Three Things Most People Don’t Know About Google AdWords

by George Konetes | May 30, 2017 | Digital

Many people know that Google AdWords is synonymous with those little text ads that pop up in Google when you search for things. But AdWords is a lot bigger and does a lot more than just search ads. In fact, it is one the biggest and most versatile advertising platforms in the world.

Here are three things that most people do not know about Google AdWords.

1. AdWords is not just search ads, it is Internet-wide display advertising. Using the same tools and the same login, AdWords can be used to place image ads and even video ads across the Internet on literally millions of websites reaching roughly 90% of all people on the web. There are numerous ways to target your ads and all sorts of tools that can be used to get in front of the right people, at the right time, using the right method. This provides significant potential for organizations to reach people where ever they are across the web.

2. AdWords has great ways to NOT target people. Effective digital advertising is not just about finding the right people, but also not wasting resources targeting people who are not interested. For example, say you were promoting a conference event that has a registration fee. You target people interested in attending this type of conference but find lots of people are clicking on your ads — but very few are registering. Upon further research, you find many people who click on your ads are searching for “free conferences”. AdWords enables you to exclude those searches from your targeting so you are only serving ads to people who are interested in what you are providing.

3. AdWords enables you to get data on others in your space. Even among those who have some experience using the platform, few realize that AdWords allows you see how your ads stack up against some other organizations competing for the same ad positions. Not only can you see who is competing with you on certain search terms, but you can see how often their ads compete with yours, when they have better ad positions than you, and what percentage of the ads in the marketplace are yours.

So, when you are planning a digital marketing or advertising campaign, do not overlook the potential of Google AdWords. Use these tools to optimize the impact of your digital investment.