OrbitalAds
Every day, billions of searches are performed on Google. This huge number of searches perfectly demonstrates the amazing opportunity you have at your fingertips… if you know HOW to reach searchers via Google Ads.
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that uses a pay-per-click (PPC) model. Through Google advertising, you will be able to create well-timed and highly-targeted ads for potential customers. It is an effective way to boost your website traffic, achieve sign ups, receive more leads… In other words: increase sales!
However, with so much online demand and competition, it is crucial to understand not only how Google Adwords works, but the best tips and tricks for maximizing your efforts.
How Google Ads works: all about the network and ad auction
Google Networks
The first thing you should know about the Google Ads platform is that it is divided into two different networks:
- Search Network: It displays text-based ads in different locations including Google search results pages, assets like Google Maps and Google Shopping, as well as partner websites.
- Display Network: It displays non-text ads on platforms such as YouTube, Gmail inbox, apps, and thousands of partners sites. It includes banner ads and remarketing.
Below is a visual example of how Google Ads works in action!
Imagine that you need a new bathing suit for the summer and you are online researching your options:
Among the results, you have the Search Network (Google Shopping) promoting bathing suit sites:
If you scroll down, you will see another Search Network tool (Google Maps) indicating locations near you selling bathing suits:
One ad captures your attention, so you click on it:
After clicking on it, the advertiser pays a sum for the click according to their bid amount, thus demonstrating how Google Ads is a pay-per-click system.
And there you have it!
Google Ads Auction
The next thing you need to know is how to rank as high as possible on search engine results pages (SERP). Here’s another crucial Google functionality to help you achieve this: the Google Ads Auction!
The Google Ads Auction system takes place every time a user performs a search and is based on keywords. You need to cultivate a list of keywords relevant to your audience, products, and services that are most likely to be used when someone makes a search query. Then, you bid on keywords depending on how much you’re willing to pay each time a user clicks on your ad. In order to “win” a search, a.k.a. appear among the top results, you should optimize your bid amount and Quality Score, as this determines your ad rank.
Here are some of the factors influencing your Quality Score:
- Relevance of your ad to the search query.
- Relevance of your keywords to your ad groups.
- Landing page offer/messaging is the same as your ad.
- CTR (click-through rate) of your ad.
- Overall account performance.
Now that you have a better understanding of how Google Adwords works, let’s move on to how to maximize your efforts, mainly, creating optimized ads, beating the competition, and achieving better results!
5 tips and tricks to maximize your Google Ads campaign results
1. Choose your Network
You need to consider whether your ads will be displayed on the Search Network or the Display Network. If you are a Google Ads beginner or a small business, it’s probably best to start with the Search Network. Why? It targets people that are conducting searches using keywords relevant to your business, and it will easily place your ads in these SERPs.
On the other hand, the Display Network will display your ads on any available Google site; however, as this network is not query-oriented, your audience won’t be as targeted. The Display Network tends to be better for branding, remarketing, and achieving a low CPC.
2. Define your Target Audience
To develop a proper target audience for your ads, you need to study the profile of your actual customers, fomented by up-to-date market research and Google data. Remember, you should be creating a realistic representation of your ideal customer, backed up by tangible data and trends. Break it down by demographics like their background, age, job or role, their interest in your business, products, and services, their income (a.k.a. ability to actually purchase your products or services), geographical location, and more.
Google helps you narrow down your advertising audience based on this demographic data plus keywords. This way, your ads will only be available to searchers who meet your exact criteria, thus ensuring highly-focused and relevant ads, qualified leads, and an optimized budget.
3. Choose your Keywords Carefully
Probably our most important tip is to generate an extensive list of valuable keywords.
The goal is to identify keywords relevant to your business that potential customers are likely to search for. Keywords are the basis of your Google ads campaigns and must take into account things like search volume, competition, bid, etc. Search volume is of particular importance because it can be tempting to use high-search volume keywords, but this could mean reaching a more generic audience (which might in turn lower your CTR and Quality Score). Moreover, highly-searched keywords are often expensive, so keep an eye on your budget.
Although you can start out with a large audience or broad keywords, it’s crucial to frequently analyze your results and adjust keywords to increase performance. In the long run, it’s better to choose few, highly-targeted keywords that will attract valuable traffic than a large number of keywords that could negatively affect your ad rank.
4. Optimize your Landing Pages
When a user clicks on one of your advertisements, your landing page is the place where they end up. This should NOT be your website home page (unless that’s part of your campaign strategy); a landing page is associated with a particular campaign and has the same messaging and objectives.
A well-designed landing page will help you increase your conversion rate, which not only signals to Google how relevant your ads are, but also helps you obtain more valuable interactions (whether that be sign-ups or sales). Some factors to consider to optimize your landing pages include:
- Focused Landing Pages: Create individual landing pages for each of your offers or campaigns. You don’t want visitors to be confused by a different message than they’re expecting.
- Clear Call-to-Action: The aim of your landing page is to inspire a particular action, so have a clear, obvious Call-to-Action. This can be repeated in your headline, form, button, etc.
- Mobile Friendly: Your landing page must be suitable for mobile devices, given the prevalence of this device nowadays. You’ll ensure a consistent structure and design and avoid confusion and frustration.
5. Control your Budget
Finally, to successfully launch your Google Ads campaign, you must have a clear and well-defined budget so that you know how much you are spending and you are careful not to go over the limit. To define your daily budget, you need to figure out the number of clicks or conversions that you are likely to achieve.
The Google Keyword Planner will offer bid estimations for keywords and clicks, so that you can establish your max cost per click (CPC). Taking into account the average conversion rate for your industry, you can also set your cost per acquisition (CPA), or the amount of money you’re willing to pay for each conversion. Revise your budget daily and use automation to control spending and optimize bidding based on trends.
Now, with a better understanding of how Google Ads works, as well as the top 5 methods for maximizing your efforts, are you ready to take advantage of Google Ads? From the possibilities within the Search and Display Networks, to conquering the ad auction, to optimizing ads and landing pages, Google advertising will no doubt be a great asset for your business.
