Learning how to run an effective Google Ads campaign can be a game-changer for your business, helping you reach potential customers exactly when they're searching for products or services like yours. However, navigating the world of Google Ads can feel overwhelming without the right strategy in place.
Our expert guide runs through the key steps and best practices to create a highly effective campaign that drives results. Whether you're new to the platform or looking to refine your approach, we've got you covered, so you can maximise your ROI.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads Manager is the search engine’s paid advertising platform. It allows businesses to bid on ad space and put their brand in front of audiences for relevant keywords and search terms.
This is an alternative to other paid search strategies such as social media marketing.
How do Google Ads work?
If you bid on a keyword and win, you can create an advert that’s shown at the top of the first page of Google results, when a user searches for that specific term.
In contrast to search engine optimisation, your position at the top of the rankings is paid for, rather than earned through organic placement. Forming part of your PPC strategy, a Google Ads campaign can be an effective element of your wider marketing efforts.
How much do Google Ads cost?
Because a Google Ads campaign is orientated around bidding for keywords, there is clearly a great emphasis placed on cost. However, as each ad is ‘pay-per-click’, you won’t know the true cost of your campaign until it runs its course – after all, you could generate any number of website visitors.
On the other hand, because you only ‘pay-per-click’, your overall spend won’t be extortionate if your ad campaign struggles to get any traction.
With this in mind, it’s important to develop a strong understanding of how to manage your budget and what each bid means for your paid search strategy, so you don’t end up spending more than you can afford.
Here are a few things to consider:
Ad spend for profit
If you’re running your Google Ads campaign with the intention of making money, you’ll likely need to take a measured and calculated approach to bidding for keywords. This will impact how much you spend, as you’re probably less inclined to bid more than absolutely necessary.
Running ads to convert leads
Running ads to generate website traffic and leads gives you a little more freedom to spend during the bidding process. If success is measured by sales, with little emphasis placed on how much it costs, you’re more likely to spend more across your campaign.
Ads that raise brand awareness
If you’re a small business, you might decide to run ads to raise brand awareness across relevant audiences. If this is the case, you might have to spend a little more money bidding on competitive keywords, to ensure your ad receives a popular placing.
Target your Ads using Google Ads Keyword Planner
To get the most out of your Google Ads, it’s important to make use of a keyword planner. This allows you to identify and list the keywords that bring the most benefit to your business and PPC performance. We’ve offered a little insight into how best to use the Google Ads Keyword Planner tool:
Look for quality over quantity
If you’re struggling to conduct effective keyword research, the Google planning tool can prove useful in helping you to discover new terms. They will be filtered by brand relevancy, page relevancy, and category relevancy.
Target your Google Ads geographically
It’s possible to filter your keyword research by geographic location, to target people specifically within your local area. This is helpful if you have a physical shop that’s only relevant to local consumers.
Review your strategy
Once you’ve listed a series of keywords, start to analyse the Google Ads forecast data. This includes the estimated clicks, expected impressions, and average conversion rate for each of your search terms. At this point, you should compare the data with your budget, and review whether your plan is viable, realistic, and efficient.
Common Google Ads mistakes to avoid
Many new advertisers make common mistakes when using Google Ads. These include not using negative keywords, targeting too broad an audience, neglecting mobile optimisation, and setting unrealistic budget expectations.
Avoid these pitfalls by refining your keyword targeting, ensuring your landing page is mobile-friendly, and regularly reviewing your campaign performance.
What are the benefits of Google Ads?
There are numerous reasons to open a Google Ads account and run campaigns, such as:
1. Almost instant results
One of the leading reasons to open a Google Ads account is that running campaigns allows you to put your brand at the top of Google’s search results page. This is an instant win for your business, rather than a long-term optimisation strategy, which will ideally generate more website traffic over a shorter period.
However, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It’s important to monitor your Google Ads manager and campaigns alongside your SEO efforts, to ensure you’re combining short-term conversions with long-term website visibility.
2. Enhanced brand awareness
A Google Ads campaign will drive traffic to your website, but it also boosts awareness around your brand. This can be particularly beneficial for small or new businesses that require extensive effort to organically achieve a place on Google’s first page of results. Having a Google Ads account allows you to fast-track your visibility and gain instant impressions.
3. Performance tracking
Opening a Google Ads account and running campaigns allows you to monitor and track paid search performance levels. For instance, you are quickly able to see:
- The click through rate of your ad, and where visitors are coming from.
- The traffic your campaign is generating.
- Lead conversions into customers.
- Which of your targeted keywords are generating the most website traffic.
- The cost to you per customer.
- The capacity across your Google Ads account to monitor each fine detail allows you to adapt and fine-tune your future ads, to achieve the best possible results with each campaign.
4. Remarketing opportunities
Because a Google Ads campaign is tracked so thoroughly, data becomes available around consumers who visit your website but leave without making a purchase.
You can use this data to your advantage, by retargeting your campaign to these users – they’ve already demonstrated intrigue, so there’s a greater chance of converting them. In short, remarketing gives you a second chance to convert a consumer.
5. Helps your business remain competitive
The chances are your competitors are running search ads to market their brand. And if you’re not, you’re likely to fall behind. Keep ahead of the game by registering with the Google Ads manager, to target relevant and industry specific keywords. This allows you to remain a key part of the conversation.
Types of Google Ads
Once you’ve created a Google Ads account, it’s time to consider the approach you want to take. There are various ad formats you can follow, to promote your brand through paid search. To help you out, we’ve outlined six common types of Google Ads:
Text ad campaigns
Text ads are the most widely recognised type of Google Ads campaign, with paid promotions appearing at the top of the search engine’s results page. This type of ad campaign allows you to target users searching for specific keywords. A text campaign offers highly specific targeting relevant to your brand, website, and product.
Display ad campaigns
Where text ads take the form of a written placement, display ads are entirely visual. This makes them more appealing and memorable to consumers, which can lead to increased website visits and conversions.
Video ad campaigns
A video ad can be an effective means of promoting your business, through engaging visuals. These video ads can be published across Google search’s video tab or YouTube. Benefits of running a video Google Ads campaign include:
- Raising awareness of your brand and product through an alternative medium.
- The ability to target consumers across more channels than just Google search. For instance, you can place your ad in front of YouTube audiences.
- The capacity to remarket to customers who engaged with your ad but didn’t follow through. You can replace your ad on YouTube, if a consumer didn’t convert after clicking through on your search placement.
Local ad campaigns
A local Google Ads campaign is created to raise awareness of a physical shop, offering information to potential customers about how they can visit – these ads are focussed on promoting a business within the area it’s located, and the initial keyword research conducted according to regional trends. Success is measured by factors such as shop visits and direction requests made on Google Maps.
Shopping ad campaigns
If you run an online retail business, it could be beneficial to run shopping ad campaigns to promote your products – relevant items across your inventory will appear as an ad across Google’s shopping tab, when a user searches for specific key terms.
To get the most out of your shopping ads, ensure you use visually engaging imagery that captivates users and puts your products on their radar. Additionally, if you have a physical shop, consider localising your ad to target nearby consumers.
App ad campaigns
This type of Google Ads campaign is run with the intention of promoting your business’ app. By advertising across the likes of Google Search, the Google Play store, and YouTube, you can quickly build awareness among users and drive installations and customer sign up.
Now you know how to run an effective Google Ads campaign, you can begin to make the most out of your paid search strategy.
But don’t stop there – discover all there is about building a successful business and marketing your brand. Alternatively, if you still haven’t set your own website yet, then it’s time to purchase your domain name.
