Google AdWords is a useful way to generate traffic in the field of “pay per click” or PPC advertising. PPC advertising is the sponsored listings that appear at the top and right side of the page when you enter a key phrase search on google.com.

Advertisers can create many campaigns or ad blocks by bidding on keywords. The ads will appear in different positions on the page in these sponsored placements.

High converting PPC campaigns are based on keyword research that effectively targets the optimal keywords for your niche. Keywords should not only be highly relevant, but also speak directly to the customer.

Google uses a proprietary system called Quality Score to determine how closely your keywords match the page you’re driving traffic to. Overall campaign performance affects your quality score, so a higher “click through rate” or CTR would lower your cost per click. This requires the use of highly relevant and targeted keywords in your PPC advertising, and your landing page must closely match your chosen keywords.

Factors that affect Quality Score include: CTR for the keyword and ad, overall CTR for your account, CTR for your display URL, quality of your landing page, relevance of the keyword to the landing page, and relevance of the keywords in the ad.

Specific keywords will need to be assigned to each ad unit when you create your ad in your PPC admin panel. You can start with less than 10 keywords and then gradually increase the keywords until you see progress in your PPC marketing campaign.

This gradual adjustment in keywords will help you monitor the results in a manageable way to determine which keywords are performing optimally and which keywords to eliminate.

Keywords should be tightly grouped and multiple landing pages can be used as needed in split testing. Continuously and consistently testing and tracking results will help improve your CTR and conversions.