Google Ads That Work
If you’re a business owner that uses SEO to advertise their products and/or services, then you’re most likely aware of Google Ads, previously known as “Google AdWords.” However, as a format of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, Google Ads carry the risk of costing their user more than they earn for them. This problem can be due to many things, from poor wording to unattractive features on the ad itself.
However, there’s no such thing as a problem with no solution, and fortunately there are Google Ads Specialists who know how Google Ads work and how to create an effective PPC campaign. Read on to learn more!
What are Google Ads?
If you’re not in the know, “Google Ads” are a Pay-Per-Click method of advertising your business on Google. And yes, you read that right, Pay-Per-Click. Every time someone clicks your ad, you pay a fee to Google. In exchange, Google ensures that you are always at the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).
Sounds like a good deal, right? You’re always in the optimal position on Google rankings and Google get a small amount of money for their preferential treatment. Well, there’s a little bit more to know about it before you go flinging your money at Google just yet.
The Google Auction
It’s important to know that Google Ads isn’t the only PPC option out there, but it is the most popular, and by a lot. This is because it’s incredibly fair and you don’t really need to funnel excessive amounts of money into it. This is because of the “Google Auction,” which is the system Google uses to work out which paid ads come where.
Even in PPC, there is still a ranking system, however where organic SEO is handled by Google’s spiders (the bots Google uses to examine the websites in its index), PPC ranking uses the spiders, your bid, and a quality score.
The Auction begins whenever a potential customer searches a keyword or key phrase into Google’s search engine. This term becomes a “query”, and from the moment that the user clicks the search button, the query effectively becomes an item that various websites can bid for.
Bidding happens automatically, as while you are setting yourself up with Google Ads, you determine how much you are willing to spend every time your advertisement gets clicked. This can sound unfair at first, after all, big established companies will have more access to funds and therefore outbid you every time, thus consistently getting top billing while you might not get anything at all. However, you really don’t need to worry about that, because the bid is only half the game.
The other half is your “quality score,” a ranking invented by Google to assign websites value of their own, thereby levelling the playing field. Quality score is assigned through the relevance and quality of your content, which is determined through several factors such as the use of keywords, the quality of images and videos and the number of links and backlinks to and from your website. With all this data, Google assigns your website a quality score, which together with your bid, determines your Ad rank. If your Ad rank is higher than another page’s Ad rank, your website will appear above that page, which means if your Ad rank is lower, you will rank beneath them.
This means that if you’re a small company without much money, then you need to make sure that your website and the content on it is as amazing as it can be, as you’re more likely to beat other pages’ ad ranks with good content than with money. It’s a fairly level playing field, which is why it’s such a popular method of PPC.
But How?
Unless you’re a Google Ads specialist or a Google Ads consultant it’s unlikely you’ll know the best practices for using Google Ads. After all, although the playing field is level, it doesn’t mean that your top place in the SERPs is guaranteed, nor does it mean that just because you get placed on top you will get traffic or conversions. You must know how to get your audience to click on that ad. To help you get your foot in the door on that front, we’re going to let you in on some basics:
Know What Type of Ad You’re Making
There’s more than one type of PPC, even within Google Ads.