Understanding the benefits of Google Ads helps you make informed decisions when it comes to your marketing strategy.
Whether you’ve experimented with Google Ads in the past or you’re totally new to this marketing tactic, there are numerous reasons to invest in this platform.
Google Ads offers businesses lots of opportunities to improve their brand visibility, gain a competitive edge, and achieve measurable results quickly.
From boosting brand awareness and supporting your organic content, to providing greater control over your campaigns and simplifying remarketing, Google Ads can transform your digital marketing efforts.
In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits of using Google Ads and how leveraging its features can drive growth and success for your business.
What Are Google Ads?
If you’re new to Google Ads, don’t panic. If your business has been relying on a different marketing tactic to generate leads then you might be unfamiliar with what Google Ads are and how they work.
Essentially, Google Ads is an online platform developed by Google, where advertisers can bid to show ads, service offerings, product listings, or videos. These ads can appear in a multitude of places including the search results page, on YouTube, and across other websites within Google’s ad network.
The platform operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning businesses only pay when users click on their ads, making it a cost-effective way to drive targeted traffic who are interested in your offering. Google also offers a suite of tools to ensure your ad reaches the right audience, allowing businesses of all sizes to promote their products/ services to potential customers.
Google Ads are an important and highly effective marketing strategy as they deliver measurable results quickly. We’ll be exploring this benefit along with others further in the blog, but having the ability to appear to such a vast audience who are actively seeking information related to specific keywords, is one of the main reasons to use this platform.
How Do Google Ads Work?
Understanding how Google Ads work is key to ensuring you set up a successful campaign and achieve the desired results.
Below we’re exploring different types of Google Ads, how to set up a campaign, and what Google considers when serving your ad to potential customers.
Choosing the right type of Google Ad
Depending on your business goals, Google Ads offers various formats giving you more control over how you reach your target audience.
The primary types of Google Ads include Search Ads, Display Ads, Video Ads, Shopping Ads, and App Campaigns.
We’re exploring each of these formats in more detail below:
- Search Ads – These ads appear at the top or bottom of Google search results pages, making them highly visible to users who are searching for related keywords.
- Display Ads – These ads are shown across different websites and apps, allowing businesses to reach a broader audience by appearing on banners or images.
- Video Ads – These ads are displayed on YouTube and other video sites, providing an engaging way to capture user attention through visual content.
- Shopping Ads – These ads are designed for e-commerce businesses, showing products with images, prices, and store information directly in the search results. These ads make it easier for users to find and compare products, thereby driving more traffic to online stores.
- App Campaigns – These ads help promote mobile apps across Google’s properties, including Google Play, YouTube, and the Display Network.
By understanding different types of Google Ads you can choose the format that best aligns with your goals ultimately ensuring you reach the right people, at the right time.
Setting up a Google Ad campaign
Setting up a Google Ads campaign involves several steps, which we’re going to walk you through below.
First things first – you need to create a Google Ads account (if you haven’t got one already). From this, you can define your campaign goals, such as increasing website traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales.
Once the goals are set, it’s time to choose the right ad format, whether that’s Search, Display, Video, Shopping, or App. Next is your keyword research. This involves identifying relevant search terms that potential customers might use when looking on Google, ensuring the ads are shown to the right people.
For example, if your business is Caravan Parks throughout the North East, you might want to target terms such as:
- Caravan Parks North East
- Caravan Parks near me
- Caravan Parks UK
This ensures Google serves your ad to people searching for these queries, bringing qualified traffic to your site.
Once your ad is up and running, you shouldn’t just forget about it. Make sure you’re checking its performance on a regular basis (we recommend every 1-2 weeks) so that you can tailor your strategy accordingly.
Understanding Google’s ranking factors
Understanding why Google ranks certain ads above others is key, as this allows you to craft your ad more competitively.
Whilst Google aims to be as fair as possible, by alternating which ads appear at the top, it does look for certain factors when choosing where to rank your ad.
Budget is of course, a huge part of this, but there are several elements to take into account if you want to increase the success of your ad campaign:
- The bid amount – This plays a significant role in ad placement as higher bids can increase the likelihood of an ad appearing in a more prominent position (i.e. the top). That said, it’s not the sole determining factor.
- The ad quality – This comprises the expected click-through rate (CTR), ad relevance, and landing page experience. Whilst this should be taken with a pinch of salt, often the higher Quality Score indicates that the ad is more relevant and likely to be well-received by users.
- The relevance to the user’s search query – Google considers how well the ad matches the user’s search intent, ensuring the content serves what they’re looking for.
- Landing page copy – The quality of the content on the landing page is assessed ensuring it provides a positive user experience and aligns with the promises made on the ad.
By understanding these various elements, businesses can improve their ad visibility, attract more qualified leads, and achieve their goals.
Are Google Ads Worth It?
If you’re wondering ‘are Google Ads worth it?’ then you’re not alone. If you’ve never experimented with Google Ads and you’re used to relying on organic content, then you might be sceptical about the effectiveness of this paid channel.
That said, Google Ads can be highly effective and provide a strong Return On Investment (ROI), as you can reach a large and relevant audience who are looking for your products or services.
However, achieving the best results requires careful cost considerations and ongoing management as ads shouldn’t just be left to run if they’re not performing. Like every marketing activity, campaigns need regular monitoring and optimisation to stay effective and competitive as people’s search habits and search queries are constantly evolving.
Partnering with a professional agency can help improve the effectiveness of your Google Ads by leveraging their experience, ensuring you generate the maximum ROI. Get in touch with our expert PPC team at Discovery Design to find out more about how we can help you leverage Google Ads.
Benefits of Using Google Ads
Below we’re exploring some of the key benefits of using Google Ads from increased brand awareness, to getting ahead of your competitors, allowing us to leverage this tactic for success.
Improved brand awareness
Google Ads helps increase your brand awareness by placing your ads in front of people who are looking for your products/ services.
By appearing in key positions on search results pages, your brand gains recognition and familiarity among potential customers – particularly if you’re positioned at the top.
This repeated exposure helps establish your brand as a key player in your industry, and also strengthens your credibility . Furthermore, targeted display ads across different websites where potential users are browsing can further improve brand awareness by reaching them wherever they may be.
This keeps you top of mind and increases the likelihood of them converting into a customer.
An advantage over your competitors
Every brand, regardless of the industry, is interested in what their competitors are doing! After all, these are brands who are competing for the same pool of customers so you need to make sure you’re ahead.
This is where Google Ads come into play as you can be more focussed and strategic. By targeting specific keywords and demographics, you can be confident that your ad will appear to people searching for a product/ service.
Furthermore, by monitoring and optimising your ad campaigns for the best results, you can capture the attention of potential customers before your competitors do. Google Ads’ advanced targeting options also enable you to reach niche audiences that competitors might not have considered.
Fast, transparent results
No one wants to wait to see the results of a marketing campaign. When you’re investing so much time and resources into something, you want to see the tangible results.
With Google Ads, this is much quicker than other forms of content (such as organic which can take 3-6 months). In contrast, Google Ads provides immediate feedback on the performance of your campaigns, allowing you to draw informed insights quickly.
You can monitor different metrics such as clicks, impressions, and conversions in real-time, giving you a clear understanding of how your ads are performing. In turn, this helps you make data-driven decisions to optimise your campaigns for better outcomes.
Supports your organic content
Now we’re not discrediting organic content at all – even though the focus of this blog is around the benefits of Google Ads.
In fact these two methods work beautifully together as Google Ads can complement your organic content efforts. By targeting relevant keywords through paid ads, you can drive more traffic to your website, which can improve the visibility of your organic content at the same time.
The insights gained from Google Ads campaigns, such as which keywords perform best, can also inform your SEO strategy by allowing you to see what terms are used most by your audience. Combining paid and organic efforts ensures a more robust approach to reaching and engaging your audience.
More control
This point links with the above when talking about results, as every marketing manager or business owner wants to make sure their money is being well spent.
With Google Ads, you have control over multiple aspects of your campaigns, including budget, targeting, and ad placement.
You can set specific budgets for different campaigns or ad groups, ensuring you spend according to your goals and you can also adjust this accordingly.
Advanced targeting options allow you to reach users based on factors such as location, demographics, and interests, ensuring your ads are seen by the right people at the right time, to maximise your advertising spend.
Simplifies remarketing
Remarketing involves showing ads to users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your brand, encouraging them to return and complete a desired action.
This process is made more straightforward when you invest in Google Ads as it allows you to re-engage users who have previously visited your site but did not convert.
However, by showing tailored ads to these users as they browse other sites it allows you to keep your brand top of mind and encourage them to return.
Google Ads’ remarketing features make it easy to create and manage lists of past visitors, segment them based on their behaviour, and deliver personalised ads that cater to their interests.
Measurable and scalable
Google Ads offers lots of different measurement tools that help you track the performance of your campaigns with accuracy.
You can assess key performance indicators (as discussed above) such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend to understand the effectiveness of your ads.
Armed with this information, you can craft successful campaigns and optimise or pause underperforming ones to be more efficient.
As your business evolves, you can also increase your ad spend and expand your reach while still maintaining control over your marketing efforts.
Google Ads Case Study
Below we’re sharing a case study from a client who partnered with the team at Discovery to grow their customer base through a strategic Google Ads campaign.
Let’s take a look.
How We Took A Modest B2B Business To Ranking With Established Competitors
We’ve worked with our B2B client for almost 2 years, helping to grow the customer base and establish brand loyalty. Through strategic use of Search, Display and Shopping, we evolved their account from generating modest results, to ranking amongst established competitors without the high-ranking budget.
We analysed the data to determine when customers are not only searching for our client’s services, but also when they are making a purchase. This allowed us to use specific keywords and captivating ad copy to target the right people, at the right place, at the right time. Having a clear and robust Google Ads strategy avoids wasting budget on low quality traffic which will cost you on the ad click, but won’t convert into a paying customer.
With the sporadic nature of B2B sales and the elongated process that can occur, understanding where there are gaps in your marketing funnel is crucial, as that’s where our Display campaigns came into effect. With this in mind, we crafted highly visual Display Ads to re-target users who have interacted with your business, but have not yet converted. We kept our client’s business at the forefront of the user’s mind as they browsed other sites. This means when they are ready to make a purchase, they know exactly where they need to go.
This strategy of leveraging Google’s data and campaign types, has allowed us to rank amongst the most nationally-recognised and established competitors in the industry, without having to match their budgets.
“Not only have we witnessed our clients’ business go from strength-to-strength, but we have been a part of the driving force for their long-term growth. Over the last year, we have increased our client’s Revenue by 124%, with a 50% increase in their Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) across their Google Ads account and are continuing to see long-term growth for Q3 and Q4.”
Benefits of Using Google Ads to Engage Your Audience and Drive Growth
Hopefully after reading this blog you understand the benefits of using Google Ads to engage your audience and drive growth!
If you’re new to this marketing tactic, and you’ve only used organic (free) methods of marketing previously, this can seem like a big change. There’s also a lot of confusion and misconceptions surrounding Google Ads which can make some businesses reluctant to invest in this method.
However, there are so many advantages to investing in Google Ads to bring highly-qualified, targeted traffic to your website. It’s also not just about money (your bid amount) but about creating a positive user experience once someone lands on your site, ensuring you’re serving their search query effectively.
There’s a lot to consider, so partnering with a professional agency who manages this process day in, day out, can be advantageous. At Discovery Design, we work with lots of clients across a multitude of sectors helping them achieve results with strategic, goal-oriented campaigns. Get in touch with our friendly team to find out more about how we can help!
