Previously known as Google AdWords, Google Ads is a powerful tool for effectively marketing your business. As with many marketing tools, it can be misconstrued as something only used by businesses with deep pockets and lot’s of resources and not something relevant to SMEs.
However, this is not the case. GoogleAds for small businesses can be highly-effective for businesses of all sizes. They can be targeted to the right type of customer within a specific geographical area offering a return on investment for any size enterprise.
What are Google Ads?
GoogleAds is a form of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising. This works by charging businesses a small amount each time someone clicks on one of their ads. The click cost can vary depending on the word you are targeting. These ads are shown on Google search results pages, right at the top, which places your business directly in front of potential customers.
Where you appear in the paid search results depends on how much you ‘bid’ to appear (i.e. your budget) but is also determined by the quality and relevance of your website to that particular search. Therefore, it isn’t just about your budget but also the quality of your website and ad that influences how much you will pay.
GoogleAds have a great deal of flexibility on the copy used in your search results. You can determine which sitelinks appear as well as other features such as star ratings. Because the ads can be tailored so that they are shown to a specific selection of people, GoogleAds is a very attractive and effective marketing channel for small businesses.
Your audience
For GoogleAds to work best for small business owners they need to be optimised. When set-up correctly , they can quickly become a profitable digital marketing tool for your business.
GoogleAds are one of the more powerful tools owing to the level of customization that is available for them. You can directly target the right demographic of potential customers for your business as part of the optimisation.
Let’s look at an example;. A local furniture retailer is looking to attract a higher conversion rate. They can specify which areas to advertise in and also attach keywords to narrow down which searches they will appear in. This means only the people searching for “Local furniture” (in your specified area) will show up.
Another way to tailor GoogleAds is to create individual ad campaigns which target different groups of people. For example, your business may have a new offer for over 50s, or you might be running a student promotion. You can directly target them when you show your ads to these specific demographics.
It’s so important that you carefully target your ads because you are charged each time someone clicks on them. If you don’t optimise your ad properly it can lead to unnecessary spending and a less positive result for your efforts.
Tracking results.
GoogleAds lets you track your results with its analytics toolkit. You can track data such as clickthrough rate, ad spend, and conversion rate from your GoogleAds analytics. One of our favorite features is that it’s possible to run A/B tests to see which version of an ad is performing best for you. The main benefit of these PPC ads is that through the analytics toolkit, you can track your return on investment with great accuracy.
For a small business understanding this is so important. Seeing the amount you spend on Google ads can allow you to tailor the service to work for you in the best way possible. You can work out how much revenue is generated from each click IE a £0.20 click could turn into a £3,000 conversion of work.
Caution with GoogleAds
We have discussed the benefits and power of GoogleAds however, Google makes it very easy for you to spend a large amount of money extremely quickly without bringing you much value. This happens if your campaigns have not been set up correctly which is why it’s vital to work out your marketing budget and ads budget and set up the necessary controls and reporting to avoid overspending.
With this in mind you might be wondering if Google Ads are actually worth it for your business? We’re confident to say that the answer is, still, YES.
And finally…
Here at The Digital Studios we have a wealth of experience in setting up and running successful Google Ads campaigns. We know how to make them work within a set marketing budget to bring your company the best results possible.
We can work with you to understand what you need and tailor the service to boost your incoming traffic from the day the ads begin to run.
If you would like more information about how we can set up and run Google Ads to put your business directly in front of potential customers please get in touch.
