Whether you’re a NGO or small business getting the word out about your business can be one of the most challenging efforts. In the past, giant billboards, newspaper spreads, and flyers taped to every light- and telephone pole, cork board, and windshields were–and in some cases still are–some of the best ways to get your business out to the locale public. But how many people have time to look up from their phones to see the billboards or flyers? How many people have physical newspapers delivered to their doors? Very few.
Technology has taken over most of the advertising world in one way or the other. The internet now rules and to be successful your business must learn to thrive in this new technical era. That’s the bad news. (Doesn’t sound so bad after all, right?) The good news is that the process of creating advertisements and getting them out there to the public has been streamlined and optimized. Nowadays all you need is a computer and the capital to get started. For all NGO’s you mostly just need the computer; your business might be eligible for $100,000 dollars a month in advertising (See our articles on Google Grants to find out how).
Follow these 3 very simple rules to get your Google Adwords account set up and start getting your business the online traffic it needs:
- Create a campaign
After navigating to Google AdWords and getting your initial information out of the way you’re going to be asked to create a campaign. This is an important initial step to outlining what your business is going to be advertised as. Consider things about your business such as how you’d like your ads to operate, who you are targeting, and what “product” you are advertising (this includes NGOs who are attempting to get donations, volunteers, sponsorship, etc.). This space is your opportunity to get your business defined and fleshed out via description on Google; make sure you take the time to be as thorough and true to your brand as possible.
- Create Ads
This is probably the most user friendly portion of digitally creating your own ads. No coding or programming required, Google has created a system where you are able to decide between text or image ads and then, by following the simple guides provided, choose between preferred layouts (or customizable ones) and add your texts and/or images. Congrats! You’ve just created your ad.
- 3. Create Keywords for Those Ads
(see my article on the importance of keywords and how to craft them!) Keywords, oh keywords. The importance of keywords cannot be stressed enough. Keyword research–teams of analysts combing through word combinations and identifying statistical patterns for searches–was, and continues to be, at the forefront of SEO. If you can effectively identify the keywords that a particular user is searching for then you are able to target those keywords. Google AdWords has a great section that allows you to select keywords and place a bid on those keywords. When placing a bid keep in mind that your budget can quickly be depleted if you are targeting highly popular keywords. E.g. the more expensive the keyword, the more you are going to end up paying. Target specific keywords instead, selecting as many as you want, and keep your bid totals low.
Need to know which keywords you should be looking for? Check our other articles on keywords!
