Google Ads (Google AdWords) is the custom online advertising platform offered and owned by Google. Originally called Google Adwords. Google AdWords allows ads such as paid advertisements that target that keyword when users search a keyword. This way, they get the results of their query on a search engine results page (SERP).
This service allows you to place advertisements either in plain text format or image format, that will appear around Google search engine results related to your product or service. The Google service is useful in your small business or startup company because of the numerous Internet users who go to Google’s search engine daily.
Maintaining an online business is not easy, especially when you have to compete with big companies around you that have an endless marketing budget fueling their advertising. The race to reach the first page of Google search results is highly competitive. Trying to reach the first page, even with excellent SEO may easily take a long time.
This is where paid ads (PPC) come in. Google AdWords is Google’s advertising service that allows businesses to display their ads on Google’s search result pages. The ads usually appear at the top or bottom of Google SERPs. Using Google AdWords is a common and effective marketing strategy among businesses looking to get their first online customers.
Types of Google Ads (Google AdWords)
Google offers a variety of different campaign types that you can use:
- Email campaign
- Search Campaign
- Display campaign
- Shopping campaign
- Video campaign
- App campaign
How to set up a new Google Ads (Google AdWords) account
1. Create your Google account
To create a Google Ads (Google AdWords) account, you need a regular Google account. If you already have a Google Account (Gmail), use this email address. On the Google Ads page select the email you want to register under. If it’s a personal email address, you might want to create a separate account for your business.
2. Sign up for Google Ads
After creating your Google account, you can proceed to log in to the Google account you just made at the step above and go to ads.google.com. Once you’ve chosen your account, you’ll be shown the first step for setting up a new campaign.
Simply go to the Google AdWords website and sign up with your Google account. If you do not have a Google account, you will have to create one. Worry not, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.
Once you have entered the necessary details, you will land on the following page to create your first campaign. Here you can choose your budget, and target audience, set your bids, and write your ad copy.
3. Set Your Budget
The cost of your specific Google Ads (Google AdWords) varies on several factors. Those factors include the quality of your website how much you’re bidding your target location, and the target audiences. As such, the cost is going to vary from ad to ad. After this, you might need to first understand the Ad Auction system.
The average rate of conversion across industries is 2.35%. This means, on average, only 2.35% of users take the desired action after clicking on an advertisement. Taking into account the average conversion rate for your industry, you can figure out how much you are willing to spend for each visitor. This is also referred to as cost per acquisition (CPA).
On the Google Search engine when a user searches a keyword you’re targeting, the Google AI system automatically jumps into auction mode and compares your Ad Rank with that of every other marketer targeting that keyword. If you think a big ad budget with large maximum bid amounts to rank well, think again. So you might see your Cost-Per-Click bid much lower than your competitor with a big ad budget just because your advertisement was of better quality.
Let your budget be daily as this will ensure you never exceed your expenditure limits. The best way to figure out your daily budget is to first understand the number of visitors that your landing page can convert into customers. If you’re just starting, you can just work with averages.
4. Select Your Target Audience
It also makes sense to target a smaller area if your business is based primarily in one city. Like if you offer physical products or retail in Lagos, you probably wouldn’t want to include Awka in your target.
To select your audience you get to specify the geographical location of your business location target audience. This feature ensures your ad is shown only to users who conduct a search using the keywords you’re bidding for (more on this later) and are present in the geographical location specified by you.
You might be able to choose where you want to target your ad. This can be near a specific address such as a business location. Or it can be broader regions, cities, or zip codes. The more clear and defined about who you’re targeting, the more leads and conversions you’ll be able to make.
5. Set up your first campaign
It is proper to run multiple ads at the same time to focus on various objectives. This can be easily done by running multiple campaigns at once. You can then find out which ones convert best for your business. Once you are done writing your ad, click on the “save” button and continue to the last step of the process. In this section, Google will ask you about your business and payment information. You will be charged when you have exhausted your set budget.
Each campaign will consist of several ad groups. Each ad group will consist of similar keywords, and the landing pages will have a similar theme. For instance, for an electronic appliance store, an ad group may be dedicated to televisions while another dedicated to refrigerators.
However, both the ad groups can be included in the same campaign. The ad groups in a single campaign will share the same budget location and device targeting settings. If you are looking to target multiple locations or devices, you will have to create separate campaigns.
6. Review and Publish
HighJobLink Limited advises you to review your ad campaign once again. Make sure that any issues are well addressed to your liking. If you see that your Google Ad campaign looks good, click Publish.