Getting Started with Google Ads

If you have never before used Google Ads, figuring out where to start can be a daunting task. It is important to first understand what the service has to offer, how to use it to benefit your business by helping reach your unique goals and determining how to make the most of the budget allocated towards Google Ads.

What Exactly is Google Ads?

Google Ads is an online advertising platform where advertisers pay to display their custom advertisements within the Google Display Network to web users. The Google Display Network encompasses a wide array of channels, including Google, YouTube, Gmail, Blogger, and more than two million others. The websites that are a part of the Google Display Network reach around 90% of all internet users, allowing ads to reach each targeted audience on whichever sites they may be browsing.

The Google Ads platform itself falls under the pay-per-click marketing channel, where advertisers either pay per impression (CPM) or pay per click (PPC) on an ad. The better the ad campaign, the more clicks are received. The more clicks or impressions an ad receives, the more likely the advertiser is to obtain a new customer or lead.

Why Use Google Ads?

Try to think about how many times you have made a search on Google in the past week. Now think about how many times just today you have found yourself scrolling through Google search results. If you are anything like me, that number is likely in the double digits. As of the time I am writing this—3 p.m. on a Wednesday—there have been nearly 4.1 billion searches made on Google today alone. If you want to break it down even more, every second there are 75,087 searches made. Google is by far the most used search engine, serving as the go-to destination for answers for many people across the world.

Need to find the nearest book store?

Google it.

Wondering where to plan your next vacation?

Google it.

Want to know how to develop a new brand logo for your business?

Google it.

People use Google for answers to their questions. Your business just might be the solution to problems some of these people are looking to resolve.

If this isn’t reason enough, chances are that your competitors are already using Google Ads. Nearly 150,000 companies use the service, most of which are companies with 10-50 employees and 1M to 10M in revenue. Even if your business ranks organically for search terms, your post is likely pushed down the search page past competitors that are using Google Ads.

In addition to these reasons, Google Ads allow advertisers to set daily budgets, maximum bids, and other constraints on ad campaigns. This means that even if your business has a limited spend towards Google Ads, there are still options for you.

Starting with Search Ads

Google Ads offers three types of campaigns to choose from: search, display and video. With a smaller budget, paid search ads are the best place to start. The benefits of search ads are that your ads will be displayed on Google, the place where most people seek information—and they will appear in the same format as the rest of results, other than a small “Ad” label at the top left.

To begin, you will want to determine which keywords and phrases are driving the most traffic to your website. This information can be found by using Google Analytics to look at organic visits to the website. These keywords and phrases should be used when creating your ad campaign. With paid search ads, you have the ability to test multiple different keywords and phrases, as well as messages, to see which perform the best in terms of generating clicks or conversions. Once you determine which are performing best, you are able to allocate more money to those keywords and phrases.

For example, say your business is in the consumer goods industry selling chickpea macaroni and cheese, a healthier alternative to regular macaroni and cheese.

You find that the keywords and phrases that have driven the most traffic to your site include “healthy dinner for kids,” “easy healthy meals,” “macaroni and cheese,” “healthy pasta” and “Kraft macaroni and cheese.” The next step is creating various search ads based on these terms in order to see which perform the best. Additionally, you will want to try different messages in the ads. One message might be about how the product is a healthy, but still delicious, alternative to a classic meal that the whole family can enjoy. Another message might be about using locally sourced ingredients to demonstrate that your company is environmentally friendly and works to have a lower environmental impact than competitors.

With your search ads, you will be able to test multiple combinations of keywords, headlines, and messages in order to determine which are best for driving conversions and clicks. After running the ads, the results show that “easy healthy meals” and “healthy dinner for kids,” along with the message about locally sourced ingredients, have been the most successful. Now that you have this information, you are able to allocate more money towards these search ads and also create other types of ads such as social media, magazine, and television ads.

Next Steps

While this only skims the surface of the many offerings of Google Ads, you should have a better sense of the service and how it can benefit your business. If you’re interested in getting started and want some assistance doing so, our team would love to help. Reach out to us—and together, we can MOVE ahead!