When creating a Google AdWords campaign, there are several elements which have a real influence on how effectively the campaign will work and a number which play a key role in this.

Some of the most important ones are:

• establishing your target audience
• correct keyword selection
• good AdGroup creation
• compelling Advert text
• relevant landing page

There is also the requirement for all of these elements to work together and effectively create a funnel which will help to direct potential customers from when they type their search term into the Search Engine through to the call to action page on your website.

The three main stages along this path are:

Keyword Phrases:ensure that you are attracting the right group of Search Engine users by focused keyword phrase selection

Advert text: the advert should reinforce the keyword phrases you are targeting and, ideally, should contain those words as well.

Landing page: the landing page should be a specific one covering the same area as the initial keyword phrase - let them know they are in the right place

So, in a little more detail:

Keyword Phrases: first of all you need to ensure that you are attracting the right group of Search Engine users and this is achieved by selecting the right keyword phrases. You can choose as many relevant ones as you like but, because the adverts are linked to an AdGroup in Google AdWords, you will then need to divide them into AdGroups focused on keyword phrases that cover a similar area and that can be successfully represented by the same advert.

Advert text: this should reinforce the keyword phrases you are targeting and, ideally, should contain those words as well. This reassures the searcher that they are looking at an advert which will lead to exactly the information they are looking for. It can also filter out those who are not appropriate by focusing further on the products being offered. There is no point allowing someone to click through to your site looking for a solicitor in London when you are based in Birmingham - you pay for the click with little chance of winning any business from it. Judge your audience and adjust accordingly.

Landing page: at worst the advert should point at a specific page on your site which covers the same area as the initial keyword phrase and at best it would point to a special landing page you have created which is focused on the subject matter of the keywords you are targeting. Do not just send visitors through to the homepage - this is just like saying “ok you’re in the right place, now let’s see if you can find the information you’re after”, a bit like “hide and seek” if you like! Not the recipe for capturing that warm lead and showing them that you can answer their needs!

By linking these three elements you are creating both a funnel and a filter at the same time, and when done correctly will deliver only targeted visitors who are interested in what you offer through to your website. But you should not just have a single funnel - remember that each AdGroup is a separate funnel aimed at a different set of keyword phrases, so by putting them all together you get a whole series of individually targeted groups of customers arriving at your website.

Google have added another couple of facilities to allow webmasters slightly different ways to advertise using Google AdWords.

In addition to the traditional bidding with costs calculated on a “per click” basis (CPC), there is now also the option to choose a selection of sites where their advert can appear and have costs calculated on the number of impressions (CPM), that is the number of times the advert appears, rather than on the number of clicks it attracts. The second change allows the selection of sites which gives webmasters the opportunity to target certain types of sites.

To make best use of this, webmasters should look to apply a different approach to their adverts when they are targeting certain sites - it is still important to make an impact but with a better indication of the type of visitor that you are looking to appeal to.

The same is also true for contextual adverts in a normal campaign which, in some cases, it may be better to run as a separate campaign. Again, this is a way to ensure that the targeting is carried out correctly.