Google Ads allows you to reach placements on Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) by paying instead of ranking. You bid on your keyword against competitors to reach higher positions.
Advertising on the Google Display Network reaches over 80% of internet users, making it hard not to find customers. When creating a campaign to start advertising, you have the option of advertising on the Search Network or Search Network with Display Select. Search Network is when ads appear for keyword queries while Display Select allows your ads to appear on relevant websites or themes relating to the keywords you have listed.
How do Google Ads work?
When potential customers or ‘users’ enter a search query in Google, they will see 1-3 different types of results. Paid ads, local business listings and organic results, organic results will always be displayed and are determined by the quality of your SEO.
Paid ads are displayed through the use of your keyword and the position determined by your QS (Quality Score) and keyword bid. When you optimise your website for SEO you also help increase your QS for that keyword, this means you will increase the ad rank and not have to bid as high as your competitor.
Google will make calculations on the users query to see what device they are on, where they are located and what is the most useful link to the user before displaying results. This is why it is important to create your campaigns with a clean layout and user intent in mind.
When first starting a campaign you should categorise the areas of your website into ad groups that will be promoted, an example of this may look like:
- Ad Group: Branded terms
Promote your unique selling points and services that will attract customers. - Ad Group: Services
Have content in your ads that relate to the customers search query, include extensions to stand out from the competition. - Ad Group: Location
Use the features provided by AdWords to target your specific audience with geo targeting. - Ad Group: Competitors
Use your competitors business name as a keyword to appear for their brand searches.
The video below shows an example campaign using these Ad Groups. The decrease in costs shows the effectiveness of switching from PPC (Pay Per Click) to CPA (Cost Per Acquisition).
What keywords should you use?
Finding the right keywords can be quite time consuming when you are starting out, the Keyword Planner is a great place to start for seed keywords or ideas of bidding costs but the number of monthly searches for each keyword should be taken with a grain of salt.
Another great way to find keywords is within your Search Console under the Search Traffic section, these are queries used by people looking for your website. This will give you an idea of what language people use and long tail keywords that can help your ads appear high with low competition.
When you have generated your keyword lists, separate into each ad group and write 3-5 ads containing content relating to these keywords – think of the queries people may search containing your keywords and the ad they will be displayed, will it make them want to click through to your website or service?
Once your campaign has gathered data, check your keywords performance and start adding poor performing or irrelevant keywords to the negative keyword list. This will save you money on ad clicks that do not convert.
What are the terms used in AdWords?
Cost Per Acquisition is a bidding method where you only pay for the ad click if the user has completed a goal or converted. Your conversions may be a website enquiry product purchase.
Before switching to CPA bidding, your account must have a certain amount of conversions within a specific timeframe.
Pay Per Click is the standard bidding method when starting out with AdWords. You may pay $4.00/click for a keyword that is highly searched to help increase your ad rank.
An average cost for an ad click is about $1.13, you can set daily budgets with enhanced bidding to let Google decide what’s the best price per click.
Click Through Rate is the number of clicks divided by impressions that your ad has made. Generic ads may see a 3% CTR while branded ads could be over 30%.
Quality Score is rating system out of 10 for each keyword, a keyword that has a quality score of 10 will appear higher in the results with less bidding than a keyword with high bidding and low QS.
The QS is determined by your ad content and landing page against the users search query. This is where optimising your website plays an important role – if you are ranking high for a keyword organically, chances are your QS will be very high.
Your ads will appear as ‘Eligible’ if they are readable and displaying on Google. Other statuses you might see are Paused (on hold) or Limited (rarely shown due to low budgets).
Campaigns contain the global settings for your advertising, this includes: bidding method, location, delivery schedule and network.
Ad groups are contained within the campaign, you should create a separate campaign for each country you advertise in.
Ad rank is the position where your ads appear in Google, having your ad higher generally allows more site extensions.
Ad groups are nested in the campaign and will contain sets of keywords and ads.
Sitelinks – display additional links to your website and content about the links.
Callout – show a number of short messages under your ads highlighting unique selling points (e.g. “Free Trial for 30 days”, “Money Back Guarantee”).
Structured snippet – list the different types or products you have for offer (e.g. for a hotel you could have Amenities: WiFi, Pool, Fitness center, Kitchenette).
Call – have your phone number appear in your ad, if the ad appears on mobile a button will appear to call you directly.
Message – create a template using a cellphone where people can text or message you and receive a template message back for information or follow up on a call.
Location – display your address in the ad so people can find you fast without searching through your website.
Affiliate location – similar to the location extension, display an address closest to the users location from searching.
Price – create panels highlighting your services or products along with the prices.
App – if you are advertising an app that is available for install, the app button will appear on mobile.
Review – have a snippet of a customers review, you need to highlight where the review came from.
How do you target Christchurch?
Within your campaign settings, you can narrow down the location your ads will appear. This can be done through searches inside that location or searches about that location (great for accommodation).
Geo targeting your audience increases the efficiency of your budget by eliminating clicks from locations that will not use your service. You can also select the time of day that users are most likely to be looking for your service.
How much does it cost?
You decide on the price you want to spend, it could be $1.00/day or $1,000.00/day.
The real question is how much traffic do you want or what is a conversion worth to you?
Is it worth doing?
If you are looking to increase traffic or would like to maintain your position against new competitors – yes, it is worth doing.
You can start an AdWords account and begin advertising right away. Set your daily budgets and maximum PPC then link your Analytics account and create a goal to start recording conversion data.
Alternatively, we offer SEM packages to get you started or manage your AdWords account for you.
