliminate many unwanted impressions, and possibly improve your CTR.

Final Keyword List

By taking the top picks from above, the final keyword list in an ad group would look like this:

Used rare books
Used Shakespeare plays
"Shakespeare books"
"used books"
Shakespeare plays
-performance
-auditions

To edit or add a keyword with matching options in your ad group:

1. Sign in to your account at adwords.google.com.
2. Select the campaign, and then the ad group you want to edit.
3. Click the Keywords tab on the Ad Group Details page.
4. Click Quick add or Edit keywords.
5. Enter your keyword with the proper punctuation (e.g. quotes, brackets).
6. Click Save.

To help you decide, take a moment to compare the features in the table below.

• If you already have a Google Account, use it as your login. Otherwise, choose an email address that you use often and a secure password (at least seven characters that include both letters and numbers). This information will be your login information in the future.
  
• You can edit your information ― except your currency and time zone information ― at any time after you verify your account. While we suggest that you think about your campaign before starting, it's okay to make mistakes. AdWords is built for change.
  
• The first campaign you create is a keyword-targeted campaign. If you set up a Standard Edition account, you can add placement-targeted campaigns later. See the Placement Targeting lesson for more.

If you chose to create a Starter Edition account, continue reading the rest of this lesson. If you chose Standard Edition, skip to AdWords Account Structure.

The text and settings for your ad can be seen on the side of the page, above the keyword table. If you have multiple ads, they can be viewed and edited by clicking the Ad Variations tab.

• Click Edit settings to change the target language and location, and budget for your ads.
• Click Pause to stop your ads from running. If you pause your ads, this link will change to read Resume. Once paused, your ads will not appear to users until you click Resume.

The lower section of the page shows you the performance of your current keywords. The Keywords tab includes impressions (the number of times your ads have been displayed for each keyword), user clicks on your ads, and the total cost for those clicks. By clicking on the Graphs tab, you'll see graphs depicting the performance of your keywords.

Add new keywords by clicking Add keywords. Remove any keyword permanently by clicking Delete in the same row.

Near the bottom of your keyword table, the row labeled Content network shows the performance statistics for your ads on content sites. Click the Turn off link in that row to remove your ads from the content network.

In the upper right corner of the page, the health meter shows you how your account is performing. If your keywords and ads are working well, you'll see the message Your ads are showing as they should. If an ad is disapproved or if there are other problems with your account, you'll be alerted in this space.

At the very top of the page, click the My Account tab to edit the basic settings of your account, including your email address, your billing preferences, and other settings.

To graduate, click the Graduate to Standard Edition link at the bottom of the My Ad Campaign page.

Graduation transfers all the account information to a full Standard Edition account. Your existing ads become part of the first ad campaign in the new account, and your ads continue running.

The remainder of the Learning Center lessons focuses primarily on Standard Edition accounts. To learn more about Starter Edition, visit the Starter Edition section in the Help Center.

This is explained in much more detail in the Starting Off Right lesson.

If you create a My Client Center account, you'll see slightly different tabs. Similarly, if you sign up to be a Google Advertising Professional, you'll see an additional Pro Center tab. To learn more, visit the My Client Center lesson.

1. Campaign Management: Get a summary of your account's performance, find useful tools for managing your campaigns, and edit your campaigns and ads through this tab. Sub-sections: Campaign Summary (from which you can drill down to view campaign details and ad group details), Tools, Conversion Tracking, and Website Optimizer.
   
2. Reports: Create detailed reports on your account's performance. Sub-sections: Report Center and Create Report. To learn more, see the Reports lesson.
   
3. Analytics: Set up advanced performance tracking reporting for AdWords and other online advertising channels. Sub-sections: Analytics Settings and View Reports. To learn more, visit the Google Analytics section.
   
4. My Account: View and edit your billing and account login information. Sub-sections: Billing Summary, Billing Preferences, Access, and Account Preferences. For qualifying advertisers, there may also be a Budget page.

To use the full, multi-page signup wizard for a keyword-targeted campaign, ignore the one-page signup option and follow the regular instructions to create your campaign. If you selected a placement-targeted campaign, follow the signup wizard instructions to create your campaign.

From here you can:

Search: Use the Search my campaigns box to search for words or phrases across all campaigns, ad groups, and ads in your account.

Receive alerts: You may see an alert box tinted yellow, green, or red. These alerts provide important information about your account and about new AdWords features ― such as a declined payment.

Create a new campaign: Use the links above the table to create either a keyword-targeted or a placement-targeted campaign.

Change campaign status and settings: Pause, resume, or delete campaigns, or edit campaign settings by checking the box to the left of one or more campaigns and then selecting one of the buttons above the table.

Review the Campaign Summary table: This table displays summary data about all online campaigns in your account.

Use the date range drop-down menus above the table to select the day or date range you'd like to review. You can also view all campaigns, all active campaigns, or all but deleted campaigns by clicking the appropriate link above the table.

Below are descriptions of each table column:

• Campaign Name: A list of your campaigns. Click the name of any campaign to see the ad groups within that campaign and any other relevant statistics.
• Current Status: The status of each campaign. A campaign's status can be Active, Paused, Deleted, Pending, or Ended:
  
  
  • Active: Set to run normally
  • Paused: Temporarily suspended and not currently running
  • Deleted: Deleted and no longer running
  • Pending: Not yet started running
  • Ended: No longer running as end date has already passed
  
  
• Current Budget: The current daily budget of each campaign
• Clicks: The clicks accrued for the ads in each campaign
• Impr. (impressions): The number of times the campaign's ads have been displayed on Google or on sites in the Google Network
• CTR (clickthrough rate): The number of clicks divided by the number of impressions that the ads have received. This is expressed as a percentage: 2 clicks for 100 page views equals a 2% CTR.
• Avg. CPC (average cost-per-click): The average cost accrued for clicks on the ads within that campaign.
• Avg. CPM (average cost per thousand impressions): The average cost per thousand impressions for ads in a placement-targeted campaign
• Cost: The total costs that a campaign has accrued during the time frame you selected
• Conv. Rate (conversion rate): How many user clicks turned into actual conversions for the advertiser. Conversion rate equals the number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks. This applies only to users who have set up conversion tracking.
• Cost/Conv.: The total cost divided by the total number of conversions. This tells you how much each conversion costs. This applies only to users who have set up conversion tracking.

This page contains the following sections:

Basic Settings: Edit your campaign name and end date.

Budget Options: Change your daily budget or delivery method.

• Budget: Daily budget helps determine your ad display. To make sure that your daily budget is high enough to show ads whenever possible, click the 'Recommended Budget' link below the daily budget field.
• Delivery Method: Choose the 'Standard' option to show your ads periodically throughout the day. Choose 'Accelerated' to show your ads as possible as until your daily budget is met.
• Advanced Options: Set up some advanced budgeting and ad delivery options.
  
  
  • Keyword Bidding: Select 'View and edit bidding options' to choose different ways to bid for your ads ― such as with the Budget Optimizer or preferred CPC bidding.
  • Ad Scheduling: Set up specific days and times when you want your ads to appear.
  • Position Preference: Enable this feature to set a specific rank range that you'd like your ads to appear.
  • Ad Serving: Choose how you'd like different ads in an ad group to compete. Either select 'Optimize' to show ads that perform better more often, or select 'Rotate' to display your ads as equally as possible regardless of performance.

Target Audience: Specify the languages and geographic areas you'd like your ads to show for by adjusting your language and location preferences. To learn more, see the Language and Location Targeting lesson.

Once you've changed settings, click the 'Save Changes' link. Click 'Cancel' to return to the original settings instead of saving the new ones.

Here are few actions you can take:

Campaign Level

• Edit selected campaign: Pause, resume, delete, and undelete the selected campaign. If you delete a campaign, you'll see an 'Undelete Campaign' button. You can also access the Edit Campaign Settings page.
• Edit/add campaign negatives: For more information on campaign negative keywords, see the Keyword Targeting lesson.

• Change ad group and names and states: Rename, pause, resume, or delete one or more ad groups in the table. Check the box next to one or more ad groups you want to edit, and click the relevant button.
• View different ad groups: Use the drop-down menu above the table to show all ad groups, only active ad groups, or all but deleted ad groups.
• Create new ad groups: Use the link below the basic campaign data to create a new ad group within the current campaign.
• Review summary statistics for your ad groups: This table is similar to the other tables in your account ― such as the Campaign Summary table covered previously ― but with two additional columns:
  
  
  • Default Bid : This column shows the current bid setting ― such as maximum or preferred CPC ― for each ad group within a campaign.
  • Avg. Pos. (Average Position): This shows the overall average placement for ads within each ad group. (When running placement-targeted campaigns, the Avg. Pos. column doesn't appear.)

The Ad Group Details page divides information into three tabs: Summary, Keywords or Placements (depending on your campaign type), and Ad Variations.

1. Summary: The summary view is the overview of the ad group. It gives you overall statistics for Current Bid, Clicks, Impressions (Impr.), Clickthrough Rate (CTR), Average CPC or CPM, Cost, and Average Position (keyword-targeted campaigns only). Conversion rate columns are added for those using conversion tracking. You can also pause or delete an ad group here.
   
   Some of the functionality and column headers on this page mirror those we've seen in previous topics.
   
   
   • Current Bid: The amount you're bidding per click (CPC) or per 1000 impressions (CPM)
   • Clicks: The clicks accrued for the ads in the ad group
   • Impressions: The number of times the ad is displayed on Google and on the Google Network
   • CTR (clickthrough Rate): The number of clicks divided by the number of impressions that the ads in the ad group have received
   • Average CPC or CPM: The average CPC (shown for keyword-targeted campaigns and for placement-targeted campaigns where you've chosen CPC bidding) is the average cost for all variations of your keywords. The average CPM (shown for placement-targeted campaigns where you've chosen CPM bidding) is the average price you're paying per 1000 impressions of your ads in the ad group.
   • Cost: The actual cost accrued for clicks or impressions the ad receives in the ad group
   • Average Position: The average position where your ad appears for keyword-targeted campaigns only. Your ads may appear for variations of your keyword. Your position varies according to your CPC bid and your keywords.
   
   
2. Keywords or Placements: The 'Keywords' tab appears for keyword-targeted campaigns. The 'Placements' tab appears for placement-targeted campaigns.
   
   This tab shows you how individual keywords or placements are performing. You can add new keywords or placements, edit existing ones, edit bids, and view the status. Many of the statistics are similar to the 'Summary' tab above ― but specific to keywords or placements. Here are some additional functions:
   
   
   • Magnifying glass icon: Point your mouse over the icon next to the keyword to see whether a keyword is showing ads. If the ad isn't showing ads, you'll see a quick summary of the issue.
   • Add new keywords or placements:
     
     
     • Keywords: Add keywords by clicking the 'Quick add' or 'Keyword tool' links at the top of the table. Click 'Keyword tool' if you want help finding new keywords for your ad group.
     • Placements: Add placements by clicking 'Add placements.' This also takes you to the Placement Tool, where you can find and add new site URLs.
     
     
   • Edit keywords and placements (and CPC and CPM bids):
     
     
     • Keywords: Click 'Edit keywords' to make changes to existing keywords. Then add, edit, or delete keywords. You can also enter a new CPC bid.
     • Placements: Click 'Edit Placements and Bids' to make changes to existing websites and related placements. Then add, edit, or delete placements. You can also enter a new CPM bid.
     
     
   • Scan for keywords or placements: Search the ad group for keywords or placements by clicking the 'Search this list' function. Select the text or stats you are interested in, then click 'Search.' You'll see a list of only those placements or keywords which fit your parameters. Click 'Return to Full List' when you're ready to go back to the normal ad group view.
   
   
3. Ad Variations: This tab displays all the different ads (called ad variations) that you've created for the ad group. You can create new ads or edit existing ones. The ad-by-ad stats should help you determine which messages are reaching your users in the most powerful way.
   
   We encourage AdWords advertisers to create multiple ads within each ad group, and to discover which messages work best with potential customers.
   
   
   • Create ads: Click the type of ad you want to create at the top of the table ― either 'Text ad' or 'Other ad types.' Depending on availability, other ad types may include text ads, image ads, video ads, mobile text ads, or local business ads. Follow the instructions to create your ad.
   • Edit ads: Click the 'Edit' link next to any ad (under the Actions column) to make changes.
   • Pause, unpause, or delete ads: Check the box next to the ad you want to pause, unpause, or delete, and click the appropriate button at the top of the table. To perform the same action across all the ads in an ad group, check the box next to 'Variations,' and then click the appropriate button.
   • See data from all tabs: Click the 'View all tabs at once' link found in the lower right-hand corner of the page to see the data from all tabs displayed on one page.

To learn more, see the Billing Cycle lesson.

On this page, you can invite other users to share the account with you, grant users access, and disable a user or client manager's access.

To learn more, see the Invoicing lesson.

Note: This lesson is geared toward keyword-targeted campaigns. However, many of the concepts can be applied to placement-targeted campaigns, too.

Some effective ways to organize your campaigns are by:

• Theme or product line (coffee products, tea products, gift baskets)
• Your website's structure, such as by categories (purchase, learn, signup)
• Different brands (X, Y, and Z)
• Geography (New York, Chicago, and United States)
• Language (English, Spanish, German)
• Distribution preference (search engines only, content sites only, or both search and content)
• Budgets (different budgets per product line)

Next, group similar keywords together ― such as by a common theme. Each grouping reflects an ad group. For example, if your campaign goal is to sell more coffee beans, logical ad groups might include:

If you find that the keywords in one ad group become unwieldy, split the ad group into two to make them easier to manage.

Finally, give your campaigns and ad groups descriptive names. This helps you manage your account at a high level without memorizing what each of your ad groups contains.

Keyword creation involves a five-step process: expand, group, match, scrub, and test and refine.

Use the Keyword Tool for help. Available through the Tools page on the 'Campaign Management' tab (or via the 'Keyword' tab in your Ad Group Details page), the Keyword Tool offers additional keyword ideas ― including synonyms and spelling variations ― to yours. It allows you to build extensive, relevant keyword lists, review traffic estimations, and add your keywords directly into your ad groups from the same page.

To learn more, visit the Keyword Tool lesson.

For example, organize keywords pertaining to organic coffee in one ad group and keywords relating to gourmet coffee in another.

Finally, remember to keep your keyword lists small and manageable.

Two- or three-word phrases generally work best. For example, instead of the keyword coffee, use fair trade coffee or gourmet coffee beans. Consider removing any single-word or general keywords. These are often too broad and can lead to clicks from people who don't know what you're offering.

To determine which keywords are successful, review your ad groups and find keywords with the highest number of clicks or impressions. For example, if the keyword online advertising is clearly generating the most clicks and impressions in your account, use this term in the title of your ad.

Commonly, advertisers make the mistake of including the company name or the website domain in their headlines. This typically doesn't attract more clicks unless you're advertising an established company with a distinguished brand. Consider using more general ad titles that inspire clickthroughs, which will eventually fortify your brand.

Choose a destination URL that promotes the exact product or service your audience is searching for, rather than your usual homepage. It's usually most effective to direct users to a landing page that they're most interested in, as soon as you can.

Check your stats, and swap out new ads for low performing ones. To learn more, visit the Optimizing Your Account lesson.

You can include one or more different ad formats per ad group. Overall, we suggest that each ad group contains at least one text ad. If you have multiple ad formats per ad group, Google displays the most relevant one on a search or content page.

Make sure your ad closely relates to the product and service offered and describes what you expect a user to do on your page. Visit the Writing Targeted Ad Text topic to find out about common best practices.

Take a quick glimpse at how ad formats vary in the chart below.

An expanded text ad contains the same number of characters and the same editorial guidelines as a regular text ad, but the font and layout are increased to fill the entire banner, box, skyscraper, or position space.

Any placement-targeted or keyword-targeted text ad can run as an expanded text ad on the Google content network only (not on search results pages). No special arrangements are needed. A text ad is expanded automatically whenever the AdWords system determines that its price, relevance, and other competitive conditions make it a good candidate to take the entire space itself.

Image ads combine two features ― graphics and AdWords targeting technology. This gives advertisers the power of pictures along with the precision of matching ads to related content sites.

When you load your images via your Ad Variations tab, try to provide descriptive image names so you can better manage your account. Include the following in your image name:

• An image description
• The campaign or ad group name

Both types can be in the following sizes:

• 250 x 250 Square
• 200 x 200 Small Square
• 468 x 60 Banner
• 728 x 90 Leaderboard
• 300 x 250 Inline Rectangle
• 336 x 280 Large Rectangle
• 120 x 600 Skyscraper
• 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper

When paying on a CPC basis, advertisers pay for clickthroughs leading users to the website, not for clicks on the opening image/video or play button. When paying on a CPM basis, advertisers pay for impressions of the opening image (or for in-stream video, when the video runs), rather than plays of the video.

Here are some tips for creating a video ad:

• Create a descriptive and eye-catching opening image (the image which users see before playing the video).
• Entice users to click 'play' by using rich, sharp colors.
• Include a few words to describe the product, service, and/or company.
• Boost play rate with a call to action that tells users they can play the video to learn more.
• Create multiple video ads with different opening image sizes to increase the number of placements where your ad is eligible to appear.
• Keep the video engaging and no longer than necessary (play rates drop off significantly after 45 seconds).
• Be clear about business offers.
• Deliver key messages early in the video, because users may not watch the whole thing.
• Provide clear next steps for users to take after finishing the video, such as making a purchase or visiting the website or store.

For example, if a user searches on dentists San Francisco, CA, Google displays a list of dentists in or near San Francisco.

Local business ads are eligible to appear in two places:

• On Google Maps (maps.google.com)
• On Google and other sites in the Google search network

Each local business ad should be associated to a business location within the campaign's targeted region. For example, if your campaign targets Manchester, England, you won't be able to create local business ads for businesses in London.

To enable local business ads to run on Google Maps and search sites in the Google Network:

1. Create a business listing in Google Maps.
2. Create an AdWords local business ad.

Mobile ads only appear on mobile devices, and not on search or content sites in the Google Network.

Mobile ads only work for country- or territory-targeted campaigns (not for local targeting). Therefore, your campaign should be set to target countries or territories and should include geographically targeted keywords (like San Francisco pizza). This helps users clearly identify where the business or product is located. To learn more, visit the Region and City Targeting topic.

If you choose to connect users to your webpage, your display URL appears on a third line. If you select the option that allows customers to connect to your business phone, a 'Call' link appears next to your display URL. Your business phone must be domestic to the location your ads target, and may not be a toll number.

To learn about mobile ads policies, visit Editorial Guidelines for Mobile Ads. For general information, visit the Mobile Ads section in the Help Center.

The setup, features, and function for Print Ads and Audio Ads are similar to your online ads. You simply create a new campaign in your account, choose your targeting and pricing options, then upload or create your ads.

Once your ads run, you can track their performance through the AdWords Report Center in your account and make adjustments as needed.

Note: Google Print Ads and Audio Ads are only available to U.S. advertisers at this time. We also offer TV ads, but on invitation basis only. If you're a U.S. advertiser and would like to participate, visit the Google TV Ads Beta Trial page to sign up.

Since Print Ads works on an offer-based pricing system, publishers must approve your offer in order for your ad to run. After your ads run, you'll see a copy of the newspaper page (tearsheet) where your ad was published so you can safely pay for the placement in your account.

To create a Print Ads campaign:

1. Sign in to your account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. On your Campaign Summary page, click Create new print campaign under the 'Other Campaign Types' section.
3. Click Get Started now, and follow the steps.

• Auction campaigns work like the pricing system of your keyword-targeted campaigns ― you set the weekly budget and maximum bid you want to pay per 1,000 listeners who hear your ad. Your ads will be broadcasted based on available time slots for your price, set by the competitive marketplace.
  
• Reserve campaigns give you more predictability as to when your ad will play. You reserve the exact time of day when you'd like your ad broadcasted. You pay a set price determined by the rate card of the station to reserve ad plays before they're made available for auction.

You can even track leads that result from your Audio Ads campaign with call reporting. Google provides you with a free 1-800 or local business number which you can use in your ad. This number then redirects to your business line, and the system tracks the time and duration of each call, minimizing your tracking efforts.

To get started with an Audio Ads campaign:

1. Sign in to your account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. On your Campaign Summary page, click Create new audio campaign under the 'Other Campaign Types' section.
3. Click Get Started now, and follow the steps.

However, relevancy doesn't end with our search results. We also work to show the most relevant ads for every search query. This model works for users and advertisers alike: The more relevant the ads are, the more likely users are to click on your ads now and again in the future.

We measure relevancy for search and ads differently.

• For search results, relevance and ranking are automatically determined by over 100 factors, including Google's patented PageRank algorithm.
• For AdWords ads, the most important factor in relevance and ranking is the ad's quality, also called the Quality Score. This measurement is the strongest representation of how useful a user has found an ad to be and is central to the AdWords cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model.

Here's how it works: When you enter a keyword into your account, we look at the following factors:

1. Your Quality Score: We first determine your keyword's Quality Score. Your Quality Score is based on your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google and the relevance of your ad text, keyword, and landing page.
   
2. Your minimum bid: Next, we give your keyword a minimum bid based on your Quality Score. Keywords with a high Quality Score are assigned a low minimum bid, and vice versa.
   
3. Your CPC bid: Lastly, we look at your CPC bid to determine your keyword state and ad eligibility to show on results pages.
   
   • If your CPC bid is the same or more than the keyword's minimum bid requirement, your keyword is eligible to trigger ads. It's assigned an active keyword state.
     
   • If your CPC bid is below the minimum bid requirement, your keyword won't trigger ads to appear. It's assigned an inactive for search keyword state.

To analyze your account performance quickly, check the following statistics:

• Keyword Analysis page: Check the Keyword Analysis page to get a detailed view about your keyword's performance ― including how Quality Score impacts your keyword and ad's performance, and how you can improve it. To launch this page, point your cursor over the magnifying glass icon beside any keyword in your account; then click one of the 'Details and recommendations' links.
  
• Keyword Status: View the Status column on the 'Keywords' tab of your Ad Group Details page. Your keyword status indicates whether or not your keyword is triggering ads to appear on search results pages. As mentioned, each of your keywords (except any negative keywords) is identified by a keyword state. Here's the full breakdown:
  
  • Active: Active keywords have a high enough Quality Score and CPC bid to trigger ads. There's currently little risk to your advertising exposure.
    
  • Inactive for search: These keywords don't have a high enough Quality Score and CPC bid to trigger ads on Google and the search network (although these keywords may still trigger ads on the content network). This means that the minimum bid is higher than your CPC bid.
    
  • Disapproved: These keywords don't comply with our Editorial Guidelines or Content Policy and won't trigger ads until you correct the problem.
    
  • Paused/Deleted: These are keywords you've paused or deleted. They won't enter the ad auction and therefore won't trigger your ads.
  
  To learn how to enable a keyword that isn't running, visit the Keyword Status troubleshooting topic.
  
  
• CTR Column: View the CTR column on your Campaign Summary page to see how well a campaign is performing. The higher the CTR, the better the campaign is probably doing.
  
• Minimum bids: Check your minimum bid by running a Site/Keyword or an Ad Performance report. Choose the Keyword Min CPC field to see how much you're bidding. You can also edit your CPC bid to see your minimum bid. A low minimum bid usually means your ad is performing well.
  
• Ads Diagnostic Tool: Point your mouse over the magnifying glass icon next to any keyword on your Ad Group Details page to see if that keyword is showing ads. This provides a quick way to see if active keywords are showing your ads, and if not, the reasons why. To learn more, visit the Ads Diagnostic Tool lesson.

Visit your email account, and open the email verification notice from AdWords. Click the link in the email to verify your email address and access your account. Then, continue with the activation instructions.

Click on the link in the message, or click on the My Account tab and then Billing Preferences in your AdWords account to enter your billing information. If you're using a credit card or debit card, be sure to enter the billing address that matches the credit card.

Your ads will appear on Google after you've entered valid credit card or debit card information. In the case of direct debit, a debit authorization may have to be received and processed before your ads will start running. If you choose to pay via prepay, your ads may appear once funds have been received via credit card or bank transfer or after your bank transfer setup is complete.

For more information on the payment options available for your billing location and currency, visit the Billing lesson.

If you're not sure why a payment is declined, use the following checklist to figure out possible reasons:

1. Have you entered valid payment details (such as credit card number or expiration date)?
2. Do you have sufficient funds in your account, or have you reached your daily, weekly, or monthly spend limit?
3. Have you entered the correct billing address?

To see whether your daily budget is being met, visit your Campaign Summary page, set the date range above the table to yesterday, and compare the Current Budget column with the Cost column. If you exceeded your daily budget yesterday, your ads may stop running before today's daily budget is reached.

We might exceed your daily budget when we determine that your ad can benefit from more exposure on particularly heavy traffic days. However, our system makes sure that in a given billing period, you are never charged more than the number of days in that month multiplied by your daily budget. Visit the Billing lesson for more information.

To view the recommended daily budget for a campaign, or to edit the existing daily budget, go to the Edit Campaign Settings page, and click Recommended Budget. This recommendation will be high enough to capture all of the clicks the system estimates your ads will receive with full exposure.

Remember that this number is only a recommendation, and you should set your daily budget at a level with which you are comfortable. If you don't wish to raise your daily budget, you can try refining your keywords by using the techniques found in the Optimization lessons.

To learn more about negative keywords, please refer to the Keyword Matching lesson.

For ads to show on partner sites, the ads must:

• Be reviewed and approved
• Be in a campaign opted-in to the Google Network
• Meet partner requirements, which vary

Click on View reason(s) under the affected ad to see the specific disapproval reasons. Then make the appropriate changes. Editing your ad will automatically re-submit it for review. Visit our Editorial Guidelines to learn more.

To view all your disapproved ads, you can click View all ads in the alert box. You can also go directly to the Tools > Disapproved Ads page to make corrections to your ads.

To enable an adult ad to show, use specific keywords that are relevant to your targeted audience. You can also try searching for one of your keywords in combination with a more sexually explicit phrase, such as 'xxx.'

Please note, some of the sites in the Google Network may restrict advertising or keywords based on their own policies regarding content and editorial standards.

Increasing CPC bids for campaign-wide keywords

You can also increase your CPC bids to the minimum bid for keywords across all or selected campaigns using AdWords Editor, our free, downloadable campaign management application. To learn more, visit the AdWords Editor website.

The AdWords Report Center can generate fully customizable reports on specific topics such as campaigns, keywords, and ad text. These reports let users identify important trends over weeks, months, or years. Most reports can also be viewed as graphs, which offer a clean look at spikes and dips in traffic, CTR, or other key elements of an account. And because each report can be customized with configurable columns and performance filters, they provide just the information you need to help you identify your strengths and build on them, and to sniff out areas of low performance and optimize these areas accordingly.

You can view your reports online, or you can download them to your computer and view them with a spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel. You also can have reports generated and emailed to you regularly.

• Keyword Performance: Displays details on selected keywords and organizes statistics by keyword.
• Ad Performance: Presents relevant statistics for ad variations, such as text ads, image ads, video ads, and local business ads.
• URL Performance: Displays statistics and measures the performance of destination URLs.
• Ad Group Performance: Organizes statistics for each of your ad groups.
• Campaign Performance: Organizes statistics for each of your campaigns.
• Account Performance: Generates statistics for your entire account, or for a portion of your account.
• Search Query Performance: Shows performance data for the search queries that triggered your ads which appeared after receiving clicks.
• Placement Performance: Shows statistics for ads that appeared on specific domains or URLs in the Google content network.
• Reach and Frequency Performance: Find out how many people saw your ads and how many times they saw them over a certain period of time.

Creating your report is as simple as following our four-step form, and then clicking 'Create Report' when you're done. Here's how:

1. Report Type: To begin creating your report, select your Report Type from radio buttons beside each report name. Your options on the remainder of the page will ajdust according to the type of report you have chosen.
2. Settings: In this section, you establish your report View and Date Range, and which ad groups and campaigns to include.
   • View: Choose 'Summary' for a high-level overview of all your selected stats, or choose from among 'Hourly (by date or regardless of date),' 'Daily,' 'Weekly,' 'Day of week,' 'Monthly,' 'Quarterly,' or 'Yearly' metrics for your account.
   • Date Range: Use the pull-down menu and select a time period (i.e. 'Last seven days,' 'Last 30 days,' 'This month,' etc.) for your report. For specific dates for summary, Daily or Weekly views, click on the date fields underneath the pull-down menu. Clickable calendars will appear, from which you can select report beginning- and end-dates. (Note: Hourly report data is available from February 1, 2006 onwards).
   • Campaigns and Ad Groups: To include all campaigns, choose the first radio button. For individual campaigns or ad groups, choose the manual selection option and click on the campaigns and/or ad groups you want included in your report. Choose as many or as few as you want included.
3. Advanced Settings: In this optional section, you can customize columns and filters so your report includes only the data you want to see.
   • Columns: Click the 'Add or Remove Columns' link to reveal check boxes for each of the available column categories for your report type. You'll find a wide range of choices, including Impressions, Clicks, CTR, Avg CPC, Cost, Avg Position, Campaign, Daily Budget, Campaign Status, Ad Group, Ad Group Status, Headline, Display URL, and many others. As you add or remove columns, the visual column display is updated based on your selections.
   • Filters: Click the link to 'Filter Your Results' for filter options based on your report type. Filters allow you to refine up to four data types. Use the pull-down to select and customize the relevant data types for your report. Depending on your report type, your filter options may include Ad Distribution, Status, Match Type, Site/ Keyword, Avg Position, Clicks, Cost, Avg CPC, CTR, and Impressions, among others.
4. Templates, Scheduling and Email: In this section, you'll name your report, save it as a template if you want to reuse your settings, and provide an email and format for receiving your report.
   • Name Your Report: Enter a title for your report. Pick a name that will be easy to recognize when you see it on a list of other reports you've created.
   • Templates: Check the box to 'Save this as a report template' if you want to run similar reports later.
   • Scheduling: If you want to run this report on a regular basis, check the box to schedule automatic reports and choose from the pull-down schedule menu (for delivery daily, every Monday or on the first of every month).
   • Email: To receive an email when your report is ready, check the box and then list the email address or addresses you want notified (for multiple addresses, separate each email with a comma). If you want your report attached to the email, check the next box and select your preferred report format from the pull-down menu (.csv, .csv for Excel, .tsv, .xml, .html).

You're almost done! Now, just click the 'Create Report' button and you'll see a screen confirming that your report has been submitted.

At the top of the page you'll see Google's estimate of how long your report will take to generate. (Most reports take a few minutes or less.) Next comes a text box directing you to the Download Center, where you can review your report when it is completed. To the right you'll see details of the report you have just run.

An important note: You don't have to wait at this page for your report to finish running. You can continue to browse through your account, sign off for a time, or even shut down your computer and return later. The report will continue to run and should be ready for you when you return. And if you requested an email notification and / or attached report, the report notice and attachment will be sent as soon as the report is completed.

You can view your report online in three formats: as data only, as graphs created from your data, or as both data and graphs together in one report.

If you prefer to download the report to your computer, you can do so in the same formats you can choose from for emailing your report: .csv (for Excel), .csv, .tsv, .xml., and .html .csv (comma-separated values) and .tsv (tab-separated values) files are encoded in UTF-8. These formats are recommended for users who prefer to process or review report data in text-only format. .csv (for Excel) files are encoded in UTF-16LE, and are compatible with most U.S. and international versions of Microsoft Excel. Select .xml (for 'Extensible Markup Language') to place your statistics in a database or on a website. Select .html (for 'Hypertext Markup Language') if you want to be able to view your report as a webpage. You may also open your report as a Google Spreadsheet for easy viewing and collaboration purposes.

To save your graph, click 'Export Report' and select 'Download graph.'

In the Report Center, you'll find links to your most recently created reports, under the header Saved Templates as well as your scheduled reports and any on-demand reports you saved as templates.

The Last 15 Reports section presents the last 15 reports you've created, along with the date range they covered, the dates they were requested, and their status (usually Completed). To view a report in this section, click on the report name.

An important note: Once you create more than 15 reports, the system will automatically delete your oldest report whenever a new one arrives. If you have scheduled a daily report, for instance, the oldest report will be deleted each day to make room for the new one. You can also delete reports you no longer want saved on this list by clicking the Delete link on the far right of the report name line.

Within the Saved Templates section, you can see all scheduled and on-demand reports saved as templates when you created them. The table tells you the date range for each, the time when each scheduled report will run next, and whether you're receiving the report by email. You can run either an on-demand report or a scheduled report by clicking the link marked Create Report.

You can also edit any of these saved templates by clicking the Edit this template link. This will open up the template in the Edit Template page, which is similar to the Create Report page that you used to create the original report upon which you based the template. Here, you can revise your saved template by reassigning report values for Report Type, Date Range, View and Campaigns and Ad Groups. And you can further customize your new report by resetting the columns and filters within the Advanced Options section.

Once you have edited your template, you can choose to rename the template, schedule reports for automatic delivery, assign an email address or addresses for notification, and select a format for report delivery. Then just click Save Template and you're all done creating a new report from your saved template.

To permanently delete a report template at any time, click the Delete link.

Check the box next to the statement Whenever the report runs, send email to: when creating the report and then type into the text box the email address or addresses to which you want notification sent when the report is finished. For multiple email recipients, separate each email address with a comma. If you schedule the report to run regularly, you'll be notified each time the report runs.

By checking the box for with report attached as: you also can choose to have your report sent as an email attachment. Select your preferred report format from the pull-down menu: csv (for excel), .csv, .tsv, .xml, and .html

Please note that files will be emailed in a zip, or compressed, format. Compressed reports must be less than 2 megabytes in order for the report to be sent via email. If the file is larger than 2 megabytes, you will receive an email notification asking you to retrieve your report from the Report Center.

Advertising is only effective if it generates measurable results for your business. Your Google AdWords account is an investment of time and money that you use to drive customers to your website. In this lesson, the resulting conversions are called your return on investment, or AdWords ROI.

ROI can also be called Return on Ad Spend, or ROAS. Your ROI can be calculated as revenue from sales, minus advertising costs, all divided by the cost of advertising. For example, if your advertising costs for the past week were US$500 and you've sold US$1,000 worth of inventory as a result, you have a 100% ROI for the week ((US$1000-US$500) divided by US$500). To express ROI as a percentage, you multiply the result of this formula by 100.

Determining your AdWords ROI can be a very straightforward process if your business is after web-based sales. You'll already have the advertising costs for a specific time period for your AdWords account in your Campaign Summary statistics. You can also create reports via the Report Center. The net profit for your business can then be calculated based on your company's revenue from sales made via your AdWords advertising, minus the cost of your advertising. Dividing your net profit by the advertising costs will give you your AdWords ROI for that period in time.

In other cases, your ROI may require a different formula. For example, if you're interested in calculating the ROI for a page view or lead, you'll have to estimate the values of each of these actions. For example, a Yellow Pages ad for your business may cost US$1,000 per year and result in 100 leads. Ten of those leads become customers, and each customer provides an average revenue of US$120. The value of each lead is therefore US$12 (US$1200 revenue/100 leads), and your ROI for the Yellow Pages ad is 20% ((US$1200 revenue minus US$1000 spent)/US$1000 advertising cost) x 100.

A simple alternative to estimating values for your leads and page views is to use a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) measurement. This method will allow you to focus primarily on how your advertising costs compare to the number of acquisitions those costs deliver. Using the Yellow Pages example again, your ads may cost US$1,000, resulting in 10 sales: therefore, your CPA for those ads is US$100. Your CPA should not exceed your profit derived from each acquisition. In the case of the Yellow Pages ad, the CPA is 20% less than the revenue the acquisitions provide.

Assume that you have a US$100 daily advertising budget. The keyword 'photography' generates 110 clicks, resulting in US$120 in sales, but it also costs you US$60 a day. This results in an ROI of 100% for that keyword. The keyword 'photography classes' uses only US$25 of the daily advertising budget, but generates 40 clicks. These clicks result in US$90 in sales, with an effective ROI of 260%. This advertiser would be better served allocating more of their budget to the 'photography classes' keyword because of its higher ROI, despite the potential for fewer clicks for this keyword.

The conversion rate listed in your account is the number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks. Conversions are only counted on Google and some of our Google Network partners. The conversion rate is adjusted to reflect only the ad clicks on which we can track conversions.

Another important term to understand when tracking conversions is 'transaction.' While a conversion represents somebody coming to your site through AdWords and making a purchase, the transaction represents the purchase or desired visitor action itself.

To set up conversion tracking for your active ads, log in to your account and click the Conversion Tracking link on the Campaign Management tab at the top of your account.

Your choice of language will affect which Google Site Stats link is displayed on your conversion page. It will also give your users information about conversion tracking in a language appropriate for the majority of your site's visitors.

[Purchase Conversion Default: Sample code snippet only - DO NOT USE]

You should check your conversion reports to ensure that the conversion has recorded correctly. The Site Stats text link is an important feature of the program. It lets users know that you're tracking their purchase, and gives them a link to more information about Google conversion tracking.

If you can't see the Site Stats link, verify that the conversion code has been added to your webpage with no additional line breaks (compare your page to the conversion code available within your account). Some HTML editing programs will insert line breaks into the conversion code for the lines that are long enough to have wrapped to a second line in your account. The conversion tracking code should not have any line breaks inside of the '<' and '>', unless there is a ';' at the end of the line.

You can also run through the process yourself by searching on Google, clicking on one of your ads and completing a conversion on your site. However, this method costs you an ad click, so we recommend that you wait for a conversion to occur.

• Analyze conversion statistics
• Determine the return on investment, or ROI, of your campaigns
• Improve campaign performance using your conversion data

The Conversion Rate is the percentage of clicks that become conversions. Cost/Conversion is the cost you've accrued over the time period which you're viewing, divided by the number of conversions you received as a result of those clicks. This data will give you a quick overview of how well your clicks are converting, and the average cost of those conversions.

Your ad group summaries will include conversion rate and cost-per-conversion data. Again, conversion rate is a basic percentage, highlighting the percentage of clicks you received that resulted in a conversion. Your cost-per-conversion number represents the total cost of clicks for that campaign or ad group, divided by the number of conversions. This number will help you to quickly evaluate your ROI for the ad group as a whole.

A Custom Report enables you to evaluate keywords based on performance for each transaction type. Even seemingly relevant keywords may not provide the ROI you expect, so careful evaluation of the actual conversion and transaction data is essential for optimizing your campaigns.

After selecting the relevant conversion tracking fields for your report, you can start evaluating your account's performance. Conversion rate and cost-per-conversion are important statistics to monitor, but each individual conversion can lead to multiple transactions as users shop for various products on your site or return later to make additional purchases. Consequently, your transaction and cost-per-transaction statistics can prove even more valuable, since acquiring regular customers is more valuable than any single conversion. Tracking your transaction statistics can provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of your advertising, as well as the effectiveness of your site and the value of your product offerings.

• Are the keywords targeted and relevant enough to produce the desired results?
  

  If a keyword is too general, you run the risk of getting clicks to your site that aren't really relevant, and have a lower conversion rate. By narrowing the appeal of your keywords (using tennis racquet instead of just tennis), you'll get more relevant clicks and customers coming to your website.

  
  
• If the keywords are well-targeted, then is your site hindering your conversion rate?
  

  Taking a prospect directly to the most relevant page on your site can boost your conversion rate. Improving the usability of your site in general by making it easier for prospects to find and purchase your products or services can make a huge difference in your conversion rates.

To select advanced conversion tracking options and obtain your modified code, set up conversion tracking and click Advanced option to the right of each conversion type. You can set up conversion tracking by clicking the Conversion Tracking link, located beneath the Campaign Management tab in your account.

• The Purchase/Sale label helps online commerce sites track purchases and sales.
• The Leads label tracks how many users reached a point in your website at which they have contacted your company, such as completing a 'request more information' form on your website.
• The Sign-ups label can track how many users elected to subscribe to a newsletter or to download a white paper.
• The Page views label enables you to track when a visitor navigates to a specific page that you think is valuable.
• The Other label enables you to define your own conversion type.

The transaction types are just labels; you're not restricted to tracking only these types of transactions. Transaction labels can be assigned to any conversion page you would like to track.

• Define values for your conversions.
• Implement and verify your conversion tracking code.

You can track dynamic transaction values by inserting a dynamic variable in the Value field when setting up conversion tracking.

Conversion tracking works with most of the popular webpage development languages available. For example, ASP users most likely have a dynamic variable such as <%=totalValue%>, while sites built with PHP resemble <?echo $totalValue?>.

Users can simply visit the Google homepage or other Google domains, enter a search query (terms related to information they'd like to find) into the search field, and click Google Search. Google returns a variety of search results ― including lists of files, articles, documents, and websites ― that are all highly relevant to the query. (If a user clicks I'm Feeling Lucky, the user goes directly to the first website or document in the Google search results.) Users can also search for results within Google Images, News, and other specialized Google services.

Search results appear on the left side of the page. It's important to note that Google doesn't accept payment to place websites or documents in search results. However, advertisers can purchase Google AdWords ads, which appear on the right side of the page, and sometimes above the search results.

When a searcher visits Google and enters a query ― say, good beginner guitars ― Google displays a variety of relevant search results, such as links to articles containing guitar purchasing advice, or websites dedicated to novice musicians. Google also displays AdWords ads that link to online businesses selling guitars, music lessons, or other products and services related to the query.

For example, imagine that you own a music store carrying a large selection of guitars. You could sign up for an AdWords account and create ads for entry-level guitars in your inventory. For each of your ads, you might select keywords (single words or phrases related to your ad's message) such as beginner guitars or entry-level guitars.

Once you activate your account, your ads would be eligible to appear. That is, the AdWords system would constantly seek out search queries related to the keywords you've selected, then display your ads to highly targeted audiences. In short, you'd be advertising directly to an audience already looking for you.

To learn about other ad formats, review the Using Different Ad Formats lesson.

Cost-per-click (CPC): Under its cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model, AdWords charges your account for each click your ad(s) receives. You won't incur any costs if your ad is displayed for a search query and users don't click it.

Quality Score: Quality Score is the basis for measuring the quality of your keyword and ad and determining your minimum bid. Quality Score is determined by your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower your minimum bid and price you'll pay per click.

Minimum bid: The amount assigned to a given keyword in your account based on its quality (or Quality Score). The minimum bid is usually the least amount you can pay per click in order for your keyword to show ads.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR): Your clickthrough rate (CTR) is a metric that helps show how your ads are performing. The more relevant your ads are, the more often users will click on them, resulting in a higher CTR. The system calculates your CTR as follows: Number of ad clicks/number of impressions x 100.

To learn about more common terms, visit our full Glossary.

The Google Network is divided into the Google search network and the Google content network. Advertisers can choose to show their ads on either or both of these networks.

• Google search network: Includes Google search pages, search sites, and properties that display search results pages, such as Froogle and Earthlink. AdWords ads can appear alongside or above search results, as part of a results page as a user navigates through a site's directory, or on other relevant search pages.
  
• Google content network: Includes news pages, topic-specific websites, blogs, and other properties - such as Gmail and The New York Times. AdWords ads can appear on a webpage if the content and URL of that page relate to the ad.

To learn more about the Google Network, see the Search and Content Targeting lesson.

This language and location targeting functionality lets you tailor your ads and promotions to increase your business's appeal to a variety of audiences.

To learn more, see the Language and Location Targeting lesson.

• Keyword-targeted advertising
• Placement-targeted advertising

Keyword targeting is Google's traditional advertising model, whereby advertisers select keywords that can trigger their ads to appear on Google search pages and on the Google Network. (Unless specified, most of the content in the Learning Center focuses on keyword-targeted advertising.)

Placement targeting lets advertisers choose individual sites in the Google content network where they'd like their ads to appear. A placement can be an entire website, or it can be a subset of pages or ad units on a site, as defined by site's publisher. For example, a news site might offer you the chance to place your ads across its entire site, only on its front page, or just in ad units on the upper half of its sports pages.

Placement targeting gives advertisers even greater flexibility to control exactly where their ads show. To learn more, visit the Placement targeting lesson.

• Target your ads specifically to people who are looking for your products or services.
• Avoid showing your ads to users who aren't likely to purchase from you.
• Obtain the maximum return on your advertising investment.

Reach: Each month, approximately 80% of Internet users in the United States (and hundreds of millions more worldwide) view AdWords ads. AdWords can offer you instant access to this vast audience of potential customers.

Cost: AdWords is cost-effective for businesses of all sizes.

• You can choose to pay for ad clicks (CPC) or for impressions (CPM).
• Because you can choose your own CPC or CPM amounts, you decide how much you'll pay each time someone clicks or views your ad.
• There's no minimum spending limit. In addition, you can set a maximum daily spend (daily budget) that the AdWords system won't exceed.
• You can edit your budget settings at any time.

To learn more about AdWords pricing, see the Pricing and Ranking lesson.

Timing: Google AdWords ads engage potential customers at precisely the right moment ― when users are actively searching for information (keywords or content) related to your business. Your AdWords ads ensure that your website is only a single click away.

Flexibility and Control:

• You can edit an existing ad, then see your updates within 15 minutes.
• You can edit your account at any time, as often as you like. AdWords is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Ads start running for the first time almost immediately after you activate your account with your credit card or direct debit information. (Advertisers in certain countries can pay by bank transfer. In this case, ads run when we receive the first payment).

Display URL: AdWords ads include a display URL. For example, the display URL in the ad below is 'www.books.com.'

So as not to mislead users, the display URL should give users a clear idea of the website or landing page to which they will be taken when they click on an ad. Display URLs must:

• Indicate who owns the destination URL, but does not need to match the actual destination URL of the landing page exactly.
• Appear to be a viable website address. It must include the appropriate extension such as '.com,' '.net,' and 'co.uk,' but 'www' and 'http://' are not required.
• Represent a website. The display URL also cannot be an email address. For example, 'flowers@flowers.com' would not be allowed.
• Comply with editorial policy, which will be discussed in later topics.

Here is an example of a correct and an incorrect display URL:

Correct:
Destination URL: bigbookstore.com/new/a-c.htm
Display URL: bigbookstore.com

Clicking on the ad takes users to a page within the bigbookstore.com website. Even though the display URL is different from the destination URL, it accurately represents where the user will be taken when he or she clicks on the ad.

Incorrect:
Destination URL: http://www.amazon.com/home.html/104-7002842-259
Display URL: bigbookstore.com

The display URL bigbookstore.com does not accurately represent the site to which the user will be taken, which is a page within the amazon.com domain. This is improper use of the display URL. An ad with this display URL would not be approved.

Here are some of the guidelines included in our link policy:

Destination URL: The destination URL is the web address of the landing page to which an ad will actually link. The guidelines surrounding the destination are designed to ensure users clicking on AdWords ads will find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Your ad will not be approved if your destination URL does not meet all three of the following rules:

• It must link to a working website. If a user clicks on your ad but your site isn't working, you are charged for a click, but you have no chance to convert this user into a customer.
• It must not link to a site that is under construction or broken. The site must have content. Otherwise, users will not find what they are looking for.
• It must not require a program other than the browser to view the landing page. In other words, the destination URL must be an HTML page. Some unacceptable formats of destination pages include Adobe Acrobat and MS Word. If your site requires another program to load, not all users will be able to view your site without loading additional software. This detracts from the user experience.

Back Button: After linking to your website, the back button must work properly and return the users to the page on which the AdWords ad is located within one or two clicks.

Pop-Ups: Pop-ups are defined as any browser window that opens in addition to the original window, regardless of content, function, size, or source. When a user enters or leaves your site, no additional browser window, including pop-unders, should appear. Pop-unders are browser windows that open behind the original browser window. This policy is based on research indicating that users find pop-ups distracting, leading to a poor user experience.

Affiliate Policy: Affiliates get paid a commission to promote a merchant's website and drive traffic or create sales on that site. We allow affiliates to use AdWords advertising. Please note that we will only allow one ad for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same display URL per search query.

Please review the complete list of link policies.

A typical AdWords text ad looks like this:

Text ads contain the following four lines:

• Headline (25 characters, including spaces): The title attracts users who might be interested in your products or services.
• Description (two lines of up to 35 characters each, including spaces): These two lines contain your product, service, and other details (such as promotions). The content in these lines should be clear enough to communicate your intent and compelling enough to convince the user to click your ad and visit your site.
• Display URL (35 characters, including spaces): This line indicates which website the user visits when clicking your ad. In the above example, adwords.google.com is the display URL.
• Destination URL (up to 1024 characters): This is the actual page where users land when they click your ad. The URL won't appear in your ad. Many advertisers link their ads to particular destination pages within their website, but use the simpler URL of their homepage as the display URL.

Certain wide characters and double-byte characters will reduce the number of characters permitted per line.

Spacing: You should have appropriate spacing between each word and after punctuation. For example, 'C-h-e-a-p C-l-o-t-h-e-s' would not be allowed. Similarly, 'Free Shipping.Buy Now' would also not be allowed.

Punctuation & Symbols: Punctuation cannot be used to attract a user's attention. It should not be unnecessary or repeated two or more times in a row. In addition, your ad title cannot contain an exclamation point, and an ad can contain only one exclamation point in total. Furthermore, all symbols, numbers, and letters must adhere to their true meaning; you may not use them in place of words. For example, 'We have a huge selection 4 U online!' is violating this policy because '4' and 'U' are replacing words.

Grammar & Spelling: Ads must comply with basic grammar and spelling guidelines, using logical sentence or phrase form as well as correct spelling. Appropriate grammar and spelling greatly contributes to the clarity and credibility of your ads. The only exceptions to our spelling policy are commonly misspelled words or spelling variations that the majority of users would recognize and understand. If you can find the word in an online dictionary, it's generally acceptable.

Capitalization: A word cannot appear in all capital letters to draw attention to that word or phrase. For example, 'FREE' or 'NEW' would not be allowed. However, capitalizing the first letter in each word of your ad is allowed.

Repetition: Repetition should not be used in a gimmicky manner or for the sake of promotion. Specifically, the same word cannot be repeated three or more times in a row. For example, an ad with the title 'Deals, Deals, Deals Here' would not be allowed. The ad title should be replaced with a phrase like 'Amazing Deals Here' to comply with this policy requirement.

Inappropriate Language: Ads, including the display URL, cannot contain language that may be considered inappropriate or offensive to some users. This also applies to misspellings, self-censored, or other variations of inappropriate language.

Unacceptable Phrases: Certain 'call-to-action' phrases cannot appear in the ad text if they are not descriptive of the product, service, or website. For example, a generic phrase like 'click here' would not be allowed. An example of a good 'call-to-action' phrase would be 'Order Your Online Contacts Today' because it is representative of the product and the site content.

Superlative Claims: Superlatives are words that emphasize superiority. In the interest of making sure users feel they are being treated in an honest, credible manner, your ad text cannot contain comparative or subjective phrases such as 'Best' or '#1' unless verified by a third party. This verification must be clearly displayed on your website.

For example, if an ad claims to be the 'Best of the Web,' the site must display third party verification of the claim. A Forbes Magazine seal indicating this site received a best of the web award would be acceptable, and the ad would comply with this policy.

Competitive Claims: Competitive claims are claims that imply that your product/service is better than a competitor's. Competitive claims in your ad text must specifically be supported on your landing page. This establishes trust with your user and ensures that the user is finding exactly what they expect to find based on your ad text.

You can offer support for your claim in a variety of ways such as a chart or table that compares the features of your product versus your competitor's product or a competitive analysis discussing why your product is superior.

For example, ad text that states 'better than SmartFilter' would be considered a competitive claim and would require support on the website. If the landing page includes a competitive analysis of the advertiser and SmartFilter, this claim would be acceptable and the ad would be approved.

Offer Not Found: Any specified price, special discount, or free offer displayed in ad text must be clearly and accurately supported within 1-2 clicks of your ad's landing page. Examples of offers that must be supported include '50% off all items,' 'Save $20 on first purchase,' 'free hat with purchase,' 'DVDs for $5 each' and similar phrases. Prices in your ad text must be accurate. Prices can also apply to bulk purchases. For free offers, it is acceptable if the user can infer that the product is indeed free, even if the word 'free' does not appear along with that product or service.

To run your ads on Google or our growing network of sites, products, and services, you must adhere to all of our policies.

Application of our policies will always involve an element of discretion, and we reserve the right to reject or approve any ads. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver.

Ads and keywords are screened for products that:

• May be subject to legal regulations and/or restrictions
• May contribute to a negative user experience
• May be contrary to Google's values or policies

Please be aware that these products and services are subject to change, as are the guidelines governing this list. Please refer to Google's online guidelines frequently to ensure that your ads and keywords are complying with these guidelines.

It's important to note that:

• Your image ads must adhere to the policies that apply to text ads, as well as these additional policies for image ads.
• Image ads are available in many languages. Here is a complete list.
• Image ads are not shown on Google search results pages. Image ads are shown on some partner sites.

Guidelines summary:

Quality: Google does not allow images to be of poor quality. Images must be clear and readable. The content and purpose must be easy to understand, and all text must be clear and legible.

Deceptive Tactics: AdWords does not allow mock animated features, such as mock drop down menus, search boxes, or other functionality that does not actually work for the user. Mock dialog boxes or error messages such as those generated by windows or Internet Explorer are not allowed. Clicking on these drop downs or boxes will be registered as a click on the image ad, and thus these features are unnecessary and deceptive.

Image Ad Layout: Image layout guidelines govern the size and orientation of your ad. Image ads have specific height and width requirements, and must completely fill the area of the size you choose. Otherwise, image ads may not look correct on partner sites since images may be much smaller than the format chosen. Images cannot be rotated or inverted. Images cannot show more than one ad at a time or the same ad multiple times.

Image Ad User Bar: When your image appears on Google's partner sites, an image user bar will automatically be included. The user bar is comprised of a display URL, a link for users to give feedback to Google on the ad, and a designation that this ad is provided by Google. Since these features are already included by our automated system, you do not need to include any of them in the images you upload. Otherwise, the information will be duplicated.

Image Ad Content: Just as we do for text ads, we have guidelines for appropriate content that can appear in images. Generally, the content of image ads must be family safe, meaning the images must be appropriate for viewing by minors. Therefore, your image ad cannot contain any adult material, sexual themes, or inappropriate language. Examples of ad content that would not be approved include an ad that promotes drinking alcohol, scantily clad women, and an ad for a porn site.

Please review the complete list of image ad policies.

Google's trademark policy does not apply to search results, only to sponsored links. For trademark concerns about websites that appear in Google search results, the trademark owner should contact the site owner directly.

If an advertiser has been restricted from using a trademark and disagrees with the owner's assertion of exclusive rights, we encourage the advertiser to contact the trademark owner directly and request permission to use the trademark. The owner reserves the right to grant permission to a third party to use the term. Trademark owner authorized exceptions are incorporated into our trademark procedure.

In some instances, Google may not remove the ad or ads as requested. For example, with Google's broad match keyword option, an ad can show on variations of a keyword term. As a result, an ad may show for a term that is a variation of an advertiser's keyword. Even if the search query that shows the ad contains a trademarked term, Google will not remove an ad if the advertiser isn't using a trademarked term as a keyword.

1. Name of company.
2. Contact information, including email address and mailing address.
3. List of trademark or trademarks at issue and the country or countries in which it is registered.
4. The identity of the ad or ads at issue via the URL stated on the bottom line of the ad. Please indicate if your complaint is limited to specific advertisers or advertisements or if it is a general objection to all advertisers.
5. If certain affiliates or partners are permitted to use your trademark in their ad content, please list the company names in your letter.
6. Include the following statement: 'I have a good faith belief that use of the trademarks described above with the advertisements described above are not authorized by the trademark owner or its agent, nor is such use otherwise permissible under law.'
7. Include the following statement: 'I represent that the information in this notification is true and correct and that I am authorized to act on behalf of the trademark owner.'
8. Your signature.

1. Name of company.
2. Contact information, including email address.
3. List of trademark or trademarks at issue and the country or countries in which it is registered.
4. The identity of the advertisement or advertisements at issue via the URL stated on the bottom line of the ad or other identifying information. Please indicate if your complaint is limited to specific advertisers or if it is a general objection to all advertisers.
5. The nature of your concern(s) with the advertisement's content and/or the keywords that trigger the advertisement. (Note: This item doesn't appear in the form for US/Canada.)
6. If certain affiliates or partners are permitted to use your trademark, please list the company names in your letter.
7. Include the following statement: 'I have a good faith belief that use of the trademarks described above with the advertisements described above are not authorized by the trademark owner or its agent, nor is such use otherwise permissible under the law.
8. Include the following statement: 'I represent that the information in this notification is true and correct and that I am authorized to act on behalf of the trademark owner.'
9. Your signature.

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google AdWords, Trademark Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
USA

You can also fax us your letter.
In the US: 650-618-1499
Outside the US: 011-650-618-1499
Attn: Google Trademark Complaints

In accordance with the DMCA, ads may be removed for copyright infringement reasons. Ad disapprovals due to copyright complaints may be contested through the DMCA counter notification procedure.

1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed. For example, 'The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on www.google.com/ads.'
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. This requires you to provide the search query that you used and the URL for each allegedly infringing ad.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred.)
4. Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit Google to notify the owner or administrator of the web page that allegedly contains infringing material (email address is also preferred.)
5. Include the following statement: 'I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.'
6. Include the following statement: 'I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.'
7. Your signature.

The administrator of an affected site may make a counter notification. When we receive a counter notification, we will reinstate the material in question. To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication that sets forth the items specified below.

1. Identify the specific URLs of material that Google has removed or to which Google has disabled access. For Google Groups, identify the sender, date, newsgroup, and subject matter of all the material in question.
2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Santa Clara County, California if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
3. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that each search result or message identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled."
4. Your signature.

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google AdWords, Copyright Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
USA

You can also fax us your letter.
In the US: 650-618-1499
Outside the US: +1-650-618-1499
Attn: Google Copyright Complaints

• Manual clicks intended to increase your advertising costs or to increase profits for website owners hosting your ads.
• Clicks by automated tools, robots, or other deceptive software.

We closely monitor these and other scenarios to help protect advertisers from receiving invalid clicks.

The goals of our system are to automatically identify clicks generated by unethical users and automated robots and to filter out these clicks before they ever reach your reports. However, if we believe you've been charged for invalid clicks in the past two months, we'll apply a credit to your account .

Google has three powerful tools for protecting clicks on AdWords ads:

Detection and filtering techniques: Each click on an AdWords ad is examined by our system. Google looks at numerous data points for each click, including the IP address, the time of the click, any duplicate clicks, and various other click patterns. Our system then analyzes these factors to try to isolate and filter out potentially invalid clicks.

Advanced monitoring techniques: Google uses a number of unique and innovative techniques for managing invalid click activity. We can't disclose details about the software, except to say that we're constantly working to expand and improve our technology.

The Google Team: In addition to our automated click protection techniques, we have a team that uses specialized tools and techniques to examine individual instances of invalid clicks. When our system detects potentially invalid clicks, a member of this team examines the affected account to glean important data about the source of the potentially invalid clicks.

Competitor Behavior: If a competitor has stopped running his or her ad, your ad may start receiving more clicks.

Google Network: You may see an increase in traffic if your ads have recently been approved to run on search and content sites and products in the Google Network, if you recently opted in to the Google Network, or if new sites for which your ads are relevant join our content network. Also, your ad may receive an unexpected increase in clicks if it appears on a site with a large audience. For example, if you run an ad for a weight loss product, you might see a significant increase in impressions and clicks when the online version of The New York Times runs a feature on weight loss. Please see the Ad Distribution lesson for more information about the search and content networks.

Seasonal Changes: Fluctuation in clicks due to seasonal promotions or special sales are common. Keywords popular at particular times of the year will also experience a higher click volume regardless of whether you have made proactive seasonal changes to your account content. For example, if you sell greeting cards, you may see a significant increase in clicks as a holiday approaches, even if you aren't advertising cards for that particular holiday.

Budget Changes: Increasing your daily budget or maximum cost-per-click (CPC) may cause an increase in clicks and impressions. A higher maximum CPC can help to increase the position of your ad, which can lead to more clicks on Google and on the Google Network.

Ad Relevancy: If your keywords are too general, your ad may accrue clicks and impressions but yield very few sales. To make sure your ads are running optimally, please refer to the Beginning Optimization lesson.

Internet service provider: an Internet provider (such as AOL, Earthlink, or Comcast) may assign identical IP addresses to multiple users by geographic area.

Comparison shopping: individual users may legitimately click on your ad more than one time when comparison shopping or returning to your site for more information.

1. Identify instances of suspicious activity, such as receiving 2 or 3 times the normal number of clicks you would receive on a single day. Keep in mind that you may see a sudden increase in impressions or clicks as a result of legitimate user activity, such as seasonal increases in clicks or the appearance of your ad on the Google Network. Google's proprietary technology works to filter out invalid impressions and clicks before they reach your reports.
2. Look at click patterns over time. Identify changes from week to week that aren't explained by any of the legitimate reasons for high click volume. See the Reports lesson to learn more about how to review your account activity.
3. Compare your weblogs to your AdWords account reports. (If you're not sure how to access your web logs, talk with your webmaster or website hosting service.) If your web logs show a higher number of clicks, remember that Google's technology works to filter out invalid clicks before they reach your reports. If your account shows a higher number of clicks, remember that Google relies on its own servers' web logs to supply site traffic data to include in your reports. By creating an AdWords account, advertisers agree to accept the Google AdWords reporting system and reported metrics as provided in the AdWords program Terms and Conditions.

We have a team that investigates invalid click activity on a case-by-case basis. To expedite their time-intensive investigation, please include the following information in your email to us:

1. The campaign(s), ad group(s), and/or keyword(s) associated with the suspicious clicks.
2. The date(s) and time(s) of the suspicious click activity.
3. Any data in your weblogs or reports that indicate suspicious IP addresses, referrers, or requests.
4. A paragraph describing the trends in logs and/or reports that led you to believe the click activity is invalid.

The verification and research process can be time consuming, and we appreciate your patience while our investigation team reviews your account. Please allow 3-5 business days for us to respond. If you have any additional information, please be sure to let us know so we can include it in our review.

To help you set a daily budget that maximizes your ad's visibility, AdWords provides daily budget recommendations within your account. These recommendations are based on historical click data for the same or similar keywords that you choose for your ads, among other factors.

If your daily budget is lower than the AdWords recommended amount, your ads may not show all the time. Should this happen, we'll display your ads intermittently throughout the day so they won't stop showing altogether (per standard delivery settings.)

Setting your daily budget to the amount we recommend is optional ― you're always in full control of your AdWords account, and you can edit your campaign's daily budget as often as you like.

To learn more about setting your daily budget, visit the Cost Control lesson.

In placement-targeted campaigns, you choose to make either a CPC bid or a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) bid for each ad group or placement in your campaign. A CPM bid refers to the amount you're willing to pay each 1000 times your ad appears on one of Google's partner sites. That means you pay when your ad shows, whether or not a user clicks the ad. (Placement targeting is covered in more detail in the Placement Targeting lesson.)

With both CPC and CPM pricing, you're in control of your bids. Additionally, AdWords helps keep your costs to a bare minimum with the AdWords Discounter and smart pricing. To learn more about these methods, visit the Cost Control lesson.

It's important to remember that the higher the Quality Score, the lower the minimum bid and cost you'll pay when someone clicks on your ad. Therefore, the best way to drive your advertising costs down for keyword-targeted ads is to maintain high-quality keywords, ads, and campaigns.

• Easily view up to 1,000 linked AdWords accounts, including other client manager accounts, via the My Client Center view.
• See relevant information for all linked AdWords accounts in one place.
• Use a single login to access all AdWords accounts.
• Generate reports across multiple client accounts at once, or download the client "dashboard" into a .csv file.
• Invite a client to be managed through an automated message.
• Create AdWords accounts in your MCC, and automatically link them to your master account upon creation.
• Manage clients running on the same keywords under different accounts.
• Create separate billing for each client and edit your client's billing information as needed.

Visit the Google Advertising Professionals homepage to become a Google Advertising Professional for free. Upon enrollment, you'll receive your My Client Center account.

To learn more about this program, visit the Google Advertising Professionals Help Center.

1. Retrieve your client's AdWords external Customer ID and account password (which establishes your client's permission to link the account to yours).
2. Log in to your MCC.
3. Click the Link existing account link above your client accounts table.
4. Enter your new client's Customer ID and account password into the appropriate fields.
5. Click Submit.

1. Log in to your MCC.
2. Click the Create new account link above your client accounts table.
3. Complete the form, and click Create Account.
4. Click Create a campaign to create your client's campaign in the AdWords sign-up wizard. Then, return to your MCC to enter your client's billing information. You'll need to enter this information to activate your new client account. You can also return to this step later by clicking the client's account in your main MCC view.

Alternatively, you can select an account by clicking on the account name in your My Client Center view. To return to your main view, click on the My Client Center link at the top of any page in your account.