Google Ads Guide - 2023
Google Ads - How to start advertising on Google
Google Ads are the ads that appear either at the top or bottom of Google. Unlike organic search results, you can pay to appear on Google and only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
One of the main benefits of Google Ads is that you can set a budget and then be up and running on Google relatively quickly. You can test a variety of ads to see which ones work best.
With Google Ads, you can:
- Find new customers and increase sales.
- Optimize your current marketing initiatives for higher returns.
- Market and strengthen your brand.
With Google Ads Display Ads, you can also be seen on a wide range of other sites that Google partners within the form of banners.
Our Google Ads Guide content sections:
What is Google Ads?
So you’ve started your journey into the world of Google Ads. Trust us when we say it can be a little addictive. Given how often Google Ads launches new updates, it can be challenging to keep up with what works and doesn’t.
First, let’s clarify a few terms, and then we can delve into how your business can advertise on Google Ads.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
We first need to define what “PPC” is. You’ll hear a lot about PPC in the world of Google Ads. PPC stands for pay-per-click, a digital marketing model where advertisers pay a fee every time their ads get a click.
In short, it’s a way to buy traffic to your website rather than trying to “earn” those visits organically with traditional SEO, Social Media or online PR.
Advertising on search engines (e.g. Google) is one of the most popular variants of PPC advertising. It allows marketers (like yourself) to bid on ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links section.
One advantage of using PPC as a marketing channel is that it’s much easier to drive traffic to a specific landing page or campaign site. Instead of optimising it and hoping to reach that sought-after first page organically.
Take, for example, this guide you’re reading right now.
Once we’ve finished writing this Google Ads guide, we want more users to find it organically when searching for “What is Google Ads” or “What is PPC”. But we can also bid on these search phrases via Google Ads.
Google Ads is a PPC ad system.
Google Ads is the world’s most popular PPC advertising system and is the go-to advertising platform for anyone who wants to sell anything anywhere in the world.
But not only that, Google AdWords, as it was previously called, allows everyone to drive traffic from Google if they’re willing to pay for it. International, national or local businesses. Anyone can advertise on Google.
So, how does it work?
Google Ads allows businesses to create ads that appear on the Google search engine and other sites within the Google sphere. For the most part, ads are used as a pay-per-click model where marketers bid on keywords and pay for each click in one of their ads.
Each time a search occurs, the sponsored ad space is filled with advertisers bidding on that specific search phrase via the Google Ads platform. Who is shown where is based on a few factors. Mainly the quality and relevancy of the ad title, ad text and the correlation with the landing page. Together with the advertisers’ budget.
Ad Rank
Google use a metric called Ad Rank. Ad Rank is a value calculated by multiplying two main factors:
- CPC (Cost Per Click) bid - how much an advertiser is willing to pay for each click.
- Quality Score - a value that Google calculates based on your click-through rate (CTR), relevance and the quality of the page you send the traffic to.
This method allows advertisers to reach more potential customers at a cost that fits their advertising budget. Even if you have a lower budget than your competitors, you can still compete for the top spots if their ads best answer the user’s question.
Is Google Ads the right choice for your business?
The simple answer is yes. We have launched and managed many PPC campaigns in various shapes and forms. Google Ads is a great way to bring new sales and leads to businesses. Since Google is the most used search engine, you can reach all audiences and buyer personas. But it’s not always as simple as it sounds.
Google Ads can easily spend all your ad budget without much efficiency. At the same time, even a tiny budget can instantly increase sales. Common characteristics of your business, industry, competition, search volume and location play a role. But attributes specific to your business will also matter. Variables like team capacity, ad budget and internal structure can all determine whether or not you should advertise in Google Ads.
In addition, Google Ads can be very time-consuming. It may take a few weeks before your account is ready and ready for success.
This is before you consider all the daily and weekly tasks you need to perform, such as creating new ads, adjusting your ad spend, optimising your budget, analysing search terms, and adding more keywords to your campaigns.
If your marketing team consists of one person, and that person already wears several hats, you may not have the time to manage your Google ads with the necessary amount of love and care.
Of course, for the sake of it, Google Ads are not for everyone - for various reasons.
Benefits of working with Google Ads
Pay only per click:
With Google Ads, you only pay when someone clicks on an ad. However, it is crucial to emphasize that even if someone clicks on the ad does not guarantee they will convert into a customer. Working on conversion optimization and being visible on the right keywords is vital.
Get started quickly:
Unlike search engine optimization (SEO), you can get fast results from Google Ads. You can be up on Google the same day! However, tweaking the campaign takes a few weeks, so it gets a good ROI.
You can be seen at the top of Google:
Google will do anything to get more people to click on Google Ads, and on some searches, Ads take up a large proportion of the clicks. However, it’s important to remember that it’s not always best to be seen at the top. In many cases, it is more cost-effective to appear in position 2 or 3 because it is more cost-effective, and your budget will be enough for many more clicks.
Get very detailed stats:
A considerable advantage of Google Ads is that you can track almost everything. Precisely what people searched for, converted on etc. This makes it easy to optimize for the correct search phrases that lead to a positive ROI.
Any budget:
There is no limit on how little or how much you can start advertising, whether you want to spend 5 000€ or 500 000€ a month.
However, we recommend having a budget of at least 1 000€ per month in Google Ads spending to get enough data to do a good test over time.
Tips on how to succeed with Google Ads
While Google does its best to make it easy for you to get started with Google Ads, there’s a big difference between setting up an account and getting a positive ROI (Return On Investment), so we’re sharing some tips on what you need to consider.
Have a structured campaign.
A common mistake many people make is to have too many keywords but only a few ads. You would like to have one ad per keyword in the perfect world. But that would require loads of ads. So instead, be thorough in how you structure your campaign.
You should do a keyword analysis if you don’t know which keywords your target audience uses. Knowing what your potential customers are searching for will give you a huge advantage and save you money.
Use negative keywords.
Track all conversions, see which searches are not converting, and add them as negative keywords. If you see that the search term “winter coats” drives conversions, but “cheap winter coats” is not (and other search phrases that include the word “cheap”. You might then conclude adding the word “cheap” to your list of negative keywords.
Design of your Google Ads
One of the most crucial steps when setting up or maintaining a Google Ads campaign is deciding the actual look and feel of the ad. This is where you can test the waters.
In Google Ads, you have different types of formats.
- Search – Text ads on Google search results. You have limited ad space to write compelling ad copy focusing on user benefits and call-to-action.
- Display – Image ads on websites or Gmail allow you to target people who are likely to be interested in your products but aren’t looking for them yet.
- Video – Video ads on YouTube are placed before, during, or after YouTube videos and in the search results.
- Shopping – Product listings on Google product searches. Unlike regular search ads, Shopping ads show an image of a product along with its product title, price, store name, and reviews.
- App – Promote Apps in Google Play, YouTube, Search, and the Google Display Network.
- Smart – Automated ads on Google and across the web. This is the most basic ad format with fewer settings.
- Local – Drive customers to a physical location, perfect for promoting your business on Google maps
- Discovery – Runs ads across Google’s network. Discovery Ads are similar to Display ads and work for brand awareness.
Keep in mind that the text and imagery you write will be essential. That’s why we can’t stress enough how important it is that you write for your target audience.
Work in Google Ads Editor
Working directly in Google Ads is inefficient when you have larger accounts.
Have the right geographical targeting
Make sure to appear only in Spain if you want to market to Spain. Or Madrid if you only want to target Madrid. It is also possible to target specific languages you may want to target, e.g. Spain, but not Mexico.
We have seen too many times that companies pay for clicks from regions or languages they will never get any conversions from and thus lose a large part of their budget.
Where are your potential customers? Find out which geographical location you want to target in your advert and be specific in the targeting.
If you want to get more customers to your local hair salon. Target only a 20 km radius of your salon. Or how long you think your potential clients might want to travel. However, if you have several salons in different locations, running different campaigns in parallel for each location on your site may be a good idea.
Set your goals
You can fill in your goals when you set up a new campaign in Google Ads. Setting the right Goal for a campaign is essential.
These are the different goals you can set:
- Leads
- Sales
- Website Traffic
- Brand awareness & reach
- Product and brand considerations
- Local store visits
Have well-optimized landing pages
Another big mistake is sending visitors to the wrong subpages or driving traffic to the home page, where they most likely won’t convert. Be thoughtful with what you want the visitor to do after they click on the ad, and make sure the landing page has a clear CTA (Call To Action).
Decide on payment methods
When you have finished designing your ad, you will be asked to fill in payment options, details, and discount codes.
Remember that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Make sure you optimise the campaign, make necessary adjustments, and evaluate the results.
Stay on budget
Google Ads gives you control over your budget, and there’s no minimum on how much you need to spend. You can also pause a campaign whenever you want. You can easily decide how much you want to spend per month, per day and ad.
Do it yourself or hire a Google Ads agency.
Google Ads is a relatively easy tool to work with. But it is also easy to lose your budget by having the wrong targeting and buying traffic that is not converting or is irrelevant to your business. If you are new to Google Ads or if you run a campaign on a bigger budget, we recommend taking help from a specialist.
Google Ads FAQs
Google Ads platform is free to use. But when you drive traffic with Google Ads, you pay per click. The price per click is determined, among other things, by the level of competition and the quality score of your ads.
The price for Google Ads optimisation by an agency differs significantly. The most important thing is to ask the agency what ROI you can expect.
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