If you are like most business leaders I know, you’re interested in how your business can find its place in the digital space. With that in mind, let’s talk about Google Ads.
One of the things I hear when potential clients reach out is that they notice their business is not in top search results and they want to rank higher. This is a GREAT goal to have! Not very many people look past the first page of results, so if you aren’t there, you are missing out on a lot of eyeballs.
I’m a fan of investing in Google Ads as a strategy to move your website higher in search results. To note, the difference between SEO (search engine optimization) and Google Ads is this:
SEO services are a long-term commitment to increase your website’s results by working within your website. While a powerful tactic, SEO services can take 3-6 months in order to start seeing noticeable changes in your rankings.
Google Ads, on the other hand, are a short-term solution. They boost your website higher in the rankings because you pay to play—using keywords within your Google ad to get bots to recognize you. This helps them serve your website up in top results.
A Google ad is an ad made directly in the search engine, so your ad is connected directly to searches being made by people looking for a product or service like yours. What this means is that those people are already warm leads. They are looking to buy what you offer which is why your return on investment can be high with this kind of digital advertising.
FAQS ABOUT GOOGLE ADS
How much do I have to spend on a Google Ad?
Placing an ad is much like bidding at an auction. The more money behind your ad, the higher the chance you win the top ranking. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but most small businesses I work with see best results when spending $500-1,500 a month. Knowing what your competitors are spending on Google Ads is something a good ad specialist will research to ensure your business is bidding above or equal to your key competitors.
How do I know what keywords I should use?
When you consider keywords for your ad, you want to think about how consumers might search for your product/service. Although you are an expert about your business, consumers are not as inclined to use technical terms. You’ll want to think about what the problem/solution is a person might be searching for and ways they might type that into a search engine. A good ad specialist will research those potential keywords and choose ones best fit for your ad based on their actual search volume.
How do I stay within my monthly budget?
You set your budget within your ad account. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. This is called Cost Per Click. If there is a day that your keywords are receiving a lot of hits, Google might serve your ad up to 2x more on that particular day. Then, it will serve it up less on another day. This keeps your ad running for the time you want, within your budget, when it is best to deliver it based on consumer behavior.
Don’t forget your landing page!
Now that we’ve covered some of the things you should know about how to set up your ad, you should also consider where that ad sends people. When placing a Google Ad, the website landing page where the buyer’s journey begins, is important. You won’t want to link just any page on your website. It should be a URL specific to what you are promoting.
One of the first steps when deciding to place your ad is looking at what content exists on your website about what you will promote or if content needs to be created. This is important because Google rewards ads that use similar messaging to what is included on your website.
That messaging matters to how relevant Google considers the ad to be. If Google does not find the connection between your ad’s keywords and the content on your website, your ad’s quality score will be impacted and delivery will suffer.
Plus, if your ad talks about something that is not immediately mentioned on the landing page, people are likely to click off your website. If you recall, Cost Per Click means you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. When people don’t quickly see what they expected, you’ve just paid for them to click and leave.
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