Google Ads is one of the biggest platforms out there for advertising. And for good reason! People are four times more likely to click on Google ads than those from any other advertisement network (source: BClutch.co). The search giant advertising platform is beautifully crafted to fulfill an advertiser’s dream, where you only pay when users perform the desired action.
This advertising model allows you to compete effectively online by ensuring your website appears when your target customers are looking for your products or services. Read on to learn how to use Google Ads to grow your business.
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform offered by Google. It was initially known as Google Adwords, but parent company Alphabet rebranded the service to Google Ads in 2018.
When a user performs a query on Google, the search engine displays the top website for that term. Ranking organically for keywords is very competitive and requires a lot of knowledge of how search engines work. Thanks to Google Ads, it takes several months to appear on SERPs’ top spots, but you don’t have to wait that long.
With Google paid advertisements, your ad appears alongside the organic search results on the first page of SERPs. The good thing about Google Ads is that you only pay when users perform the desired action (usually clicking your website link), so the ROI is precise and controlled.
Running a pay-per-click campaign is one of the most effective growth marketing solutions you can deploy to grow your business online. Google Ads will help you generate sales, registrations, and email signups; and enhance brand awareness and recall value. Work with a Google Ads agency to create high-performing campaigns that bring you closer to your brand goals.
We explain how to use Google Ads to reach your brand goals in our blog, How to Reach Your Goals with PPC Advertising.
How to set up an account
This section explains how to use Google Ads to grow your business. Before you can advertise on Google, you will have to create a Google account. Once this is done, head over to the Google Ads page and sign in.
Figure 1: Google Ads
Click the “Start Now” button to initiate the process. You will be prompted to select your main goals to simplify the process of creating your campaign, but skip this move and click the “Switch to Expert Mode” button at the bottom.
From this point, you can start designing your campaign, but you should also skip this step until you’re familiar with the Google Ads Interface. Click the “Create an account without a campaign” button to move to the next step.
Figure 3: Google Ads
Next, you will be asked to confirm your business information. You must provide this information correctly because you cannot edit this information in the future.
Figure 4: Google Ads
From this point, your account is ready, and you can start designing your campaign.
Figure 5: Google Ads
Before creating your first campaign, there are a few things you need to do to ensure the process proceeds smoothly. The first two areas you need to tackle are keyword selection and account structure.
Proper keyword selection will help you bid on high-value terms that will bring high-quality traffic to your website (read on to learn more about this). Account structure ensures proper organization, which impacts your quality score and influences how your ads perform.
What you need to know about it
Before getting started with Google Ads, there are some Google Ads fundamentals you need to understand to ensure your campaigns proceed smoothly. They include:
Ad bidding
Google Ads is set up like a bidding site where advertisers bid for the position and audience they want to connect with. You can set the amount of money you’re willing to pay for your bid and the cost of each click your ad receives.
If you happen to be the highest bidder for that position and target audience, your ad will be displayed when someone performs a search using your keywords. But bid price isn’t the only thing Google looks at when deciding where to rank search ads. They also consider the quality of information you provide to consumers when they click your ad. The information on your landing page should be relevant to your keywords to enhance the user experience and keep customers happy.
Ad groups
An ad group is a group of ads that have the same theme and share the same target. For example, you may have multiple ads targeting marathon training and running shoes. In this case, you might want to form an ad group for “running.”
The ad group you’ve created can have 2 – 3 ad copy variations, which you will update on an ongoing basis after reviewing the performance data.
Audiences
We will not have answered the question, “How does Google Ads work?” adequately without explaining the concept of audiences. Google Ads allows you to reach a targeted customer base by letting you specify the geographical location of your audience. This feature ensures your ads are shown to users who perform a search using the keywords you’re bidding for and present in the region you’ve specified.
It’s natural to think that the wider you cast your net, the more business you’ll get, but that’s not the case here. Your targeting should be clear and well-defined to earn more leads and conversions.
Conversion tracking
To get the best results from Google Ads solutions, you need to keep a close eye on your campaign’s performance and be prepared to make the necessary adjustments. There are four important metrics to track religiously, segmented by dimensions like device type, location, or demographic factors. They are:
Click-through rate (CTR) – Clicks/impressions
Conversion rate – Conversions/clicks
Cost per click (CPC) – Spend/clicks
Cost per acquisition (CPA) – Spend/conversions
These metrics give an idea of how your campaign is fairing at the moment. The data analysis will guide you on what you need to do to improve the performance of your campaign and get closer to achieving your goals.
Keywords
Keywords are a vital part of your Google Ads campaigns, so take the time to identify the terms your customers use when looking for your products. Bear in mind that people don’t search for products the same way, so make sure to include different keyword match types to capture everyone looking for products or services.
We have explained how to find the right keywords for your campaign in our blog, Your Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research.
Landing Pages
When search engine users click your ad, you don’t want to disappoint them when they get to your landing page. A well-designed landing page will help you convert most of the visitors who get to your site.
Google also likes conversions, and a higher conversion rate gives you a high quality score. Google uses the quality score to determine where to rank paid ads, increasing your ranking position and driving more quality traffic to your site. Work with a growth marketing agency to create a highly converting landing page for your ad campaign.
Optimization
Tracking and analyzing your campaign is vital if you want to gain maximum value from your Google Ads. Analyzing your data helps you learn the tweaks and changes you need to implement to make your campaign more successful.
Create different versions of your ad and track their performance on Google Analytics. You can use other headlines, ad copy, and CTAs to see how your audiences react to the changes. Analyze the performance of the different ad variants over time, and use the best performing variants for the campaign.
Competition
Take the time to research the keywords your competitors are using to get on top of the rankings. There are many online tools and websites you can use to get information about your desired keywords and how other companies are using them. These SEO tools will help you find out the following:
- How many other Google Ads clients are using the same keywords?
- Other keyword ideas that perform well
- A history of the search advertisers and a sample of their paid advertising campaigns
Engage a Google Ads company for effective competitor analysis.
Reporting
When analyzing campaign data, you can become overwhelmed by the dozens of reporting features and metrics to assess. From clicks to impressions to click-through rate and conversions, which metrics should you focus on for campaign success?
Focusing on the wrong data and metrics (vanity metrics) can cause you to make bad business decisions. Concentrating on the correct metrics will help you generate profit for your company in future years.
Some of the metrics you need to pay attention to in your reporting are the cost of acquisition and lifetime value. The cost of acquisition gives the amount you spent to acquire a customer. At the same time, the lifetime value shows the total amount a client spends on you throughout their relationship with your business.
Google Ads is essential for your business. The team at Growth Marketing Genie can help you design compelling paid ads that bring high-quality traffic to your site. We are an experienced Google Ads agency, and we will get your Google Ads campaign running with the right foundations in place.
Are you reaching the right people with your Google Ads? Experience limitless growth with our digital advertising services.
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