Google has always been one of the most powerful ways to market your brand. But what is the right way to advertise on Google and why should you market on this platform in the first place? This guide is going to go into some of the reasons why now is the time to start experimenting with the various options you have for expanding your brand's reach and landing more conversions.
Why Advertise on Google?
Advertising on Google using the Google AdWords platform is one of the best marketing decisions you will make this year. The benefits of Google AdWords are it will help you to expand your overall reach, you'll discover new buyers, and your business will grow many times over.
It's also the largest advertising platform on the planet because you are wielding the power of the leading search engine. Google has the potential to reach an audience of millions from practically every country in the world, and it accounts for 97% of their overall revenue. There's no other platform that can match it for numbers.
How Google Advertising Works
The way Google's advertising works is that it acts like an auction, but not in the same way that you would buy an antique radio. There are more factors involved than just the amount of money you're willing to bid. Each auction takes into account the social relevancy of the ad and what Google deems to be the level of quality.
Big advertisers have to compete on the same level as the average small business. This is good news for everyone because it means this isn't just a race to see who has the biggest advertising budget.
The Auction
Each auction is based around the keywords you have. Advertisers figure out what keywords are most relevant to their business and the terms that searchers are likely to use. They then bid to use these keywords. The monetary amount is designed to tell Google exactly how much they are willing to pay each time someone clicks on their ad.
It's why the term Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising came into being. PPC advertising can get expensive if you allow it to, so this is why you have to balance reach with the amount of competition when choosing a specific keyword.
So when is this auction running?
Every time someone types a keyword into Google, the auction begins. This is why you have to be incredibly careful when advertising on Google because it can eat up your budget in an instant. Google is so powerful because sponsored results come up with conventional search results. There's no avoiding the ads if you're using Google.
How to Advertise Right
To begin with, you need to sign up for an AdWords account. Don't worry, this is entirely free and you can open one from the Google AdWords site. After you've opened up this account, you have to begin by coming up with a structure that works for your campaign.
You can organize your campaign structure in any way you like, but the optimal version is through starting with the AdWords account, splitting your campaigns, and then housing ad groups within those campaigns. Within the ad groups you will have unique keywords, text, and your eventual landing pages.
You can structure your campaigns by theme, promotions, or even just which products or services you happen to be advertising at the time. It's entirely up to you and you're in complete control.
A good structure can make it easy to control your campaigns later. It can even have an influence on your eventual quality score, which can increase or decrease the effectiveness of your ads.
Testing is Always the Key
What you have to understand about AdWords is that advertising is always the key. Split testing, or A/B testing, will take up a lot of your time and budget. Trends change all the time, which is why ad costs change all the time. You also have to be aware of what your competitors are doing.
To start testing, you should take one ad and run it for a few days. Log the results and then change one thing about that ad. Run the two ads off against each other and see which one gets the better results. Rinse and repeat over a long period of time and you'll eventually come up with a crafted ad that works.
Take note that sometimes you can have a great ad, but you fail to get conversions because of something on your website. Go out of your way to test your website.
What are your experiences of using Google for advertising?