Introduction to online advertising and AdWords

Online advertising

Online advertising is a way to promote your business and find new customers. Having a presence on the Internet and advertising online can help ensure people find your business.

Google AdWords

AdWords, Google’s advertising product, allows you to display your ad at the precise moment potential customers are searching for your products or services. AdWords ads are shown as “Sponsored Links” along search results on Google, as well as on hundreds of thousands of partner sites in the growing Google Network. Ads can be geographically targeted and your budget is spent only when someone clicks on your ad. Google’s advertising network reaches over 86% of Internet users worldwide and can help connect potential customers to your business.

Google AdWords and our Premier SMB Partners (PSP)

We believe that AdWords can help your business succeed; however, you might not have the time or resources to devote to building – and regularly maintaining – a successful AdWords account.

That’s where Google AdWords Premier SMB Partners come in. We work closely with a small group of companies dedicated to helping businesses maximize the performance of their AdWords campaign, to help them achieve the highest levels of performance. All Google AdWords Premier SMB Partners provide professional, full-service AdWords account management, from account setup to ongoing campaign optimization, and quality customer support.

What to watch out for

Many third parties have earned Google's trust by representing the best interests of their advertisers; however, there are tactics practiced by other third parties that you should watch out for:

• Claiming to be from Google: Ask the agency to email you from their Google.com email address. If you’re still unsure, forward their email to Google.
• Harassing or bullying you into signing up: If you don’t buy from that agency, they are not able to harm the performance of your current ad campaign or the position of your business in the search results.
• Deceptive pricing: The agency may not use the correct advertising budget as agreed with you - ensure you get an official copy of your agreement in writing.
• Guaranteeing ad placement: It’s not possible to guarantee ad placement on Google.com search results pages – even we can’t do that. Your AdWords ad position is determined by an auction and changes dynamically with every new search.
• Claiming AdWords will affect your organic or natural search ranking: AdWords advertising has no impact on your ranking in search results – the two are completely separate.
• Not sharing the cost and performance of AdWords campaigns: You have a right to know the cost of your AdWords campaign and how it has performed.

Please let us know if you want to report any advertising agency.

Evaluating AdWords performance

Once your ads are running, your partner will provide you with regular reports to help you track the performance of your campaign. Remember that it’s normal for the invoice from your partner to be more than the cost of AdWords, as they’re providing you with a value-added service in addition to the cost of your advertising. While you should consider the length and terms of your contract, you should also note that it can take a few months to ‘tune’ AdWords to the optimal performance level. These reports will be made available at least once per month, and will show:

• Impressions - The number of times your ad appeared.
• Clicks - The number of times users clicked on your ad.
• Cost - The total amount you spent on AdWords.

If you have any questions please contact your partner.

For more information, see Google AdWords Third Party Policies for all third parties who sell Google AdWords.