Surely you’ve done many searches on Google and the first thing you’ve seen are the promoted ads. And many times you have been interested in the products or services offered. Well, this is one of the types of campaigns that can be performed in Google Ads.
We know that this is one of the most used ways to reach customers, so if you want to get visits and better results, you are in the right place. Keep reading and you will learn all the details about Google Ads and how to use it and its strategies.
Summary
- Google Ads is a Google advertising service to create campaigns and reach potential customers. They can be text, images, or videos.
- The advertiser will only be charged if the user clicks on our ad. The main advantage is that it does not require a minimum budget to invest.
- Before carrying out the campaign, we must research our market. Specify the keywords, know what niche we want to target, and establish what our objectives will be.
What you need to know to use Google Ads in your business
Google Ads is a very popular product nowadays. Let’s know what it is, its features and how we can use it to promote our products. Next, we will tell you more information about this Google tool.
1. What is Google Ads
It is an advertising service offered by Google. These ads reach users who are interested in your product or service through various channels at the exact moment. Until recently, this service was called Google Adwords (1).
Google ads can appear as text, images, banners or videos, both in web searches and on YouTube.
Now that we have defined it, let’s know what types there are. Depending on the campaigns we want to carry out, we will find the following:
- Search campaigns:
These are the ads that appear on the Google results page when we search for a product or service. When you publish your ad, it will appear in the results every time the search is related to the keyword of your business. They are the most used.
- Display campaigns:
They are those that advertise on third parties, platforms, applications, or Google websites, as well as Google properties, mainly Gmail and YouTube. These two channels are the most used in these display campaigns. Due to the variety of ads, we can be more creative. On the other hand, we can promote ourselves through remarketing. Technique in which we show personalized ads to our users while they are browsing, after having visited our website.
- Video campaigns:
They are to promote your products through videos. Those that have been previously uploaded to YouTube, can be shown later on different platforms or websites. It can generate great visibility for our brand (2).
2. How Google Ads works
Google Ads is mainly based on keywords. If you want to advertise your product, you will have to start thinking about which audience you want to reach and which keywords you want to add to achieve it (3).
We will also have to decide which geographic area to focus on, the day, and the specific times we want to publish our ad, as well as age, language, gender, or budget. Finally, on what type of device we want to publish it. To know these details, we must first define our buyer persona (4).
Ainhoa Julián – Digital Marketing Consultant: Knowing what your client needs is the basis of everything, all your marketing efforts should revolve around this axis.
Therefore, we will have a bidding system among all those advertisers who have campaigns with similar keywords. The moment a user makes a search with one of your keywords and clicks on your ad is when you will be charged.
Depending on the type of keyword we want to choose for our ad, we will have to pay more or less, depending on the competition we have. The ones shown in this graph have been the most expensive in the last few years.
Find more statistics at Statista
3. Advantages of Google Ads
If you have come this far, you can imagine that promoting your products through Google Ads has many advantages. At the same time, we are going to know some disadvantages that you should take into account when investing in this product.
Advantages:
- Segmentation. This will allow you to focus your ads on a specific type of audience.
- Easy to use. To create a Google Ads account you will not have to be an expert, although you will have to spend time learning about its possibilities.
- No minimum investment. You decide how much you want to invest in this type of campaign. In addition, you will only pay if they click on your ad (5).
- Campaign analysis. They are very valuable to control the follow-up of our campaign, to see if we are achieving the objectives or if any changes have to be made
- Immediate results. What we want is to get visits in the short term, and results can be seen very quickly.
Disadvantages:
- Investment of time. You will have to invest time to know the tool and be able to optimize it.
- Competition. There are more and more advertisers for the same product looking for the same potential customers
- Web page. For a better result, it is recommended to have a landing page with good usability that attracts the customer (6).
- Investment of money. To get the best positions you have to bid with the rest of the ads, which requires an investment, with no guarantee of success.
4. How much does a click cost in Google Ads
What does CPC mean in Google Ads?
CPC stands for cost per click, that is, the value we give for each click that a user makes on our ad, and accesses our website.
In most cases, the actual cost per click is much lower than the maximum cost paid per click.
This happens because Google Ads works as an automatic auction in real-time. The advertiser who is willing to pay the most for their ad is the one who gets that position.
We can see the variation in the average cost per click of Google Ads, so every year advertising has a tendency to be cheaper.
How is the cost per click calculated?
There is no set price per click in general. Knowing what cost applies for each one, will depend on your company and the value you want to give to each of your sales and a potential customer (7).
CPC = total investment/number of clicks
If you have doubts about what value to assign to each click according to our keywords, there are websites that can help you like SEMRush or GoogleAds tool.
5. How to pay in Google Ads
What is the minimum cost in Google Ads?
You choose the budget you want to invest in. There is no minimum budget, so you can start with a small campaign. However, it is recommended that the ad is active for at least 30 days, to see results and analyze them. The less you invest, the longer it will take to get results and the harder it will be to measure results.
Can I advertise on Google Ads for free?
Google Ads allows you to create an account for free, easily, and quickly. Although, if we want to publish an ad, unfortunately, it will not be completely free, we must make a previous investment. However, as we have already mentioned, we will only be charged if the user clicks on our ad.
6. Step by step to create your first Google Ads campaign
If you are interested in running Google Ads campaigns, let’s learn how to create an account. We must have a website and a company email to be able to register. These are the steps you must follow:
7. Free courses on ‘Google Ads Basics’
If you want to learn the basics of Google Ads for free, you will find many courses on online platforms or academies. In case you want to get a certificate, sometimes you will have to pay for it.
For this reason, we recommend Google’s own website, which offers courses of all kinds. Among them, there are courses on the basics of Google Ads. This website is called Skillshop, formerly called Academy for Ads.
Even if you have already managed a Google Ads campaign, we recommend continuing your training with these courses so that you can improve your skills with this tool. This way, you will get better results.
8. Is Google Ads better than Facebook Ads?
We have to take into account that Google is the most used search engine by our users (about 75%). And Facebook Ads is a social network. Most people use it to share photos or talk to friends, so they are not in search of a product.
Rubén Máñez – Digital Marketing Consultant, a specialist in Facebook and Instagram Ads and sales funnels: Any business that wants to be visible has to invest in advertising. The problem is that many times, the budgets we have are limited. That makes us have to choose between Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Well, ideally, you should invest in both platforms.
Google Ads has a greater scope of attraction on users since they are looking for certain products. On the other hand, it should be noted that running campaigns on Facebook Ads is also a good option since you show users products or services that they are not looking for, but may be of interest to them (8).
Therefore, depending on the approach we want to give to our campaign, we will use one or the other. Although the best is the combination of both. If we only want to use one and your goal is to obtain sales or higher conversion, we will use Google Ads. If we want to increase the database or get more recognition for our brand, we will promote through Facebook Ads.
| Google Ads | Facebook Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of users | 5 billion. | 2.9 billion. |
| Type of advertisements | It only allows text ads on the Google search website. | You can add text, image or video ads. |
| Text limit | In Google search, there is a limit of 30 characters in titles and 90 in descriptions. | It is unlimited. |
| Advertising | Search, Gmail, YouTube, Shopping, Display. | Facebook, Facebook Market, Facebook Messenger. |
| Cost per click | It is higher, but you will only be charged for clicks on your ad. | It is cheaper, and you will only be charged for clicks on your ad. |
| Objectives | Users search to find a product or service. | Users come across ads they are not looking for, need to be persuaded. |
9. In which cases the use of Google Ads does not work
We have discussed the advantages that Google Ads brings. However, we have to take into account that there are particular business cases in which they may not work. Let’s see the reasons why this happens:
- Using very generic or too specific keywords that do not reach a specific niche market or reach too small a niche market that does not provide value.
- Text ads that are not correctly written, making the user not click.
- Promote a price or service that is not competitive if we compare it with the rest of the products in the market.
- Errors in our landing page make the user not feel attracted by the offer and leave your website.
- Poor campaign management. You have to spend time investigating what your campaign needs. If you do not have advanced knowledge of Google Ads, we recommend that you contact managers who can help you optimize it.
- Poor management with your customers. When a user arrives at our website, we must take care of that customer as quickly as possible so that he/she does not go to the competition.
- Too little investment. Due to the great competition in the market, if you do not want to invest, it is very possible that the clicks will be taken by your competitors.
Therefore, there are times when it is not enough just to run a Google Ads campaign, but it will be necessary to complement it with other alternatives if the product needs it. This way we can get more out of it.
Does it also work for small businesses?
We think that this type of campaign is only carried out by medium or large companies oriented to a digital sector. Let’s not be mistaken. This advertising is also very useful for small local businesses.
We can create text ads that can be seen when a search is performed. These ads are targeted to a very specific audience looking for your products. In many cases, it does not require a website, only a contact phone number. On the other hand, you can promote your products on Google Shopping. It is a comparator of products and prices from various online stores. Small businesses can create campaigns to reach a specific niche.
Therefore, Google Ads is a good place for your small business to expand and reach the audience you want through campaigns.
10. Is it worth using Google Ads?
Yes, it is! And we will tell you why. As we have already mentioned, Google is the most used and most popular search engine in the world. Every second, 40,000 searches for different products and services are performed on Google.
Google’s advertising revenue is increasing worldwide. The graph shows the increase over the last year. Therefore, running ad campaigns on Google is still a good idea.
Conclusion
We have seen that Google Ads is one of the most used ways to promote our products or services, for all the advantages it offers. But if you want to get results and be successful, you will have to familiarize yourself with this tool, analyze your results and make the necessary changes.
If you are thinking of carrying out a campaign, do not hesitate and try this complete tool. In addition, you can combine it with any other type of digital marketing strategy to achieve your goals.
