Brisbane Google Ads agency
How Google Ads (formerly Adwords) helps you achieve your marketing goals
Previously known as AdWords, Google Ads is a highly effective way to get more traffic to your business’s website. What’s more, people who reach you via a Google Ads click are generally “searching with intent” – that is, they have an immediate need they’re looking for help with.
It’s one type of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that you should certainly be thinking about using for your business.
Just like newspapers (remember them??) were divided into editorial content and advertising, so too are Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
At the top (if you’re doing it right!) of each page are the Google Ads from businesses like yours – or perhaps your competitors.
At first glance you might find it difficult to tell Google Ads (formerly called Adwords) apart from the organic search results – a tiny green rectangle with ‘Ad’ in it is the only tell-tale sign.
Because the system runs ads in response to the Google keyword searches people use, it’s probably the most targeted form of advertising available to your business. Potential customers are telling you exactly what they’re looking for!
It’s also the most immediate form of advertising. With conversion tracking, you can see exactly what people are doing once they reach your website – and unlike radio or print ads for example, it lets you change and hone your ads in real time and see the results.
It’s certainly worth having in your marketing mix – but of course, there are a few things to bear in mind.
Why aren’t your current Google Ads working?
There are a few potential pitfalls to avoid when setting up your Google Ads campaigns. Most of them have to do with a misunderstanding of how the Google Ads auction works.
The actual position of your ad on the SERPs page is determined by your ad rank (calculated by your Maximum Bid times your Quality Score). The highest ad rank gets the 1st ad position, the next the 2nd position, and so on.
The question is – how do you ensure a good Quality Score for your ads? Well, Google’s stated goal is to offer a worthwhile experience to people who search with them. That means your ads should closely reflect the search term people use; and likewise your landing pages should keep the theme going.
When the Google Ads system recognises a close match between keyword, ad text, and landing page copy, it will assign a high Quality Score – and your ad is in with a great chance of sitting at the all-important top of the page.
So – why aren’t your Google Ads working? It’s quite possible you’re trying to do too much – adding too many keywords and having your Quality Score suffer as a result. After all, you can’t have an ad for every keyword and variation! You’re far better off sticking to ad groups featuring a few tightly curated keywords that match your ad and landing page very well.
What is Google Ads remarketing?
As any good salesperson or sales team knows, any prospect is quite unlikely to buy from you on their very first contact with your business. It’s persistence that gets you the sale – and that’s equally as true in the internet age as it ever was.
Google Ads remarketing (also known as retargeting) allows you to reach out and deliver your advertising message either to people who’ve already visited your website; or even to ‘similar audiences’ who’ve never even heard of you.
The best part is, there’s no cost to your business – until the person clicks through to your website. Your ad can appear on blue-chip media such as major news websites, YouTube, Amazon, and many (many!) more.
Remarketing can be a very powerful tactic to keep potential customers aware of your business and engaged until they’re ready to buy.
What are Google Display Ads?
It’s not just text-only ads to think about. Google Display Ads let you use your business’s images and logos, on the same list of potential sites as remarketing.
Again, you don’t have to pay for media space for display ads. There’s no charge to your business until a prospect clicks on your ad and is delivered to your website ready to find out more – or even buy from you.
Should you consider using Google Ads for your business?
The answer is most probably ‘yes’. Google Ads can help your business:
- Increase website traffic
- Increase the number of leads your website generates
- Grow your sales revenue
- Increase your conversion rate
- Improve the quality of leads you attract, and
- Improve your brand awareness
Setting up your Google Ads campaign
Once you’ve gathered all the necessary information and your Google Ads campaign plan is ready, it’s time to take your campaign live!
You need to set up your Google Ads account so that it attracts exactly the right type of people to your website – and doesn’t make you pay to attract people with a low chance of conversion.
To do this, during your campaign setup you should:
- Search for and analyse keywords using Google Ads Planner
- Estimate the monthly traffic volume and Cost-Per-Click
- Optimise all campaign settings
- Set your maximum daily budget
- Target the exact cities, regions or countries you’d like
- Carefully create meaningful ad groups and keyword lists
- Create and upload your ads (including text, images, dynamic, mobile)
- Schedule your ads to appear at the right time of day
- Set keyword bids and match types
- Create Ad Extensions (such as phone, sitelinks, address, call-outs, snippets etc.)
- Research your first negative keywords
- Implement conversion tracking
Making sure you have all these pieces in place can not only give your ads a better chance of receiving a click; it can also save your business a lot of wasted money.
What to look for in a well-structured Google Ads campaign
While anyone can get started using Google Ads fairly quickly and easily, caution is advised. It’s not enough just to set up your campaigns and then forget about them. That’s a great way to send a great deal of money spiralling down the drain!
There are many small but crucial settings to get right, and tasks to perform regularly, to give your campaigns the best chance of success. Your ad groups will need careful oversight, testing, and fine-tuning to ensure they bring your business the best results.
At a minimum, monthly management of your campaign should include:
- Measuring key indicators such as Click-Through-Rate (CTR), Quality Score (QS), and conversion rates to see what’s working – and what isn’t
- Keyword and extension management
- Testing new keywords, ads, and landing pages to improve profitability
- Testing of new ads and landing pages
- Keeping an eye out for changes to landing pages which mean ad clicks don’t land anywhere meaningful
- Results analysis
- Campaign reporting
- Analyse and optimise your landing pages and website sales funnels
What is a Google Ads partner, and why should you look for one?
A certified Google Ads partner agency can manage your business’s account for you – potentially bringing you significant benefits.
Google Partner agencies get access to special training and events that bring them up to speed with the latest research and innovations from Google – features you might not be aware of. They’re also the first to be granted access to new Google Ads developments and features, which can give your business a potentially crucial break on your competition.
Look for the Google Partner badge to identify a potential agency partner for your business. It’s a sign that some of the agency’s employees have passed their exams and earned their certification. It also shows that the agency has met Google Ads spend requirements (a sign that they know what they’re doing), delivered client revenue growth (always a great thing), and sustained and grown their client base (showing you’re in good company).
For a no-obligation chat about your Google Ads account, call 3891 3800 and speak to the Crockford Carlisle team today, or get in touch with us online.
Google Ads FAQs
Is Google Ads only search ads?
No! Along with your text-only search ads, you can make use of Google Ads’ many other ad types, such as display ads (the banners you find on websites), remarketing ads, YouTube (banners and video), and Gmail ads.
Do campaigns need management & optimisation every month?
Absolutely – your Google Ads campaigns need regular optimisation and management to make them work better over time, and allow you to expand on them.
As part of this process, you’re well advised to create new ads to test, look at what people are searching for and add keywords, pause the ads or keywords that aren’t working, add negative keywords, and check to make sure your budget is adequate.
Without this regular optimisation and oversight, your results will begin to decline as other more proactive advertisers overtake you.
“Clever ideas for nurturing more potential leads”