Google Ads : first step

Google Adwords is an absolutely fabulous platform to develop your business!

Thanks to the Google search engine which occupies more than 95% of market share in France, you will be able to ensure important visibility !

The platform has evolved enormously in recent years, and the techniques that are now within your reach to achieve your advertising and optimize your costs can make the difference between a business that earns money and a bankruptcy.

In this article, you will discover the operation of Google AdWords, we will go through the various features that make Google AdWords a powerful platform. We will see the different terms to know, the 2 large networks that includes AdWords,

1 / What is Google AdWords?

AdWords is Google's advertising bid platform, it allows anyone to create advertising campaigns for them to appear on the Google Network, that is: Search Engine, YouTube, Partners, etc.

The AdWords platform is divided into 2 major networks where you can show your ads:

1. The first and best known is the Search Network (French research network). You are bidding on a keyword, and if a visitor searches for that keyword on Google, your ad is shown to them. You only pay if someone clicks on your ad. In the jargon we speak of Paid Search or SEM.
2. The second network a little less used is the Display. You target different criteria to choose where your advertising will appear, you can select for example the criterion "demographic". It is also possible to directly specify web site names if they are part of the Google Network. For the display format, you must pay per click or cost per 1000 (CPM), that is, you set a price for 1000 views of your ad. Display ads are usually images or banner ads.
3. We can also talk about a third broadcast network: YouTube, where you can create video ads. But from a purely technical point of view, you will do either search or display specifically targeting YouTube.

2 / The auction system, how does it work?

To use the Google Adwords platform, you need to understand how the auction system works.

Google uses a Vickrey auction-based system, which bears the name of William Vickrey who has demonstrated that this type of auction encourages bidders to bet on the real value they attribute to the lot.

In this system, all bidders submit their proposal at the same time, without knowing the amounts proposed by the others. The prize goes to the highest bidder, but he has to pay the price given by the second highest bidder.

On Google, advertisers who are your competitors indicate what they are willing to pay per click for displaying their advertising on Google, but you will never know how much they are paying exactly.

To choose the way ads will be displayed on a search, Google will be based on 5 elements:

1. The maximum price you are willing to pay on your bid for this keyword.

2. Your quality score: it is a numeric value between 1 and 10 which allows to define if your advertisement is relevant for this keyword.

3. The format of your advertising: Depending on the format your advertising will be more or less relevant.

4. Advertising extensions: These are additional elements that you can add to your advertisements (text, links) to make the advertisement more relevant to the search.

5. Bid changes: These are additional targeting that will change your bid, for example: targeting only Tunisians.

One of the great successes of Google AdWords is that you only pay if people click on your ad and you also have access to tracking your results on the platform! The other great success is the ability to choose your targeting very accurately and control your budget perfectly.