Imagine owning a machine that turns one dollar into two-dollar coins. How often would you use that machine? Well in a sense that’s exactly what Google Ads has been able to do for a very wide range of businesses. In a recent economic impact study conducted by Google, it was found that value businesses received from advertising on the Google Ads platform were 2 to 2.3 time their expenditure.
Here we’ll look at what Google Ads is and how it works. We’ll also explain why it is one of the best ways of driving leads and sales for your business.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads is the search engine giant’s advertising platform. Using Google Ads advertisers are able to have their advertisements displayed against relevant search results. Google Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) platform meaning that advertisers are only charged when a user clicks on one of their ads (although there are exceptions to this on the GDN and with CPA campaigns).
How Does Google Ads Work?
Google Ads is, in essence, an auction system for the placement of ads in Google’s search results. Advertisers bid on keywords (search terms) that relate to the content of their advertisement. For example, a company selling blenders might bid on the keyword “budget juice blender”.
Advertisers are bidding against other businesses that would also like to have their ads displayed against that keyword. To use our blender example again, there will be other juice blender sellers that will want to have their ad displayed. These competing businesses will place their own bid for the ad.
As anyone who has attended a typical auction knows, the person who bids highest wins what is being auctioned. In the case of Google Ads what is being auctioned is the placement of ads. Bidding the highest amount is important. After all, there are only so many available spaces for a Google Ad to appear in the search results. But unlike a typical auction, it is not the only criteria.
Google Ads also takes into consideration the expected quality of the ad. Google was able to achieve its dominant position as a search engine because it provides its users with the best experience. This means directing them to websites that genuinely solve the problem that they are `Googling”. This principle also applies to the advertisements that are being run – hence why both quality and bid prices are taken into consideration when choosing which ads will win the placement.
What are the Benefits of Google Ads?
Google Ads brings with it a host of benefits for businesses. These include:
Fast Results
If you are running an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) campaign you may not see results for weeks or even months. This can be problematic for businesses in a number of ways. Firstly, you may invest considerable time and money to find out that the SEO campaign didn’t deliver the results you were expecting. Secondly, cash flow is often critical for business. Many businesses simply can’t wait this long to see the results for your marketing efforts. With Google Ads, the results can be incredibly fast.
Set up a Google Ads campaign and you can start getting leads on the very same day.
Trackable
Another flaw with many forms of marketing is that it is difficult to know exactly what results from it is delivering for your business. Print, television, billboards and social media are all notoriously difficult to connect with actual sales. This is not true with Google Ads. By integrating your Google Ads and Analytics account you can connect specific ads the exact impact on your bottom line. This ability to track results means that it is also much easier to refine your campaigns and achieve profitability.
Highly Targeted
Google Ads enables you to target prospective customers when they are about to make a buying decision. Compare this with a form of advertising like television. With a TV ad, you are spending advertising budget to reach a broad audience of people, most of whom have no interest in what you are selling. In comparison this with someone who is performing a Google search for your exact product model.
With Google Ads, you are spending advertising budget on only those people who have an interest in what you are selling. Best of all you are reaching them at the exact moment when they are looking to research or make a buying decision.
Scaleable
Google Ads is a highly scalable advertising platform. With Google Ads, you can start with a very small budget. Even if you only want to spend $10 a day on your advertising, Google Ads is still an option available to you. Being able to run small budget campaigns means that you can get started without taking on a lot of risks. However, Google is the world’s most popular search engine reaching a huge global audience. What this means is that if you want to you can easily scale up your Google campaigns with very little additional effort. If you have a campaign that is earning you $30 for every $10 that you spend, you can equally earn $300 for every $100 you spend.
How to Decide if Google Ads is Right for Your Business?
There are a small number of businesses who are restricted on Google Ads. In some cases, there may be additional certification required before being approved for the platform. You can find a list of the types of businesses that are restricted here
For the other 99% of businesses, Google Ads is usually a great fit. If people search online for the types of products and services your business sells then Google Ads will almost certainly work for you.
One of the fastest way to determine the potential of Google Ads is to use the free Google Keyword Planner tool.
To use the Keyword Planner tool you will need to have a Google Ads account. However, you don’t need to be running any campaigns or spend any money in order to use it. By entering the main keywords from your industry you can quickly see the number of monthly searches for those keywords. You can also see the average CPC (Cost per Click). This will help you to gauge both the potential size of your audience and how much budget you will need to reach them.
Conclusion
Google Ads is one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach their target market. Google Ads is scalable, targeted, trackable and able to deliver fast results. Arguably there is no other advertising platform that works as well for every type of business from single employee firms to multinationals.
Google Ads can be extremely profitable, but it does have a learning curve. In addition, the many benefits of the platform have attracted numerous businesses in almost every vertical. This has made it a more competitive environment in recent years.
This means it may make sense to use a professional agency to manage your account, if you don’t have the time, resources or inclination to self manage. No matter which approaches you to decide to take, Google Ads is a platform that you will definitely want to test for your business.
