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- by Denis Hegarty
  
What is Google Advertising?

Google Advertising is when you pay Google to show links to your website on the first page of the search results, where they appear on the right hand side of the screen. This simply involves an advertising campaign in which you write a three line advert, with a link to your website, and you specify the search terms for which you want your ad to show.  

What is Google Advertising?
Google is the main search engine in Ireland, used by about 80% of people doing online searches. The search results that display show links to websites that have been optimised for Google Searches using a variety of SEO techniques. These top ranking websites have moved up to the top ranking spots with time and effort. If you have a new website, or one that is currently not ranking as well as you would like for your key terms, it can be very difficult to get your website to appear on the first page of the search results quickly, especially for search terms for which there is a lot of competition.

How can you advertise in Google?
The good news is that you set up a Google Adwords campaign, in which you pay Google to show links to your website on the first page of the search results, where they appear on the right hand side of the screen. This simply involves an advertising campaign in which you write a three line advert, with a link to your website, and you specify the search terms you want your ad to show for. Even better, you can manage the finances by bidding against the other advertisers using those same keywords limiting your budget to a maximum spend per day. Sounds easy doesn't it?

What's the Catch?
Like everything, there are ways to advertise on Google for a good return on investment, and very common mistakes that can end up costing the advertiser to pay much more per lead than they should. Successful Google advertising campaigns require research and monitoring, as well as the general knowledge of proven strategies that comes with experience. While the beginner can set up their Google ads, it is how the ads perform in the online marketplace that defines whether their end results are profitable.

So what do you need to do?
Before you even start to advertise with Google, you have to start with the type of visitors you want to attract to your website. The main steps in setting up and maintaining a favourable Google advertising campaign are

• Keyword Research
• Writing Adverts
• Pricing Options
• Tracking Conversions
• Generating High Quality Leads
• Campaign Monitoring

If it seems like a lot of work, then yes it can be, especially if you need to start at the beginning.
If time and budget are important to you, it is probably to your advantage to outsource this task. If you have a desire to be in control and learn all the information required then there are plenty of online resources to assist you in gaining the knowledge you need to start advertising in Google.