You can’t get far as a webmaster without bumping into Google Ad‘s promo coupon. It’s right there in most CPanel default setups, tempting you with a risk-free $100 ad credit. And why not hitch your online entrepreneur efforts to Google’s wagon? In Google’s latest annual Economic Impact report, they boast 1.3 million businesses using Google Ads, AdSense, and other advertising solutions, while also driving one billion direct business transactions.

But you may also find that using Google Ads is not merely a matter of activating it and sitting back to watch the profits roll in. Like any business tool, you get out of it what you put into it. We find that many business owners don’t take full advantage of the tools Google offers. For instance, did you even know about Google My Business (GMB), a free service to list your company that’s integrated with Google Maps and even provides a free slice of web space and customer service tools? (If not, read our guide on how to create an optimized GMB listing).

When it comes to Google Ads campaigns, there are several tricks and tips we’ve accumulated over the years to maximize your ROI. None of them are hard to implement, and they’re the first things you should do if you want to get more out of your Google Ads budget. Let’s dive in:

Focus On Mobile

We shouldn’t even have to say this part, but we’ll get it out of the way quickly.

Not only are nearly all Internet users on mobile now, but mobile ads outperform desktop ads by a ten-to-one margin. Even in the present day, when we’re starting to see the first generation who was born with mobile phones in hand grow up, some companies still treat the Internet like it was just the desktop. Google wants websites to be mobile-optimized first and foremost before we worry about driving traffic.

This video is from 2019, so Google is also making a hard pitch for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). AMP should be a given at this point. There are free AMP plug-ins for WordPress that basically run themselves. Google Search Console also has a mobile-friendly test; simply pop in your URL and it checks for you.

Now for mobile ad optimization, Google Ads practices recommend thinking mobile-first for ads. You want to keep ads scaled down to mobile size, fitting comfortably on a phone screen, with a top-down information layout putting the most important information first. Your ad must be easy to read and interact with on a mobile device. You want to select ad extensions (we will cover this later in-depth) that enable mobile-friendly use.

Targeting the mobile user is most important for brick-and-mortar businesses. The user is already outside, on the go, and probably nearby if you’re using geo-targeting (we’ll cover that later too). Your customer service experience begins for them right there on that screen. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Your Google Ads Should Match Your Landing Pages

The link going from your Google Ad should take visitors to a landing page that is consistent with the ad. The ad is there to make a promise to the visitor. Taking the visitor from an ad to a landing page that clearly isn’t for the same offer as the ad makes them feel cheated. Of course, you might overhaul your website and forget about the ad’s design and copy, it happens. Even if it’s the same offer on the landing page as on the ad, the headline, copy, and design between the two should match.

Some companies get this right, some are relaxed about it, and some violate this rule egregiously. Mobile game ads are notorious for breaking this rule! Here’s a write-up at Vice.com about these. We’ve all seen these game ads on mobile, which seem to revolve around either far more sophisticated graphics for the ad than what’s actually in the game or else showing a game whose playstyle doesn’t even match the game in any way. There are bad enough that they break FTC Truth in Advertising Laws, although these game companies spring up and die off so quickly that prosecuting them amounts to playing legal whack-a-mole.

We know none of you are doing anything this dodgy, right? Of course not, only the best companies read our site! But consumers who are once-bitten, twice-shy from misleading ads will balk at getting to a landing page that even looks anything different from the ad. Seriously, if you change the background color of the page, change the background color of the display ads unit too, if you use those. It avoids any confusion.

Remember To Screen Negative Keywords

We all know “keywords” are the textual triggers you want to be associated with your ad so that your PPC ad is displayed only to the most likely customers. Google has clear instructions for doing this. You can add multiple keywords to an ad unit, edit them, set their matching options, pause them, or remove them, too.

Negative keywords are the textual cues where you don’t want the ad to display. This is done in the matching types options, which allows you to set keyword matching styles for both positive and negative triggers. Then you can set the options on negative keywords for when you don’t want to trigger those words at all. Follow along with Google’s video guides.

Take an example like, say, you’re selling DVD copies of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), a movie which happens to be in the public domain so we can use it with impunity here. It’s a movie about zombies, so you want to broad-match “zombie” to include “zombies” and “zombie apocalypse.” You want to rank for words like “horror” and “movie” as well. However, we don’t want to match on pages about the restaurant franchise “Zombie Burger” (you thought we’d made that up?), nor for the Linux operating system programming term “zombie process.” These are unrelated concepts with similar names that are unlikely to result in a sale except on the rarest of coincidences.

If your ad impressions aren’t getting conversions, improperly managed keywords are a likely culprit. It’s a common flaw in online advertising. We’ve all had the experience of binge-watching Google videos and seeing the same ad over and over for a product that just wasn’t matching anything we’re remotely about. Or, how about those times when you bought a widget on Amazon one time, and now you’re deluged with widget ads all over the place because your one-time widget purchase has made the ad network think that widgets are now your whole lifestyle.

Those advertisers wasted their money, and now you know how you might be wasting money too. Think of it as a retail store layout. You’ll notice that even though shortcake dessert cups are a bakery item, you’ll often find them in the produce aisle next to the berries? Your PPC ads should display on pages that compliment your product or business model.

Match Keyword Types Carefully

Dwelling some more on Google Ads keywords matching, let’s circle back to those keyword matching styles. Your options for matching a keyword are:

• Broad Match: Covers all forms of the word including stems, plurals, synonyms, and misspellings.
• Broad Match Modifier: Sticks to the specific keywords only, not synonyms or partial matches.
• Phrase Match: Even more fine-tuned, triggering only for the exact phrase, not just those words in any order.
• Exact Match: Eliminates leading or trailing words, so you want only that specific word and its synonyms to trigger.

Here’s another great video tutorial by Google on keyword matching styles:

Back to our Night of the Living Dead example, we might want to tweak our keyword list like this:

• Broad Match: zombie, living dead, George Romero
• Broad Match Modifier: +horror +movie (excludes “horror novel” and “comedy movie”)
• Phrase Match: “Living Dead” (excludes the band “Grateful Dead”. Forgot about them, didn’t you?)
• Exact Match: [zombie movie] (can match “movies about zombies” and “zombies in film,” but not “Rob Zombie’s movies,” and yes, he’s made some)

As you can see, we had to identify a lot of near-misses, which could have cost us ad impressions that weren’t likely to sell. The keyword matching parameters are the same special character tweaks you can use in searching Google.

Extending Your Ad

Ad Extensions are a feature in Google Ads that allow you to include extra information about your business. These small bits hang out at the bottom of a search ad, and though they don’t look like much, they can make a difference. Advertising online is a visual art; the more “real estate” you take occupy on the screen, the more likely a scrolling web user is to take notice of your ad. But keep this practice within bounds of reason.

Here’s the requisite Google video tutorial covering ads, ad groups, ad rotation, and ad extensions all in one she-bang:

Ad Extensions are free to use, with a selection of modules to suit the needs of your business. They include:

• Location Extensions: Shows your address on Google Maps
• Affiliate Location Extensions: Shows the address where shoppers can find your retail product (“available at these fine outlets…” as the TV commercials say)
• Callout Extensions: Shows additional details in the text
• Sitelink Extensions: Exactly like Callouts, but they form link buttons, which let users navigate to a particular spot in your site instead of just being dumped to your landing page
• Call Extensions: Shows your business phone number
• Structured Snippets: Add a “sales pitch” into your ad unit tailored for user search intent
• Message Extensions: Same as call extensions, but for text messaging instead of phoning
• Price Extensions: Displays prices for items in the ad unit
• App Extensions: A link for mobile users to “get the app”
• Promotional Extensions: For short-term sales, events, seasonal offers, etc.

Whew! That is an extensive number of extensions. Don’t think that just because they’re free means you must include all of them because that can make an ad too busy. You should use the ad extensions that will facilitate a conversion, be it calling, driving directions to your store, or visiting a specific location on your webpage. These extensions are geared for retail, professionals, services, tech companies, and everything in between.

Ad Geo-Targeting

For some businesses, the physical location of the customer makes no difference. If you are in the business of shipping goods or downloadable content, you can usually ignore this part. For the rest of you, turning on geo-targeting helps your ad display only in the service area applicable to your business.

As we’ve mentioned elsewhere on the site, geo-location in advertising is becoming quite a fad. It targets users near your store and attempts to draw them in. It’s like the virtual reality version of one of those characters you see on street corners spinning a sign around to promote a business in that shopping center, only without needing some poor guy to get sweaty in a furry suit all day.

As the Google tutor points out, you can widen the scope of the location to target to cover anything from a whole nation to a county, city, or a radius. You can also add multiple locations to target per ad unit, in case you serve something like a tri-state area.

Once again, if you’re advertising to areas where people physically can’t do business with you, you’re wasting your money and the users’ time as well. Some companies don’t use geo-locating and try to use keyword triggers for location control, but not every customer is going to announce their location in their search. Users often type “near me” because they’ve come to expect their phones to always be aware of their point on Earth.

Target Ad Campaigns For Your Market

Most of this article has covered the nuts and bolts technical details. But we’d like to finish up by having a word on the ad content and marketing plan itself. No matter what your business model is or even how long you’re been in business, it’s always good to refresh your advertising practices and see if you need a new strategy.

Here are some popular advertising models that might give you a good starting point:

• The “Get the Facts” Campaign: Informative, activist tone, “fighting for the consumer’s rights.” Good for legal, medical, political, education, non-profit, and special interest.
• Event Campaigns: Centering on holidays, vacation time, graduation, sporting events, spring break, etc. This is a very common strategy. Good for retail, travel and leisure industry, luxury goods, financial, and education industries.
• Pop Culture Pop-ups: Google Ads allows you to create fast campaigns on the fly and run them for a short time. Tie your message to the big news story of the week, the hit new movie that just got released, the latest Internet fad, etc. Good for all youth-oriented businesses.
• Regional Campaigns: Compose a campaign that ties in with “local pride” and emphasizes how well your company understands the needs of people from the region, local values, etc. Good for location-specific services, large industry, utilities, and retail chains.
• Competitive Campaigns: Did you know you can target any keywords you want? Even the name of your competitor’s business? This campaign seeks to undercut the competition by offering a better deal. Works only for industries with high customer turnaround / low loyalty.
  
• Re-targeting Campaign: This is where you advertise to former customers to attract repeat business, or at least encourage previous site visitors to return. See this video for more information.

Ad Campaigns That Are Going Out Of Style

Take Re-marketing with a Grain of Salt…

Because, as we pointed out above in the negative keywords section, some ad strategies can be counter-productive when they’re misaimed. Re-targeting should only be used for businesses with a frequent purchase volume: small retail, restaurant, luxury services, salons and spas, entertainment. If a customer buys your washing machine and then you advertise washing machines at them all year long, not only is this highly unlikely to be productive, but you may undermine your product value proposition by suggesting it lasts shorter than a year. Not only that, but you will also likely annoy your customer.

Coffee shops can re-market at will, this works great! Video game companies need to give the customer some space for the first few days. They haven’t even beaten the first boss yet, let them enjoy your product.

Crisis Marketing…

“In these trying times, when hope seems to be fading, this is the time to become empowered, to rise to the challenge. We’ll make it through this together!”

You should hear the users imitating your ad text in a sing-song sarcastic voice. Their eyes roll. It gets worse when you play battle hymns over this. Today’s market is just too media-savvy to have their heartstrings plucked by encouraging messages of hope and unity to get them to buy your can of pop.

“Hello, Fellow Kids!”

This is the misaimed youth marketing campaign. It’s where a very old person tries to appropriate youth slang, youth culture, and youth media channels in an attempt to make their product and company “woke,” “fly,” “jiggy,” “hip,” “cool,” “groovy,” “the bee’s knees,” etc. It does not work.

It is fine to market to kids and it is perfectly acceptable to reach out to them and say “I understand you have this need or want, which we fulfill.” They trust a sincere adult over a strangely off-tone, overgrown kid.

Conclusion

Like I mentioned at the start, you get what you put into any marketing strategy. If you just slap some ads online without much thought, you likely won’t see spectacular results. However, if you’ve identified that digital advertising is a necessary component of your marketing strategy, and you’re committed to developing the best campaigns possible, you will see significant returns on your investment. With your business fully on board with a Google Ads strategy, you can succeed with the full power of the biggest advertising network on Earth behind your business.

Before you go, here are a few more articles we’ve published that will help you develop high-converting, low cost-per-click campaigns.

• A Quick Google Ads 101
• How Do Google Ads Work? Learn the Basics
• Are Google Ads Effective? Is This Advertising Strategy Right for You?

These best practices and tips should help nearly any business use Google Ads successfully.

Lastly, if you’re not sure you want to manage your PPC advertising strategy in-house, you can outsource your Google and Facebook ads to an agency. Read our article “7 Reasons You Should Hire an Agency to Manage Your Google and Facebook Ads” to learn why you might want to go that route. As always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions or if you need help with your Google Ads campaigns.

So, you’ve spent a lot of time, money, and other resources for creating and setting up a website for your business. Naturally, you’re excited since your website looks great and works like a dream.

But now that your website is live, how do you get people to visit it?

Sure, you can probably tell your friends and family about the site and post about it on social media. But do you think that will be enough? If your website can’t reach your target audience, how can you generate sales? In this case, Google Ads is one of the most popular strategies to generate traffic and sales for your business.

As a digital marketing agency, one very common question from clients about paid search is: “Are Google Ads effective?” In this article, we’ll find out if Google Ads is right for your online marketing needs.

Are Google Ads Effective? Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

1. Are My Customers Using Search Engines to Make Purchases?

Are your customers using search engines to make buying decisions online? Well, there’s really no way of knowing directly unless you interview your target buyers. However, the stats don’t lie. Let’s take a look at some key search engine statistics:

• According to BrightLocal, 90% of customers used the internet to find local businesses during the last year, and 33% of them are online looking every day.
• About 72% of customers who did a local search have visited a physical store within a five-mile radius.
• 97% of consumers learn about local businesses through the internet.
• Location-based searches such as “Near me” or “Close by” queries have grown more than 900% over the last two years. (Source: Chat Meter)
• Local consumer searches result in business sales 28% of the time.
• 46% of Google search queries are customers looking for local information.

As you can see, your customers are using search engines and that’s the key to driving more people to your store. With that said, you need a strong local SEO strategy and an effective Google Ads campaign.

2. How Do I Know If PPC is Right for Me?

Before we answer the big question, “Are Google Ads effective?”, let’s first find out if pay-per-click (PPC) is the right strategy for your business. There’s a time and place for using paid search as a strategy and deciding whether or not it’s right for you is a daunting task.

To help you get started, here are some factors to determine if PPC is right for your business.

How much are you willing to pay for a new customer?

Before you can hope to answer this question, you need to determine your budget for selling your product or service. This, of course, affects your ROI or return on investment and also your overall margin.

Figuring out your operating budget alongside your advertising budget is worth the headaches. This enables you to set your financial targets in terms of ad spend. Keep in mind: you can have as many customers as you want, provided that you have the budget to pay for them.

How is your website’s conversion rate?

To determine the conversion rate of your website, you can send e-commerce data to Google Analytics. This allows you to monitor your results and subsequently determine your conversion rate. In this case, the conversion rate refers to the percentage of your site visitors that perform actions that are deemed valuable to your business.

Using a web analytics service will help you measure the success rate of your campaigns and the site itself.

If you sell your services or products offline, you can still assign value to specific actions users take on your website. For instance, what value do you place on a request for a quote or contact us form submission?

What are your long-term objectives?

Whether you’re going for short-term objectives like increasing sales for immediate cash flow or long-term goals such as developing your customer base, your main objective is a huge influence on your PPC strategy.

Here are a few examples of short and long-term goals that many of our clients have mentioned:

• Increase Revenue: This is a very common objective and this requires a great deal of tracking on your part. Perhaps, you’re looking to make an exit a few years down the line and hoping that your business gets a better evaluation.
• Improve Product or Brand Awareness: Are you a new business that needs to improve brand awareness? Or maybe, you’re an established business looking to launch a new product line? Before you can expect any sales, it’s important to generate demand. This means that you need to get your product in front of your target customers and generate traffic towards your website. In this case, PPC might be the right strategy for you.
• Maximize Profits: Perhaps you’ve spent a lot of money on costly print ads and trade conferences and you’re looking to reduce your customer acquisition cost. PPC advertising might be worth adding to your marketing mix. Yes, you still need to spend money, but Google Ads is a more ROI-friendly platform compared to other forms of online advertising.

With that said, keep in mind that 65% of small to medium-sized businesses have a PPC campaign. Therefore, if you don’t incorporate PPC into your advertising strategy, there’s a good chance that the competition will leave you behind.

3. Why Should I Choose Google Ads?

To answer the question, “are Google Ads effective?”, you have to know Google’s search engine market share. Again, let’s take a look at a couple of statistics:

• Google isn’t just the leader in the search engine market, it dominates it with 91.43% market share in 2019. Other search engines such as Baidu and Bing are second and third respectively but they don’t even come close to Google. Ultimately, Google sends the most traffic to websites and sets the standards for search algorithms.
• In 2018, Google’s search and marketing tools helped generate $335 billion in the United States alone. As expected, this benefited millions of businesses, nonprofits, and site publishers.
• According to a survey by Search Engine Land in 2019, 63% of users said that they have clicked on a Google ad after a search query.
• 86% of customers look up the location of a local business via Google Maps.
• In terms of mobile traffic, Google also dominates by driving 96% of mobile search traffic.
• 35% of potential customers have purchased a product within 5 days after searching for it via Google.

These statistics prove that Google is the undisputed leader in the search engine market. You can opt to advertise on other search engines like Bing or Yahoo! but you won’t have nearly as much success when compared to Google Ads.

4. Is Google Ads Cost-Effective?

When done right, Google Ads can indeed give you great results. However, one of the main considerations when adopting this platform is the cost.

Let’s examine if Google Ads is a cost-effective advertising platform.

For many business owners, Google Ads is very cost-effective since it caters to a wide range of budgets and bids. Plus, you have the option of changing how much you spend in real-time. To answer this particular question of Google’s cost-effectiveness, here are more key statistics:

• Google estimated that for every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, it receives an $8 profit in return. That’s an impressive 8:1 return on investment.
• How much do Google Ads cost? A small to medium-sized business spends a monthly average of $9,000 to $10,000 on Google Ads.
• To run your ads on Google, you need to decide on the right budget and bidding options. For beginners, Google recommends a daily budget of $10 to $50.
• The average cost-per-click (CPC) for Google Ads is $1-$2.
• If you’re planning to work with a company that specializes in Google Ads Management, expect to pay $350-$5000 or 12-30% of ad spend / month.

The cost of Google Ads also depends on which industry you participate in. Check out the table below by WebFX:

Where Should I Advertise: Google Search or Google Display Network?

If you choose to launch an ad campaign with Google Ads, you have two main options: Google Search Network or Google Display Network.

Between the two, Google Search Network is the more popular option. When you advertise via the Google Search Network, your ads can appear on the search engine results page (SERP) as well as on other search sites with the use of relevant keywords. On top of Google search results, your ad may also appear on other Google services, like Google Images, Google Maps, Google Shopping, and many others.

There are three types of ads that appear in the Google Search Network: Text Ads, Shopping Ads, and Image and Video Ads. The most common type is Text Ads. These ads appear at the top of the SERP and are labeled with a bold “Ad” or “Ads”. They often include ad extensions that enable businesses to list details such as location, phone number, and more.

Google Display Network is another option for advertising. This marketing channel is designed to reach users while they’re browsing their favorite websites, watching YouTube videos, checking their Gmail account, or using their favorite mobile apps.

Basically, this type of ad is a visual banner that appears on ad-supported websites. Overall, Google Display Network is used more for advanced advertising strategies such as remarketing. The Display Network can be an effective strategy as it reaches 90% of online customers with over 2 million ad-supported websites.

If you want to learn more about programmatic display advertising, check out our beginner’s guide to programmatic display advertising.

Why Google Ads Work?

Have you decided that Google Ads is the right paid advertising option for your business? Well, I must say that it’s a step in the right direction. If you’re still on the fence about using Google Ads to advertise your business, here are the top reasons why this strategy works:

1. Targets Potential Customers While They’re Engaged

One of the main reasons why Google Ads are effective is because they target potential customers the moment that they are looking for a particular product or service.

Let’s say a person is in the market for a new outdoor smartwatch. The user types “buy outdoor smartwatch” into the Google search bar. On the results page, he sees several relevant Google Ads at the top of the organic search results. The potential customer clicks one of the sponsored results and starts shopping.

It’s difficult—if not impossible—to identify the exact moment someone is ready to make a purchase. Think about how a smartwatch manufacturer might reach them otherwise. Send them an email? Maybe they’re at work and can’t shop. Reach them through a magazine ad? What if they’re not near a store or computer? These tactics are good for raising brand awareness and convincing the buyer that your product is worth buying, but you need to be present the moment they’ve decided to purchase a smartwatch.

With Google Ads, you can target and reach users precisely at the moment that they’re engaged. With the right keywords and optimization strategies, you can get in front of potential buyers right at the moment that they’re searching for your product or service.

2. Focus on Local or Niche Markets

If you’re a local business with a good online presence, Google Ads can be a great investment. According to statistics, 72% of customers who searched locally will visit a physical store within 5 miles of their current location.

With the help of Google Ads, you can reach potential customers that are within the vicinity of your business.

As discussed earlier, you may also incorporate ad extensions into your ads, which display your business’ address and phone number. With this, local customers can easily find or call you once your ad pops up from their mobile devices.

Google Ads is also an effective advertising strategy for local services such as plumbing, roofing, house cleaning, and many others. For instance, let’s say you live in Tampa and you’re offering green cleaning services to homes. You can bid on a very broad keyword like “green cleaning service” on Google but you’ll find it’s very expensive because you’re competing with everyone across all geographies.

Fortunately, Google bids are very customizable and you can instead bid on long-tail keywords like “green cleaning service in Tampa.” Your ad cost will likely be lower and with a higher conversion rate from clicks.

3. Don’t Spend More Than You Need

As mentioned, one of the best benefits of Google Ads is that it’s a very flexible platform. Google enables users to set campaign parameters that allow you to control how you spend your budget. For the uninitiated, Google Ads work on a cost-per-click basis so you’ll only pay when a user clicks your ads and visits your website.

There’s no minimum ad spend, and you can choose how much you spend monthly, daily, and per ad. Basically, you can spend as much or as little as you’d like. As you get more success with your campaign, you can easily scale your budget in real-time.

Furthermore, you can designate an average daily budget for your campaign. This informs Google that over a monthly basis, you’re not paying any more than the average budget x the number of days. There are some days where your ad performance is higher and more costly and, in some days, lower. Regardless of the results, you will not go over your budget over the course of the month.

4. Quick Results

Another noteworthy benefit of Google Ads is that you get quick, almost instantaneous results.

Essentially, you only need to perform a few steps to get things going. First, you need to set up your Google Ads campaign, then enter the relevant keywords, set your daily budget, write down the ad content, and you’re all set. With your Google ad going live, you can potentially generate a sale on the same day.

In comparison to search engine optimization (SEO), Google Ads or PPC, in general, can work much faster for your business. While SEO is also extremely important, it does take time to rank at the top of the organic search engine results page. To rank at the top can often take 6 to 12 months.

Whereas, your Google Ads campaign is shown to potential customers the moment you go live. Your ad will be displayed at the top of the SERP or at the bottom of the first page, depending on your ads Quality Score. With Google Ads, you have immediate visibility and access to your target audience.

5. Measure and Analyze Your Results

Staying on top of your Google Ads campaign is one of the keys to success. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of tools that are provided by Google to help monitor, measure, and analyze your success. If someone clicks on your ad, you’ll know. If a click led to a product purchase or an app download, you can monitor that as well.

With this ability to monitor and measure your results, you’ll quickly see which aspects of your campaign need to be tweaked or where more resources need to be committed.

So, The Question Remains: Are Google Ads Effective?

After reviewing the statistics and learning what others have achieved, it’s clear that Google Ads is a solid advertising strategy for all types of business. Hopefully, after this extensive write-up, you now have a better grasp of whether or not Google Ads is the right advertising strategy for you. Before you invest in Google Ads, make sure that you have clear goals for your paid search campaign.

If you don’t have the time or experience to manage a Google Ads campaign, you can always work with a digital marketing agency to help optimize your PPC campaign. Learn more about our PPC management services.

When it comes to digital marketing strategies, there are many methods that you can use to reach new customers and grow your business. Among these strategies, one of the most popular ones is PPC advertising. For many people, PPC advertising pretty much equates to Google Ads. After all, Google doesn’t just lead the search engine market, it dominates it by having more than 90% of the market share.

Many of my clients are interested in taking the plunge into the Google Ads platform. However, they’re not really sure where and how to start. If you’re someone who needs some help with Google Ads, you’ve come to the right place.

For this article, I’ve made a quick Google Ads guide for beginners, which include strategy and goal setting, setting up your account, optimizing your account structure, as well as a few tips.

Is Google Ads Right for Your Business?

Sure, you’ve heard that Google Ads yield great results but is it really right for you? Before you decide to get into the paid search space, find out if Google Ads is a good solution by answering the questions below.

1. Are Your Customers Searching for You?

The most important question to answer is, is your target audience searching for you through Google.com? If not, there’s really no reason for you to start a PPC campaign. However, everyone uses the Internet for purchasing these days. Plus, Google is the most popular website in the world with hundreds of millions of unique visitors daily.

Here are a few key search engine stats that you should know:

• 90% of customers used the internet to find local businesses and 33% of them are searching every day online.
• 97% of customers have learned about local businesses in their area through the Internet.
• 28% of local business searches have been converted to business sales.
• 72% of local customer searches have resulted in in-house visits within a five-mile radius.
• According to Chat Meter, “close by” and “near me” location-based searches have grown over 900% for the last two years.
• 46% of all Google searches are made up of customers who are looking up local businesses.

With these stats, there’s a good chance that your good-fit customers are using the web to search for your product or service. On top of your PPC campaign, a strong local SEO strategy can do wonders for increasing the local presence of your business.

2. What Are Your Long-Term Goals

Your long-term goals can significantly influence on how to run your Google Ads campaign. Businesses have short and long-term goals. Increasing sales in order to get immediate cash flow is an example of a short-term goal. Expanding your customer base is a good example of a long-term goal.

Every one of my clients is different but many of their short and long-term goals overlap, here are some of the most common objectives they have:

To Maximize Revenue

Every business wants to make as much money as they can, so this is a very common goal. If you’re looking to increase sales and maximize revenue using Google Ads, you need to stay on top of your campaign and that’s accomplished by diligent monitoring.

To Increase Brand or Product Awareness

Do you wish to get your product out there in front of your target customers? Or perhaps, you have an established business and you’re about to launch a new product line? Advertising is all about generating demand. You want customers to visit your website and make a decision to buy. This is a goal where PPC can really turn it around for you.

To Maximize Profits

Return on investment or ROI is the ultimate goal, not just for PPC but for advertising in general. ROI will dictate your decisions with regard to PPC optimization. Fortunately, Google Ads is a very ROI-friendly platform. According to the Google Economic Impact Report, businesses make an average of $2 for every $1 ad spend. That’s double the ROI! Google Ads is a cost-effective advertising channel.

Of course, there are a lot of factors that can affect your success with Google Ads. However, if your short and long-term objectives are similar to the ones above, chances are, Google Ads can work for you.

3. Do You Have the Budget to Test?

It’d be great if every click on your ad converts into a sale but that’s not the reality for most people. A good rule of thumb is to set an expectation that only 1% of clicks will convert into a sale. With the 1% conversion rate, you may receive 99 clicks without ever making a sale, but if the 100^th click results in a purchase, you’ll be back on track.

With Google Ads, it’s not uncommon for advertisers to get a lot of clicks and make little to no sales. But again, as long as you can make a sale from 1% of the overall clicks, things will eventually even out.

Having said that, the beginning of your Google Ads campaign will involve a lot of testing. Therefore, in the beginning, you need to have a fairly large Google Ads budget for testing your setup and keywords. This is especially true if you plan to do this on your own, without the help of a digital marketing agency.

If you don’t have a sizable budget, I recommend that you don’t spread yourself too thin across many keywords. It’s better to focus on a small group of keywords that has the highest chance of converting clicks into sales. You can expand once you test and learn what is most effective for converting your target buyer.

Help with Google Ads: Setting Up Your Account

Setting up your Google Ads account is about as easy as it gets. Follow the steps below to set up your Google Ads account:

1. Go to the Google Ads homepage and click the big blue “Start Now” button.
2. You will be asked to log in to the Google Account that you want to use for creating the Google Ads account.
3. After you sign in to your Gmail or create an account, you will be asked about your advertising goals.
4. If you want to just create and set up a new account, skip the goals, and click the “Experienced with Google Ads?” link below. This will direct you to the campaign creation page.
5. Again, Google will ask you to create a campaign but you don’t have to yet. For the sake of this guide, we’ll click the “Create an account without a campaign” link on the bottom left of the interface.
6. You’ll be asked to fill out your business details: billing country, time zone, and currency. Google will likely autofill this data for you.
7. At this point, you’re all set. Your account is created!

5 Beginner Tips for Using Google Ads

Tip #1: Understand Google Ads Pricing

To truly master Google Ads, you need to understand its pricing structure if you want to maximize your ROI. You want a sustainable and scalable ad campaign. Here are some things that you need to remember about Google Ads pricing:

• Google Ads is a pay-per-click advertising platform, which means that you only pay whenever a user clicks your ad and goes to your website.
• Google actually rewards advertisers that have well-optimized campaigns and high-quality ads with lower costs.
• You can set up your ad campaign so that ads are only displayed to your target audiences. Google allows you to narrow your ads using criteria like age, devices, gender, location, and many others. This increases the chance that clicks will convert into sales.
• The average cost per click in Google Ads is $1-$2, and that’s for the Search Network. For the Display Network, the cost is generally below $1. Obviously, your campaign cost will depend on numerous factors, such as your industry and targeted keywords.

Tip #2: Take Advantage of Google Local Service Ads

As I’ve pointed out earlier, 46% of all searches on Google are looking up local information. Even more important, 18% of local searches are converted into sales.

Targeting local audiences is the key to success because it allows you to use keywords that are not only more specific but with a reduced cost per click as well. Specific long-tail keywords, which typically include local searches, are less competitive and will help you generate sales with a better ROI. For another tip, you should take advantage of ad extensions because it improves the quality of your ad. For instance, including a phone number extension with your ad will enable customers to call you directly.

Tip #3: Focus on the Metrics of Quality

Although Google Ads uses a bidding system, you can’t simply bid high and the clicks will start rolling in. In reality, Google isn’t interested in the highest bidder. The quality of your ad and landing page is going to make a lot of difference. This means the information you provide to your target audience after they click your link must answer their questions.

Google wants to deliver the most relevant content to its users and that includes the ads they display. You’ll generate more sales if the clicks coming from your ads lead to worthwhile information.

Keep in mind that each click doesn’t have to lead to a direct sale. The ad clicks may lead customers to a content offer like an eBook, newsletter sign-up page, or a coupon code that they can use in the future.

Tip #4: Consider Using Branded Terms Alongside Broad Keywords

The Quality Score of your ad determines the cost and placement of your ads. One of the best ways to improve your ad quality score is to include the name of your brand in your copy. However, if you only use branded terms, you will miss out on users who are not searching for your brand. If you’re a new player in a market and no one knows who you are, you may want to limit the use of branded terms.

By combining branded terms with broad keywords, you can improve your quality score as well as reduce your CPC. You can do this by setting the generic keyword to a modified broad match and leave the brand keyword as a broad match. Therefore, if users search for your targeted generic keyword, your branded terms will also show up.

Tip #5: Optimize Your Campaign for Mobile

These days, reaching customers requires a multi-channel and multi-device approach–this is why mobile advertising is so important. Here are some key statistics about the value of mobile advertising:

• 95% of mobile ad clicks go to a Google Ads campaign.
• 64% of all mobile searches are done on Google.
• 60% of users click on mobile ads at least once per week.
• 52% of online overall traffic is coming from mobile devices.
• 40% of online transactions are done on a mobile device.
• 63% of the overall total ad spending is on mobile devices.

As you can see, getting mobile advertising right can make all the difference for your campaign. Mobile search has long surpassed desktop. So, for starters, make sure that you optimize your landing page for mobile. Nothing turns off visitors more than a poor mobile experience, which can lead to low conversion rates.

This is why you should make sure that the load speed of your mobile website is fast. According to Google’s study, a mere second delay in page load time can lead to a 20% decrease in conversions.

Help with Google Ads: Should You Work with a PPC Expert?

While Google Ads is a very accessible platform, it’s easy to waste a lot of your money and time, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you need help with Google Ads, you should consider working with a PPC management company.

Here are the top reasons why you should hire a PPC management company:

1. You Don’t Know Where to Start

Signing up with Google Ads and creating an account are the easy parts (and I hope that this article helped). However, you may realize that developing and executing a successful PPC strategy is too much for you to handle. I’ve had clients who were able to set up their accounts and made a few bids but it simply went nowhere.

A good digital marketing agency has a team of PPC experts with proper tools and training to get your PPC campaign going.

2. Keyword Research Isn’t Easy

Using the right keywords is crucial to your success. Picking the wrong keywords can quickly burn through your advertising budget and get very poor results. There are many free keyword tools that you can use online but any marketer knows that the best tools are the paid ones.

A PPC management company will have access to a suite of paid tools that will give your campaign a much-needed competitive advantage. This ensures that your Google Ads will be optimized using the right keywords.

3. Poor Ad Copy Means Poor Conversion

One of the best things that a PPC expert can offer is the ability to write persuasive ad copy that converts.

Poor ad copy doesn’t convey the right message, fails to answer questions that customers may have, and doesn’t motivate viewers to click. The right copy can really improve your ads’ click-through rate (CTR), which can lead to more conversions.

4. Campaign Monitoring Requires Technical Expertise

Staying on top of your Google Ads campaign is a must because you want to know what you’re doing wrong or right, and then adjust accordingly. A PPC expert can analyze your campaign results and determine which keywords and placements are most likely to generate sales.

In addition, tagging your campaign allows you to see which keywords and bids are most effective. To install campaign tracking codes, you need to have basic HTML knowledge and be able to access your website’s code. Thus, if you have no knowledge about website management and campaign tracking, it’s a job that’s better left to the experts.

5. You Don’t Know How to Create a Good Landing Page

Relevance isn’t just exclusive to SEO, it’s equally important in PPC advertising as well. As I’ve mentioned earlier, a good and relevant landing page is a must if you want your ads to have a high Quality Score. A poor landing page will not only result in fewer conversions but your CPC will increase as well.

An expert on PPC doesn’t just understand the principles that go into creating a landing page, they also know how to test such principles.

6. Keeping Up with the Changes

The online advertising landscape is constantly changing through new policies and upgraded tools and features. If you want to be competitive, you need to keep up with the changes.

Any self-respecting advertiser knows the importance of staying up to date with the latest online marketing trends. Aside from reading news, blogs, and forums, a digital marketing expert may also attend trade shows and networking events to get expert advice and insights on the latest trends. Of course, as a client, you’ll be involved in the learning process, every step of the way.

Need Any Help with Google Ads?

If you’re interested in launching a campaign with Google Ads but you’re not sure how to start, you have come to the right place. Atlantic Digital Marketing Company is a leading PPC management company and we have helped many businesses maximize their pay-per-click advertising ROI.

We’ll be more than happy to work with you!

If you have an online business, it’s a given that you should do advertising. Otherwise, how will you put your product or service out there and in front of your target audience? Advertising is one aspect of online business that you can’t afford to ignore.

If you’re considering to spend any amount of dollars on a marketing strategy to reach your target customers, better make sure that you spend it in the right place. In my world, my idea of the right place is somewhere with 3.5 billion daily searches and 246 million unique visitors.

If you’re thinking of Google Ads, then you’re right on the money!

Many of our clients want to dive right into Google’s paid search network but they’re often not sure how the platform works. If you want to learn how Google Ads work, then you’ve come to the right place.

For this article, we’re going to talk about Google Ads, how it works, and some quick tips to help you succeed.

What is Google Ads?

If you’ve been using the internet for a while, you’ll have heard of Google Adwords. In 2018, Google rebranded its ad lineup and it became Google Ads.

This pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising platform allows advertisers to display their ads on Google’s search engine network. Like its namesake, PPC is a marketing channel where you (the advertiser) pays for ad click or impression.

Google Ads is widely considered a very effective advertising network because it drives good-fit customers that are qualified. This means that your ads are displayed to users who are searching for products and services like the ones that you offer. With the help of Google Ads, you can generate more site traffic, leads, receive more phone calls, and receive more in-store visits. This is good because 72% of customers who searched locally have visited a physical store within a 5-mile radius.

Google Ads can work for all types of businesses, whether big or small. However, the barrier of entry for Google Ads is that it can be a difficult platform to master. To get the most out of your Google Ads campaign, you need to know how it works.

Now, let’s start with Google Ads’ two different networks.

Where are Google Ads Displayed?

Google Ads is currently divided into two different networks, each offers different options to cater to a wide range of advertising needs.

• Google Search Network
• Google Display Network

Knowing the difference between the two networks and which network to utilize for your advertising is part of your uphill battle for ad space domination. Let’s first define each network.

Search Network VS. Display Network 101

When you think about Google Ads, you’re probably thinking of paid search ads that appear on the Google search engine results page (SERP). As you might expect, those are ads on the Google Search Network. Makes sense, right?

The Search Network is more popular between the two networks, and it also happens to be the most popular PPC channel on the web. The Search Network works because it gives advertisers the ability to engage audiences at the exact time when they are actively searching for your product or service.

You can say that the Google Search Network is like the new Yellow Pages because now prospects use search engines when they have the intent to purchase. Potential customers flip through their digital Yellow Pages using keywords. They have the intention of finding a product or service, which gives businesses a targeted avenue to reach their target audience.

On the other hand, the Google Display Network doesn’t have anything to do with Google Search.

Display Network ads appear on websites that are partnered with Google–sites that are looking to make money via the Google AdSense program. Any website can enroll with AdSense and display ads on their webpages. Then advertisers can utilize the Display Network to market to visitors to those webpages. As of this writing, there are over 11.1 million websites that use AdSense. This should give you an idea of just how massive the Display Network in terms of size and reach.

The main difference between the two is that the Display Network shows ads to people who aren’t actively searching, while the Search Network is for people who are actively searching for information.

In a sense, Display Networks ads are interrupting people as they browse Google-partnered websites. This makes the Display Network a good channel for increasing brand awareness. For instance, if you’re a new business and people don’t know you exist, how can they search for you? The Display Network allows you to display ads where your target audience spends time online.

Where Your Ads Will Appear

Google Search Network

• The primary channel where your ads will appear is the main Google Search interface. These paid ads may appear at the top or bottom of the search results. Of course, as an advertiser, you want to be in the top 4 positions for your targeted keywords because these positions are immediately visible to the user.
• In addition to the Google SERPs, your ad may also appear on Google’s other websites such as Images, Maps, and Shopping. These websites also have search facilities that are powered by Google.
• In your ad settings, you have the option to include “search partners.” With this setting enabled, your ads will have expanded reach and may also appear in other search engines such as AOL, Ask.com, and many other alternative search engines partnered with Google.

PPC ads on the Google Search Network are activated whenever a prospect performs a search on Google using a particular set of keywords. As mentioned, the paid ads will appear on top (or bottom) of the search engine results page along with the organic results.

Google Display Network

As previously pointed out, Google Display Network has nothing to do with Google Search. Instead, your ads may appear on more than 2 million Google partner websites.

• This collection of websites includes specific Google websites such as Google Finance, YouTube, Gmail, and Blogger.
• Other than websites, the Display Network also includes mobile sites and apps.

While Google Search Network ads are excellent for reaching audiences who are far into the buying journey, they are exclusively text-based so they don’t exactly stand out. On the flip side, Google Display allows advertisers to be more creative with their ads, extend their reach to new customers, and increase brand awareness.

Search Network VS. Display Network: Key Takeaways

1. Each Network Requires Different Ads

When a user is searching in Google for a product or service, you can say that there’s a need or intent. For instance, if someone searches for the keyword “nashville SEO company,” isn’t it obvious that this person is looking to hire an SEO digital marketing agency? I mean, why would you search for that phrase in Google if not?

With that said, you should ensure that your ad copy for Google Search Network matches the searched keyword. If not, you’ll be wasting everyone’s time who’s searching for that phrase, not to mention your own advertising bucks.

Pretty simple, right?

On the flip side, consider a user who’s reading articles about the benefits of SEO and how to implement SEO best practices. It’s clear that the user wants to use SEO as a marketing strategy but it’s not obvious that he needs a digital marketing agency. He might work in-house at an organization and be researching it for an internal project. The user isn’t actively seeking a product or service, but he might be receptive to advertisements that relate to his situation.

Therefore, your Display Network Ad must make a case that working with an SEO company is the best option if he wants to have a successful SEO campaign.

Can you see the difference?

From these two examples, it’s clear that your ad for the Search Network will be different when compared to your Display Network ad copy. Using a single strategy for both Search and Display networks can only spell disaster for your advertising efforts.

2. Each Network Requires Different Targeting

The beautiful thing about Google Ads is that you can tweak your campaigns to target exactly the demographic that you want.

In a standard Search Network ad campaign, your main target is to use keywords. Whenever a prospect searches for your targeted keyword, your ad has a chance to be displayed depending on a number of factors (more on that later).

With a Display campaign, you have several options.

First, you have behavioral targeting. This targeting method will display your ads to users based on their web browsing history. Therefore, if the user has searched for SEO strategies before, there’s a chance that your ad for an SEO company will be displayed.

Another option is contextual targeting. This is the most basic targeting option in the Google Display Network. Basically, Google will try to match your target keywords and ads to relevant pages within its expansive network.

The last option is demographic targeting. With this, you can target demographics based on gender, age, and many other parameters. It’s a great method to precisely target your ideal customers.

Google Ads Auction: How It Works

Whenever a user submits a search query on Google, it quickly determines which ads the user should see. Google uses the auction system to instantly identify which ads should be displayed. The overall result is determined by the Ad Rank that Google assigns to your adverts. If you want to succeed in this space, you should know the factors that will help you get to the top of the SERPs.

The three primary factors that affect your ad position are:

• Your bid
• Ad Quality Score
• Ad Extensions

Your Bid

Google Ads is comprised of an auction system that lets you bid for the keywords you desire. Fortunately, you only pay whenever a user clicks on one of your ads. Your bid refers to the maximum price that you are willing to pay for a single click on your ad. For reference, the average cost of a Google Ads click is $1-$2.

You’re probably asking, “is it really that simple? Why not just bid your way to the top of the SERPs?” Well, it’s not that easy! The Google Ads auction system is designed in a way that you can’t simply win by being the highest bidder. Google is in the business of delivering the best and most relevant content to its users, so there are other factors that come into play.

Ad Quality Score

Perhaps the most important factor here is your Ad Quality Score. The Quality Score is the metric used by Google to evaluate ads with regards to their overall quality and how relevant they are to the users. To see your Quality Score, you just need to hover to one of your keywords.

Your ads are graded from 1 to 10 (10 being the best). Below are the three factors that affect Quality Score:

• Ad Relevance: This is the correlation between your targeted keywords and the actual content you use in your ad copy. The idea is that your ad should answer questions that users have while entering their queries.
• Landing Page Quality: When a user clicks on your ad copy, make sure that it’s relevant to the landing page. Users don’t like to be misled, nor does Google. Tip: Your sites and landing pages should be mobile-friendly.
• Expected Click-through Rate (CTR): This metric refers to your historical CTR data. Thus, it always pays to optimize your ads for better CTRs.

Ad Extensions

One of the best ways to improve your CTR is to make use of Ad Extensions. This refers to the set of features that make your ads bigger, more informative, more compelling, and more clickable. The best part is…

It won’t cost you anything!

Extensions enhance your ad with additional information that gives you a better chance of gaining business. And yes, improve your CTR as well. Extensions include additional information like call buttons, phone numbers, address, links to specific links on the website (like your order form), additional text, and many others. Remember to use extensions that align with your goals.

How Much Will You Actually Pay?

With the way the auction system works, your actual cost per click (CPC) may be less than your maximum bid. This is why I always tell my clients to focus on the quality of their ads rather than the actual bidding.

Let’s look at this example. There are three businesses competing for the top position above the SERP. Two of them have met the minimum threshold of 40 and now they are direct competitors. If one advertiser has a higher Ad Rank, they’ll end up paying the same price are the previous ad ranking advertiser + $0.01, the least billable amount.

So, in the end, the top-ranking advertiser only needs to pay enough to beat the competition.

At the end of the day, how much you’ll actually pay depends on a combination of factors. Again, your maximum bid doesn’t guarantee you a higher position. This is Google’s way of encouraging advertisers to focus more on the content of the ads, which ensures that the best relevant content is delivered to their users.

3 Tips to Optimize Google Ads

1. Mind the Ad Quality Score

Your Ad Quality Score is the most important metric for your ads. Many advertisers can spare the big bucks for high bids but it won’t do them any good if their Ad Quality Score isn’t up to par. Keep in mind: it’s not just the relevance of your ads but also the quality and suitability of your landing page as well.

2. Add More Extensions

Ad extensions are a surefire way to increase your adverts’ CTR, which will lead to more clicks and conversions. According to Google, the CTR can increase up to 10-15% by simply using extensions. Ad extensions will entice users to click by giving direct and easy access to the information that they’re looking for. For example, if a user is searching for a nearby Asian restaurant, a good ad extension to add is the direct link to your restaurant’s menu.

Other good extensions that you should consider adding are product information, phone number, address, business hours, just to name a few.

3. Keep Your Keyword Groups Tight

It can be tempting to throw as many keywords as you can to a single campaign. After all, the wider you cast the net, the more fish you’ll catch, right? Not exactly!

When it comes to Google Ads, it’s always best to focus on quality over quantity. What’s the point of getting thousands of impressions if they can only result in a few clicks? A smaller keyword group gives you better control and enables you to create ad copy that resonates with your target audience.

Now You Know the Basics

Google Ads is one of the best, if not the best way to drive qualified traffic to your website and attract good-fit customers. However, it’s easy to waste your time and money with Google Ads and that usually happens when you’ve got no clue about what to do.

Hopefully, this guide on how Google Ads work has helped you understand the platform, even if it’s just on the basic level. If you have any questions or need any help with your PPC campaign, feel free to contact us here at Atlantic Digital Marketing.