Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Google AdWords is an online advertising platform that recognizes key words in a Google search, an
d displays advertisements relevant to that search. One of the biggest benefits of using this platform is it is a Pay-Per-Click model, meaning you are able to control your budget because you will only be charged when someone clicks on your advertisement. Many businesses use this platform because of the simple fact that if anyone searches a topic relevant to your business, your product advertisements will be in front of them. Paid advertisements can be displayed at the top of the search results, bottom of the search results or to the side of the search results. The most effective advertisements grab your attention and prove that they meet your needs.
Google is also able to link your advertisements to websites that have relatable content to whatever you are selling
When you use AdWords, you are gaining access to the Google Network. It reaches more than 80% of all Internet users worldwide in more than 30 languages and 100 countries (Brad Batesole, 2018). Aside from advertisements being shown when the search results are displayed, Google is also able to link your advertisements to websites that have relatable content to whatever you are selling. Imagine being on a baking website reviewing different recipes, and seeing a banner ad for a 25% discount on the newest Kitchenaid bread maker. This function is part of the Google Network, called the Display Network.
The most popular ad types are:
- Text ads
- Ads with extensions
- Responsive ads
- Shopping ads
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Call only ads
Text ads are the most effective and easiest to set up.
Benefits of using this platform:
- Everybody is on it.
- The ability to target your ads, you can customize who will see your ads, when they will and where they will. Also, on which device they are using.
- Control your budget, no minimum amount you have to spend.
- Easily measureable, Google tracks every action for you.
- Easily manageable and easy to monitor for free.
Before Getting Started
Figure out what your business goals are before getting started. Your goals should be objective, specific and relevant. Pretend you own a massage clinic. Your goal should include a clear objective, for example to increase phone calls. You want the audience to be motivated to call you or visit your business. The effort is to book new massage clients, and it should be specific and measurable, such as booking 15 new massage clients in January.
Your goals should be objective, specific and relevant
Your advertisements should be focused on what your product is and how it can be delivered to the consumer. Successful businesses focus on specific campaigns for specific products, not a broad ad that is focused on all your products. Next, you want to define your customer by developing three to four personas that you think would be likely to search for your product. By personifying them, you are able to give them real life attributes and life situations as if they are real individuals shopping for your product. This will help you to ensure the specific ad campaign you are designing includes the right information to reach the broader side of your target audience. It is also effective to create a persona for each product, as this will help you to begin to create a refined targeting for your advertising campaigns (Brad Batesole, 2018).
Remember to set realistic expectations with your ad campaigns. Typically, the first couple months will be rough because you are figuring out what works and what doesn’t work. After refining your campaigns throughout the first couple months, the third month is when you should start seeing some positive results.
Getting Started with AdWords
Getting started with Google AdWords is extremely easy and straightforward. Simply visit adwords.google.ca and hit the Start Now button. Now, follow the steps carefully and you’ll have an AdWords account! If you already have a Google account for a separate service, it will pre-load your information and make it even easier to get started. The interface is very straightforward to use and navigate once you’ve run some campaigns. All the relevant information and data for each campaign will be at your fingertips, making it easy to refine and change if necessary. There is a substantial amount of data produced, however. If you are unsure about using AdWords, because lets face it, it can be complicated, there is another option available. AdWords express is a service that is a limited version of AdWords. Think of it as a test pilot for using AdWords, you simply design the campaign, and Google does all of the managing, measuring, key search word analysis etc.
Researching Your Keywords
it is imperative to use language that your personas are most likely to use
Keywords will be the main method of attracting your customers when using AdWords. Keywords are words or phrases that are used to match your ads with the terms people are searching for (Brad Batesole, 2018). Remember how we discussed designing personas for our target audience? Now, it is imperative to use language that your personas are most likely to use. In order to generate a deeper reach or impression, you would use common keywords rather than euphemisms. For example, an individual may search Google for “fancy watches for sale.” As the owner of a jewellery store, I would use the keyword(s) “fancy, watches” so my paid ad would be displayed when that search is performed. Although on my website I would refer to them as “luxury timepieces,” it is extremely unlikely that the general public would use that same terminology. You must know what your personas are calling your products and services and use those phrases as keywords to ensure your targeting is specific and the right people are seeing your ads. Research and identify keywords and phrases for each campaign you are running. Take your time, as keywords are one of the most essential elements to this process (Brad Batesole, 2018). You can also include keywords that relate to other areas of your business. If you own a painting business next to your local stadium with a nice sized parking lot, you could use “stadium parking” as a keyword that can drive traffic to your ads. You are now extending your reach beyond your targeted audience. It is also a good idea to look at your competitor’s keywords, so you are able to differentiate yourself and make your ads standout from theirs. To ensure success when researching keywords, use Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner.
Five keyword options to focus on are (Brad Batesole, 2018):
- Broad match
- Broad match modifier
- Phrase match
- Exact match
- Negative match
Creating Your First Campaign
The first step in creating your campaign is to open up Google AdWords and choose a campaign type. There are several to choose from, ranging from search and display to videos. The most common is search and display. The reason for that is your ads will show up throughout sites on the search network. Remember to utilize the keywords you determined in the last section! When working out the details of the campaign after choosing the type, you must name it and also indicate the details from the goals you set previously. Now, you will select your audience. You will do this by selecting which location(s) you want to reach. If you owned a bed and breakfast in Banff, you might want to choose an audience that is within driving distance. I would make my ad accessible to all of Alberta and BC. If I owned a luxury hotel in France, I’d want my PPC ad to be seen in Google searches across Europe and North America, in fact, worldwide. You can also choose what language it will be in for the appropriate demographic. There are also limitations available, such as limiting your content to devices that are physically in your audience demographic. Next, you want to make sure you do enough research to determine what amount you should bid for your PPC ads. Take into account the profit your business generates, and how much of that profit should be allocated for PPC advertising. Ensure the daily amount you are spending is providing a feasible ROI and generating traffic and sales. Lastly, you want to consider including ad extensions. A few ad extensions that are available are a phone number, address, or price extensions. All of these would be displayed in your ad, for example, if you searched for “north Edmonton Steakhouse,” a restaurant like The Keg may have a PPC ad, headlining their specials, with a phone symbol near the bottom. You call, and make a reservation. From a business perspective, your phone lead generation just went up exponentially! Remember to use as many ad extensions as possible for best results.
Creating Your First Advertisement
Effective ads contain two headlines and a brief description, as well as a website URL
Text advertisements are the most common type of ad you see and will use in the future. Effective ads contain two headlines and a brief description, as well as a website URL. Please see the image below as an example.
(Brad Batesole, 2018)
When designing your first ad campaign, it is very important to focus on headlines that will grab the audience’s attention. By including the keywords you’ve chosen as part of your headline, you automatically make your ad relevant to the audience and drive traffic to your landing page. Make sure your description area includes an offer, such as “20% off this week only,” and an immediate call to action. The call to action should directly match what they will find on your landing page. If you owned a shoe store, you would include a phrase such as “shop now!” When an individual clicks on the call to action, it will bring them to a landing page full of the different styles of shoes you offer. Using AdWords, you can create 3-4 different ads for the same campaign, and Google will rotate them accordingly. These are called ad groups. You can include different keywords and information for each ad group. You are always able to go back into each campaign you’ve designed and modify the settings and make edits, as you feel necessary.
If you owned a shoe store, you would include a phrase such as “shop now!”
Monitoring Your Advertisements
Using the tools available in AdWords, there is a plethora of different ways to monitor your advertisements. When selecting one campaign to monitor, you are able to determine a fair amount of data that will tell you how your ad is performing. You can determine how many clicks it is getting per day, how much it is costing you per day, how many keywords impressions lead to clicks and so much more. You can also create segments, for example, you can determine how much of your audience is clicking on your ad via tablet, smartphone, or desktop computer. Once reviewing the segments, you may realize that most of your clicks are from smartphones; so optimizing your landing page for smartphone capability is probably a good idea. AdWords also has the capability of running reports for your campaign and providing you with data, giving you specific insights on your campaign performance. These reports are even customizable, for example, you can generate reports for the extensions you are using or for the geographic data of a certain area. You can even set them to run during specific time intervals to get even more specific data. It is also very effective to setup a Google Analytics account, and link it to your AdWords account. Although AdWords throws a ton of data at you already, Google Analytics is like a supplementary service that will track the useful data AdWords doesn’t. Lastly, the most important thing to monitor is your ROI. You want to ensure the net profit you are making is greater than the amount you are spending on advertising costs.
Key Optimization Strategies
A fantastic feature of AdWords is that you can test out modifications you are thinking of making to your campaign. Without overhauling the entire campaign, you can test out different keywords or increase your bids, or even modify the placement of your ads. The way you do this is by creating a draft including the modifications, and testing it out on a small group of your original campaign’s traffic. This method allows you to determine if the modifications will prove to be effectively increasing your ROI, or perhaps decreasing the effectiveness. Either way, it will not affect your original campaign, therefore taking out most of the risk associated with reengineering the ad. If your test proves to be profitable, adjust bids accordingly to increase your reach. In AdWords, you can actually make bid adjustments that will automatically increase or decrease how much you want to pay when certain factors are at play. Bid adjustments are effective for optimizing the performance of your campaigns.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Google AdWords is an excellent platform for advertising your products or services. I frequently search Google for different products and services that I am interested in using and now have an understanding of why there are paid ads on every search. I am including a screen grab of a search I performed earlier this week to demonstrate the PPC ads that local business are using to generate leads and drive traffic to their landing pages. I searched for a pre-owned 2014 Dodge Ram for sale in Edmonton Alberta, and this is what it looked like:
Retrieved from https://www.google.ca/search?q=2014 dodge ram for sale edmonton&oq=2014 dodge ram for sale edmonton &aqs=chrome..69i57.5310j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
When I performed this search, I was looking for links to Kijiji.com and Autotrader.ca, but before I was able to find an organic advertisement, I was drawn to the Londonderry Dodge website because of the “Dodge Challenger from $31.9K” line in the description. Although it’s not the car I am pursuing, it is in my budget and peaked my interest. Once on the landing page, I might decide against the Challenger but continue to comb through the inventory for the truck I am actively pursuing. Through using Google AdWords, Londonderry Dodge now has the opportunity to earn my business and generate a revenue and profit.
References
Batesole, B. (2018). Google AdWords Essential Training 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://www.lynda.com/Google-AdWords-tutorials/Next-steps/693109/747559-4.html?autoplay=true
(2018). Retrieved from https://www.google.ca/search?q=2014 dodge ram for sale edmonton&oq=2014 dodge ram for sale edmonton &aqs=chrome..69i57.5310j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
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