"Google Enters 'Pay Per Click' Arena!"

Google, which is used more than 150 million times per day to conduct
searches has announced its entrance into the pay per click
arena with the recent introduction of its new "Ad Words Select"
program. The old "Ad Words" Program was based on paying per
impressions of your ad, not clicks thus the addition of the word
"select."

The ads paid for are text ads that appear next to Google's search
results, in the far right hand column and are labeled "sponsored
links." Your ads are only shown to users searching for specific
words you have placed a bid on. With Google's syndication program
your ads will also appear on their partner sites, Earthlink
( http://www.Earthlink.com ) and http://www.Sympatico.ca. This is
Google's first syndication advertising relationship and it may give
Overture (formerly Goto.com) some sorely needed competition.Earthlink
had been an Overture client but decided not to renew their contract,
going instead with Google.

Registration is simple: it costs just $5.00 (US) to open an account.
You will have to surrender your credit card information for future
billing. If you were an original Ad Words customer you'll need to
re-register in order to become a "Select" customer. In fairness to
the original "Ad Words" CPM clients, "Select" customers cannot
purchase keywords unless their CPC rate is comparable or higher
than what is currently being paid for the same keywords by Ad Words
customers.

Before choosing your key-phrases you'll need to write your ads.
Titles can be up to 25 characters and you get 2 lines of text
at 35 characters each -- plus your URL. No images or offensive
language are allowed in your ad copy. Each ad is called an
"ad group." An ad group is defined as a set of ads that appear
for the same keywords and share the same CPC. You can create
multiple ads within each ad group and they will be rotated in use.
Ads that receive the most clicks eventually get shown more often
and rise in position. Changes can be made to your ad copy at
anytime.

Upon setup you select the countries and language markets that
you want your ads displayed to. You can target more than 250
countries and up to five languages: English, French, German,
Italian and Spanish.

After setting up your ads you'll need to select the key words or
phrases you wish to bid on. You'll want to choose words users
are most likely to type into Google's search box when looking for
your products/services. Options can be set for when your ads will
appear depending on what the searcher types in.For example, if
you only wanted your ads to appear when someone types in "ezine
advertising" and not "free ezine advertising" you will need to
surround your key phrases with square brackets like this
{ezine advertising}. This tells Google it must be an exact match
for your ad to appear.

You're in charge of how much to pay per click with $0.05 being the
minimum you can bid. Their "Ad Words Discounter" ensures you never
pay more than is necessary. If the cost per click you picked is
higher than what is needed for your ad to keep its place, the
CPC you're charged will be automatically lowered. You'll never
pay more than one penny over what your competition pays. This is
unlike Overture, where you constantly have to monitor and
re-adjust your bidding.

Also unlike Overture, where you must bid a set amount on each
keyword/phrase, with Ad Words Select you set a "maximum cost per
click" which applies to all of your keywords. If you want to
assign different amounts to them you'll have to set up a separate
"ad group" and set a different maximum cost per click. There are
no monthly minimums and you set the maximum daily amount you wish
to spend.

The position of your ads on the search results page is based on
two things; the maximum CPC you bid and your ads' clickthru rate.
Both of these factors together will earn you a higher position.
Keywords will be disabled if their click rate falls below 0.05%,
so you'll want to make sure your ad copy pulls.If some of your
key phrases get deactivated, you can make changes to your ad copy
and reactivate them again. There is another charge if this happens
more than once. Reports on your ads' activities can be viewed
online by logging into Google at anytime.

>From what I've seen Google's new Ad Words Select Program has
a lot of potential and great features that should make Overture
sit up and take notice. Between the "Ad Words Discounter" and
the no minimum monthly to spend, I think Google may just become
a major player in the pay per click field.

For more information or to open an account go to....(no pun
intended) https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=Login