If you’re considering spending any amount of money on ads to reach your target audience, you’d better spend it in the right place. That is, somewhere with over 2.9 billion unique monthly visitors and 5 billion daily interactions.
Somewhere like Google.
Google Ads was launched just two years after what has become the most popular website in the world: Google.com. The advertising platform came on the scene in October 2000 as Google Adwords, but after some rebranding in 2018, it was renamed Google Ads.
It’s no secret that these days, the stronger and more focused your paid campaigns are, the more clicks you generate — leading to a greater probability of obtaining new customers.
Little wonder then that Google Ads has become increasingly popular among businesses across all industries.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that falls under a marketing channel known as pay-per-click (PPC), where you (the advertiser) pay per click or impression (CPM) on an ad.
Google Ads is an effective way to drive qualified traffic, or good-fit customers, to your business who’re searching for products and services like the ones you offer. With Google Ads, you can boost your website traffic, receive more phone calls, and increase in-store visits.
Google Ads allows you to create and share well-timed ads (via both mobile and desktop) among your target audience.
As a result, your business will show up on the search engine results page (SERP) at the moment your ideal customers are looking for products and services like yours via Google Search or Google Maps.
This way, you reach your target audience when it makes sense for them to come across your ad.
Note: Ads from the platform can span across other channels, too, including YouTube, Blogger, and Google Display Network.
Over time, Google Ads will also help you analyze and improve those ads to reach more people so your business can hit all of your paid campaign goals.
Additionally, no matter the size of your business or your available resources, you can tailor your ads to suit your budget. The Google Ads tool allows you to stay within your monthly cap and even pause or stop your ad spending at any point in time.
Google Ads Terms to Know
1. AdRank
Your AdRank determines your ad placement. The higher the value, the better you’ll rank, the more eyes will fall on your ad, and the higher the probability of users clicking your ad. Your AdRank is determined by your maximum bid multiplied by your Quality Score.
2. Bidding
Google Ads is based on a bidding system, where you, as the advertiser, select a maximum bid amount you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. The higher your bid, the better your placement. You have three options for bidding: CPC, CPM, or CPE.
- CPC, or cost-per-click, is the amount you pay for each click on your ad.
- CPM, or cost per mille, is the amount you pay for one thousand ad impressions; that is when your ad is shown to a thousand people.
- CPE, or cost per engagement, is the amount you pay when someone takes a predetermined action with your ad.
3. Campaign Type
Before you begin a paid campaign on Google Ads, you’ll select between seven campaign types: search, display, video, shopping, app, smart, or performance max.
- Search ads are text ads that are displayed among search results on a Google results page.
- Display ads are typically image-based and are shown on web pages within the Google Display Network.
- Video ads are between six and 15 seconds and appear on YouTube.
- Shopping campaigns appear on search results and the Google shopping tab.
- App campaigns use information from your app to optimize ads across websites.
- Smart campaigns have Google finding the best targeting to get you the most bang for your buck.
- Performance Max is a new campaign type that lets advertisers access all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign.
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Your CTR is the number of clicks you get on your ad as a proportion of the number of views your ad gets. A higher CTR indicates a quality ad matching search intent and targeting relevant keywords.
5. Conversion Rate (CVR)
CVR is a measure of form submissions as a proportion of total visits to your landing page. Simplistically speaking, a high CVR means that your landing page presents a seamless user experience that matches the ad’s promise.
6. Display Network
Google ads can be displayed on either search results pages or a web page within Google’s Display Network (GDN).
GDN is a network of websites that allow space on their web pages for Google Ads — these ads can be text- or image-based and are displayed alongside content relevant to your target keywords. The most popular Display Ad options are Google Shopping and app campaigns.
7. Extensions
Ad Extensions allow you to supplement your ad with additional information at no extra cost. These extensions fall under one of five categories: Sitelink, Call, Location, Offer, or App; we’ll cover each of these ad extensions below.
8. Keywords
When a Google user types a query into the search field, Google returns a range of results that match the searcher’s intent. Keywords are words or phrases that align with what a searcher wants and will satisfy their query.
You select keywords based on which queries you want to display your ad alongside. For example, a searcher that types “how to clean gum off shoes” will see results for advertisers that targeted keywords like “gum on shoes” and “clean shoes.”
Negative keywords are a list of keyword terms that you do not want to rank for. Google will pull you from the bid on these keywords. Typically, these are semi-related to your intended search terms but fall outside of the realm of what you offer or want to rank for.
9. PPC
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a type of advertising where the advertiser pays per click on an ad. PPC is not specific to Google Ads, but it is the most common type of paid campaign. It’s important to understand the ins and outs of PPC before launching your first Google Ads campaign.
10. Quality Score (QS)
Your Quality Score measures the quality of your ad by your click-through rate (CTR), the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your landing page, and your past performance on the SERPs. QS is a determining factor in your AdRank.
How to use Google Ads
1. Establish your foundation
First and foremost, make sure you have a firm grasp on your audience and your goals.
Goals
??What are you using Google Ads for? Lead generation? E-commerce? Brand building? The campaign types you choose and structure of your account will hinge on this. To learn more about establishing realistic goals for your Google Ads account, check out these resources:
- How to Develop a PPC Plan that Aligns with Your Goals
- Everything You Need to Know About Marketing Objectives
Audience
Developing personas is essential. What do your ideal customers do? Where do they do it? When are they actively searching? On what device? To learn more about developing customer personas and defining your audience, check out these resources:
2. Set up your Google Ads Account
Setting up a Google Ads account is easy and takes just a few minutes.
You have the option of creating your account using an existing Google account, or you can create a new account specifically for use with Google Ads.
Then, you’ll specify some basics for your account, such as your location and time zone. Finally, you’ll set up billing details, so Google can accurately bill you every month.
3. Identify your keywords
Advertisers use Google Ads by bidding on keywords that are relevant to their business so that their ads appear in relevant search results. There are many different ways to conduct PPC keyword research, and WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool is an excellent starting point.
Simply enter a search term or URL and it will generate a comprehensive list of keywords along with search volume, cost per click data, and competition level.
4. Create your campaign
Once your account is created and you’ve done your keyword research, it’s time to create your campaign. To create your Google Ads campaign, you’ll need to:
- Pick your campaign type
- Set your ad schedule
- Choose your location and language
- Determine your budget
- Select your bidding strategy
- Add your keywords
You can also watch our video tutorial here:
5. Create your ad
Writing effective Google ads is a particularly challenging task, as you have limited space to craft a compelling and persuasive message.
In general, a good Google Ads headline:
- Conveys value
- Contains the keywords you’re targeting
- Uses the language your customers use
- Elicits emotions
- Has a call to action
Furthermore, with responsive search ads being the only standard Search campaign you can create, you have to format your headlines and descriptions to be able to work in different combinations. Use these responsive search ad best practices to guide you:
You can also use this responsive search ad template to help you out:
6. Report on performance
Like any marketing strategy, Google Ads is not a set it and forget it effort. It’s important to check in on your campaigns regularly so you can harness what’s working and toss out what’s not. Important PPC metrics to pay attention to are:
- Cost per click
- Click-through rate
- Conversion rate
- Cost per action (aka cost per acquisition or cost per conversion)
Depending on your campaign types and objectives, there may be other metrics to track as well, but those are the core ones. Not sure what constitutes “good” performance? Check out our interactive Google Ads benchmarks.
7. Optimize, test, and adjust
A perfect Google Ads campaign is never finished.
The platform is always changing and so are your customers, so you should always be testing out different settings, ad copy, and offers as well as adjusting bids based on keyword performance and adding negative keywords to eliminate unqualified search queries.
How to use Google Ads the Right Way
Use these tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of the platform—and your budget.
1. Optimize your account structure
A logical account structure can have a dramatic impact not only on how easy it is for you to use Google Ads but also your campaign performance. Ensuring your Google Ads account is structured properly has many benefits, including:
- More relevant traffic and clicks
- Higher Quality Score (and thus, lower cost per click)
- Making your account easier to optimize and maintain
If you’re only planning to run a single campaign, your Google Ads account structure will be quite simple. But ideally, you want to have multiple campaigns running for different offers and objectives.
The ideal Google Ads account is structured into individual campaigns, each of which will have its own ad groups.
In turn, each ad group will have its own keywords, unique ad text, and landing pages. The figure below illustrates how an account should be set up for optimal performance:
There are several ways you can structure a Google Ads account, depending on your needs.
For example, you can structure your Google Ads account based on the structure of your website, by the types of products or services you’re advertising, or by geographic location, if your business operates in several individual markets.
2. Stay on top of updates
Google Ads is always evolving. New features are constantly getting rolled out and you never know when Google is going to throw a curveball at us, such as with removing modified broad match or sunsetting expanded text ads.
The Google Ads blog is the place to check for these announcements, but you can also get better explanations and opinions in publications like Search Engine Land.
3. Optimize your landing pages
This is where people who have clicked your ads either convert or they don’t! Follow these guidelines for high-performing landing pages:
- Minimize form fields
- Focus on benefits, not just features
- Use multiple, high-quality product images
- Make your call-to-action clear as day
- Make sure your landing pages work on mobile! (Or let users skip the landing page completely and just call you.)
To learn more about designing great landing pages, check out our best landing page tips and tricks….ever.
4. Build remarketing lists
Remarketing (or retargeting) is when you serve ads to audiences based on their previous behavior, such as on your website or with your other ads.
This is essential when using Google Ads! So start building these lists early and often so you can keep prospects moving through your funnel.
Evaluate the strength of your Google Ads account
Taking the time to regularly adjust and optimize your Google Ads account is one of the most important things you can do as a paid search advertiser.
However, even if you’re doing everything right, it can be difficult to know just how well your campaigns are performing. That’s why WordStream created the Google Ads Performance Grader.
In 60 seconds or less, the Google Ads Performance Grader performs a comprehensive audit of your Google Ads account. It will evaluate the strength of your account based on crucial PPC metrics and generate an easy-to-read report on your
- Quality Score
- Impression share
- Account activity
- Wasted spend
- And more
No other free tool provides as much unique, individualized insight into your Google Ads account performance as the Google Ads Performance Grader.
