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.
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.
Why advertise on Google
Google is the most used search engine, receiving over 5 billion search queries daily. Not to mention, the Google Ads platform has been around for nearly two decades, giving it some seniority and authority in paid advertising.
Google is a resource used by people worldwide to ask questions answered with a combination of paid advertisements and organic results.
Hundreds of thousands of companies use Google Ads to promote their businesses, which means that even if you’re ranking organically for a search term, your results are being pushed down the page beneath your competitors.
If you’re using PPC to advertise your product or services, Google Ads should be a part of your paid strategy — there’s no way around it (except maybe Facebook Ads, but that’s another article).
Types of Google Ads
Search campaign
Search campaign ads appear as a text ad in the results page for the keyword. For example, here are the search campaign ads for the keyword “laptops”:
These are the ads you’re probably most familiar with. They appear on the search result page with the black “Ad” symbol next to the URL.
As you can see, though, text based ads aren’t the only type of ads in the Search Network. You can also have your ads appear in Google Shopping.
Shopping campaign
A shopping campaign allows you to promote your products in a much more visual way. These ads can appear as images on the search results page:
And they can appear in Google Shopping:
If you have a physical product, Google Shopping ads can get qualified leads by showcasing your product directly to customers.
Display campaign
The Display Network leverages Google’s vast website partners to showcase your ad on different websites all over the Internet. And there are a variety of different ways they appear. First, your ad can appear on on third-party websites like so:
Some benefits of using the Display Network is its reach. Google partners with more than two million websites and reaches more than 90% of all Internet users to help ensure your ad gets in front of the most eyes as possible.
The ads themselves are also flexible in terms of style. Your ad can be a gif, text, a video, or image.
However, they don’t come without their downsides. Your ads might end up appearing on websites you don’t want them to or in front of videos that you don’t want your brand associated with. This hasn’t been more evident than with YouTube’s various “Adpocalypses” throughout the past few years.
If you’re careful about where you’re putting your ads, though, the Display Network can be a great place to garner leads.
Video campaign
These are ads that appear in the front of YouTube videos in the form of pre-rolls.
“Wait didn’t we just cover this with the Display Network?”
We did! But Google offers the option of choosing video ads specifically, rather than more broadly advertise on the Display Network.
This is perfect if you have a great video ad idea you want to test out.
The video campaign ads come in a variety of different forms. There are skippable video ads like the one above. There are unskippable ads like this one:
There are discovery ads which you can find on the search results page of specific keywords:
And there are the various overlays and banners you can see above.
App campaign
Like video ads, app ads are also included in the Display Network but can be used for targeted campaigns. For this, you don’t design each individual app ad. Instead, they’ll take your text and assets such as photos and they’ll furnish the ad for you.
The algorithm tests different asset combinations and uses the one that performs the best more often. Now that you know the types of ads you can create with Google, let’s take a look at cost.
Google advertising cost
The average cost-per-click in the United States is typically between $1 and $2.
However, the cost of your specific Google Ad varies on a number of factors. Those factors include the quality of your website and how much you’re bidding.
As such, the cost is going to vary from ad to ad. To understand how much Google advertising is going to cost your business, you need to first understand the Ad Auction system.
When a user searches a keyword you’re targeting, Google automatically jumps into auction mode and compares your Ad Rank with that of every other marketer targeting that keyword.
If you think a big ad budget with large maximum bid amounts to rank well, think again. Google’s Ad Auction and Ad Rank system favors websites that help users most with a high Quality Score over lower ones.
So you might see your CPC be much lower than a huge Fortune 500 company with a big ad budget just because your advertisement was of better quality.
How to use Google Ads
Convinced that you should start using Google Ads? Good. Getting started is simple, but requires a few steps. Here’s a step-by-step guide for setting up your first campaign on Google Ads.
1. Set up your Google Ads account
First, go to the Google Ads homepage. On the top right-hand corner, click on ‘Start Now.’ You’ll be directed to sign in with a Google account or set up a new one.
2. Choose your business name and website
After signing in, you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll provide your business name and website. The URL you provide is where anyone who clicks on your ad will be taken
3. Select your advertising goal
Next, select your main advertising goal. You have four options: Get more calls, get more website sales or sign-ups, get more visits to your physical location, and get more views and engagement on YouTube.
4. Craft your ad
The next step is to create your ad. This requires creativity and can be a bit challenging.
Thankfully, Google gives you tips on what to write. But, of course, the most important thing is to write an ad that’ll attract and convert your audience.
5. Add keyword themes
On the next page, you can choose keywords that match your brand. Google will suggest a few for you; if you’re not familiar with keyword research, we suggest selecting the ones Google has suggested to start. After selecting the right keywords, click ‘Next.’
6. Set your ad location
The next page lets you choose the location or locations where you want your ad to appear. It can be near your physical address or anywhere else.
7. Set your budget
Here, you’ll either use the budget options offered by Google or enter a specific budget.
8. Confirm payment
Lastly, provide your billing information. And that’s how easy it is to create your first Google ad!
As you can see, setting up your paid campaigns on Google is relatively easy (and quick), mostly because the platform takes you through the setup and provides helpful hints along the way. If you have your ad copy and/or images created, the setup should take you no more than 10 minutes.
What may be less obvious are all the additional things you need to do to make sure your ads are optimally set up and easily trackable. Let’s cover these together. These are the steps you’ll take once your ads are submitted for review.
9. Link your Google Analytics account
You likely have Google Analytics set up on your website (if not, here’s how to do it on WordPress) so you can track traffic, conversions, goals, and any unique metrics.
You also need to link your Analytics account to Google Ads. Linking these accounts will make tracking, analyzing, and reporting between channels and campaigns much easier because you can view these events in one place.
10. Add UTM codes
Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes are used by Google to track any activity associated with a specific link. You’ve probably seen them before — it’s the part of a URL that follows a question mark (“?”).
UTM codes will tell you which offer or ad led to a conversion so you can track the most effective parts of your campaign. UTM codes make it easier to optimize your Google Ads since you know exactly what’s working.
The trick, though, is to add your UTM codes at the campaign level when you set up your Google Ads, so you don’t have to do so manually for each ad URL. Otherwise, you can add them manually with Google’s UTM builder.
11. Set up conversion tracking
Conversion tracking tells you exactly how many customers or leads you’ve acquired from your ad campaigns. It’s not mandatory to set up, but, without it, you’ll be guessing the ROI of your ads.
Conversion tracking allows you to track sales (or other activities) on your website, app installs, or calls from your ads.
12. Integrate your Google Ads with your CRM
There is something to be said about keeping all of your data in one place where you can track, analyze, and report on it. You already use your CRM to track contact data and lead flows.
Integrating Google Ads with your CRM gives you the ability to track which ad campaigns are working for your audience so you can continue marketing to them with offers that are relevant.
Tracking Google Ad with Google Analytics
There’s a quote from Adam Savage of Mythbusters that fits here:
The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.
The same applies for marketing. If you’re not tracking and analyzing your Google Ad campaign, then you’re going to gain very little from it. By analyzing your data, you’re going to learn the tweaks you need to make to your future campaigns to make them more successful.
To do so, you’re going to want to link your Google Ads with Google Analytics. If you haven’t set up Google Analytics yet, here’s our article on how to set it up in just five simple steps.
Once you do that, follow these steps from Google to link the two services:
- Go to your Google Ads account.
- Click the Tools menu.
- Click Linked accounts under Setup.
- Click Details under Google Analytics.
- You can now view the Google Analytics websites you can access. Click Set up link on the website you want to link to Google Ads.
- From here, you’ll be able to link the Google Analytics view of your website.
- Click Save.
You’ll now be able to view vital metrics such as costs and click data of your Google Ad on Analytics. This is vitally important for determining future campaign adjustments and measuring the success of your current campaigns.
From here, you’re going to want to set up tags to track conversions you gain from your ad.
Tips for running Google ad campaigns
Optimize your landing page
Your landing page is where users go after they click on your ad. As such, it’s one of the most crucial parts of your prospective customer’s experience.
You want the landing pages to have a clear and inviting call to action, while keeping the entire page scannable. That means no large blocks of text and an obvious goal.
Do you want visitors to sign up for your newsletter? Make sure the sign up box is front and center.
Want more sales? Include a few testimonials and plenty of links to purchase your products/services.
Whatever your goal, be sure to check out our tips on how to craft high-converting landing pages here (this article is Instagram specific, but it works well for any type of advertising).
Nail the headline
Your headline is arguably the most important part of your Google ad. After all, it’s the first thing prospective customers see. And it has to stand out amongst the other results on the first page of Google.
As such, you need to make sure you nail the headline.
There are a few great ways to make inviting headlines. Our biggest suggestion: Avoid clickbait. Not only will it frustrate your readers but it also erodes your brand’s reputation.
