With the latest rollout of Google Ads updates, small business owners (as well as ad managers) can easily dive right into running PPC campaigns, even with very little experience or technical know-how.

The business landscape has changed significantly these last several months, with many brands turning online to boost their presence among leads and customers.

Not only has consumer purchasing behavior drastically changed, but the entire world economy has also been affected, forcing businesses to rethink their overall strategy when it comes to marketing and operations.

So for those looking to do some paid-per-click advertising, Google Ads is a top choice. Even before the pandemic, around 65% of SME’s are already investing in online ad campaigns, with almost 3 out of 4 of these small-to-medium-sized businesses putting down money for Google Ads.

Whether you’re new to Google Ads or you’re taking a crack at it after a while, you’ve fortunately come at the right time– Google Ads updates had recently rolled out making the advertising platform much simpler, more efficient, and easier to manage.

Why Should I Get Into Google Ads?

There’s a reason why Google is the online tech giant it is today. Google has massive reach. The juggernaut search engine processes over 3.5 billion searches a day or over 40,000 search queries per second.

If only you can direct a small fraction of these search queries to your company website via your ad, then the resulting traffic can give you a much-needed boost in terms of new leads (and hopefully, new conversions!)

Why should you be investing in Google Ads for your business? Because other businesses have already been advertising on Google. 

In 2017, the folks over at Clutch.co have done a survey of small business owners and managers all over the country. In addition to investing in their own SEO efforts, more small businesses are also increasing investments in pay-per-click advertising. 65% of businesses surveyed will start or continue to engage in PPC campaigns, up from just 40% the previous year.

PPC offers some of the most competitive tools for building brand awareness, increasing website traffic, and driving purchases, in-store visits, leads, and phone calls.

It is for this reason that online advertising– Google Ads, in particular– that make it attractive for small-to-medium-sized businesses of all kinds.

Remember: SEO and PPC goes hand in hand. While it takes time for your brand to reap the benefits of good SEO, you can get a boost of traffic and leads right away doing your PPC advertising with Google Adwords.

Google Ads is just one form of pay-per-click advertising. Depending on your growing business’s needs, you may also want to invest in online ads on other search engines, social media networks, and even sites like Amazon and eBay if you need to. You can read more about PPC advertising here, “A Handy Beginner’s Guide to Understanding PPC”.

How Do Google Ads Work: A Review

To understand how Google Ads works, it’s important to understand how Google’s search engine works.

You see, with Google, it always starts with a person. This person has a thought or an idea, and they have a question of something they want to search on Google.

So what do they do? They go to Google to try to get this question answered or somehow get this pain point solved. And when people search on Google, this is now your opportunity to showcase your company– your products and your services– which provide the solution to this person’s problem.

Now, within Google there’s what’s called the organic results: these are the entries that Google puts in the search results for free because it’s just really high quality, genuinely helpful content.

But Google also puts at the top of the search results these paid ads. And the way to get to the top of the search results on these paid ads is through the Google Ads platform (used to be called Adwords but it’s since changed its name to Google Ads).

So that’s what Google Ads is all about: to get to the top of the search results on Google you have to pay.

The best way to get into Google Ads is to start using it. Run a quick campaign on your own, do a bit of experimentation, and use what you’ve learned with a few new ads for your growing business.

New Improvements For Business Owners

With the rollout of new Google Ads updates, PPC campaigns on Google are not just easier to develop and implement, they’re also designed to improve the overall advertising experience.

Business owners and ad campaign managers today will find a shorter learning curve and perhaps a more fulfilling time running ads on the platform.

Now Optimized For More Conversions

It used to be that one keyword can lock out thousands fo potential leads looking for the same thing but just using a different keyword.

With the new update, phrase match and broad match modifiers now show results for the same meaning variants. Your keywords will be now be triggered by their synonyms, increasing your number of clicks (and conversions) on the same keywords.

So if someone types in a query for the keyword “recreational vehicle”, your ad will also be triggered by similar terms such as “RV” and “mobile camper”, among others.

Improved Audience Reach

The new Google Ads updates also now broaden your audience reach to include what is known as Affinity audiences and In-market audiences.

• Affinity audiences are audiences who have an interest in a particular topic. If an internet user searches for a quad bike or an ATV, for example, then they’re very likely to have an interest in off-road vehicles. This means you can also sell them similar vehicle types.

• In-market audiences are audiences actively searching for a product or service similar to yours. It focuses on a user’s previous purchasing intent. This means you can now reach new prospects with similar behaviors to users you are already targeting.

A Machine Learning Algorithm

With machine learning, Google Ads allows for more automated campaigns with the goal of improving your overall campaign performance (and thus, better results).

Google’s machine learning algorithm takes a number of factors into consideration, including user location and even their previous search behavior. Through the use of location insertions, countdown customizers, recommendations, and much more, users are served more relevant ads.

Smart Campaigns

Google Ads just became more user-friendly with smart campaigns. Even if you’ve had little (to no) experience with paid search, you can quickly create ads through an automated process and launch them just as easily.

All you need to do is give Google Ads a budget and let it take care of the rest. Smart campaigns rely on Google’s machine learning capabilities to drive results, saving you precious time and thereby allowing you to get back to running your business (rather than spend more time refining your PPC campaigns).

Other Improvements

Further updates to Google Ads allow for better ways and more options for you to manage your search marketing campaigns.

• New Google Ads API’s (application programming interfaces) now allow you even more options to automate your account management, manage ads according to inventory, and further refine your smart bidding protocols.

• The performance planner helps you better manage your ad spending, allowing you to adjust depending on how the market is performing.

• The ability to manage multiple ad accounts.

• The new lead form ad extension helps improve your conversion rates.

• Additional security features.

A Final Word About The Latest Google Ads Updates

For many businesses, advertising on Google is a cost-effective means to do online marketing. Google AdWords lets you choose your budget and bids, as well as change them at any time.

The best way to get into Google Ads is to start using it. Run a quick campaign on your own, do a bit of experimentation, and use what you’ve learned about Google Ads (from all your time on those tutorials, reviewing guides, and reading articles like these).

If you’re looking to do more with your PPC campaigns and digital marketing, get in touch with our team here at LOJO Marketing. We work best with small-to-medium-sized businesses, bringing 20 years of experience and expertise to better suit your brand’s growing needs.