Getting Started with Google Ads (2021)
Driving traffic with the worlds #1 search engine.
The Google Ads platform, formerly called Google AdWords, encompasses the suite of tools needed to launch search, display, video, and shopping campaigns. It also offers the ability to do app campaigns through the google play store as well as local campaigns to promote your physical business to the local area.
For the purposes of this guide, we will focus primarily on Search, Display, and Shopping as they make up the most common use cases for Google Ads.
Search Campaigns:
There are literally billions of searches every day on Google. In an ideal world, your quality content and products are enough for google to rank your pages at the top of its search results page. However, while there are billions of searches, there are also thousands of competitors
Search campaigns allow you to bid directly on keywords and search terms related to your business so that you can appear closer to the top of relevant search results. These listings will show as “ads” on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and you will be charged based on a CPC (Cost per Click).
Since this guide is just in overview, we won’t go into all the details of the various features of a Google search campaign, but below is a simple guide on how to get started with search through the example of creating a single search ad.
1. Set Your Budget:
Before anything else, you’ll want to ensure you set both a max daily spend for your campaign, as well a max bid, which is the amount you’re willing to spend on a given click. These numbers should align with your goals (How quickly you are wanting to grow? How large is your overall marketing budget? How adverse are you to risk?).
Additionally, when setting your max bid, you’ll want to research your keywords to ensure you can get a desirable ranking in SERP without spending through all of your budget on just a few clicks.
2. Pick Your Keywords:
When selecting keywords to bid on, you want to ensure you are choosing terms that people are actually searching for when looking online for the product or service you offer.
You also want to ensure that the landing page (page users will land on after clicking your ad) is relevant to the term they are searching for.
3. Write Your Ad:
Your search contains both headlines and descriptions which google will mix and match to create the most relevant result for a user’s query. In general, both components should be as relevant to your keywords as possible and contain a call to action that drives users to click on your ad.
Another good practice is to search your keywords yourself and see what pages are currently ranking. From there, you can use the good listings as inspiration while looking for ways to stand out among them.
4. Launch and Evaluate:
Once your ads are live, you’ll want to check back frequently to see which keywords, headlines, and descriptions are yielding the best results. Using that information, you should tweak your ad to optimize performance.
Display Campaigns:
While search campaigns are a great way to capture users whose immediate intention aligns with your product or service. Display ads can augment your marketing strategy by both building widespread brand awareness and by keeping your brand top of mind through retargeting. Another key difference between search and display is that search ads are texted based, while display ads are primarily images.
Just like search campaigns, we won’t cover all the various options and settings for your campaign, but this simple guide below should help get you started.
1. Define Your Campaign
The first thing you will need to do is decide who you want to target. Think about the demographics that fit your target customer, data points like age, gender, and income level. You’ll also want to think through your customers expected behavior.
What websites do you think they like? What might they be searching for online that indicates they could be interested in your product or service?
2. Set Your Budget
Like search ads you will want to set both a maximum CPC and a daily max budget. These two numbers, in conjunction with your ad quality and targeting, will determine how many daily impressions and clicks you receive on your ads. Since the CPC system is essentially an auction, you’ll want your max bid to be high enough to attract clicks from users in your target audience without being so high that you blow through your daily budget.
This can be tricky at first, but over time, as you develop an understanding of how display ads contribute to conversions and what an average cost is for a conversion, you’ll be able to back into a more appropriate budget.
3. Build Your Ad
You’ll want to have a clean and visually interesting design with a clear call to action (CTA). When selecting your CTA, you will want to ensure you are clearly stating the benefit or value your business brings.
One best practice is to have your CTA styled like a button. For example, you may have a “button” in the bottom center of your image that says “Get a Free Quote” or “Sign Up Now”. It's also important that your ad has headlines and descriptions that can stand alone in the case that your ad is shown in a placement that does support images or video.
4. Optimize Your Landing Page Experience
On the technical end, you will want to ensure that the page your ad drives traffic to loads quickly and performs consistently on both mobile and desktop. Additionally, you should try and make the design of your landing page mesh well with the design of your display ads. Use the same colors, fonts, headlines, and images when possible.
This helps visitors feel confident that they are in the right place. It's also important that you use the landing page to reinforce your call to action so your visitors are reminded of why they came to your sight and know what to do next.
5. Launch and Evaluate
Like any ad campaign you will want to have a thorough understanding of your performance. Take a look at which ads are driving the most impressions, clicks, and conversions, and then tweak your other ads accordingly. It's also a good idea to listen to Google’s feedback which will give you notes about your ads quality and landing page experience.
