Setting Up Your Standard Edition Account

If you already have a Starter Edition account, you see Google’s pitch to try the full-featured Standard Edition front and center every time you log in. If that’s you, keep reading. If you’ve decided to jump right into the Standard Edition, good for you skip to the “Opening a new Standard Edition account” section, later in this article.

Graduating from the Starter Edition

You can graduate from the Starter Edition to the Standard Edition at any time, simply by clicking the link at the bottom of any page of your account. On the next page, review the benefits of the upgrade, and note the warning at the bottom: You can’t go home to the Starter Edition again. When you’re ready to take the leap (this really isn’t a big deal, I promise), click Continue. The next page reminds you yet again that the change to Standard Edition is permanent. Boldly click the Yes, Graduate link and hum “Pomp and Circumstance” as the next page loads. Congratulations, you’ve done it! Skip to the “Running Mission Control with the Campaign Management Tab” section, later in this article, to find out how to use your awesome new powers responsibly. (Can you tell I just watched Spider-Man 3?)

Opening a new Standard Edition account

If you’ve decided to jump straight into the Standard Edition, follow these steps:

1. Open your Web browser and go to http://adwords.google.com.

2. (Optional) Choose a language other than English (US) from the dropdown list at the top right, and Google will translate the page into that language.

3. Click the Start button at the top right. (Sometimes the button is labeled Click To Begin or Let’s Get Started. I’ve never seen it read Drink Me, but I’m hopeful . . . .)

4. Select Standard Edition and click the Continue button.

5. (Optional) Select one or more languages from the list box. If you’ll be advertising exclusively in English, do nothing. To choose multiple languages, hold down the Ctrl key while you click (for PC users) or the Ô key (for Mac users).

6. Leave the Countries and Territories radio button selected, and click the Continue button. With the Standard Edition, you can target your ads with flashlight-like (not really laser-like) precision.

7. Select the country or countries where you’d like your ads to be seen:

a. Select the country in the Available Countries and Territories list box, and then click the Add button to copy your selection to the Selected Countries and/or Territories list box. Select multiple countries just as you would choose more than one language, by Ctrl+clicking.

b. To remove a country or territory from the Selected Countries and/or Territories list box, select it and click the Remove button.

c. When you’re done, click the Continue button.

8. Fill in the text boxes to create an ad; click the Continue button when you’re finished.

Now Google wants you to create your first ad. What, you’re not ready to whip out a masterpiece of persuasive prose at the drop of a cursor? No worries. Type pretty much anything here you won’t show it to the world for a while yet. The following list provides guidance on what to enter in those text boxes:

• In the Headline text box, type the problem or opportunity.

• In the Description Line 1 text box, enter a short description of big benefit.

• In the Description Line 2 text box, write a short description of your product/service.

• In the Display URL text box, type your Web site’s name.

• In the Destination URL text box, enter the URL of the exact Web page you want customers to visit first.

The display URL is what your prospect sees in the ad itself. It must be “real” enough to go somewhere relevant if they were to type it in, but it doesn’t have to be the same as the actual destination URL. Think of the display URL as the name of your online store; would you rather buy a CN Netcom amplifying phone headset? You can use the destination URL to track your Web-site traffic and to show different pages to different markets. But please don’t sweat it at this point. Just write something that doesn’t violate Google’s editorial or content guidelines and move on.

9. Type your chosen keywords into the list box and click the Continue button when you’re finished. For now, just type a single keyword that someone searching for your business might type; for example:

used cars

glow in the dark poker chips

functional fitness training

Next to the box where you input keywords, Google asks if you want more. If your URLs point to a working Web site, Google quickly scans the site and suggests other keywords, based on your Web site copy and Google’s database of related searches. If it can’t find your Web site, you can enter your main keyword and Google will give you variation and related searches from its database.

Google is, at its core, a very large data processor. By tracking the behavior of searchers, it gets smarter all the time and can offer better suggestions to advertisers and better search results to shoppers. Google notices, for example, how long a person will stay away after clicking an ad or free listing. If you click my ad, look at my Web page for 3 seconds and then click back to Google for another search, that tells Google you didn’t think much of my site. Enough data like that, and my bid prices will increase to penalize me for not giving Google’s users what they want. The keyword-suggestion tool can be helpful, but don’t use it right now. Until you understand how to create tightly focused ad groups, the tool will create a messy and unfocused campaign. Use the tool later to refine your campaigns. Right now, just pick one or two closely related terms, if you like, and continue.

10. Select your currency from the Pay for This Account Using drop-down list, and then type how much you’re willing to spend in the Enter Your Daily Budget and the Enter Your Maximum CPC text boxes. Ready to have some fun? It’s trial-and-error time, thanks to Google’s Traffic Estimator. Enter any numbers you like for daily budget and maximum CPC and click View Traffic Estimator. It will show you estimated CPC, the position of your ad (1 puts you at the top of the first page, 9–10 put you at or near the bottom of the first search-results page or top of the second page, and 11+ puts your ad squarely on page 2 or worse), the likely number of clicks per day, and your daily cost.

Typically, an ad on page 2 gets one-tenth the impressions of the same ad on page 1, so (unless the clicks are ridiculously expensive on the first page), page 1 is where you want to be. To view the maximum traffic you could possibly expect from that keyword, enter a maximum CPC of $100 and a daily budget of $10,000.

Make sure you change these back before continuing! Google will show you the most you’ll pay for a click if your ad is in the top position, and the maximum number of clicks each keyword will generate in a day. Keep in mind, your ad may out- or under-perform this estimate, depending on how well it connects with your prospects. Settle on a CPC you can live with financially that puts your ad somewhere on the first page. You can make adjustments when you have actual results to base them on.

11. Click the Continue button.

12. Review your selections on the next page, decide whether you want e-mail from Google about Adwords strategies and tips, choose an appropriate answer from the How Did You First Hear about Google Adwords drop-down list, and finally, click the Continue to Signup button.

If you don’t have a Google Account, you’re prompted to create one. If you already have a Google Account for Gmail or other Google services, you can use it for your Adwords account. If you are a Gmail junkie, for example, you’ll want to connect the accounts so you don’t sign yourself out of AdWords every time you check your mail. For more information about navigating the Google Account business.

After you click the link in your activation e-mail, you’ll get to the login page. Enter the e-mail address and password you selected, and you’re ready to explore the Standard Edition AdWords control panel. Your ads won’t show up on-screen until you activate your account by giving Google five bucks and a working credit-card number. You can do that now by clicking the link in the warning box with the reddish-pink background and following the account activation wizard (Google is very user-friendly when it comes to taking your money), or take the tour first and pay later. Even if you activate now, you can pause your campaigns so you don’t get charged for a lot of traffic before you know what you’re doing.