With over 80 percent of internet users logging onto the search engine, Google’s AdWords, which offers both PPC and site-targeted advertising, must rate as one of the most popular search sites on the Web.

The possibility of reaching over a hundred million people at a time makes AdWords an advertiser’s dream. Unfortunately it could also become a nightmare for the unwary or the inexperienced with approximately nine out of ten marketers failing in their first attempts to profit from an AdWords advertising campaign.

So here are some tips to help you become the one out of ten who realize their advertising dream:

Choose the correct match type for your advertisement. While broad match is the most common choice it also generates a large number of unproductive clicks on your advertisement.

Phrase match requires that the user’s query includes your chosen phrase using the correct sequence of words, while exact match keywords ensure that you attract only those customers who are specifically searching for your product or service but no other variation of the keywords or phrase will bring up your advertisement.

For this reason it is important to aim for keywords specific to your product. Including too many keywords is a common mistake for first time advertisers.

Avoid the most popular keywords or phrases. These will trigger any number of your competitors adverts as well as yours. Using less popular but relevant keywords will eliminate some of your competition.

It is also possible to decrease the number of unproductive clicks by selecting negative keywords. For example, by entering –free as a negative keyword you will prevent your advert from being triggered if a user is searching for free offers. (Presuming, of course, that you are not offering free products or services as part of your advertising campaign!)

The number one position on the search page is costly and not necessarily worth the extra expense. Bid instead for the second or third places. One advantage of being in the top five spots is that, since you will almost certainly receive a higher click through rate (CTR), you will receive a discounted fee from Google.

One way to ensure that you do create a high CTR is to change the text in your advertisements from time to time and track the results. In this way you can determine which arrangement of words attracts the most searchers.

Another approach is to have a separate AdGroup for each keyword or phrase. In fact, this is essential if your keywords do not all relate to the same product or service.

Run multiple creatives in each AdGroup. Creatives are simply different versions of your advertisement. Even the change of a word or phrase can make a difference. The adverts will then be triggered in rotation when the keywords are searched and the results for each advert will be recorded in your account. You can then track the traffic to the different adverts to establish which version of your advertisement is the most effective and jettison the rest.

And, finally,

High CTR’s are only significant if they lead to an increase of revenue on your website. To maximize the return on your advertising use the Search Network which attracts far fewer curiosity clickers than the Content Network does.