Google Ads is a paid online advertising and marketing platform from Google (or ecosystem). By using the platform, you’ll be able to set up a dynamic mix of online ads that target different parts of your target audience.
You can bid on relevant keywords or terms to make it more likely that your ads will be shown to the right customers at the times when they are most likely to interact with your brand. You can run your campaigns and make your ads in one place, and the platform’s built-in analytics tools let you keep track of how well they are doing.
Google Ads should be a big part of your paid marketing strategy if you want to get more people interested, raise brand awareness, and make more sales.
Tip: A recent change to Google will stop businesses from using cookies to track customer information.
Why do I need Google Ads?
Google Ads has options for businesses of all sizes, with different budgets, advertising goals, and target audiences. Digital marketers can get a lot out of the service:
- It reaches a lot of people. Google is now the first place people go when they have a question. Some of these questions could be answered by your business in a helpful way. When you advertise on Google Ads, relevant searchers are more likely to find you, click on your ads, and convert
- It’s easy to figure out how to use. Everything is clear and easy to understand with Google Ads.
- It helps you build brand awareness by making sure people see and hear your brand name. This, in turn, helps to build trust.
- It makes it easy to keep track of multiple client accounts in one place.
- It lets you put limits on your daily budget so you don’t have to spend more money than you want to. You can choose how much to spend, and you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Check out What is PPC Marketing?
How do you use Google Ads to Advertise?
Now that you know what Google Ads is and why you should use it, let’s look at how to advertise on it.
Step 1: Get to know the Basics
Before you start making your ads, you should learn the basics of the platform. By learning the platform’s basic processes and functions, you will have a better chance of choosing key terms, setting parameters, and making content that will resonate with your target audience and give you a consistently good return on investment (ROI).
Step 2: Create an Account
Most of the time, it’s best to start with a manager account, which is free and lets you create several child accounts within it. Even if you only need one child account at first, you may need a second or third one later on. The manager account makes it easy to add these.
To make an account for Google Ads manager:
- Click on this link: https://ads.google.com/home/tools/manager-accounts/
- Click Set up a Manager Account and do what it says.
- Use your Gmail address to sign up.
- Note: You can’t set up a manager account with an email address that is already used for another Google Ads account. It has to be an email address that doesn’t belong to a Google Ads account. The best way to set up your manager account is to use a new email address. Then, instead of linking your other Google Ads accounts to your email address, you can link them to your manager account.
- You can add as many new child accounts as you need for your Google advertising.
Step 3: Finding Keywords to Target
Targeting the right keywords is a crucial part of knowing how to advertise on Google effectively.
Using the platform’s Keyword Planner Tool, you can:
- Find out how often specific keywords and phrases are searched for.
- Find out how much it will cost you per click to bid on specific search terms for your Google Ads.
- Find new keywords and phrases that could work well in your advertising campaigns and have a big impact on your target audience.
Step 4: Decide what kind of Ad you’d like to Run.
The next step in setting up Google Ads so that it works well is to decide what kind of ad you want to run based on your marketing goals.
Here is a quick guide to help you make a choice:
- Search: Text ads on the search results page
- Video: Video-based ads on YouTube and Google search result pages
- Shopping: Product listings, usually displayed in a carousel at the top of a Google search results page
- Display: Image-based ads or ad-based content displayed on websites, apps, and platforms across Google’s extensive Display Network
- Discovery: Highly visual ads displayed on user feeds across the Google Display Network
- Local: Google ad content that is served to highly-targeted regional audiences
Step 5: Strategize on Budget and Bidding Strategy
You need to choose the right bidding strategy to get the most out of each of your ads.
You can place bids on Google Ads by hand or by using the platform’s automated bidding feature.
If you have a small advertising budget, you should use a manual bidding process so you can set a firm limit on your cost-per-click (CPC). But if you want to save time and optimise your ads across multiple campaigns (and your budget is a little more flexible), automated bidding could give you great returns. Just remember that running your ads will cost you more if you use automated bidding.
Step 6: Creating the Ad
This is the part of our “How to Do Google Ads” guide where we talk about making the actual content. If you want to make ads that stand out and get people to act, you should plan to:
Write a good headline with relevant keywords and call-to-action phrases.
Make body copy that lists the USPs, is conversational, fits the voice of your brand, and gets people to click through.
Include high-quality images, graphics, or videos that bring the product, service, or event you’re promoting to life. Remember: When making your Google Ads, you should think about who you’re talking to so that your ad reaches the right people.
Step 7: Get your site’s Landing P:age Ready
When someone clicks on your ad, the place they end up must be just as interesting and useful as the ad itself. Your landing page should do what your Google Ad says it will do and add to what it says.
Not only should your landing page have the same brand and voice as your ad, but it should also be set up to give users the best possible experience.
Did you know? Your landing page only gives you eight seconds to make a good first impression. So, it’s important to set it up right.
To set up your landing pages effectively and increase your conversion rates, Check out our website for more information.
Step 8: Test and Improve the Ads
Last but not least, you should always test your ads to learn how to improve them for the best results in the future.
A/B testing is one of the best ways to find out which versions of your ads work best.
A/B testing is a way to compare two versions of the same ad content, but with some small changes. By doing this, you can see which parts of your ad work best and adjust it accordingly.
Our A/B testing lesson will tell you everything you need to know to get your Google Ad campaigns set up and start optimising them.
Ad group testing is yet another powerful way to test and improve your ads. With this quick and scalable way to test, you’ll be able to compare your ads and find out which content works best in each ad group. Google’s own guide to testing ad groups is a helpful tool that will show you how to do it.
Do you want more traffic?
See How We Can Get You More Traffic.
Do’s and Don’ts when running your Google Ads
Now that you know how to set up and run a Google Ads campaign, we’ll tell you what to do and what not to do.
Do
- Make sure your landing page matches your ad and does what it says it will do.
- When using generic keywords, make a long list of words to avoid.
- When you can, use geographic targeting.
- Use a keyword planner tool
- Check, measure, and improve your work.
- Keep track of how many sales you make and use themed ad groups.
Don’t
- Choose broad keywords that have nothing to do with your ad campaigns.
- Try to bid higher than your competitors without a plan.
- Send people to a generic page or your homepage instead of a sales page or landing page.
- Choose your keywords based on how often people search for them.
- Don’t write or make ads without thinking about who you want to reach.
