What is Google Ads
Running a small business can be a challenge and, to thrive in the internet age, it is crucial to know how to use the right marketing tools. One of the most powerful digital tools for any business is Google Ads, particularly suitable for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs with a limited budget. In this article, we'll explore how to best use Google Ads for the success of your business.
Google Ads is a service offered by Google that allows businesses to create advertisements for their business. These ads appear in Google search results, in Gmail, on Youtube and on various other Google partner websites.
Why is this important for a small company?
Google Ads, being a pay-per-click advertising platform, is particularly attractive to small businesses for two main reasons. First of all, it allows for accurate targeting of advertising, based on keywords, location, age, gender and interests of the user. Second, with Google Ads you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, making it a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your site.
Google Ads works through an auction system. When a user searches on Google, the Google Ads algorithm determines which ads to show based on various factors such as the relevance of the ad, the bid (bid) of the advertiser and the user experience.
And this is the good and the bad.
What are its costs?
When it comes to understanding what the investment needed for a Google Ads campaign will be, we must consider that there is no standard cost but each campaign will have a cost linked to a series of factors. Google Ads costs can vary significantly depending on the business sector, the competition for the chosen keywords and the advertiser's budget. decides to use in the campaign.
Let's start by discussing the business sector.
Some industries have a higher average cost per click (CPC) than others due to greater competitiveness. For example, industries like insurance, legal, or finance tend to have very high costs per click because so many companies are competing for the same keywords.
The second factor to keep in mind is the specific competition of the keywords selected for your campaign. Keywords with a high search volume and a lot of competition can lead to a higher cost per click than keywords that are more niche or have less competition. The reasoning behind it is simple: the more companies targeting that particular keyword, the higher the cost of appearing in search results will be. However, this should not make you conclude that it is a good idea to only use keywords with few searches, i.e. long-tail! It is essential to harmonize both groups of keywords.
Finally, the budget you choose to use in Google Ads can affect the cost of your campaigns. You can set a daily budget for your campaign, which Google will respect, and that budget can be changed at any time. The key is to find a balance between the budget you are willing to spend and the results you want to achieve.
One thing is for sure, though: the more competitive the keyword, the higher the cost per click. However, if well managed, this investment can lead to a significant return in terms of visibility, traffic and conversions for your business.
What types of objectives are there in Google Ads campaigns?
Google Ads offers a series of specific objectives depending on the needs of your business and the type of results you want to achieve from your advertising campaign. Let's explore the most common objectives in detail.
The first objective that can be pursued with a Google Ads campaign is to generate traffic to the site. It translates into trying to bring as many visitors as possible to your website. This is useful not only for increasing the visibility of your online business, but also for increasing the possibility that users will take an action on your site, such as a purchase or a request for information.
A second typical objective of Google Ads campaigns is to increase conversions. Conversions represent the desired actions users take after clicking on your ad. These might include purchasing a product or service, signing up for a newsletter, filling out a contact form, or interacting with a service or app. The beauty of Google Ads is that you can define yourself what a conversion is for your business and track these actions to understand how well your ads are performing.
A third common objective is the promotion of brand visibility. This means using Google Ads to increase consumer awareness of your brand. While such a goal rarely leads to direct conversions, it is an excellent way to introduce your product, service or brand to a wider audience. And, ultimately, to then lower acquisition costs!
Finally, another objective that can be pursued is to stimulate interaction with the company's app. If you have an app for your business, Google Ads can help you promote the installation of the app or increase interaction with it through targeted ads.
Remember, every organization has different needs and what works for one company may not work for another. The key is to understand which goals align with your overall strategy and build your advertising campaign around those goals.
How to search for keywords?
Keyword research, or keyword, is a fundamental step in the process of creating a campaign on Google Ads. Keywords represent the search terms that users will type into Google and which will make your ads appear if relevant.
To find keywords suitable for your business, Google offers a very useful free resource: the Keyword Planner. This tool allows you to discover keywords relevant to your business and understand how competitive they are in terms of cost per click and search frequency.
To begin your keyword research, you can start by entering terms that describe your business, products or services into the Keyword Planner. This tool will generate a list of related keywords along with crucial information such as average monthly search volume, competition (low, medium or high) and expected bid ranges for each keyword. p>
This information is extremely helpful in understanding which terms might be most effective in reaching your target audience. For example, a keyword with a high search volume and low competition could be an excellent opportunity to exploit to get traffic to your site. On the other hand, keywords with a high degree of competition may require a greater investment to appear among the top results, but could lead to higher conversions if they are closely related to your products or services.
Another important feature of the Keyword Planner is the ability toanalyze keyword trendsover time. This analysis can help you understand whether a particular keyword is increasing in popularity, whether it has a constant search volume over time, or whether it tends to be seasonal.
What are the mistakes not to make?
When using Google Ads, it is essential to avoid some common mistakes that can compromise the effectiveness of your campaigns and lead to an unnecessary waste of resources. Let's see the most common ones, in our experience:
Not setting a daily budget: One of the typical mistakes is not setting a limit on the daily budget. This choice can easily lead to excessive and uncontrolled spending. Google Ads allows you to establish a maximum daily budget, which allows you to better manage your expenses and optimize your return on investments.
Do not monitor negative keywords: Negative keywords are those that, if typed by users, will not show your ad. They are useful for excluding irrelevant traffic and increasing the effectiveness of your campaigns. If you forget to monitor and add negative keywords, you could end up spending a lot of your budget on irrelevant clicks.
Do not implement conversion tracking: Conversion tracking is essential for evaluating the performance of your campaigns and optimizing them over time. Without the ability to track conversions, you won't have a clear picture of the return on investment of your campaigns. This may lead you to not understand which aspects of your campaigns work and which don't.
Not segmenting your ads: Another frequent mistake is not adequately segmenting your campaigns. Google Ads offers many segmentation options for targets, such as geolocation, age, interests, search engines and much more. Promoting a product to all users without distinction can result in a high cost per conversion and a low rate of return on investment.
Should a company go it alone or hire an agency for advertising management?
The decision between managing Google Ads internally or relying on an external agency depends on a series of factors that every company should carefully evaluate.
If you decide to manage Google Ads campaigns internally, you will have to invest time and resources to learn how to use the platform correctly. This includes understanding how to conduct effective keyword research, how to structure campaigns, how to set and optimize bids, and how to analyze data to improve performance. You will also need to continue to keep up with updates and new features on the platform. Managing Google Ads internally can be a good way to maintain direct control over your campaigns and how your advertising budgets are spent. And don't forget the amount of budget you will "throw away" over time and simply because you don't have vertical skills on this tool.
Frankly, it's an immense job and a major risk.
Conversely, working with an advertising management agency can be helpful if your company doesn't have the time, resources or experience to properly manage Google Ads. agencies like Deep Marketingspecialize in digital advertising on Google Ads and have been running campaigns similar to the one you want to implement for years and with a lot of budget, which can mean they can getbetter results and more quickly. Furthermore, an agency can save you a lot of time and effort, because specialists will manage the entire process, from the ideation to the implementation of the campaigns. Finally, working with an agency can lead to advertising strategies that are more complex, cohesive and capable of highly elevating your brand perception, as they can coordinate Google Ads with other digital marketing initiatives. p>
Before choosing an agency, however, we advise you to carefully study its track record, the quality of its clients and its communication style and approach. It is essential to stay away from those:
Promises certain results or has guru-like attitudes.
He puts his face before the company name: a clear indication that you are paying for his popularity among a low-level audience and not his professional competence.
He had no high-turnover and prestigious clients. It means that it is not respected among companies capable of discriminating the best, and has not had enough budget and resources to experiment and learn in a statistically relevant way.
Deep Marketing is an agency that makes seriousness, seniority and the level of its clients its strengths. Recognized by high-value international marketplaces such as GoodFirms, DesignRush and SortList.
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