Relevancy Is the Key to Success With Google AdWords

It has become common knowledge in today's society that the fastest way to source information is on the internet. Google is at the forefront of this industry with its capacity to find what you want in two clicks.

The key ingredient in any successful Google AdWords campaign rests primarily in the way the advertisement is structured. This is determined by how highly targeted and relevant your keywords are, in relation to the surrounding ads displayed on Google AdWords. The major reason Google is the largest search engine in the world, is because its ability to locate and target highly relevant material with little effort is unparalleled. In my opinion relevancy is the key determining factor. Google not only rewards customers whose ads specifically pertain to the terms being searched for, it also penalizes for gratuitous use of search terms and for irrelevant keyword listings.

So what makes a search term relevant? Relevance is obviously determined by how closely related the terms in your ad are, relative to the terms being searched for. As a general rule of thumb, the more precisely your keywords correspond to the terms being targeted, the higher your ads will rank.

Going back to the mortgage/refinancing example on the page above; your target audience is primarily searching for ways to refinance their mortgage. Search terms such as debt, home loan, interest rates, though conceptually relevant are not Google-relevant.

The concept of triple A relevance in the Yellow Pages provides an analogous example. The Yellow Pages ranks their ads alphabetically. Therefore AAA Plumbing, will rank higher than AA Plumbing. In a somewhat similar vein, Google ranks their ads not alphabetically but in terms of relevancy. An ad with the terms "mortgage/refinancing in it twice", will not rank as highly as an ad with the search terms "mortgage/refinancing" in it three times.

In order to safeguard against the ad being restricted by Google AdWords for a gratuitous or overuse of the search terms, but in order to still maximize the value of the themselves, the search terms are utilized in the title of the ad, the first line of the ad, and in the URL. Additionally the terms are highlighted and capitalized in the URL to further maximize their efficiency. (It is also important to note that any terms specifically searched for that come up in the title will be automatically highlighted by Google).

Repeating the search terms in the add more than this is not advisable. It is tempting to overuse the terms even at the expense of coherency. The result of this temptation could be a title which reads "mortgage/refinancing" for "mortgage/refinancing" and to take the example to the extreme, the other lines may read "mortgage/refinancing, mortgages-refinance", and so on and so on. This is definitely not the way to optimize your advertisement.

Not only do you sacrifice the coherency of your ad, and therefore the capacity of your ad to describe or sell your product with any effectiveness. You also run the even more dangerous risk of having your ad restricted or banned by Google by taking advantage of their relevancy criterion. For further information on relevancy, please look out for the second part of this three part series.

Relevance also relates to all the ancillary terms your ad uses. For example, a typical Google ad for mortgage refinancing may contain the words debt, home loan and interest rates. Though these are pertinent to the subject matter, they are not Google appropriate terms. They are not Google-relevant terms.

An ad on Google with these extra ancillary terms in addition to the words mortgage and refinancing will rank lower if at all than an ad just used the terms mortgage and refinancing. This is due to the high risk of Google censoring the ads because it is too ambiguously defined, not specific enough, and does not place enough focus on its primary keywords. High ranking space on Google is highly valuable and is not to be wasted on frivolously throwing as many keywords into the mix in order that as many bases as possible are covered. This is definitely a case where it is unwise to let ones eyes become bigger than ones stomach. It is far more advantageous to narrow the focus towards the most relevant and specific keywords than to try and blanket as many quasi-relevant terms as you can think of.

To take this one step further, we'll completely break down the example of the optimized ad. There is not one word or space in the ad that is superfluous. The title simply and concisely draws attention to the ad by just having the two most relevant search terms for the product being offered, while at the same time ranking highly for the terms mortgage and refinancing by virtue of them both being in the title.

The first line of the ad reiterates the search terms, adding to the relevance and hence the ranking on the Google page, as well as further concentrating the focus of the searcher's attention. The first line also combines the search term with a benefit to the buyer: "Fast" refinancing approval. This adds to the overall saleability of the product, expending with as little word/space as possible.

The second line of the ad, relates more towards the effectiveness of the ad rather than to the ranking relevance in Google AdWords. Remember space is precious on your Google ad. You are afforded a total of 91 characters in total not excluding the URL. And so those 91 characters not only have to state and restate your search terms, so that your ranking by relevance is at its peak, it also has to be able to sell you product, and communicate effectively to any potential buyers what you are selling, and why you should choose your product above anyone else's.

The title and first line have been devoted towards ranking, and advertising a benefit of the product. The second line should be devoted towards giving you the advantage in the market itself rather than just the marketing side of the campaign. "Low Rate, Low Fees" emphasize the major benefits of this product in as few words as possible. The next few characters want to focus the potential buyers attention on your website, while at the same time encouraging them to visit your website, or at the least encouraging them to find out more about your product. In my experience a brief call to action can be especially effective in pursuit of this goal. In this case this is achieved by simply typing in the phone number. The "ph" is a call to action i.e. phone this number, followed by the number to call. This is of particular benefit for a number of reasons.

Firstly it gives people an instructional step to follow, calling them to act, and is highly recognized among professionals as a very effective form of advertising, especially limited character advertising. More importantly it is of particular benefit because until recently Google did not allow phone numbers to be written on their ads, and the large majority of advertisers on Google have not yet cottoned on to the idea. This allows a large amount of freedom to get your phone number in where most of your competitors won't. Most importantly it allows your contact details to be displayed for free on Google by virtue of your ad alone, without even spending the money on clicks to your website. When these factors are realised, the simple use of a phone number on your Google ad can be a devastatingly effective strategy in advertising and selling your product.

The third line Displays the URL, the address of your website. This line is benefited by highlighting the search terms in the address itself and additionally capitalizing the primary keywords. Obviously this can only be achieved if the terms exist in the URL to begin with.

This brings us to one of the key factors regarding relevance; optimizing your ad's ranking by URL. One of the key determining factors in how highly your ad ranks will be whether or not the search terms appear in your website address or not. In this case it has been accomplished by having the term "mortgage" in the main URL. The other relevant term "refinancing", has been annexed to the main URL by creating a display URL with the term in it.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find available URL's that specifically encapsulate the major search terms you are targeting. This is due primarily to the recent boom of online real estate, leading to a major decrease in the availability of simple URL names for the products being sold. If you have the exact terms in the main URL, for example mortgage refinancing, then the ad will rank very highly not only in the Google AdWords campaign, but also in the free listings on the left hand side search results for the key term "mortgage refinancing".

Not only is it becoming increasingly difficult to rank this way due to the decline in availability of online property, but the terms must be identical in the URL to the terms being searched for, making it almost impossible to rank in the free listings this way anymore. The address 'mortgage refinancing' in that specific order only, will rank highly in the free listings. Similarly, mortgage plus for will not rank nearly as highly for the key term 'mortgage refinancing' in the free listings.

In Google AdWords however the URL MortgagePlus.com.au/Refinancing can achieve the same thing, if, like the majority of businesses your URL has no keywords in it. For example with the domain aoneloansyou have a much better chance of having your display URL as AOneLoans/Refinancing and your URL will have at lest one keyword highlighted, which is better then not having one at all. The words don't have to be in the main URL to rank highly, when combined effectively with the other relevance criterion. In the example, the term 'refinancing' is used in the display URL and adds to the relevancy of the term in the ranking of the ad.

Remember, you only want to target a few of the keywords. The less the amount of characters your URL contains, the easier it is to remember. Additionally, you allow yourself more space to type in a wide range of display URL's relevant to the various search terms you're catering for. Most importantly of course, the more diminutive and concentrated the amount of search terms, the less you will be penalized by Google.

Google penalizes advertisements which use irrelevant keywords both financially, and in terms of position. The financial penalty is exacted from the amount you Pay Per Click.