Marketing solutions have changed dramatically over the past couple of decades.
The growth of the internet, search engines, social media, and digital devices have opened up an extensive range of channels for businesses to communicate with their customers.
There are on average, around 3.5 billion searches on Google in one single day.
So there are no questions as to why millions of businesses are taking advantage of Google’s marketing platform, Google Ads.
So, how do Google ads work, and why is it beneficial to invest in them?
Let’s get started on what Google Advertising is exactly.
Google Ads (previously known as Google Adwords) is a pay-per-click marketing platform that allows businesses to promote their products or services through short advertisements, videos, shopping campaigns, and more on the search engine.
Monetary bids are placed with Google by each business to compete for keywords or search terms relevant to them.
Businesses submit their highest cost-per-click bids (CPCs), that is, the maximum amount of money they are willing to pay for a user to click on an ad.
The higher the bid, the greater reach it will achieve, and the greater chance it has of achieving sales conversions.
When a user searches for a term or keyword, Google scans its database to identify the most suitable ad to appear.
This won’t necessarily be the bidder with the highest bid.
Google chooses the most eligible ads based on several factors:
- Quality Score: Google determines bid winners based on something called “quality score”, which is a measure of how well an ad will perform. The higher the quality score, the better chance it has of appearing more often in searches- even if a competitor is bidding a higher investment for an ad. Google’s quality score rates each bidder between 1-10 based on the overall estimated performance of an ad from several factors:
- Relevancy: How relevant a business’s website and landing page is to the search terms and ad. The search terms should accurately represent what the ad is promoting. Relevant ads can help to improve the overall quality score because Google likes to provide its users with ads most appropriate to their search.
- Landing Page Experience: Google generally likes to avoid directing its users to sites that are not user-friendly, slow, and do not have relevance to a person’s search terms.
- Well-Researched Keywords: Keywords used in each ad should correspond accurately to what the user is searching for.
- Expected Click-Through Rate: Google will determine whether or not your ad will generate clicks when your keyword is entered by a user.
Google’s quality score is an integral factor in the success of well-performing ads, and can even outbid high-paying keyword competitors.
Now that we’ve looked into how Google Ads works, let’s delve into how Google Ads can produce great results for businesses all over the globe.
1. Google is the world’s leading search engine
“Google it”–an answer we all have probably heard in response to a question we might have asked, and most of us can admit we head straight to Google to search for something when we need to.
Google accounts for an astounding 90% of all searches globally, meaning that the reach potential for ads is huge.
Google has held the majority of the search market for a number of years and has built up a reputation for being the go-to platform for paid searches.
If a potential customer is searching for a business like yours, whether locally or globally, it is almost certain that they’ll be looking via Google, and Ads can help you reach these customers before your competitors do.
2. Google Ads target potential customers at the right moment
What’s great about Google Ads is that each ad is targeted to reach people actively searching for a term relevant to your business.
The main difference between inbound marketing like Google Ads compared to outbound marketing such as television advertising is the intent.
Searchers that land on your website via Google are actively seeking out products or services related to your business, unlike outbound marketing where the ads are less specifically targeted.
This means that those that click on your ad are more likely to be already seeking out a product a service that you are offering.
What’s more, you’re only paying for the cost of the click, so money isn’t being wasted on targeting audiences that haven’t shown an interest in your business–a big win.
3. Google Ads can help drive traffic to your site and store
Let’s say you own a clothing store.
You might be getting a good number of customers through the door through footfall on a day-to-day basis, but how else can people find out about your business?
Thanks to Google’s broad targeting options and location extensions, local searchers can see your ads if they are targeted correctly using relevant terms.
For example “restaurant near me”.
According to Google’s economic impact report, 16 million American owned businesses received connections with customers through messages, phone calls, location direction requests and bookings through Google in 2019 from Google’s free and paid services, like Google Ads.
4. Establish brand awareness
Particularly for small or new businesses, brand awareness is a crucial aspect of generating new sales and establishing a place in the market.
Let’s look at brand awareness like this: you live in a small town with a new grocery store.
On your way to work, you walk past the store every day, and people in your town begin to talk about it and ask if you have visited.
Gradually more people become aware of the new business. But how is this achieved for businesses online?
Well, building your brand awareness with Google Ads can be as simple as having your brand feature at the top of a search result.
Whether your audience clicks on your ad or not, it is still clearly visible, so building brand awareness can be achieved by regularly featuring in your audience’s searches.
There are even retargeting options which help you to advertise to those who have interacted with your business in the past or remind those who have already visited your website to complete their purchase.
5. Google Ads are customizable
Since Google Ads are measurable, they can be monitored regularly and optimized according to results.
This means that they can become increasingly better targeted to increase clicks.
Testing and trialing keywords and phrases is a great way to know what does well and what doesn’t.
For example, you might want to look at targeting long-tail keywords as opposed to general industry keywords to gain better traffic from customers in your location.
6. Google’s display networks allow you to reach people on different platforms
When you submit an ad bid on Google, you can choose for your text, image or video ad to not only reach audiences searching on the web using keywords but also on Google’s display networks.
Search partners like Youtube, Blogger, and Gmail are just some of the sites where your ad may also feature.
This allows your ads to reach your target audience when they are browsing;
- Other devices like tablets or mobile phones through apps or websites
- Specific websites or webpages
- Within specific geographic locations
7. Google ads help you to stay competitive
According to Google’s most recent economic impact report, there were more than 1.3 million businesses around the world advertising on Google in 2018.
No matter your industry or location, it’s likely that several of those businesses are competitors of yours.
If you want to stay competitive in a crowded market, Google Ads are certainly something to consider.
While your fiercest competitors might have won on the SEO rankings for your industry, PPC ads give you the opportunity to steal back the limelight by placing bids that get your ads seen at the top of any organic rankings.
We’ve spoken above about the benefits of Google’s targeting options, and this can be a great tool if you are looking to put your business on the map in a specific location or on the online market.
8. It’s a cost-effective form of marketing
Working on a tight budget?
What’s good about Google Ads is that there is no minimum spend when it comes to bidding.
You can start with as little or as much as you wish, cap your maximum spending so that it doesn’t go over your monthly budget, or pause it if you’ve got somewhere else you need to spend the money.
Google Ads can accommodate all size budgets, making it a cost-effective way to reach your target audience.
While some keywords are costly, most are affordable and providing you’re matching all of Google’s requirements you’ll find that Google advertising is a relatively cheap way to gain results.
Google estimates that for every $1 spent, $2 is achieved in revenue.
9. Google’s analytics helps you to manage your budget efficiently
Google ad manager’s detailed analytics tools can help you to manage your budget efficiently whilst your ads are running by keeping track of your spending during each campaign.
It even has a handy Google Analytics integration so you can see how your ads are impacting your site traffic all in one organized dashboard.
If some of your ads are underperforming with one keyword, change it up so that you’re spending your money on more valuable, better-converting ads.
That way, you’ll know that every cent is going somewhere worthwhile, and satisfy your bank account.
10. It can produce results quicker than SEO
There’s no denying that SEO is a great way to gain high levels of organic website traffic, but it’s a tactic that takes time and patience to perfect, one that requires well-written, well-considered keywords, tested page speeds, and well-earned backlinks.
It can be months before results from SEO are finally seen.
Pay-per-click on the other hand can be extraordinarily swift, particularly if you’ve got an extensive budget.
Once you’ve set your ad live, Google will display it on its platform and other networks (such as Youtube) if it wins the bid from a search.
The result of these going live so quickly is that it can, in turn, create fast results.
Both SEM methods are of course, hugely beneficial and there is no question that using them together can produce optimum results for your business.
Are Google Ads worth it?
Absolutely. Google Ads are hugely flexible and benefit businesses of all sizes.
There’s clear evidence that an investment in ads with Google can help your business stay competitive, increase visibility, and ultimately drive sales.
Google is a huge platform to market your business to both local and global networks, and pay-per-click is a technique that should not be disregarded.
If you are looking for a way to market to your customers directly, consider ads by Google.
Getting the very best out of your Google Ads: A quick checklist
- Make your keywords relevant: Google wants to see ads with text that appropriately compliments their landing pages, so make sure your keywords are relevant to what you are promoting to up your quality score.
- Optimize your landing page: A well-worded ad is nothing without an equally impressive landing page. Yours should be user-friendly, easy to navigate, and above all, clear and concise.
- Add negative keywords: As important as it is to perfect your keyword game, it’s almost equally as important to get your negative keywords right. Excluding keywords can prevent you from spending money on clicks from searchers that are searching for something different from what your business is offering.
- For example, your keyword might be targeting those who search “sofas in Philadelphia”. You might choose to exclude the word ‘free’ from your ads as a negative keyword so that those searching ‘free sofas in Philidelphia’ don’t end up reaching your ad, only to find that your products aren’t free.
- Create copy that drives action: Enticing ad copy with a clear call-to-action is a must for not only PPC ads, but for your landing page too.
Looking for solutions to help optimize and grow your business? Speak to us at Revcarto!
