If you’re running a business, the one thing that’s constantly on your mind is sales. How do I get more sales? How do I get more customers to purchase my products and services? How do I get my old customers to keep coming back?
You might be doing OK right now. And so you wonder, “why should I invest in Google Ads for my brand’s marketing efforts?”
Well, for one thing, sales don’t grow on trees. Sure, you might be doing fine right now. But you’ll never know when you’ll have a bad year for your business.
Advertising on Google is a proactive way for you to reach out to thousands of potential customers on the internet and tell them all about your business, your products, and your services.
Google Ads falls within the realm of PPC, or pay-per-click advertising. Unlike ads on more traditional channels such as broadcast media (like TV and radio), print (newspapers and magazines), or outdoor (billboards and signages), there are a lot of benefits to employing online advertising strategies for your business:
- You can start advertising even with a relatively small ad budget
- Results can be tracked and are easily monitored
- You can do everything on your own if you so choose
- It synergizes very well with your other digital marketing efforts: SEO, content marketing, social media, email marketing, and more.
The Advantage of PPC Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising helps you, your business or your brand gain a lot of visibility online real quick. This upsurge in online visibility translates to more high-quality traffic to your website (or landing page), which in turn can be nurtured as leads down your sales funnel, ultimately converting it into new business.
With PPC, you can quickly build up:
- Brand awareness
- Audience reach
- A pool of hot new leads
- Conversions (from your pool of leads)
- Profits (from your conversions)
SEO can achieve this exact same thing, but it will take you months to rank for the keywords you want, even under the best conditions.
But if you have a bunch of products and services, and you want their keywords to gain traction quickly online, then Google Ads will definitely be the way to go.
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads was introduced in October 2000 as an online advertising platform that allows advertisers to pay for their service offerings and product listings to appear at the top of Google search results and the Google ad network to web users.
There are a number of ways these advertisements can be displayed:
- As text-based search ads
- As graphic display ads
- As video ads
- And as in-app mobile ads
This means advertisers are now given a greater number of options and opportunities to reach their intended target audience.
Why Use Google Ads? (Why Not Bing or Yahoo?)
Search has grown to be so reliable that 86% of consumers now use the internet to find a business (according to Brightlocal’s 2018 Local Consumer Survey).
In addition:
- 72% of consumers prefer to find information on merchants via search
- 29% of consumers search for local businesses at least every week
Of the total search market share, Google owns 71% of all worldwide search. The rest is divided up among smaller search engines (like Bing and Yahoo!, among others) and more regional search engines (like Baidu and Yandex, etc.).
This alone should be reason enough to use Google Ads.
But here’s another interesting fact: 97% of Google’s total revenues come from advertising. Why is this particular bit of information so important?
This highlights the importance of Google Ads to Google as a business.
In the same way, Google has made the search a generally positive experience for any user, we can count on Google to give just as much attention and care in maintaining, developing, and constantly making improvements to its own advertising platform.
Do Google Ads Really Work?
The key to it all is making sure you’ve got your Google Ad campaign properly set up and managed correctly.
Google themselves have reported that businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords.
But what do the businesses say about Google Ads?
According toSearch Engine Watch, there’s a strong indication that Google Adwords actually works: 72% of AdWords marketers plan to increase their PPC budgets. This is an interesting indication that a lot of these businesses have been experiencing positive ROI with their ad investments on Google.
Note, however, that a lot of factors come into play so we can’t be sure of the successful outcome of every AdWords campaign every single time.
Just like any business, there are risks involved, and depending on how you play the game, yes you can get great results, but you can also lose money for any number of reasons.
Where Do My Google Ads Appear?
There are different networks within the entire Google Ad network, but most campaign types are centered around these two:
- The Google Search Network
- The Google Display Network
These networks make up all the possible places where your advertisements can show up. And that includes other Google-owned websites, sites that show relevant Google ads, and even mobile apps.
The Google Search Network
With the Google Search Network, your advertisement can show near search results when someone enters a query with terms related to one of your keywords.
Depending on how you’ve set up your ad campaigns, your ads can show up on:
- The Google search engine results pages (SERPs)
- Search partners, which include smaller search engines such as AOL.
Usually, for smaller budgets, it is recommended that you start off with the Google Search Network.
This method is most likely to drive direct conversions, which means you can also see how effective your PPC efforts are.
The Google Display Network
With the Google Display Network you can place display ads across a vast network of websites all over the internet.
Just how vast is vast?
Google says its Display Network reaches over 90% of global internet users across more than 2 million websites. These sites can include:
- Other Google-owned websites (such as Gmail, YouTube, and others)
- Popular news and media sites
- Blogs of all kinds
- Online forums and marketplaces
You would normally notice these ads on the banners and sidebars of the various websites you’ve been visiting.
How Do I Know Which One To Use?
When running a campaign, the question is: should you use the Google Search Network or the Google Display Network?
Ads on the Google Search Network target more “active searchers”. These are people out on a mission to find some information or a solution to their problem.
Urgency is a big deal. Which means they want their answers right now.
It means these are searchers that are ready to book a service or buy a product. These are the hottest leads you can get– people who are already in that mindset to spend some money.
Meanwhile, ads on the Google Display Network are meant for a more passive sort of user. These are people who might be reading up on their news or favorite blog articles for the day, but the sites they’re on would be running your display ads.
This means they might not necessarily be in that mindset for shopping, but with an enticing enough message, you might just be able to draw them to your site through your ad.
A Final Word
If the prospect of bringing in a steady stream of hot new leads (to nurture and convert into sales) for your business greatly appeals to you– which it should, if you’re a business owner– then PPC is definitely for you.
Google Ads, specifically, has been the top choice among PPC advertisers, mainly for its reach, its many options for ads and promotions, and its ability to scale according to size.
So whether you’re a big, established brand, or a small up-and-coming online startup, or even a brick-and-mortar neighborhood establishment, you can design a Google Ads campaign to achieve whatever advertising goals you might have for your business.
The beauty of Google Ads is that it has somehow democratized the pay-per-click advertising industry: anyone can do it, and anyone can learn more about this further via the extensive resources on their home page.
Take this opportunity to learn more about Google Ads and PPC advertising. Other than the Google Ads center, there are tons more other websites, video channels, books, and other workshops where you can advance your knowledge of online advertising even further.
And if you need any further assistance in pay-per-click advertising– whether it’s developing effective ads, managing and monitoring multiple campaigns, getting your sales funnels set up correctly, among other things– please don’t hesitate to give our team at LOJO a call.
Our dedicated team of digital marketing and online advertising experts are always willing to work with you and your brand’s requirements, and we’ll be happy to make recommendations based on whatever you might need with regards to Google Adwords and PPC.
