You may have a brand new business and the only missing piece is customers or clients. Or you may have a successful business that has been running for years and you are ready to increase your lead generation or sales. Google Ads can help you do this.
One of the most important decisions you will make when approaching Google Ads will be deciding whether you should attempt this daunting task on your own or if you should hire a professional digital marketer to run the ads to maximize their effectiveness and prevent wasteful spend.
Driving your Business Forward Now Instead of Later
A Google ads campaign will allow you to generate leads, make sales, and find customers faster than other forms of advertising. Paid advertising is a quick way to grow a business compared to other methods that focus on long term growth, such as Search Engine Optimization . SEO should be an important part of every business’s online strategy but may take several months depending on the industry to start showing any results. We offer SEO services in conjunction with PPC. Running both services at the same time has helped our clients grow faster than just doing one service.
How Does Google Ads Work?
Google itself is a big black box. What this means is that data goes in and results come out without much transparency into how it came to its conclusions. The algorithms and internal knowledge graphs are incredibly complex. We focus on providing the proper inputs and let Google do the rest.
User Searches & Experience
A user searches for information via a search engine. They are doing this because they are looking for a solution. Maybe it is a place for dinner that evening or where to find a red pair of sneakers that can be delivered. This search query is entered into the search engine and in an instant, it returns thousands if not millions of results. The first results are always being the most relevant to the search query.
So now you must be wondering where the ads come into play. Well, while Google is aggregating the search results, it is simultaneously holding an auction for advertisers. It finds all the advertisers who are bidding on a related keyword, then looks at various aspects of their campaign.
First,the algorithm looks at the quality score of the ad. How well does your landing page and your ad stack up against other advertisers to provide the solution that the searcher is looking for? Google gives a 1 to 10 score with 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest. Here is an example:if the landing page and ad has little to do with the related keyword that is being searched, then the quality score will be lower (1). If the landing page and ad is exactly what the person is searching for, then the quality score will be a (10).
The next thing that Google looks at is the bid. This is an auction after all. There are two ways to bid with Google Ads. One way is for us to set a static bid. A static bid allows us to make a set amount of how much we want to bid per click.The other option is for us to allow Google to use it’s algorithm to automatically set the bid that will allow your advertisement to get to the best position per click.
How does quality score work together with the ad and landing page? The higher the quality score, the lower the bid needs to be to reach a higher position. If the quality score is low, you will pay more for your ads to get the same position. This is where optimizations come into play, both in the ad text and on the landing page. It is our goal to ensure that the quality score is as high as possible by providing the customer with the solution they are searching for in both your ads and your landing page.
Before We Start a Campaign
It may be tempting to jump right in and build a campaign, but before we get to that point, we want to conduct some research and understand some of the basic infrastructure like Ad Spend Budget, Targeting, Keywords, and Landing Pages.
Ad Spend
One of the most important items to consider about the campaign is how much you are wanting to spend on your Google Ads advertising. This can help guide expectations in other aspects of the research. When planning out the campaign strategy, it is best to ensure that the ad spend budget is not spread too thin across multiple campaigns and can instead scale once the campaign is optimized.
Targeting
This is important as it will set the stage for where your ads will be shown. Deciding how to target will depend on the type of business you run. Are you a local restaurant, or eCommerce site that ships to anywhere in the world?
Depending on the targeting, the ad copy and keywords may change. People of different regions may refer to some products and services differently from where the customers are currently located. A good example of this is Soda versus Pop versus Coke.
Keywords
The keywords are the heart and soul of your search campaign. Based on which search terms are used, and how those terms are formatted, google will make an association between the search phrase of an inquiry and the keywords that have been placed within the campaign.
Keywords can be a reasonably easy or difficult task depending on the tools you have access to. Marketing agencies pay for powerful tools that allow them to look at keywords, their volume and cost, and also have an understanding of how competitive they are. These tools also allows viewing of competitors keywords which can give an edge when formulating your Google Ads strategy. Other tools are available but they often lack the granularity and insight that the professional grade tools offer.
Landing Page
It is important to also consider the landing page where customers will arrive once clicking on an ad. This page is the first page that the customer or client will see. This page should have the exact solution they are looking for. There are many different types of landing pages, with some being quite simple and to the point to capture a lead, and some may be more complex to attempt to sell a product or service. No matter the type of landing page that is being utilized, the content on the page should be relevant to the campaign and the user experience should be as elegant as possible.
The Types of Campaigns Google Offers
The campaign is where the magic happens. Google offers several different types of campaigns. These are Search, Display, Shopping, Video, and Apps.
Search Campaigns reach customers with text ads who are searching on google for products and services like yours. These are the most utilized and also the most popular campaign. It is very simple. People search for something and you offer the solution.
Display Campaigns use images, headlines, and logos to place ads on various google owned properties across the internet such as on websites. These are not as direct as a search campaign as Google is looking for people who have searched in the recent past for a product or service and then serve your ad to them in various places around the world wide web.
Shopping Campaigns utilize Google Merchant Center to place ads on the search page when people are searching for specific products they are interested in purchasing. Google Merchant Center is a fantastic way to get your products listed on the internet and it is also Google’s solution to helping eCommerce businesses. It uses your inventory to create an ad placement that directs customers right to the product on your website where the item can be purchased.
Video Campaigns show advertisements to people who are watching videos on youtube. These come in various forms such as non-skippable ads and bumper ads. They also allow for robust targeting with affinity, life events, in-market, and custom intent audiences.
App Campaigns show ads on Google properties such as Search, Display, Google Play, Youtube, as well as within other apps. These in a way are a smart campaign that attempts to drive installs of a mobile application. These can be very handy when launching a new mobile application and trying to drive installs.
Tracking Is Important
Tracking is critical in allowing you as a business owner to know that your Google Ads campaigns are meeting your goals.
It is important to understand what the campaign is bringing to your business. Having a solid understanding of the sales and revenue the campaign generated, or knowing how many leads were generated and at what cost can allow you as a business owner to measure and understand how your Google Ads campaign has affected your bottom line.
The algorithms and machine learning that Google utilizes are some of the most complicated in the world. It is important to give these machines some feedback to allow them to know that they are doing their job correctly. This is where tracking comes into play. These conversion actions allow the machines to say “We want to try to target more like this.” and it will attempt to make associations and patterns to make sure that the ads are served to the people most likely to complete the desired actions.
In Closing
So we have covered a lot of material about the hows, whats, and whys of Google Ads. You should have a much better understanding of how Google Ads works. Let’s revisit our earlier question. “Why should you launch a Google Ads Campaign right now?” The answer is simple. Google Ads are one of the best methods of generating sales, driving leads, and scaling your business in a controlled manner. However, this should be overseen by a skilled and experienced digital marketer.
At Mass Division, we are fully Google Ads certified and we have experience running Google Ads for a wide variety of niches. If you are interested in ramping up your lead generation or making more sales, consider running your Google Campaigns with us.
