The Benefits of Google Search Ads
The Search Network
Google Adwords, now called Google Ads, is a vital marketing tool for any business and forms a critical component of an effective overall Inbound Marketing Strategy.
Google Search Ads work on the principle of displaying a tailored Ad to a potential customer with your company details at a time when they are actively searching online for your products or services thereby enabling you to:
Get the right message to the right person at the right time.
If you are not benefitting from Google Search Ads yet, you really should be, it’s probably one of the most effective paid advertising tools for a small business. The benefits of Google Search Ads simply cannot be ignored by any company wishing to maintain or grow its market share.
Contact Us for your Google Ads Requirements, we are a professional Digital Marketing Agency in Cork with over 15 years of experience helping companies all over Ireland achieve their business goals.
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is a system that can be used in place of, or to complement, your SEO – Search Engine Optimisation strategy.
Essentially you pay Google on a Pay-per-click basis to display a basic text ad on their SERP – Search Engine Results Page that is triggered when someone types a search on the Google search bar that contains predetermined keywords.
The goal is to get your ad displayed above all other results, paid or organic. Ideally, you want the very first listing/Ad on the top of the page to attract the lion’s share of the potential customers to your company, be it your website, a specific landing page or to call you.
The above screenshot is an example of a Google Ad we have running on the Google Search Network that is triggered by variations of the key phrase “PPC Agency Cork” An ad is differentiated from a free listing by the inclusion of the word Sponsored in the top left-hand corner.
Below is an example of the Organic results for the same search, for location-based searches Google will often show local companies based on their Google My Business account settings, so make sure you have such an account if you have a physical store or office. Below this, you will see we also achieve the first position in the normal Organic Search Results, it looks very similar to the above Paid Ad.
The major difference between the Sponsored Ad and the Free Organic Listing is the positioning on the page. The Paid Ad may appear right on top of the page and be immediately visible to the searcher, even on a mobile device, whereas the Organic Results are very often much further down on the page and require the searcher to scroll down before they even become visible on their screen. In recent times Google Search Ads have started taking up more and more real estate on the Results Page forcing searchers to scroll further down the page before they reach the Free Organic Listings.
How do Google Ads Work?
Google Adwords is an Auction. You are bidding against your competitors for certain keywords/phrases that you know your potential customers use when searching on Google for your services or products. Below are some of the parameters that we can set up to obtain maximum results for your company.
- The cost of these keywords/phrases varies depending on how much competition there is for that keyword/phrase and the potential transaction value of that keyword or phrase, Google knows that someone selling shoes will not pay as much for an Ad as someone selling cars will, the value of the two products is very different.
- When your potential customers search for these keywords or phrases on Google your ad may be triggered and displayed according to Google’s algorithms. The exact workings of these algorithms are a closely guarded secret, but there are numerous tricks and tools that a skilled Google Ads Expert can utilise to ensure you get an effective Google Adwords campaign.
- As it is an Auction you decide how much you wish to spend each month and set this up as a daily limit ( Monthly Limit divided by 30.4 = Your Daily Limit.) Google may exceed your Daily Budget on busy days by a factor of 2 and use less on quiet days, but will never exceed your Monthly Budget.
- Based upon research and your knowledge of your customers, industry and budget we would select the desired keywords.
- Initially, we would probably be targeting CPC – Cost per Click this is where we decide how much we are willing to bid for a click on our Ad. You only pay if someone clicks on your Ad. We could change this setting after 3 weeks to CPA Cost per Acquisition, Google then uses machine learning and data it has collected over the life of the campaign to target your ads to people it deems more likely to purchase your product or service.
- We can set up how we want your budget to be spent throughout the day.
- We can target geographical areas.
- For a Google Adwords campaign to remain effective, or to improve results, it must be monitored and optimised on an ongoing basis.
- Keywords can be chosen to fit the purpose of your campaign depending on how tightly you wish to target potential customers. “Broad” – this will throw a wide net to catch all potential customers, but also attracts a lot of non-relevant searches which can waste a portion of your budget, “Phrase Match” will narrow the search to just phrases that more closely match the Key Phrase and reduce the number of irrelevant searches, but still requires some optimisation of Negative Keywords. “Exact Match” will only trigger the Ad if the search matches the exact keywords 100%, this results in very little budget wastage but can result in missing out on many potential customers. There is no one correct method the chosen method will depend on your desired results.
Who are Google Search Ads For?
Google Adwords is for all companies, startups, micro, small, medium and larger even well-established companies that can and should make use of Google Adwords.
Google Adwords can be used at any stage during your business life, its flexibility allows for it to be extremely useful at certain stages:
- Startups can use Google Ads as an instant route to market while they build up their organic presence. Google Adwords can be used to attract immediate attention to new products or services.
- Established companies can make use of Google Adwords to fill gaps in their organic presence.
- If you are in a highly competitive industry you may not have a choice but to make use of Google Adwords or risk losing business.
- Google Adwords are an extremely powerful paid advertising tool for any company during growth phases.
Features of Google SearchAds.
Google Adwords offers a host of features that enable effective campaigns to be set up to suit the requirements of every advertiser. Below are just a few of the more important features:
- You only pay per click.
- You control your monthly spending.
- You choose your keywords and your ads are only triggered by these phrases.
- Your campaign can be highly targeted according to Geography, Day, Time and Device.
- You develop your ads accordingly.
- Campaigns can be paused and re-activated at the push of a button.
- You can have separate Accounts, Campaigns, Ad Groups and Ads.
- You can set up multiple Ads for testing which is most effective.
- Google Adwords offers numerous Extension Types.
- You control the traffic, so you decide where the visitor is re-directed upon clicking the ad, webpage, landing page etc.
The Benefits of Google Search Ads.
Google Adwords offer numerous benefits to companies of all sizes.
- Google Adwords are an instant route to market, once your campaign has been set up and launched you start seeing results, unlike SEO which can take months.
- Google Adwords traffic is what we call Controlled Traffic, we decide where we link the ads to, it could be a specially designed Squeeze Page, a specific product page or just our website home page, this control results in much higher conversion rates. Organic traffic goes where it wants, we have no control.
- You have complete control of your budget. You can increase your budget, decrease your budget, shift the budget between campaigns and even pause campaigns at the push of a button.
- Google Adwords is an extremely flexible platform allowing for ongoing optimisation and improvement of your campaign based on data collected through Adwords and Analytics. Every campaign can be improved upon.
- Google Adwords provides a host of targeting and bidding options to manage your expenditure, you can choose to target a wider audience for greater exposure or a very specific audience for lead generation depending on your goals.
- You can set up your keywords and Ads to target potential customers are different stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Search Ads attract potential customers at a time when they are looking for your products or services and are more likely to become paying customers.
- This form of online advertising is Inbound in approach and therefore less intrusive than Outbound methods.
- Search Ads are a great tool for both Lead Generation and selling of products.
We are a Google Certified Partner, based in Cork, which assures you that we are qualified and experienced in running highly successful Google Ads Campaigns for a range of companies in various industries and verticals. We can help you achieve your business goals within your budget.
Contact Us for your Google Ads Requirements
