Most people create a website in hopes of making money from it. There are a lot of ways to make money from your website, especially if it's a free website that didn't cost an arm and a leg in designer's fees. These money-making efforts include using Google AdSense, affiliate marketing and e-commerce strategies. Regardless of the strategies you are using to generate money from your site, you will need traffic to make these strategies successful.
Introduction to Google AdWords
Starting a Google AdWords campaign can be daunting because there are so many variables involved. And though you are busy working on your keywords, landing page, and other important AdWords components, you need to be sure you don’t lose sight of controlling your budget. If you do not pay attention to your budget, it can grow out of control quickly and become an expense rather than an investment.
Here are 5 ways to use AdWords so that you’re making money rather than just spending it:
1. Set a Daily Budget
When you set a daily budget in Google, once that budget amount is reached, your ads will simply stop showing up in the search results for that day. Keep in mind that the day begins at midnight, and if your budget is depleted by 7:00am and you aren’t getting any conversions during that time, that you may want to use campaign scheduling to start your ads showing later. If Google detects a busy click day for your ads, it will allow your budget to be exceeded for that day by up to 20%, which helps to offset days which are less than busy. However, Google will still ensure that within a 30 day period you won’t pay for more than your 30 day budgeted amount, or else they will credit you for the overage.
2. Set a Maximum Cost Per Click
By setting up a maximum cost per click, you control the amount you pay for each click. You enter your maximum amount, and Google will not exceed your limit. Keep in mind that setting a maximum may not allow your ad to show for some keywords. If this happens, you will need to decide whether the keyword is important enough to up the bidding for that keyword.
3. Schedule Campaigns for a Set Period of Time
Google allows you to start and stop your campaign whenever you choose, and you can set this up within your campaign. Use this to your advantage by limiting your campaign to a shorter time frame such as two weeks at the start. This allows you to look at the results of the campaign, make any necessary changes, and then start up the campaign again.
4. Set a Limited Ad Schedule
Google allows you to schedule your campaigns for your desired time frame, so that ads will only appear during your specified times and days of the week. Therefore if there is a time of day or day of the week during which your customers are more likely to buy, you can limit your ads to show during that time frame. This will prevent you from wasting money on clicks that don’t result in conversions.
5. Use the Prepaid Billing Option
While there are several ways to pay for your Google AdWords campaign, choosing the prepay option allows you to add money to your AdWords account instead of paying afterward with the credit card stored on file. Once the amount you have prepaid is depleted, your ads will simply stop running and will not start up again until you add more funds. This is a great way to ensure you don’t spend more money than you had budgeted.
Implementing these tactics can help you keep your Google AdWords budget under control, so you can keep improving your campaigns and become more profitable over time.
