Get Started with AdWords

To get started with AdWords , you can follow along in this chapter, if you want to dive right in. I have covered the bases as best I can, in a way that allows you to move along and try it directly.

If you want some background information first, there are also resources you can review, which are also included at the end of the chapter in the Learning More section.

• www.google.com/adwords for general information and links for learning more

• https://support.google.com/adwords is the learning center, including guides

If you come to see the value of having AdWords as a skill, I encourage you to explore Google’s learning material and consider getting AdWords Qualified. It’s free and it can help your career in a direct way.

To get going, the first step is to create an account. Woo-hoo!

Creating an Account/Getting a Tracking Code

To start an account , go to http://www.google.com/adwords .

Feel free to wander around. The How it Works link may be of interest. When you’re ready, click Start Now:

Note

You may want to write down the toll-free support number (1-800-919-9922). It’s in Google’s best interest to help you succeed, and they have pretty good support.

When you have an account started, go to Tools ➤ Conversions:

Click Conversion:

This process is setting up a connection between AdWords and your e-commerce site. It results in a bit of code that you can bring into Shopify, which allows AdWords to track your site.

For example, the scenario you are setting up is that a person sees your ad, clicks on it, reaches your site, and ideally buys something. This “conversion code” you’re creating allows Google to make a connection between the ad and your site. When the visitor reaches the Order Confirmation page or the Thank You page, the code is there. Google can report that this specific ad was clicked on and resulted in a purchase.

This basically allows you to determine that when you spend a certain amount of money on ads, it results in a certain amount of revenue on your e-commerce site. AdWords does not magically sell things for you. There’s an art and science to selling, but the fundamental opportunity is significant for any business, and it’s very solid, compared to traditional forms of advertising.

If you’re planning on connecting AdWords and Shopify, you may want to review this link, which provides an overview and additional information around connecting the two:

http://docs.shopify.com/manual/your-store/dashboard/google-adwords

After clicking the Conversion button, enter a conversion name:

Click Save and Continue.

Then click “The value of this conversion action may vary”. This allows you to set different prices .

Next, set the Conversion Category to Purchase/Sale:

Make sure that the Markup Language is set to HTML:

Then click Save and Continue:

In the next section, click “I make changes to the code”:

Finally, click the Done button .

Next, Google will give you the code, and you should copy it (Ctrl+C):

Connect AdWords to Shopify

Back in Shopify, go into Settings :

Click Checkout:

Paste the code into the Additional Content and Scripts area:

Click the Save button:

To Modify or Not to Modify

In terms of actually changing the code , Google says you should do it:

The Shopify documentation provides a way to do it (even showing relevant parts in red):

If you are approaching this as a learning experience, you don’t have to change the code, though. Just remember that when you try the ad out and get someone to click on it and buy your test product (even if it’s a friend), you’ll get a conversion value, but it will be $1.00. If you actually want it to represent the price of the products, you have to replace the code.

Don’t be alarmed about the code; just think of it as a recipe.

For example, a recipe might say:

1. Get some bread

2. Put some peanut butter on a slice

3. Put the other slice on

Google is giving you a recipe for Shopify:

1. Here’s some code

2. Shopify, the value we place on the items will be $1.00 unless we change the recipe

3. Have a nice day

It might look a little different (everyone has their own lingo, right?)

var google_conversion_label = "ntvnCPWE5goQu92B8gM";                
var google_conversion_value = 1.00;                
var google_remarketing_only = false;                

You go to the Shopify article and select the relevant recipe replacement:

And you replace the particular part of the “code recipe” with something new:

var google_conversion_label = "ntvnCPWE5goQu92B8gM";                  

if ({{ subtotal_price }}) { var google_conversion_value = {{ subtotal_price | money_without_currency }}; }                  

var google_remarketing_only = false;                  

If we bring it back into the kitchen, all you’re really doing is saying that instead of peanut butter, you can choose what to put in the sandwich. So instead of this:

1. Get some bread

2. Put some peanut butter on a slice

3. Put the other slice on

You end up with this:

1. Get some bread

2. Put some [whatever you want] on a slice

3. Put the other slice on

All the code is doing is having one computer speak to another, or one program speak to another, etc. It’s basically just a set of directions to do something.

Given the fact that you have the article, Google support, and Shopify support, I think you can do it. The advantage to changing the code is that then your site is real. That could be exciting, to know you’ve done it, and to be able to say you’ve done it.

But don’t feel bad if it seems like too much—you can always come back later and try it for real.

Even if you don’t modify the code, you’ll still end up being able to test the connection between AdWords and Shopify, and all your wildest analytics dreams will come true .

What’s Going On

To come back to Earth from the galactic analytics kitchen, consider the Order Confirmation page . The code that Google gives you, a “snippet” of code, which you can either use as is or tweak, is used by Shopify on the Thank You page.

So when someone clicks on your ad, purchases something, and checks out, they end up on the Thank You page. When it displays, it tells Google there was a purchase .

Fun

If you don’t believe me, you can test the shopping cart process out (after you’ve added the conversion code). Then, in your browser, right-click on the page (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac), and choose View Source. Pretend you’re looking at a recipe book and see if you can find something that looks like the conversion code that Google gave you. Then you’ll win a prize! Okay, the prize is the knowledge that you’ve discovered the code you planted there.

Create an AdWords Campaign

Now that you’ve connected Shopify and AdWords, you can create an ad so that you can try it in real life.

Alternatively, you can get something a friend wrote and sell it as a digital product, or even find a physical product. But to keep the momentum going, all I’m saying is there are options.

In short, the world’s your oyster!

What you’ll see very soon is that AdWords ads cost money—surprise! But that’s fair. In order to make money, you have to spend money. Analytics allow you to see if you’re spending money effectively. Did your ad work? If people clicked on it, did they buy anything?

To be clear, Google charges you when people click on your ad. This provides you visitors. It’s up to you to get people to buy something.

There’s competition, so when you’re paying Google for the clicks, it’s like a kind of eBay auction. For example, say you own a company that sells basketballs and there’s another company that does the same. You both want to get people to click on your ads. When people type “basketball” into Google, there’s a bidding situation .

This is where it can be helpful to review some of the background info, as mentioned earlier.

On the bright side, you can sometimes get free ad credit. Check out:

http://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-marketing/t/aha-this-is-how-to-get-your-google-adwords-and-facebook-credit-121154

At this point, you can limit your “ad spend”. You bid very low and make your product price very low, just to get some friends to find the ad, click, and buy the product, so you can test things out. Then you can always come back and try the finer points by experimenting with different prices and bidding, in an effort to get “real” customers. That can be exciting. Think of that—an exciting analytics learning experience.

Yes, it can take money, but it can be exciting. Especially if you’re doing it for a client, a friend, or an employer. At that point, I definitely recommend getting AdWords Qualified, so that you can increase your chances of selling effectively.

At any rate, when you’re ready to try AdWords, go into AdWords and click Campaign:

For the moment, click Search Network only.

Next, give the campaign a name :

Next you will be given a chance to set a budget. Ignore everything else for the moment.

I suggest $5.00 a day for learning. It doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily spend $5.00/day; this is only if people actually click on the ad. But you can limit a budget and change it later, and that’s the important thing to remember.

Feel free to click on the little question mark icons wherever you see them to learn more.

Then click Save and Continue:

Next, the wizard will ask you to enter your landing page:

You can get this page URL by going into Shopify and clicking on the middle icon on the bottom-left side:

Technically, your site page can be your landing page. This is the page where people go when they click the ad.

As with other aspects of AdWords, there is an art and science to landing pages, which is part of the way you increase the chances of someone buying something (by selling the value proposition, etc.). Just for learning purposes, you can copy that link from your browser and bring it back into AdWords.

Next, you can give your ad group a name if you like. What AdWords is doing is giving you an opportunity (by scanning your “landing page”) to get some ideas for keywords.

When creating an ad, ultimately you are targeting a particular keyword or set of keywords related to your product. Ask yourself, what would people type in Google if they were interested in my product?

This screen gives you the ability to get some ideas. Click on the little arrow icons on the right :

You can use the Automatic Ideas wizard, and you can also type in phrases of your own:

Then click Continue to Ads:

My advice is, especially if your head is swimming, to make an ad and not to worry about the particulars or keywords too much. This is just for the learning experience. Delete or cancel the ad as soon as are ready and then come back and try again. It’s more important to try the full process of making an ad, without worrying about getting it exactly right the first time.

This is the core of making the ad in Google, whether you follow the initial wizard or create a campaign first, and then create an ad group, and then create an ad.

The Destination URL is the link to your e-commerce shopping page. Remember you can always click on the little question mark icons for more information.

Next, enter a headline. Try it; you won’t hurt anything. Look at what happens on the right:

Try experimenting a bit with headlines and with the ad text. Try to think of something that would get someone to click it.

Think creatively. Dream wild! When you are ready, click Save:

Next, you can click Review Campaign :

Here’s where you can bid. Just like with eBay, there’s an art to bidding, but you can always just use $1.00 to start:

Google may try to convince you to spend more and bid more:

The fact is that this example has its limits. My goal is to provide a cheap/free way to try things out that might result in you actually selling something (woo-hoo!), even if you used this free social media marketing book as an example .

But for better or worse, especially with social media, there’s always competition!

There happen to be a lot of trainers, schools, consultancies, etc., that are all interested in people who want to learn more about social media marketing. The prices of their products and services are much higher than a little social media marketing book, so they can afford to bid more on keywords.

When you don’t put quotes around a keyword, Google will automatically create variations of it. Google takes something like this:

• Learning social media marketing

And makes a variation like this:

• Social media marketing

You could end up in competition with someone who is selling social media marketing as a service and charging a lot more money. The bidding will be higher than someone who is selling a service to learn about social media marketing , or selling a book.

This is just a little taste of how eBay—I mean AdWords—works.

The way it relates to analytics is that there’s data around the competition for keywords, their average bidding price, and so on. There are analytics in AdWords, in addition to the information that AdWords generates. At the end of the day, it can help your career and business.

You can try putting quotes around words so Google uses those exact phrases only:

To play this game a bit better, try a tool called the Keyword Planner , discussed next.

Use Keyword Planner

To try Keyword Planner , choose AdWords ➤ Tools ➤ Keyword Planner.

This is the toy you can play with to figure out keywords. I mean, this is the tool you can utilize to attain clarity on keyword potential.

I played around with it and found that the competition is pretty high.

I dug a little deeper and found that the average “CPC” (cost per click) of “social media marketing training” was $7.00. So I thought, okay, I’ll try an ad where the bid is $7.00 and I’ll set the price of the product to $7.00 in Shopify.

I adjusted the ad:

Then I created a couple more ads , trying different copy:

All this is to say that you should experiment , leverage the analytics, try things out, and see what works the best.

AdWords’ Tricky Timing Settings

The other important thing to remember when playing with AdWords is to keep track of when a campaign starts and ends. For whatever reason, Google added a couple extra steps for actually ending a campaign. You could say that it is because many campaigns are ongoing. Or you could say that they are doing this because they are apt to make more money.

Either way, I recommend reading this article:

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2404203?hl=en

Basically, when you create your campaign, be aware that you will want to go into Campaign Settings and click Edit next to the Campaign Type:

Then you will want to click the All Features radio button:

Then click Save.

In my opinion All Features should be enabled by default, or there should be an easier, more apparent, way to set the schedule (the start and end dates). But until that happens, be sure to take these steps to make sure Google doesn’t drain your bank account every day, if you are just learning .

Next, after enabling this feature, go into Advanced Settings (cough, cough, it should be a basic setting).

Click Schedule:

Doh! Google has decided that your campaign of giving them money has no end date:

Click the Edit button and set an end date.

Ah! Much better. Just be aware of these hoops you have to jump through.

It’s Not Quite as Simple as This

I’ve covered a lot of ground, but I think it’s worth trying things out, to get a sense of how tracking conversion works .

And yes, it’s not as simple as this. Because clicks don’t necessarily mean conversion into sales. Someone might click on the ad and not actually buy something.

The art and science of AdWords involves working with a variety of analytics. In theory, if someone buys something, you can track ad budget against revenue, and that is the primary basis for $40-50 billion of Google’s revenue each year, which represents a large amount of revenue made by businesses.

Here was the competition I was up against in my little test:

Where oh where is my ad?

Eventually I did find it, on the third page of results. I had a friend click on it to test things out.

Depending on what your goal is—to learn or to actually sell something—you might want to give yourself the freedom of not worrying too much about the keywords and not worrying too much about the bids. Just set things up live and get a friend or two to search on Google for your keyword until they find the ad. Then buy your product (at a low price!), and give yourself 24 hours to look back in AdWords to see the results.

What you’re hoping is to see some converted clicks:

That is the magic of Shopify and AdWords. It’s pretty much at the core of $50 billion of Google revenue each year, and maybe a trillion dollars of e-commerce revenue around the world.

You don’t have to be a big company to do it. You, can in fact, as an analyst or online marketer, help people explore this kind of thing, even if you hire an AdWords specialist and just review the information.

In short, it’s a technique that millions of businesses—large and small—use, and it’s a really solid approach. It can be fun as well.

Learning More

My apologies if your head is swimming. You should check out the following links for more information.

Shopify

• Help center: https://help.shopify.com/

• Connecting to AdWords: http://docs.shopify.com/manual/your-store/dashboard/google-adwords

• Free AdWords credit: http://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-marketing/t/aha-this-is-how-to-get-your-google-adwords-and-facebook-credit-121154

• AdWords: www.google.com/adwords

• AdWords Help Center: https://support.google.com/adwords#topic=3119071

Conclusion

Congratulations on making it through this wild ride of the last two chapters! Have I convinced you to try things out? Did you have a good experience? Was it intimidating? Inspiring? Best wishes!