Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) can be an effective and cost-efficient way to gain more exposure for your business online and bring in more leads. Search advertising is one of the biggest forms of PPC you can do. And since Google is the biggest search engine out there, Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) is arguably your best option.
If you’re deciding whether to add Google Adwords to your digital marketing repertoire, then read on while we weigh up some of its pros and cons.
Google Ads is a PPC advertising platform run by Google. It allows marketers and business owners to pay in order to reach those coveted top spots in Google’s search results. This is a great way to gain more exposure for your brand and drive more traffic to your website, but it can be hard to wrap your head around at first.
Here are the basics of it: you select which keywords and phrases you want to target for your ads. You then decide how much you are willing to pay to earn an advertising spot when someone searches for those keywords. When someone enters those keywords, the Google Ads platform essentially holds an auction to determine whose ad will appear.
When you first set up a website, it can be very difficult to get people to discover it. Google Ads is a great way to get your website in front of more searchers and attract them to click the link. More visitors to your website equals more brand exposure, more leads, and potentially more sales or sign-ups.
Organically improving your website’s SEO can get you great results, but it takes a long, long time. Think of PPC advertising with Google Ads as a fast-track to the top. It takes some of the toil and guesswork out of SEO.
You don’t just want a lot of people visiting your website, you want the right type of people visiting your website. People that are part of your target demographic and are likely to be interested in what you’re offering. Google Ads has extensive targeting options that give you some control over who sees your ads and when. The keywords you target also play a big part in this, so make sure you do your keyword research.
One of the best things about PPC advertising is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This means that if your ad campaign gets no results (i.e. no clicks), you won’t spend a penny. So, you’re not wasting any money. You also have control over your spending since you decide how much you want to bid for each cost-per-click. Plus, you can set a daily budget and an overall campaign budget to set a limit on your spending.
Google’s monitoring tools give you access to lots of data about your ad campaigns. You can see how many times your ads are being shown, how many people are clicking on them, how much you’re paying per click, and much more. This allows you to assess the success of your ads so that you can tweak them where needed. Monitoring and adjusting your ads is the best way to improve how well they’re performing.
A lot of people are using Google Ads to get their brands seen online. Depending on the industry you’re in and the keywords you’re bidding on, there can be a lot of competition. High competition will make it harder to get your ads displayed on page 1 of Google. It will also make your cost-per-click more expensive if you do win the bid.
Google Ads can be seen as a shortcut to page 1 of Google compared to getting there organically. But it’s still not an instant win. It takes time and effort to craft ads with the perfect copy to draw your audience in. You also need to make sure that the landing page they’ll click through to is optimised to convert visitors. And there’s also the time it takes to set-up and monitor your ad campaigns. If you need help managing Google Ads for your business, find out how we can help.
Although Google Ads is a cost-effective form of advertising, you could still end up wasting your budget. You pay whenever someone clicks on your ad, no matter what action they take next. So, if someone accidentally clicks your ad and then immediately hits the back button, that still counts. If your aim is to get more conversions on your site, then you’ll still be paying for people who land on your site but don’t convert. The trick is to make sure your keywords and ad copy attract the right people and that you optimise your landing page.
If you optimise your website organically for search engines, then you should continue to see good results. But with Google Ads, your results only last for as long as your budget. Once your budget runs out, Google will stop displaying your ads, putting you back to square one. This is why it’s best to combine both paid and organic search marketing to maximise your results.
Another reason not to rely solely on paid social is that some people are averse to clicking on ads online. Some searchers will scroll past ads without even thinking about it, while others might actively choose not to click on an ad. People often trust organic content more than paid content. But bear in mind that you’re still gaining exposure by people seeing your brand name at the top of Google’s results. Plus, you get this exposure for free if they don’t click on the ad.
Do you have any more questions about using Google Ads for your business? Get in touch with the team at Vitty today. We can help you set up and manage your Google Ad campaigns to help you drive more traffic to your website and start making more sales or conversions.