Getting Started on Google AdWords

So I want to increase the traffic, and natural path for me is to pay Google.   So I did. I signed up for Google AdWords. Google AdWords is basically how Google makes money by placing our ads in the search results.

It costs $5.00 for the set up fee.  Fine, I can handle that.   Signing up is the easy part, but once the account is set up, it is far more complicated than what I thought.

First you have to setup what Google calls "Campaign", and the "Campaign" can have more than one ads. OK. Each "Campaign" then can have set of keywords trigger to show the ads.  Now this is where the hard trade-off comes in place. You can add as many keywords as possible, and Google even suggests some of the keywords for you.  Then you have to place a bet.  How much would you willing to pay when someone clicks for the searched key words. If the bet is too low, the ad won't show up.  If the keywords are popular (which you can view which ones are popular), then you have to bet higher for the ads to come up.

Now my suggestion to you (if you are setting this up for the first time like I did), is to add at least 2-3 ads.  Each ads are reviewed by Google, and some takes almost instantly and some takes days.  I learned this from hard way that I only added 1 ad and waited for 3 days; the ad was still under review.  If you add 2-3 (as google suggests) per "Campaign", then even one ad takes longer to be reviewed, others will be approved sooner so that at least some of your ads will start showing up soon.

I am still in learning stage, so I will be playing around with the AdWords for a while which I plan to post more on this blog later.

Message from Google AdWords after getting my first campaign up.