Google AdWords, or AdWords, is Google’s advertising system, created October 23, 2000 in the United States. It displays ads or banner ads, which are targeted to the keywords the user types or based on the visitor’s browsing behavior.
Advertisers pay when a user clicks on the ad as based on an auction system and quality: the more ads will be relevant to the user, the higher the price per click will be low and the announcement highlighted. This is to encourage advertisers to provide relevant information with respect to the user request.
“AdWords” comes from “Ad” for Advertising and Words: words.
Operation
When a user uses Google, two lists of results are shown: the center of the page, the results of the search engine itself, classified according to “objective” criteria – called natural results; and on the top and right side, results from the AdWords, appointed sponsored links. Google takes this way advantage of its search engine by selling this ad space in the form of click for advertisers wishing to appear following a “research” done by a user.
AdWords ads are displayed:
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on Google search pages (if you type the keyword “dog”, targeted ads appear for dogs);
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on Gmail (with AdSense: you say to a friend by email that you are looking for a dog, and targeted advertisements for dogs appear, targeting is automatic and no human reads your email)
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on the search engine Google partners (AOL, Free, Amazon, etc.);
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on personal sites (with AdSense: Google scans and also promote your site, and if your site is about dogs, targeted advertisements for dogs appear and Google pays you a percentage of the click paid by the advertiser who sells dogs; if your site critics fast food, you will also receive advertisements extolling the virtues of this or that hamburger);
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on apps on smartphones (via its subsidiary AdMob).
This advertising is very effective because it allows you to target users based on the search. However, it remains to be demonstrated on the one hand the relationship between the probabilities to type a keyword and click on the advertising, and the other between clicking on advertising and buying the product.
A study by the French Institute of Public Opinion for the agency AdWords Ad’s up in June 2013 states that 52% of users click on sponsored links when they search on Google. 36% of Internet users do not distinguish between natural results and paid links.
The main commercial interest of Adwords, besides the direct advertising, is to allow the user of Adwords to set a daily budget for his Adwords broadcasts. This allows complete control of its advertising budget. When the number of clicks generated a cost equal to the fixed budget, the announcement will no longer be aired overnight, within the limit of +20%.
It is possible, moreover, to divert AdSense (click fraud), while publishers themselves could pay ”Paid to click” sites, where they offered to people to earn money by clicking on ads (expectation that these people would then buy their products, although their primary reason is to make money, not to spend).
Ads and Gmail
Mail of Gmail users is analyzed by a robot and advertisements are added next to the messages based on their content. Thus, a letter referring to “price” and “TD” or “professor” will be accompanied by an ad for tutoring sites, rather than an ad for a completely different topic.
How to block AdWords ads
There are systems to block ads on the internet, like Adblock and Ghostery, that work with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers.
How to be aware of AdWords ads
There are more and more systems to see the Adwords ads ofy an advertiser. These software or online services allow to know the words acquired by an advertiser and the budget devoted to them and the results of Adwords ad campaigns. This allows for smarter to optimize their campaigns based on their competitors or whether the audience of a website is purchased or not. Among these systems include online services like SEMRush, KeywordSpy, or PPC Web.
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