Google is the most popular search engine in the world. With more than 130 trillion indexed pages of leads and content, it is a highly competitive atmosphere for businesses everywhere. Everyone is looking for their competitive edge. But if there’s one thing you should never disregard, it’s using Google Ads.
Google Ads (previously Google Adwords and Google Adwords Express) functions as an online advertisement that promotes products and services on different websites across the internet. It is one of the most powerful tools in business marketing as it targets digital consumers all over the web. With a single Google Ads account, you can customise your budget and target a specific audience for your advertisements.
At the end of 2019, Google Ads were being viewed by 90% of the internet population. As it continues to bring in more traffic, leads, and sales than ever, the cost per keywords is rising- making the ad campaigns more costly. It’s important that you, as an advertiser, follow the best practices in Google Ads to optimise your campaigns for higher conversions at minimum cost.
This guide can help you with that! Here are the topics we’ll be tackling:
How Does It Work?
What Should You Know About Google Adwords?
Why Do Google Ads Appear?
How Much Do Google Ads Cost?
How To Get Started
Tips and Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Google Adwords
How Does It Work?
How Google Ads works is simple. Once your campaign is live, your ad will appear whenever people in your target area search for the products or services you offer online. It gives you the exposure you need in front of potential customers just when they’re ready to settle on a product or service. Also, since it is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model, you only have to pay when users engage with your ad. This includes clicks or calls to your business.
What Should You Know About Google Adwords?
Google Ads allow you to promote your business in the biggest search engine on the web. As you might expect, there are different types of Google Ads available. Three of the most common types are Search Network campaigns, Google Display Network campaigns, and Video campaigns. Here’s a brief explanation of each:
- Search Network campaigns – ads that appear on Google Search results pages when someone searches for a product or service that’s similar to yours (text form)
- Display Network campaigns – ads that are displayed on websites or apps that your customers visit (image form)
- Video campaigns – ads that are shown right before or during YouTube content
More advanced types of campaigns such as Shopping or App campaigns can be used depending on your advertising strategy. The best type of campaign will depend on what your business needs.
Why Do Google Ads Appear?
Google Ads appear on the search engine results page because these are the positions that give businesses an advantage. Because of this, business advertisers bid on what is called the Google Ads auction. It happens lightning-fast whenever someone searches on Google or visits a site with ads.
Advertisers bid on a list of keywords that they target based on the words that people are most likely to search for relevant to what their business offers. Each bid is equivalent to how much they are willing to pay for when someone clicks or interacts with their ad. The ads that appear on Google are determined based on this bid and their Quality Score, Google’s quality assessment of your proposed ad.
How Much Do Google Ads Cost?
Google Adwords is a pay-per-click advertising program. This means that your ads are displayed for free but you are charged whenever someone clicks on your ad. Because of the Google Ads auction system, the cost per clicks is affected by the amount of competition, their own budgets, and the demand of people searching for the keywords.
How much you’ll spend on your Google Ads is determined by your budget. You can work from a lower-range budget to a high cost campaign. Know that there is no minimum spend requirement or contract length on Google Ads. At the end of the day, it depends on the industry, competition, and how much you’re willing to invest in the campaigns.
How To Get Started
Now that you know how Google Ads work, you can get started! First things first, you would need a Google Ad account to advertise on Google.
If you’re starting from scratch, here is a simple guide on how to start advertising on Google.
- Sign up or log in to your business Google account.
Set up your Google account that you want to use for your brand or business. If you already have one, simply sign in to your account.
- Define your campaign goals
Once you start a new campaign in Google Ads, you will be asked to choose a campaign goal. This will help create the right type of ad for your business based on the kind of audience you want to target.
- Choose your business name and keywords
On the next page of your campaign goals, you will be asked to provide a business name. Afterwards, add a URL to your landing page or where your users will end up once they click your ads. You can then choose your keywords on the next page. Remember to use relevant keywords that suit what your business offers!
- Target a specific audience
Refine your campaign by choosing where you want to target your ad. If you have a physical store or a prime location, you can enter the address to filter more quality searches. You can also choose regions, cities, or zip codes that you want to target.
- Craft your ad copy
Finally, you will be able to create your ad. You can craft an effective ad’s headline and description by keeping your audience in mind. The ad preview box on the right side of the page can help you with this step.
- Set up your billing
This is now the final step of creating your campaign. You simply have to enter all of your billing information. If you have promotional codes at the time, you can use those for a discount.
You have now created your campaign! You can continue to create more and track your progress on the site with Google Analytics.
Tips and Tricks Get The Most Out Of Google Adwords
Boost Your Quality Score
As discussed before, Google Ads works on an auction system. This happens every time a user searches on Google. Your Quality Score and bid amount will determine whether or not you “win” the Google Ads auctions. This will then allow your Google Ad to appear during a search for relevant keywords.
Boosting your Quality Score can lower the cost per click (CPC) of your ad campaign. A higher Quality Score can also increase exposure helping your ads secure positions on the upper range of the Google search results page. All in all, putting in the effort to improve your Quality Score can get you more customer interactions without having to raise your bids.
How exactly do we do that? Here are the main factors that affect your Quality Score:
- The relevance of your ad to the search
- The applicability of the keyword to your ad groups
- The purpose of your ad to the landing page
- The click-through rate (CTR) history of the ad and ad group
- Account performance
Optimise Your Landing Page
A measure of success for your Google Ads campaign is conversions. This makes it important to optimise the place where people will go once they click on your ad. The landing page is one of the most crucial parts of a user’s experience. Making it clear and relevant can turn those site visitors into full-blown conversions. Here is what you have to put into the page to make a difference in your campaign:
Relevance
Other than having an ad that is relevant to the keywords the users have searched, it is important that where they end up is as relevant for what they searched. The progression should go like this: searching for “party supplies for rent” should display search results and ads with the same keyword themes, which would then lead to a page where party supplies are for rent.
Clarity
Landing pages should be clear and scannable. Difficult to navigate pages can immediately turn off your potential customer. That is one client that you might never get back. Make your landing pages as user-friendly as possible to encourage site traffic to stay and, hopefully, take action.
Call To Action
There should be an obvious goal to your page for it to be truly optimised. This includes utilising different site features such as sign-up boxes and purchase buttons. One thing’s for sure, make sure that your call to action matches your primary objective for the business. Newsletters, services, and products can have different “best” call to action features.
Craft A Fantastic Headline
The ad headline is like a store display. As the advertiser, it should be your goal to stop and get the attention of your digital audience. Even if you have amazing products or services to offer, it would be for naught if you don’t get people to click your ad.
The headline is the first thing a potential customer will see from the ad. It has to stand out from the other search results on the page in order to get clicks. There are a lot of resources online to help you create fantastic headlines. Here are our top 5 tips:
- Use simple language
- Include the keyword searched for
- Make it compelling with questions or humour
- Determine user intent
- NEVER use clickbait
Let 5tales Manage Your Ad Campaign
Advertising experts understand the best ways to get the most out of Google Ads. With our expertise in the industry, our Google Ads professionals at 5tales can find the right strategies on Google that help bring in more quality traffic for your business. Keep Quality Score, daily budget, bidding, and other Google Ads concerns out of your worries by letting us help you manage your ad campaigns.
