So you’ve decided to try your hand at online marketing. Good for you! The internet has opened up unbelievable opportunities for people like you and me to make money online. You can start a blog, make product reviews, sell and trade stuff online, or launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund your next big idea. There are tons of ways to make money online without any experience!
But if you’re looking for a more traditional route, you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find a quick tutorial on how to make money online from clicking ads. Let’s get started.
Make Money In AdWords
One of the best ways to make money online with no experience is to get paid to click on ads. There are a variety of online marketing platforms where you can do this, but the one I’ll cover in this tutorial is Google AdWords. If you’ve never used AdWords before, it’s a good idea to sign up for a free trial before you get started.
To begin with, you’ll want to create a Google account.
Then, you’re going to want to navigate to the AdWords dashboard. From there, you’ll want to create a new campaign.
A campaign is a group of ads you’ll want to put into action. The goal of a campaign is to get people to engage with your ads and eventually convert them into paying customers or participants in a paid program such as affiliate marketing or membership program marketing.
To get started with an AdWords campaign, simply select the “Get started” button in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard.
When you click this button, you’ll be taken to the campaign landing page. Here, you can select the ad extensions you want to use for your campaign. You’ll have the option of selecting either Google ads or social media ads. For this tutorial, we’ll go with the former.
From there, you can enter a description of your ad (this is known as the ad text) and select the target audience for your ad. You can also select the media you plan on using for your ad.
There are a variety of places you can find audiences to target for your ads. If you’re looking for US or international audiences, select the appropriate country flag on the dropdown menu. You’ll also see an Estimated CPC (Cost per Click) and an Average Cost per Day.
Determine Your Website’s Income
Before you begin your ad campaign, it’s important to determine how much you’re actually making with your existing website. This way, you’ll know how much you need to spend on ads to make a profit.
To find out how much money you’re making, simply log into your Google AdSense account. (If you don’t have one, you can create one now.)
From there, you can view your Website’s income over the last 90 days. This figure is known as your Daily Revenue.
The Daily Revenue figure will be different for every website. Some websites may only receive money once or twice a week, while others may pull in thousands of dollars per day. The more you make, the more you’ll be able to spend on ads to make more money.
Set Your Budget For Ads
Budget is one of the most critical aspects of running a successful AdWords campaign. You’ll want to set a budget so you don’t spend too much money on ads when you don’t make enough money and so you don’t spend too little when you do make money.
The first thing you’ll want to do is track your spending. Once you’ve set your daily budget for AdWords, you’ll want to review how much you’ve spent. (Don’t worry — you can always adjust this number later on if you need to.)
The next thing you’ll want to do is set a maximum daily spend for your ads. If you go over this number, your account will be restricted and you won’t be able to run any more ads that day. This is important because constantly changing your max daily spend can help prevent yourself from getting too discouraged when you don’t make money for a while.
Choose The Right Keywords
Keywords are the words and phrases you’ll want to have in your ad text to get the most out of your ad campaign. To determine the right keywords, simply enter your ad text into the keyword search bar on Google.
As you type, Google will give you a variety of suggestions. Once you see a word or phrase you like, you can either select it or add it to your text. (You can also use your keyboard’s arrow keys to move between suggestions.) As you become more familiar with keywords, you’ll be able to choose phrases that are more appropriate and won’t result in your ads being flagged by Google as spam. (You can learn more about how to choose the right keywords in a specific niche here.)
Choose Your Best Landing Page
Your landing page is the page your potential customers will come to after they click on your ad. This is where you’ll want to direct them after they click. (If you do this through a third-party platform like HubSpot, you’ll want to make sure you create a relevant link to the right page.)
To choose your landing page, simply enter the URLs of the pages you want to promote in the space below the keyword search bar on the AdWords dashboard.
Then, you can set how you want your visitors to behave once they’ve arrived on your landing page. Choose between having the page display a simple “Thanks for visiting!” message, or taking them to a different page within your site (called a microsite).
If you decide they should go to a different page after they’ve clicked on your ad, make sure this page contains important information such as your phone number, address, or website URL. You can also use Google Analytics to track the behavior of your customers and figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
Make Sure Your Ads Are Targeted
This is one of the most important points. You’ll want to make sure that you target the right audience for your ad. If you’re not sure who your target audience is, you can use tools like Google Analytics to find out. (You can also use your phone or tablet’s web browser to reach out to your audience — no logins needed.)
These tools give you a variety of options when it comes to defining your audience. Simply enter your web address into the search bar, and you’ll see a variety of suggestions. (If you select the option to see suggested websites and blogs as well, you’ll see a variety of options.) Choose the one that feels right to you and your business.
Once you’ve found your target audience, you can begin to build a list of individuals who might interested in your product or service. You can add these contacts to your email list (if you haven’t already done so), or you can choose to have them join one of the free membership programs you have available.
Create Ads
After you’ve set the basic information for your ad, you can begin entering your first actual ad. Advertisements are usually short and sweet — usually no more than a few paragraphs describing your product or service. (The best ads I’ve ever seen were the seven-word or less ads on Groupon. For example, “Sewing machine, personalized for you.”)
The only thing you need to fill out is the pricing and the keywords. When you’re finished, simply hit the “Create Ad” button.
Monitor Your Ads
You’ll want to keep an eye on how well your ads are performing once you’ve launched your campaign. The easiest way to do this is through the Google Ads dashboard. The ad dashboard is where you can track a variety of metrics from your ad, including impressions, cost-per-click (CPC), and the like.
To view your ads in the ad dashboard, find the “Ads” tab at the top of the page. Then, you can simply select the corresponding campaign you want to look at (either by clicking on it or using the menu at the top of the page). To view each individual ad, click on the “i” next to the ad’s headline.
If you have a lot of ads, it might be a good idea to sort them by either the number of clicks or cost-per-click. This way, you’ll be able to quickly see which ads are performing the best and can choose to focus your time and efforts on them.