A text ad is another story altogether. Virtually the only time that an advertiser creates a text ad is for use in a pay per click marketing campaign such as that orchestrated by Google Adwords.

When an advertiser is writing a text ad they are seeking to orient the contents of that advertisement around a specific keyword. This keyword is the word which they believe that their target audience will enter into a search engine in an attempt to locate their product. The quality of the keyword chosen is the single most important factor in the success or failure of a pay per click marketing campaign.

Choosing a keyword is a simple process. Simply sit down and ask yourself, “If I was a customer and I was looking for my product what words would I use to search?” Once you have that list you can compare it to the list of recent popular searches contained in the database of each search engine. If the words which you have chosen are not on any of the lists do not lose heart. Many of the keywords found on these lists are far too general to allow the searcher to find what they are really looking for, and will quickly drive the browser to redirect their search.

A good keyword is one which is general enough that one need not have a college degree in order to associate it with the product but specific enough that it will decrease the number of false leads as much as possible (remember, you are going to have to pay the fee for the link whether the customer who came to your site made a purchase or not). Google has a number of tools available to help those finding difficulty in selecting the proper keywords; advertisers are encouraged to take advantage of these, particularly those working in the safety net of Google Adwords.

However, you can also find keywords that have been overlooked. These keywords get high searches and may not be being bid on. A great tool for this process is at www.WordTracker.com. There is an investment required but is well worth the return.

Another free option for keyword research can be found here http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/.

After choosing a keyword you are going to have to choose how much you want to bid on it. No, this isn’t an auction where the highest bidder will be able to lasso the keyword and take it home with him. Remember, an Internet browser’s search will generally come to an end once they have viewed two to three pages of results. It is essential that an advertisement be among those two to three pages if it is to have a chance of generating the kind of revenue it needs to in order to yield a profit.

Those who are willing to pay the most amount of money per click are placed at the top of the list while those with a more conservative budget are bumped out of the picture. Finding the proper balance between a bid high enough to keep an advertisement in the running but low enough that the ad will be able to run for the proper amount of time is an essential and sometimes complicated process.