Google Ads

Google Ads are very helpful for businesses to help reach their demographics further ensuring their sales. This blog will provide tips, tricks, and the information needed to help your Google Ads succeed.

Learn the basics of Google Ads

Google Ads help connect businesses with potential customers. Allowing you to reach multiple customers through Google searches, YouTube channels, and other news sites. You can control your budget, where the ad appears, and the demographic who sees it. Just ensure the ads are clear, relevant, and include the link to your site (Academy for Ads, 2016). This is important, as without the link the customer will not be able to find their way to your website.

Google ads allow you to:

•    Connect with customers

•    Work within your budget

•    Improve your overall performance

Choose where customers see your ads:

Google ads have multiple options many that can be added in to allow customers to find businesses on Google Search. You can add text, clickable links, and videos that pop up before YouTube Videos (Academy for Ads, 2016, para. 4). There are two different platforms your ads can appear on, which is either network or display ( Academy for Ads, 2016, para.6). Google Ads can appear on Google sites, partner sites, and mobile phones.

On the search Network your ad appears on:

•    Google search, shopping, maps, and play

•    Sites that are connected with google

While Display:

•    They are on Google sites

•    Always partners across the web

You can choose your Ad formats. This is important because your format is what will be attracting your customers to your business. The most popular ad formats are:

•    Text ads

o    This includes a headline description, URL, and call to action

•    Add extensions

o    More information such as a phone number

•    Shopping ad

o    Includes images and pricing

Create effect text ads

For text in the ads; the ideal look is clear headline, descriptive text, and a call to action. Those the text on ads may seem simple, it is quite powerful; as it allows a business to attract the right customer. Text ad only has three parts to them:

o    Headline

o    URL

o    Path field (optional display this is apart of the URL)

o    Description

Text ads need to be specific, actionable, and relevant (Academy for Ads, 2016, para. 6). Here are some tricks to help write to them:

o    Show your customer your uniqueness when compared to the competition

o    Add a call to action

o    Have sales terminology

o    Include keywords that may be searched

o    Ensure your ad matches your landing page

Overall you want to ensure your ads are compelling to your customers and allow them to access your products easily. This is one of the types of marketing strategies that I have used in the past, and it has proven to be successful multiple times.

Enhance your ad with extension

Ad extension allows you to have the ability to call a business straight from the ad. In addition to the call feature it also has:

o    Location

o    Information

o    Links

o    Text

By adding the ad extension option, you increase your value of the campaign no additional charges. You only pay when someone calls or downloads the app from the ad (Academy for ads, 2016, para.6). Your ad extension will not always show up, as google tracks an individual response within their search (Academy for ads, 2016, para.9). Though there are multiple different options for ad extensions, always choose the best fit for your company and their goals!

Choosing the best campaign is very important, as you want to ensure you will have the right demographic checking out your business. The first step in Google Ads is making the campaign (Academy for ads, 2016, para.5). The most common campaigns are:

o    Search

o    Display

o    Search with display opt-in (Academy for ads, 2016, para.11)

o    Video

o    Shopping

o    Universal

Depending on the campaign you select, it will determine where the customer will see them. Therefore it is always a good idea to further tailor your ad. The settings you can adjust on your campaigns include:

o    The name and type of campaign

o    Network, where the ad will appear

o    Types of devices

o    Budget and bidding

o    Extension

o    Extra settings

Organize your account

Keeping your Google Ads organized is very important. It helps you keep track of their progress and if any need adjusting. You can organize your ads by “product or theme” (Academy for ads, 2016, para. 5). However to organize your ad you must know the layer of organization with Google Ads (Academy for ads, 2016, para.5). These include:

o    Account

o    campaign

o    Ad group

A good tool to help you keep your Ads organized is Google Ad manager (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7). This function allows you to manage all your accounts from a single location. This is only one tip to keep your ads organized some others include:

o    Have separate campaigns for products, promotion, and regions

o    Have a separate group that include keywords and bids for every product or service (Academy for ads, 2016, para.9)

These will help you keep track of your ads and ensure your customers can find the products they desire!

Reach Customers with target

Before developing strategies to obtain your target market, you should think about how finding your customer online. Three ways include:

o    Who (Demographic)

o    Where (their location)

o    What (their interest)

In my experience, I have seen companies utilize these three components and reach their target market multiple times. Without reviewing this first, you may miss your target market altogether.

Help customers find you

The most important way for a customer to find you is through keywords. When these words are typed into a search it an help your ad appear for multiple customers. Through developing a list of keywords, you will be able to connect with the most interested customers (Academy for ads, 2016, para.6). Some tips for having the correct keywords include:

o    Remember your branded terms

o    Connect it them to your website

o    Words related to your products

When creating your list:

o    “Think like the customer” (Academy for ads, 2016, para.9). Think of categories and specific words the customer may use to find products.

o     Always organize them by theme, especially if there are different types of products or services (Academy for ads, 2016, para.9).

o    Be very specific (Academy for ads, 2016, para.9)

o    Use negative keywords (You don’t want to pay for clicks that will not bring in a sale) (Academy for ads, 2016, para.9)

o    For each group have between 5-20 words

These tips will ensure your ads are seen by the correct target market!

Control which searches trigger your adds

To ensure the correct customers see your ads, you can use match types to help control your keywords (Academy for ads, 2016, para.4). This ensures that your target market is viewing your ads rather than a wide spectrum of people. There are different match types some include

o    Board match

o    The default setting

o    Broad match modifier

o    Add a (+) before keywords (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7)

o    Phrase match

o    Add “” around keywords (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7)

o    Exact match

o    Add [] around keywords (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7)

o    Negative match

o    Add – before keywords (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7)

All of these settings will help ensure that your target market will see your ads. This will not only save you money but also time as you can focus more on the correct customers.

Make your ads seen:

Several factors impact your ad. This includes, “your bid, the impact of ad formats, your ad’s expect clickthrough rate, relevancy, and your landing” (Academy for ads, 2016, para.3). Google Ad auction considers these factors when deciding where to place your ad (Academy for ads, 2016, para.3). It decides where the ad will appear, the order the show, and how much the advertiser will pay (Academy for ads, 2016, para.4). These are important factors, as you want to ensure your ads are seen by your target market.

In addition to this, you also want to make sure your ad is of high quality. As the higher the score, the more relevancy your ad and landing page are. Therefore the system will think that it is useful for a customer looking at the ad (Academy for ads, 2016, para.8). Along with this, the higher your ad is ranked, the better the location it will receive.  Overall the rank is very important because it determines your spot on the page. In my experience, this can be crucial as you want to ensure your target market can see your ad.

Match Media cost model with your budget

When determining your costs, you should choose the one that best fits your campaign goals. Ad serving does cost money, however depending on your business will depend on the model you decide to choose. Costs per interaction will vary with the model being used. Therefore, it may be hard to choose the best one for you. When deciding, keep in mind what you want the customer to do afterward (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7).

Determining the Bidding Strategy

Placing a bid, it puts you in the auction, the auction chooses which ads and where to place them. You can manage your bid through manual bidding or automated bidding. Manual bidding is when you control the bidding, while automated is when Google controls it for you. Depending on your business you will choose which one is the better option for you. Choose a budget the best fits your keywords, profit, and campaigns (Academy for ads, 2016, para.15).

Cost-per-click (CPC) bidding is where most people start. The most important thing to remember is to know how much the ad is worth to your company. Here are some tools to help you with CPC bids:

o    Run bid simulator

o    Plan keywords

o    The first-page bid estimates how much you need to pay

These will help you evaluate the amount you want to bid. Always keep in mind the return on your investment. As you do not want to pay a large amount and not get your investment back.

Select your Bidding strategy

Automated bidding allows Google Ads to automatically increase your bid based on predictions that will help it become more successful. This technique is not for everyone the tips below will help determine if this is the correct strategy for you. As these are based on automated bidding:

•    Performance goals of the campaign

•    Does your campaign meet Google performance recommendation (Academy for ads, 2016, para.8)?

•    Have you enabled your conversion tracking?

If this does not sound like the best fit, you can always use manual bidding. There are several options for automated bidding, which include:

•    Enhance cost per click (ECPC)

•    Maximize conversions

•    Target CPA

Overall do your research and find out which method is the best fit for you and your company.

Adjust bids to favor performers

When you are developing your campaigns, you want to make sure you think as the users do. Thinking about what there doing, where they are, their device, maybe the time of day (Academy for ads, 2016, para. 5). Therefore, Bid adjustments allow you to raise and lower your amount depending on the factors. Overall this allows you to bid different amounts ensuring your customer can see you. The bid adjustments available include:

•    Devices

•    Location

•    Time

•    Content

•    Interactions

These options allow you to adjust your bids so you can reach your goals with your campaign. I have seen this done before on Google. Depending on the time of day and my location, my search results may show different ads and companies. 

Align your budget with your goals

Setting your daily budget is a good place to start as you need to recognize how much you willing to spend every day. Ince your budget is reached for that day, your ad stops showing (Academy for ads, 2016, para.6). Some tips for determining your budget include:

•    Determine your monthly budget

•    Calculate based off cost-per-click

•    Know your campaign recommend budget

•    Check ad delivery

I recommend starting low, then as you begin to see results increase your budget. As you do not want to invest too much money and not see your return on investment.

Evaluate Campaign performance

You can measure the results of your campaign by:

•    Analyzing your account

•    Campaign overall

•    Ad group

•    Reports and metrics

By looking at the statistics you will be able to see if your ad is in good standings. There are multiple reports to help you measure your performance (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7).  You want to use the metrics to help you drive and improve your performance. As well, you ant to ensure you calculate your return on investment concerning your ad. As you want to ensure the performance of the ad is not impacting the money you have invested.

Avoid Editorial Errors

Google wants the ads to be clear and consistent, therefore they have quality standards to ensure ads are relevant and correct. If your ad is not up to quality to Google will not allow customers to view it. Spelling, grammar, and style the biggest reasons Google denies ads (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7-8). Therefore, always ensure someone looks it over and spots any errors.

Address Trademark Disapprovals

Your ad will need to be approved by Google, there is three status it could be awarded:

•    Approved

•    Approved (limited)

•    Disapproved

If your ad was disapproved, try to remove the trademark. Most times this is the issue, and once it is re-reviewed it will go live unless there are other troubles with it (Academy for ads, 2016, para.7). However, you can also request trademark authorization from the owner. You can also see if you can use the as without authorization because of the reseller and information policy. However, you must meet the requirements. Overall Google wants to ensure the content the post is relevant to customers.

Conclusion

One example of a company that uses Google Ads is Expedia. The site is usually among the top five websites when I type in anything related to travelling. As well they have an option that allows you to talk to an agent whenever you are looking. Expedia Ads have even popped up on Google partner websites, enhancing the customer to look at different trip options.

Google Ads can allow your target market access to your ads. However, you do have to place bids and ensure they are in your budget. You do want to ensure that your ads are clear and consistent; otherwise they will not be shown. Before I reviewed the course, I wanted to test my knowledge of Google Ads. The first test I had taken was 50%, however, after taking the course I was able to improve my score to 80%. Hopefully, this blog helps you with your Google Ads!

Until my next post!

References:

Academy for ads. (2016). Adjust bids to favor performers. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Address trademark disapproval. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Align your budget with your goals. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472\

Academy for ads. (2016). Avoid editorial errors. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Choose where customers see your ads. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Choose the best campaign. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads.  (2016). Create effective text ads. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Control which searches trigger for success. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Determine a good bidding strategy. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Learn the basics of Google Ads. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016) Enhance your ads with extensions. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Evaluate campaign performance. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Learn the basic of Google ads. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Help customers find you. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Make you ads seen. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Match media costs models with your budget. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Reach customers find you. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Organize your account for success. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472

Academy for ads. (2016). Select your bid strategy. Retrieved from https://academy.exceedlms.com/student/path/3132/activity/3472