Google Ads, formerly known as AdWords, gets thrown around a lot during marketing meetings, but few people seem to know what to do about it or how it can truly help their business.
We’ll go into that and more in this blog post, but first, here’s a quick definition:
It is also a lot more than that. Google Ads offers a complete platform that helps users:
- Find relevant keywords they can bid and compete for to appear on search results
- Create and manage advertising campaigns
- Track results and set budgets
Advertisers have to bid and compete on specific keywords to be listed in search engine result pages (SERPs) for those terms. Their adverts are displayed in designated sections of a SERP, along with those of other advertisers bidding on the same terms.
It sounds complicated, and even a bit boring
Business owners prefer spending time to improve their products and serve their customers, rather than setting up and monitoring digital marketing campaigns, so they outsource this job to expert teams like Systemato.
We help create Google Ads campaigns that can bring your business to the screen of “a customer with an itch”, that is literally anyone who might have an interest right now in your business, and the products or services you offer.
And no, you don’t have to spend a fortune to benefit from Google Ads. Most companies start with small budgets, which they increase gradually and only when they have concrete results from their marketing efforts.
If nobody clicks on your ads, then you don’t have to pay either.
Common misbeliefs about Google AdWords abound, especially in Malta where expertise in this platform is still somewhat scarce. We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve heard people say:
- “It’s just a scam.”
- “It costs a lot of money.”
- “It won’t work for me.”
Does that sound familiar in anyway? It’s time to bust these myths and see how a decent Google Ads campaign can grow your business, find more clients, and sell more products.
Before you read further!
Three core Google Ads principles to remember
#1 Set the right campaign goals
The ultimate economic goal of running a business is to increase revenue, so a Google Ads campaign should serve this purpose too. Therefore, when planning a campaign it is crucial to understand how a campaign fits your business model and develop advertising, next actions and landing pages accordingly.
Let’s say you manage a hairdressing salon. Your clients will obviously not pay through your site, but they are likely to call to make an appointment or send a message through a contact form. This means all your campaign content, including ads and landing page, should be designed to lead your customers into complete these specific actions, and nothing else.
#2 Set the right budget: understanding supply and demand
When a large number of advertisers are competing to reach the same audience or group of potential customers, each click to bid on a particular keyword will become more expensive.
To generate results from your efforts, you’ll need to commit to a minimum budget. This is the first hurdle many business fail to clear: expecting big (or any) results from a budget that is inadequate for their needs. For a market where the average cost per click is around $1, for example, a $200 per month Google Ads budget will not likely generate significant results.
To estimate the right budget, one needs to estimate the average percentage of website visitors who take action, such as contacting you or making a purchase. This is your conversion rate, and a rate of 5%, where 5 visitors from 100 take action, then you can expect a similar result from a Google Ads campaign. This means a budget of $200 will probably get about 5 customers to contact you.
Careful calculations are needed to estimate the ROI of a Google Ads campaign based on how much profit your business makes from each customer. If $200 nets you 5 clients, and your business earns $200 in revenue from each, then the campaign generates 5x your initial investment.
#3 Target the right people at the right time
The cruel truth is that nobody thinks or cares about your business or products until it’s the only thing that can solve a painful problem they have, or offers a fresh alternative to something that is getting out of fashion.
Advertising to people who currently have no interest in what your business offers isn’t going to generate positive results, therefore for a campaign to be successful it is crucial to define the right audiences and customer personas. You should target:
- “people who want to buy a scooter” and not just “motorsport fans”
- “people who want to translate their official documents” and not just “people who looked for Google Translate”
Why Google Ads can be the best advertising method for you
Be in full control of the campaign
Understanding the above 3 principles, it is easy to see that the efficiency of a Google Ads campaign directly depends on how you define your business goals, how much you can spend, and how accurately you can define your potential customers.
This is a significant advantage compared to traditional advertising methods like Yellow Pages, classifieds and flyers.
Extremely cost efficient
With Google Ads it is easy to generate millions of ad views with minimal ad spend. It is an amazing way to build brand awareness among your target markets – in a way that no other advertising methods is quite capable of doing so as efficiently.
The bottomline is: if your product is right and your campaign is properly configured, then Google Ads can generate qualified leads and customers at a surprisingly low cost.
