The internet is an amazing place to market your products and services. Online marketing allows you to connect with your audience and reach potential customer through a huge collection of channels, including Google Adwords. But, what is Google Adwords?
It’s estimated that around 86% of people online use the internet to find new products or services in their area.
There are dozens of different ways you can promote your company online and each one offers a unique set of benefits for your company.
If you’re looking to start generating leads and sales with your promotion strategy immediately, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a great alternative.
Through PPC, you have access to an ads network that allows you to place promotional material in some of the top placements available.
With this in mind, you’ll find plenty of different ads networks that allow you to place adverts in different places throughout the internet, but not all of these produce great results.
Google Adwords was established years ago and it’s the most reliable ads network for your PPC campaigns.
Not only was it developed by one of the leading technology companies in the world, but Adwords also allows you to place ads throughout the Google Search Network. Which, in turn, can exponentially increase the amount of traffic you get to your site.
Transitioning from conventional advertising or other forms of online marketing to Google Adwords can be challenging because there are many different concepts you need to master.
At Fannit, we’ve spent the last decade developing quality Adwords PPC campaigns for local, regional, and national companies alike.
Thanks to years of training and hands-on experience, our team understands the different elements that influence your Adwords campaign as well as the fundamentals required to create a winning strategy right off the bat.
This is the reason why we decided to put together a Google Adwords tutorial and explain the steps you need to take to craft a solid PPC campaign.
We’ll also answer questions like “what is Google Adwords?” and go over basic concepts you need to know before you start developing your ads.
What is Google Adwords (Now Google Ads)?
For starters, let’s answer the burning question “what is the difference between Google Ads and Google Adwords?” because it will help us avoid confusion.
The answer to this question is simple: they are both the same platform!
In July 2018, Google decided to rename their most iconic product and made additional aesthetic changes.
However, the switch didn’t have an impact in terms of performance, how the platform works, or who is allowed to advertise on it.
That said, the platform is regularly updated with new features and algorithm changes (more on this later!) so you need to keep these in mind to make the right campaign adjustments.
For the purpose of this article we will use both names, but you should note that the name was changed for whenever you want to access the platform.
Now that we’ve made that small caveat, what is Adwords?
In simple terms, Google Ads is a paid online advertising platform that allows you to place adverts in organic search results pages and throughout Google’s network.
These ads can appear in different parts of each results page, including the top area above the websites with the top organic rankings.
If you’re asking yourself “what is the Google network?”, it’s the collection of different placements where your ads can possibly appear.
By now, most people know what Google allows you to place ads at the top of its search result pages. But, the company also has a huge network of digital platforms that include millions of websites, mobile apps, and other resources that help you distribute your marketing materials and attract relevant users to your site.
You can control your entire campaign from the Google Ads manager account and manage your campaign without assistance.
But, you’ll have to invest hundreds of hours into learning about the platform, the different features you have available, and how these can help generate leads online.
Or, you can partner with an experienced marketing firm that can help you develop a solid campaign from the beginning and generate results immediately.
How Effective is Google Ads?
How does Google Adwords work? What is the minimum budget for Google Adwords? These are all important questions that we will definitely answer, but we also need to discuss the effectiveness of Google Ads.
Technology has become a part of our global identity, but many companies still find it hard to believe that the internet can help them generate leads.
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling baking goods or corporate security services, the internet is the first resource your audience will turn to when it’s time to find a new product.
Google is the world’s most popular search engine and it processes billions of requests every day.
Running ads on the company’s Search Network allows you to reach a large base of users looking for products or services in your area, so they may be more interested in the solutions you have available.
This is the main reason why Google Ads is so effective.
Google has spent decades earning the trust of online users by providing the most reliable and relevant results, so users rely on the platform whenever they need to find new products or services.
Moreover, Google’s PPC platform is designed for companies who want to have a lot of control over their campaign as well as businesses who are not too familiar with basic marketing concepts.
During your campaign creation process, you’ll have the option to set up Google Adwords Express, which is a simplified version that automates a large portion of the tasks.
The performance of your campaign may be affected if you choose Adwords Express, so manually managing your PPC efforts is always the best choice.
Is Google Ads Expensive?
Is Google Adwords free? How much does Google Adwords Cost?
Google is a PPC platform, so you do have to invest money into your campaign in order to generate revenue.
However, remember that PPC stands for pay-per-click, which is a digital advertising model where companies only pay whenever a user clicks on their ads. This means that you only have to pay for the ads that redirect prospects to your website.
It’s impossible to answer the question “how much do Google ads cost?” from a general perspective.
Instead, you need to examine your company finances and determine what type of budget you’re working with.
The cost of your Google Ads campaign will vary depending on your industry, the keywords you want to target, the quality of your website, and other variants. For example, if you’re looking to keep your marketing in-house, you may need to look at the Google Adwords certification cost and train one of your team members to take on the role full time.
One of the main benefits of Google Ads is that it’s flexible in terms of cost.
Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to run a small campaign with a limited budget and reinvest your profits until you start seeing significant revenue.
The Fundamentals of Advertising on Google
Even though it offers an array of great benefits, Google Ads requires a certain degree of basic knowledge. Mastering these fundamental concepts and terms will help shorten the learning curve and allow you to develop a solid campaign from the very beginning.
Like other types of advertising, PPC platforms employ a unique price-calculation mechanism that relies on complex automated algorithms.
These algorithms analyze a wide variety of different factors that also help determine the specific placement of your ad in real-time, so understanding this basic process means you’ll be able to choose the right settings during the set up process.
In addition to the above, there’s a huge list of metrics and acronyms you need to familiarize yourself with to make the most out of the reporting features you have available.
If you’re used to conventional marketing strategies this step may be more challenging because these approaches are static and don’t provide the ability to accurately monitor performance.
Some of the key vocabulary and other Google Ad fundamentals you need to learn include:
Ad Metrics
As we just discussed, Google Ads will give you access to a variety of different metrics that help you assess the performance of your campaign.
The number of statistics you’ll have available is overwhelming, but we’ll cover some of the main ones in this list of fundamental Google Adwords concepts.
Understanding the metrics you have available is crucial to the success of your campaign for many reasons.
First of all, you can actually measure how much money you’re making and figure out if you need to make any changes to your ads.
This data will also tell you what adjustments are more likely to produce the best results, but you have to learn to look at the right numbers.
Some statistics are known as “vanity” metrics because they can give you the impression that your campaign is doing well, when it’s actually not.
Keep in mind that vanity metrics hold value in terms of the bigger picture because, along with other indicators, they can tell you how your target audience perceives your ads.
Keywords
Whether you’re running a PPC or SEO campaign, you’ll hear the term “keywords” a lot.
The reason is that the keywords are the terms that your audience uses to search for your products or services, so you need to match these in order to get the best results.
But, in order to find the right search terms, you have to conduct extensive research and understand the intent behind each search.
The Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows you to search for the most popular terms and view details about each keyword before implementing them into your campaign.
This tool can also help you create ad groups based on different ideas, find new terms, and create multiple lists based on specific criteria.
Contrary to what you may expect, the Google Adwords keyword tool does have a few gaps in terms of functionality and the data it provides.
To boost the performance of your ads campaign, you should employ the leading keyword research tools available because these platforms provide real-time results and comprehensive information about each term.
Ad Rank
Ad rank is the metric used by Google to determine what positions your adverts take up in search results.
If you’re advertising on Google, you need to understand how ad rank is calculated and how it affects your rankings.
Google determines ad rank by multiplying your Quality Score (more on this in a bit) by your maximum bid.
The ad that has the highest ad rank gets the top position, and the remaining companies are organized based on their own results.
Keep in mind that ad rank affects both the position of your ads as well as the cost of each click.
Generally speaking, you always want to get the highest possible ad rank, which means that you need to focus on your site’s quality score.
Quality Score
Google determines a quality score for each ad you create, which helps the platform establish how relevant and useful your adverts are.
Remember, users trust Google to provide quality results, so the functionality of the content on your ads and landing pages will heavily influence the performance of your campaign.
Quality score calculations are based on your ad’s existing click-through-rate, the relevance of the main keyword, and the quality of your landing page.
We’ll discuss click-through-rate later in this article and we’ve covered the importance of choosing the best keyword.
The landing page is the page that users see after clicking on your ad.
This page should be relevant to the keyword and the intent of the searcher’s query. For example, if someone looks for “Google pay-per-click services near me” your landing page should be about PPC management solutions in the searcher’s area.
For companies and individuals who’ll keep their marketing in-house, you’ll learn about quality score and other concepts we discuss in this post in your Google Adwords training, but it’s good to get familiarized with these concepts early on.
Tracking
Unlike conventional advertising, you can track and measure the results that your ads generate.
he data you collect from your Google Ads campaign will allow you to build better ads, create landing pages that convert, and implement the right settings.
This information is collected through Google’s tracking system, which needs to be set up properly in order to provide accurate information.
If there’s a problem with the tracker, it will compromise the information you collect, which means that you won’t be able to use it to improve your campaign.
There are many third-party trackers you can opt for, but we believe Google’s tracking system provides accurate data so it’s our preferred way to monitor campaigns launched on the Search Network.
Through Google Analytics, you can monitor the performance of your campaigns and create reports that allow you to visualize information in easy-to-digest chunks.
Bidding Models
Instead of charging a static price for each click, PPC platforms like Google Ads have a variety of different bidding models you can choose from.
Each time there’s a search, Google conducts an automated auction that includes all campaigns with keywords relevant to that query.
These auctions take place in seconds, but they follow three distinct bidding models.
Before going over the different ways these auctions work, it’s important to understand how the bids affect the price of your ads.
If you end up with the first position, your cost-per-click is determined by the ad rank value of the ad that came in behind you, divided by your quality score.
This is the reason why, in most cases, the cost of your ads is lower than the maximum bid you place.
That said, the quality score plays a huge role, so the lower this value, the higher your costs will be.
The three types of bidding found in Google Ads are cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and cost-per-mile (CPM).
Cost-Per-Click
Before going any further, it’s important to understand that the term “cost-per-click” refers to the amount of money an advertiser pays for each click as well as the bidding model we’re about to discuss.
In this context, CPC is a bidding model where advertisers pay for every click generated, regardless of how many times their ad is viewed or what happens thereafter.
This type of bidding was designed for the Search Network, but it’s also available for Display Network ads and it offers a couple of different management options.
When working with CPC, you can choose between automatic and manual bidding.
As the name suggests, automatic bidding means that you hand over the entire decision-making process to Google’s internal algorithms.
Even though this may seem like a simple way to run your ads campaign, automatic CPC may not take certain behavioral patterns into consideration, so you may end up getting less bang for your buck.
Not to mention the fact that you need to place a maximum CPC cap to avoid going over your daily budget.
Manual bidding may be the most complex of the two options, but it gives you maximum control of your budget.
Besides giving you more control over your ad spend, you’ll also be able to focus on the areas that produce the most income, thus generating more profits with the same investment.
Cost-Per-Acquisition
When running display and search campaigns, you can choose a bidding option known as cost-per-acquisition.
Instead of paying for clicks, choosing CPA bidding means that you’ll only pay for traffic that generates conversions.
A conversion is a specific event you want users to take, for example submitting a contact form or making a request on the landing page.
The idea behind CPA bidding is that you’re not paying for people to simply visit your site, but for visitors who are actually taking the steps you want them to take.
Keep in mind that the cost for each conversion in CPA models tends to be much higher than clicks in CPC campaigns.
But, this approach can help you maximize your budget in terms of lead generation and overall sales, so you need to have an expert managing your campaign.
More helpful reading: Customer Acquisition Cost: What Is CAC & How To Calculate the Formula
Cost-Per-Mile (Mile =1000 Impressions)
Cost-Per-Mile is a bidding mechanism where you pay for impressions instead of clicks or conversions.
Like CPA, this bidding model is available for Google’s Display as well as Search Networks, but advertisers are required to pay every time they rack up 1000 impressions.
An impression occurs when a user conducts a search and sees your ad.
Users don’t have to interact with your marketing materials when generating impressions, so they are often used for branding purposes or to promote very specific promotions.
If implemented properly, CPM campaigns can also help generate leads, but the process takes time so Search Network is often the best choice for companies that want to get sales right away.
Click-Through Rate
Click-through-rate (CTR) is a metric that allows you to measure, in part, how well your ads are performing.
CTR refers to the percentage of people that click on your ads so this metric represents the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions your ad has received.
So, if you have 1 click every 20 impressions, your CTR is 5%.
If you’re wondering what is a good CTR for Google Adwords, this answer varies tremendously depending on your industry and other variables.
Your best bet is to work with an experienced agency that can help you establish a solid benchmark and improve your results from there.
Keep in mind that every single one of your ads will have its own CTR, but you can also view this number at a campaign level to gauge the performance of your entire machine.
Furthermore, a high CTR is good because it affects ad rank and it often means that your ads are useful to your audience, but this metric can also be misleading.
Many marketers are under the impression that a good CTR automatically translates to success.
The truth is that CTR is a superficial metric, but you need to dig deeper and analyze conversions and other statistics to ensure you have a successful campaign.
Ad Relevance
Google uses ad relevance to determine if your ads and keywords are interrelated.
This is a crucial step in Google’s quest to deliver relevant results (and ads) so you need to achieve the right score to avoid penalization.
There are three potential ad relevance scores you can have, which are above average, average, and below average.
If your ad relevance score is above average or average, you have nothing to worry about! But, if you’re scoring below average, Google may penalize you by not showing your ads due to relevance.
It’s always best to pay close attention to ad relevance from the very beginning.
If your ads or ad groups have a poor ad relevance score, it can end up affecting your rankings as well as your costs.
Moreover, ad relevance is constantly updated, so you have to monitor your keywords and weed out any potential trouble makers.
Conversions
As we covered briefly, conversions are specific actions that users take after clicking on your ad.
These can range from generating phone calls to actually making purchases online, but you need to have the right system set up to monitor how many conversions you collect.
Conversion tracking is the system that allows you to track how many of these events your ads generate.
Google offers a variety of tracking processes that are suitable for different ad types as well as decides, so you’ll be able to track interactions in both desktop and mobile devices.
You can also set up modeled conversions, which use additional data from third-party sources to estimate conversions.
Google can’t directly view conversions in certain situations, so this setup allows you to create a more comprehensive conversions-reporting machine.
Reports
Google Ads has become the leading PPC network thanks to its reach and powerful features, like its reporting capacities.
This feature allows you to generate tailored reports, so you can view, organize, and examine the information you have available in different formats.
From charts to graphs and multi-dimensional tables, Google Ads’ reports will help you identify patterns that affect the performance of your campaign.
You’ll also be able to save all the reports you generate and access them later on when you want to compare results.
Additionally, you have the ability to download, edit, or share all of the reports you generate.
You can even schedule these to be mailed to your inbox and to other stakeholders that need to have access to this data.
Key Performance Indicators
Google allows you to track a huge variety of simple and compound statistics.
As we covered before, you need to avoid focusing on vanity metrics and define your list of key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure the success of your campaign.
KPIs are a set of metrics that can help you gauge the real performance of your ads.
But, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach that can be replicated in every campaign.
You need to look at the goals you want to achieve, your budget, and other variables to determine which metrics can help you measure the real performance of your campaign.
In most cases, KPIs include metrics like overall Google advertising cost, return-on-income (ROI), conversion rates, phone calls/sales generated, leads collected, and so on.
Keep in mind that some KPIs can only be collected with the right tracking mechanisms in place, so you have to ensure that all monitoring systems are set up properly.
Google Ads Auctions Explained
How does Google Ads work? What are auctions in Google Ads?
Real-time bidding is a type of digital automated auction that helps ad networks determine prices and rankings whenever ads are triggered.
In Google’s case, the company’s real-time bidding process is referred to as the “auction” but the concept remains the same.
When you work with a platform that offers real-time bidding, it means that there is an automated process occurring every time an ad is served.
For example, when a person runs a search on Google, the company conducts the auction in split seconds to figure out which ad will have the best position and how much that company will have to pay if the ad is clicked.
The auction in Google Ads takes the bid into consideration, but remember that quality score is also part of the formula.
At the same time, quality score is affected by ad relevance and other elements we discussed earlier, so you can improve your position while reducing your cost-per-click with a few adjustments.
Factors that Affect Google Ads Auctions
The auction in Google Ads is affected by the bidding as well as the quality score, but the former can be easily adjusted so we won’t focus too much on this element.
That said, the quality score plays a major role in defining your Google Ads cost because it can exponentially increase or decrease your expenses.
Like we mentioned before, Google Ads auctions are affected by ad rank, which in turn is determined by the by you make and the quality score.
The bid is the maximum amount of money you’re willing to pay for a click and the quality score is determined by your ad’s landing page and CTR as well as the keyword you chose and how relevant it is to your ad.
As a general rule of thumb, higher bids can help you get better spots, but they can also drive up your expenses.
Increasing quality score, on the other hand, is a great way to reduce your cost-per-click and while improving the results you get from your campaigns.
Does Google Ads Influence SEO?
Although PPC and SEO campaigns both target users running searches on Google, they are two completely different approaches that don’t necessarily affect each other.
Having a good PPC campaign will not technically impact your SEO because it has no effects on your rankings or how Google perceives you.
A solid SEO strategy doesn’t guarantee a good PPC campaign either, but optimizing your website for search engines can help improve your landing page quality score.
And, if you manage work on creating individual pages for each one of your services and target areas, you’ll likely get a good relevance score as well.
That said, PPC and SEO make a great combination if you want to achieve immediate results and slowly build your organic strategy to gradually lower your marketing costs without affecting your results.
If you want to know how to advertise with Google, a combination of these two is the best way to go.
Implementing Display Network Ads
What is Google Display Network? How many websites are part of the Google Display Network? What is the reach of the Google Display Network?
The Display Network is a collection of more than 2 million websites, apps, and videos that allow you to place rich media ads in front of your audience.
According to the search giant, the Display Network reaches 9 out of 10 people worldwide and it provides the ability to decide in what context your ads will be displayed.
For those of you who have run into the term Adsense, you may be wondering what it is and how it differs from Adwords.
The difference between Adsense and Adwords is that the former is designed for people who own or manage popular sites and want to place ads in them.
Adwords, as you already know, is the platform that allows companies and other advertisers to promote their services through the Search and Display Networks.
Display Network ads campaigns take longer to develop and, even though they can provide quality leads, they tend to provide a smaller conversion volume when compared with Adwords.
You’ll also need to work with graphic designers and rich media producers to ensure that the quality of the content you put out meets your audience’s standards.
Advantages of Google Ads
Google Ads has become one of the most popular forms of online marketing because it offers a wide range of advantages that work for companies in different industries.
From small businesses to large conglomerates, the search engine’s marketing platform has allowed all types of businesses to promote their products or services to all audiences.
The biggest hurdle of Google Ads is that you need to have money to invest and time to manage your campaigns.
There is no “perfect budget” for advertising on Google search because the prices vary depending on your industry and target area, so you’ll need to look at the goals you want to achieve and determine what type of budget you need to succeed.
Some of the benefits of working with Google Ads include:
Scalability and Flexibility
The reason why so many companies run advertising campaigns on Google search is that this type of marketing is scalable and flexible.
In the vast majority of cases, you can launch a Google Ads campaign with a relatively small budget and gradually reinvest your profits to grow your efforts.
Not only this, but the number of leads you generate will also increase as your campaign improves.
There’s no limit to the amount of money you can generate or how many people can see your ads.
The search engine is used by billions of people around the world, so the more you grow, the more people you’ll be able to connect with.
Google Ads is also the leading PPC platform because it’s flexible and can be launched in tandem with other forms of marketing, including SEO, inbound marketing, and other advanced techniques.
Powerful Tracking Abilities
The ability to track the results you receive has two major advantages.
Because you can see how much money you spend versus how much you generate, you can assess how well your campaign is performing.
Marketers finally have the ability to show the exact number of sales generated through each campaign, which results in better reporting that provides valuable insights about your ads.
Once you have enough information, you can also use the tracking feature to identify different patterns and optimize your ads.
The optimization process takes time, but it can help you make changes that boost the results you get from your campaign.
For example, if you notice ads with a specific call-to-action (CTA) are performing better than others, you can run a few tests to determine if the same element can be applied throughout your campaign.
Budget-Friendly
One of the biggest misconceptions about Google Ads is that it’s expensive to run advertising campaigns on the platform.
Google Ads is surprisingly budget-friendly, which is another reason it’s used by so many small companies across the country.
Because the costs of running your ads change according to local competition, keyword popularity, and other factors, you can often run campaigns in your area with a relatively small investment.
Sure, some companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every month on Google Ads, but these businesses are usually located in highly competitive areas and generate significant amounts of revenue off of these campaigns.
And even in these cases, running a Google Ads campaign is much more affordable than relying on conventional forms of advertising.
Comprehensive Targeting Features
Google collects information from users through different methods in order to deliver better content on the results page, and this goes for both organic results and ads.
From the advertiser’s perspective, the information that Google collects allows for the creation of ultra-targeted campaigns that only show your ads to users who are more likely to interact with them.
Despite the fact that you targeting is an essential part of your Google Ads campaigns, remember that you’re narrowing down the audience that sees your ad.
If you go too far with your targeting settings and narrow them too much, you can end up filtering most visitors and reduce the number of sales generated through your campaigns.
Finding the perfect balance is crucial, so you should adjust your targeting settings when optimizing until you find the right combination.
Generates Immediate Results
Google has become the go-to place for consumers and B2B decision-makers, which gives advertisers access to all types of engaged audiences.
Unlike other forms of online marketing, Google Ads can produce results immediately.
If you design your campaign properly, you’ll see increased traffic and lead generation the same day you launch your ads.
Since SEO and other techniques produce gradual results, Google PPC campaigns can help you get business right away.
Then, when your SEO campaign and other efforts start generating results, you can gradually reduce your PPC budget without skipping a beat in sales.
Furthermore, Google Ads is a great place to promote both products and services, making it an ideal solution for all types of businesses.
The platform actually offers special solutions and features depending on the products or services you offer, so you should explore the different capacities you have available to see if any of them are suitable for your campaign.
Relatively Low Learning Curve
The concept of PPC and online advertising as a whole is relatively new, so inexperienced companies and traditional marketers may feel a bit intimidated by the idea of using Google Ads.
However, Google’s marketing solution was designed for all companies and the platform offers an endless collection of resources that help you understand how the platform works.
The articles and other resources are updated on a regular basis, plus you can rely on the Google Ads community to ask questions and learn from others, which will help you master the platform relatively quickly.
With the above in mind, managing a PPC campaign is a full-time job in itself, let alone learning about the platform while monitoring your ads.
And, the search engine also updates the features available through its marketing solution on a regular basis, so you either need to appoint a dedicated in-house specialist or partner with an experienced agency.
Prime Above-the-Fold Placements
By launching a campaign through Ads, you can claim some of the best placements on the internet.
The top three ads are located above the fold on top of the organic results, so it’s the first thing users see on these pages.
These paid placements are clearly labelled as ads and most users are aware that these are a form of advertisement, but getting in these positions can still funnel a huge amount of traffic to your website.
Many users trust the paid ads on the Search Network because they are relevant to their searches.
When a person conducts a search for a local company and sees the same business popping up in ads offering relevant services, the user is more likely to click on these adverts to find out more.
And, if your ads are at the top of the organic results, you’ll also have the ability to implement additional features that are only available to companies in these positions.
Engaging Features Like Ad Extensions
Have you ever seen ads on Google that have phone numbers or snippers right on the results pages? What about adverts that feature products with prices and review ratings? Do you want to know how you can take advantage of these?
Dynamic ads, Google product listing ads, and ad extensions are some of the engaging features that are only available when your adverts get on the first three positions in the auction.
Depending on the feature you choose, you can attach phone numbers, specific calls to actions, links to specific pages, store ratings, and other pieces of information to your ads.
Google automatically detects which extensions are most suitable each time your ads get on the top placements.
Therefore, you should only use extensions that are relevant to your company’s goals and ensure that the features you add improve your product visibility while delivering value to your audience.
Potentially Higher Conversions
Organic traffic holds the highest value for most marketers because they have the lowest cost-per-acquisition.
But, in many cases, the traffic you get through SEO doesn’t convert as well as the visitors you get through a PPC campaign.
Most ads on Google are promotional, so users who interact with these have a higher purchase intent than visitors who are still in the early stages of the buyer’s journey.
For this reason, when a user clicks on an ad, that person is usually more interested in your products and services, so he or she is more likely to contact your company and make a purchase.
Can Be Combined with Other Techniques
As we mentioned briefly, Google ads is a dynamic marketing strategy because it works well with other approaches, including digital and conventional advertising plans.
Although the quality of your page affects both SEO and PPC, Google Ads is relatively disconnected from all other parts of your marketing machine, which allows you to customize and transform it into whatever you need it to be.
For example, if you want to increase sales, you can design a PPC campaign that sends users to your services and product pages.
If you’ve designed a new solution and need to get clients as well as exposure, you can use your online ad campaign to funnel traffic to landing pages that are information, but also encourage users to make purchases or contact your company.
May Provide a Competitive Advantage
Google Ads is used by thousands of companies, but only a handful of businesses are consistently successful over long periods of time.
If you develop a solid marketing plan, you’ll be able to establish yourself as one of these leading brands and give yourself an edge against competitors.
Even if you find heavy competition in your industry, you should start developing a Google Ads campaign to catch up with competitors and understand how they are finding success.
If your competitors are already taking advantage of Google you may feel like you’re late to the party.
But remember that you can analyze competitor tactics to learn from their efforts, shorten the learning curve, and make up for lost ground with a solid strategy.
How to Implement Google Ads to Your Marketing Mix
Learning how to use Google Ads as part of your overall online advertising plan is a gradual process.
You need to understand how each strategy will affect the performance of the other tactics you implement.
Moreover, you need to create a plan where these work together to help you get more sales and build a good reputation for your company.
Remember, your online advertising plan needs to be tailored to your specific company.
That said, we’ve put together a general outline of the steps you need to take to launch a paid advertising search engine campaign that works.
Determine the Budget
What is a good budget for Google Adwords? This question doesn’t have one single answer because it depends on your industry and the area you’re targeting.
Your budget will help you make different decisions throughout your campaign development process, so the first step is to determine what resources you have available.
Instead of going all-out in the first month, look at your marketing resources and spread them over a prolonged period of time.
This will allow you to learn about the platform and start generating revenue before depleting your budget.
As an alternative, you can partner with an experienced marketing firm that can help you establish the ideal budget and produce sales as soon as your ads go live.
Identify the Main Keyword as Well as Alternatives
The keywords you choose affect your relevance score, which in turn impacts just about everything else in your campaign.
You have to carefully research the keywords you’ll use for each ad as well as alternatives that help you attract more traffic.
There are multiple resources you can use to find new keywords including the Google Adwords keyword tool, but not all of these provide accurate readings or in-depth information.
Besides using the right keyword research tool, you should find long-tailed keywords that have a more specific intent, which means they have a higher chance of reeling in conversions.
Finding long-tailed keywords is tricky because they often have low traffic and superficially poor statistics, but these are a great way to improve the number of sales or leads you generate without ramping up your costs.
Research Competitors
Developing a successful campaign without any guidance is difficult, especially if you don’t have experience with digital channels.
Before setting up your campaign, you should research competitors and figure out what the most successful companies have in common.
There are two main things you have to keep in mind when researching competitors.
The first is to stay relevant and only look at companies that offer the same products in your area.
This will help ensure that you are looking at businesses that have successfully engaged your audience.
Second, you should use specialized tools instead of conduct manual searches because this will provide you with a false perception and hurt all campaigns, including your own.
By using resources like the Google Adwords preview tool you can see what companies have the top ranking ads in a specific region accurately.
You can also use specialized tools like SEMrush but these are more complex, so having the support of a PPC marketing agency can help you get the most from this step.
Optimize the Landing Pages for Conversions
The landing pages you use on your ads can either be service and product pages that already exist, but these need to be optimized for conversions.
If your landing pages are mostly informative and have no visible contact information, forms, or purchase options, most users will not know what to do, so they will just hit the back button and continue their search.
By adding certain features that help capture information from visitors and encourage them to make a purchase, you can improve the performance of your ads.
Start Building Your Campaign
Now that your landing pages are completed, your research has been compiled, and your keyword list has been created, you can start building your campaign.
Google Ads is a relatively simple platform when it comes to campaign creation.
You may run into a few terms or options you don’t understand, but it shouldn’t take you long to figure out what each element does.
While simple, you need to be precise with your campaign creation.
Not setting a daily budget limit, choosing automatic bidding, and opting for wide targeting can all deplete your resources and discourage you from trying again.
If you have doubts, our team of Google Ads experts can guide you through the campaign creation process and manage your ads for you.
Develop Alluring Ads
During the campaign creation process, you’ll have the ability to start crafting your ads.
Running individual ads will create chaos and create a system that’s impossible to optimize properly, so you have to develop ad groups that have similar terms and create a few ad variations for Google to choose from.
The three main elements in all Search Network ads are:
- Headline: The headline is the first thing your audience will see, so make sure it’s catchy, relevant, and informative, i.e. describes your services or specifies an area
- Ad Copy: The ad copy is the main body of your ads, so you should highlight the biggest benefits of opting for your services or products and include a CTA
- Display URL: The display URL is the address users will see, so it should be keyword-rich and create a sense of confidence in your audience
In this section, you can also add review, call-out, location, call, and opening hours extensions, among others.
Choose the Right Settings and Implement Trackers
Finally, you need to adjust your targeting as well as your overall settings.
You should also implement your tracking mechanism of choice, but test it a few times to make sure it’s registering traffic properly.
Remember, your PPC campaign needs to be optimized on a regular basis to get you the right results.
You need to develop an optimization schedule and use all the resources you have available to understand your campaign and make changes that have a significant impact on the performance of your search engine ads.
Ready to Take Advantage of Google Ads? Fannit is Here to Help
Developing a Google Ads campaign that works is not an easy task, especially if you’re in a competitive industry.
We hope that the tips and definitions above can help you set up a winning campaign and get the most bang for your marketing buck.
If you want to get help setting up and managing your PPC campaign, our team of experienced Google Ads specialists will be glad to help you out.
Get in touch with us today and let’s start discussing your project today!
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