Google Ads - A Guide.

Running your business is never easy as you know. Competition for customers can be intense and finding new leads can be challenging. Every business would love to show up on the first page of Google Search results but that can be difficult, even with great Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Many businesses, therefore, chose to turn to sponsored (or paid) ads. Google AdWords is Google’s advertising service that enables companies to place their ads directly on Google’s search results pages.

Google AdWords is a great tool for businesses that are looking to attract more customers on-line. Over the next series of articles, we’ll look at how Google AdWords can work for your business and how Kennedy Wood Marketing can help you implement an effective Google Ad strategy.

To start with, let’s dive into the key reasons that you may want to use Google AdWords for your business.

Advantages of Google AdWords

Target Audience

Google allows your business to display your ads to a specific target audience. Businesses can filter their audience by a number of factors as well as deciding on the time of day at which their ads will be displayed.

For example, if a business is only open during the week from 9am to 4pm, they may only choose to run ads at this time. Careful planning of your ad campaign on Google is required to ensure that your precious ad budget is maximized.

Remember, almost half of all searches are being done on mobile devices with an intent to visit the business within 24 hours. Common searches include “bookstore near me” or “coffee shop near me”. Therefore, a local business can gain an advantage by appearing at the top of the search results via a paid ad using the right keywords.

Target Devices

Google AdWords also allows your business to choose the types of devices on which their ads will be displayed. For example, you can select between mobile devices, tablets and desktop computers.

You can even get more granular by selecting just Windows computers or only phones running iOS. A thorough understanding of your target audience will ensure that you are spending that ad budget wisely.

Pay For Results

One of the biggest advantages of advertising on Google is that your business only pays when a user clicks on your ad. This is known as pay-per-click or PPC. This is a more cost effective way of paying for ads rather than by page impressions (paying when the ad is displayed on a screen).

Tracking Your Ad Spend Performance

Google AdWords allows you to review and analyze the performance of your ad campaigns. For example, you can see how many users both see and click your ad. In addition, you are also able to track which users take the desired action after viewing your website e.g signing up to a mail list or placing an order (this is the conversion rate).

There are a number of other ways to view and evaluate the performance of your ads which we will cover in a future post.

Summary

This article has given you a good overview of why you might want to consider running a Google Ad campaign for your business. While the principles of Google AdWords are fairly simple, there are a number of options to review when you create your first campaign. Campaign set up, tracking and management can take time and it’s important to track your spend and ad effectiveness carefully.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of this topic in this article. In future articles, we’ll look at how to set up your first campaign as well as how to research the all important keywords that will determine when your ad is displayed.

If you would like to know more about how to get started with a Google Ad campaign for your business, please contact us with your details.

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