When we talk about search engines what we really mean is Google. At a conservative estimate, more than 70% of all internet searches are conducted through google. The company has therefore created a huge and impressive set of tools – some free, some not – that can help virtually anyone with their search marketing.

By far the most popular of these is Google AdWords – the list of results that appear in the right-hand margin of a search page, under the heading ‘sponsored links’.

Instead of getting your website to the top of the search rankings organically, you can pay for the privilege using Google AdWords – a very simple personalised ad system that enable you to set up your own Google Ads using popular keywords within a simple template. Google displays your ad in that right-hand margin, and every time a visitor clicks through to your website you pay Google a small fee. Non-profit organisations can also apply for Google Grants, where they have the opportunity to be given virtual daily allowances to spend on Google AdWords.

The fee is based on the simple laws of supply and demand. The more popular (and generic) a keyword, the more you have to pay Google per click.  So the keyword ‘charity’ may cost £1 per click through. But ‘cat charity Birmingham’ may be 10p per click – and more to the point, is much better targeted, and thus more likely to get you the results you want to achieve.

You can manage an AdWords campaign as intensely or remotely as you like. It’s possible to set daily, weekly or monthly budgets; to instantly adjust your ads with new keywords; and indeed to look in detail at the traffic to your site and get some basic metrics. And if no-one clicks though – you don’t pay Google a penny!

All in all in it’s a good introduction to search marketing and perfect for a smaller organisation that might want to tip its metaphorical toe into the murky waters of search and start learning how – and most importantly if – it actually works.


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