What are Google Ads?
Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords, is a paid advertising service where businesses bid on keywords in order for their website to appear on Google search results. The program enables businesses to customize and control their paid advertising to target consumers that are interested in their product or service. The platform allows for ongoing ad management such as ad placement, targeted keywords, and budget restrictions in order to continuously refine and improve Google Ads.
Google Ads is an advantageous marketing tool for promoting a business, increasing website traffic, selling products or services, raising brand awareness, and addressing additional marketing goals on an extensive search engine. Yet, with all profitable services, they are only favorable when correctly understood and maintained. Below describes the information you need to understand how Google Ads operates.
How Google Ads Work
The basic concept of Google Ads revolves around bidding on keywords. Keywords are commonly searched words or phrases that you choose because they relate to your business’ products and services. When a user searches a query that your business caters to, you want your website to appear for those results in order to target that user.
Since there are numerous businesses advertising via Google Ads, the platform uses a bidding system to determine ad cost and ranking. As a business, you pay for each ad click which you control by setting a cost-per-click (CPC) budget. The budget can be determined by utilizing either Google’s automated bidding or manual bidding options.
Automated bidding is regulated by setting a maximum budget and then Google determines the best CPC that will return the highest chances of winning the bid within the budgeted amount.
Manual bidding is when the marketer sets the bid for the ad groups and keywords.
Google Ads also offers the option to pay based on cost-per-impression (CPM) were you pay per 1,000 impressions, or how many times the ad appears on the Google search results page without having to be clicked on.
While the bid budget impacts how your Google Ad ranks, there is another important factor that impacts the ad position and in return influences CPC.
How Does Google Ad Rank Work?
Ad Rank is the actual position of your ad which is primarily determined by two factors, bid amount and quality score. Quality score is based on the overall quality of your ad including the ad and CTA copy applicability, keywords relevancy, and landing page experience. Quality score greatly impacts the performance of your ad; if you have a high bid amount but your quality score is low, you’ll receive a lower ranking and a higher CPC, while a high-quality score will be prioritized and have a lower CPC. Google wants to ensure the users are receiving information that is relevant to their search ensuring an overall positive user experience, therefore when an ad is determined as offering relevant and valuable information, it receives a higher quality score.
How to Place Google Ads?
There are three ad campaign types that you can choose when creating your Google Ads which are Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, and Google Video Ads.
1. Google Search Ads
Google Search Ads are text ads that appear on the Google results page that resemble organic results except they appear at the top of the page and are identified with a green ‘Ad’ label. Since most users use this page to look for information, this type of ad directly targets those users.
2. Google Display Ads
Google Display Ads are located on other websites that have chosen to display Google Ads, for example, advertised by columns on the right or left side of the screen or banners across the top. These websites are from a variety of industries with differing audiences, therefore offering the opportunity to market on websites that align with your targeted audience.
3. Google Video Ads
Google Video Ads are video clips or thumbnails that are advertised on or within YouTube videos, for example, ads at the beginning of a YouTube video or on the YouTube search results page, similar to Google Search Ads. YouTube is a powerful search engine tool used by many users to find information offering a convenient and engaging marketing tool.
So, do Google Ads work? According to Google, for every $1 spent on Google Ads the return is $8. And with thousands of businesses using Google Ads, not only is the competition evident but the rewards are equally profitable. Understanding the basics of Google Ads will guide how to strategize and manage your advertising plans in order to maximize the significant rewards Google Ads offer.
