In 2018, what’s the first thing that a consumer do if they want to buy something? The days of visiting the shops to inquire about each and every product are long gone. Nowadays, with the growth of online business and the ease offered by search engines, people search the internet and order the desired product with a few mouse clicks. Saves the effort and time!
But while searching for a product online, the primary factor that comes to play is the products which are shown to us. In other words, the immediate search results which are provided to us. Here is where the significance of Google AdWords lies.
What is Google AdWords?
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Google AdWords is a term we have heard since 2004 and has brought a remarkable change in the business or marketing sector. AdWords has been and is a big game changer and will continue to grow as long as online business exists. So let’s get a bit deep into this topic.
Google AdWords is a paid online service by Google that allows you to place or prioritize your company website or links on a SERP (search engine results page) by spending some money. With the help of AdWords, you don’t have to waste time and effort to bring up your website to the top with stuff like SEO, etc. This service is not at all difficult to use and does not cost the hefty sum of money either. The search results will be organically placed at the top or at the side with a small yellow Ad box just above the respective search links.
This is not a service provided by Google alone. Yahoo and Bing also have their online advertising services. But for now, we will be exploring the service by Google alone.
Basic things to know about AdWords
Merely saying, to get an AdWord service, all you need is to select some keywords which are related to your service/product and then create an advertisement which will be appearing on the search engine results page based on the given keywords. However, yours will not be the only organization that wants people to look up to you based on those particular keywords. Rivals can bid for the same word, which often leads to mixed and prioritized results.
If you are adamant about your ad appearing on the first page of searches made by the same keyword, then you must be willing to bid against other rival marketers on how much amount you are willing to pay AdWords every single time a person clicks on your ad.
The more money you are willing to pay for PPC, there is more chance of your ad topping the search results. The word ‘chance’ needs to be stressed upon as it is not only the highest bid that pushes your ad to the top. A feature called ‘quality score’ is used by Google to determine this.
What do you mean by Quality Score?
Google monitors your add and it is based on this observance that your add is placed. It checks how useful and relevant an ad is to the users and the search terms used by them. It also takes in account how relevant the landing page is and the number of clicks the ad has previously received, known as CTR (click-through rate).
For example, if a user search for ‘Men’s Adidas Originals’ and your ad is shown saying “buy Men’s Adidas Originals here,” once the user clicks the ad it should directly lead him/her to the page which features Men’s Adidas Originals trainers. But instead, if it goes to the generic homepage, that won’t be good enough.
The higher quality score you can get, the better it can be. Even if your best bid is less than your rival’s bid, having a higher quality score can push your ad above your rival’s ad.
About Bidding
Every time a user clicks your ad. It will cost you some money to Google AdWords. This price which you will have to pay for each click when using their service is called the CPC (cost per click). Either you can choose a maximum bid amount, or you can opt for the automatic option. In automatic option, Google will automatically select a bid amount within the budget and (theoretically speaking) will bring the most number of clicks in that budget.
There is another option called CPM (cost-per-impression), which is not very commonly used. If you opt for this option, you will have to pay AdWords for every thousand times your ad appears on the search engine results page. In this, the user need not click through. The payment method is left to the choice of every individual.
Google AdWords takes about 0.26 seconds to look all the relevant advertisements circling a specific search term, decide to auction or not, hold the auction and work out between the maximum bid and quality score. This is the time taken for the search results to appear after entering the search term. (Provided you have an internet connection with decent speed)
Some of the successful AdWords Ads till date are given below:
- Logo Design Guarantee
- North American Spine
- ThermaCare
- POC Hiring
- BeyondDiet.com
- Dr. Simoni – Plastic Surgeon
- Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery
- 1-800-Need-Help
- Proflowers.com and From You Flowers
- Elance.com
What makes these AdWords Ads top the list beating all the competition around them are because of the following features:
- Use of Numbers
- Use of ASCII characters
- Main focus on benefits
- Offer proof or credibility
- Usage of quotes
- Questions asked
- A strong offer is made
- Call to action is included
The Money Spent on Ads: A Case Study
Even though some people claim there are many drawbacks to Google AdWords, the money spent on Ads by different sectors states otherwise. Almost all the business sectors have spent the significant amount of money on online advertising through the Google service which tells us that there is a large impact on people due to this online marketing/ advertising.
- Amount spent by Finance and Insurance sector on Google pay-per-click ads: $4.0 Billion
- Amount spent by Retailers & General Merchandise sector on pay-per-click ads: about $2.8 Billion
- Amount spent by Travel and Tourism sector on PPC advertising with the help of AdWords: $2.4 Billion
- Amount spent by Jobs & Education sector on Google AdWords ads: $2.2 Billion
- Amount spent by Home and Garden sector on AdWords service: $2.1 Billion
- Amount spent by Computer and Consumer Electronics sector on AdWords PPC ads: $2.0 Billion
- Amount spent by the Vehicles sector on Google advertising: $2.0 Billion
- The amount spent by Internet and Telecommunications sector on Google ads: spent $1.7 Billion
- Amount spent by Business and Industrial sector on Google PPC ads: $1.6 Billion
- Amount spent by Occasions and Gifts sector on ads: $1.2 Billion
Source: https://www.wordstream.com/articles/google-earnings
The use of Google AdWords | What & Why
AdWords is Measurable and Flexible
AdWords come equipped with a lot of PPC metrics so that you can check what is working and what is not. It also can be used to show your ad for specific keyword searches, view detailed information (product images, contact info, links, directions), filter the audience on different aspects and grant access to non-search websites like YouTube, Gmail, etc.
More speed than SEO
Unlike SEO, AdWords does not take a long time to see the results. Once the campaign is live, ads will start appearing, and instant results can be observed. This can also help you to build up an effective better SEO campaign.
Controllable costs for Advertising
A daily limit on cost can be set in your online advertising campaign which will help you to stay within the total budget. This limit can be increased and decrease according to your wish.
Get ahead in the competition
Use of AdWords will help you to get ahead in competition as you will be appearing in the top search results and getting a lot of clicks. Suppose, if your competitors are also using AdWords service, the only way to beat them is by staying in the game.
Increased Brand Awareness
In addition to boosting the market, the use of AdWords will create a name for you in the market. The awareness is increased, and people usually tend to buy things whose brands they are usually aware of.
Gmail – Email marketing
The use of AdWords allows you to reach customers through the email platform also. Since 2015 Gmail ads are in use and cost less compared to search ads.
Performance measurement
Unlike the traditional means of advertising like newspapers, cable tv, brochures, etc. the performance of AdWords ads can be monitored. Monitoring helps to create changes and offers scope for improvement. Some of the things that can be monitored are people who clicked on the ad., leads generated, traffic from AdWords to the site, cost per lead, etc.
Explore more
Google AdWords helps you to explore more and in-depth. You can find out how many pages of our site have been visited, duration of visit, the bouncing rate of your page, new visitors, repeat visitors, etc. with the help of Google Analytics.
Is Google AdWords suitable for everyone’s use? Or who can use them?
One must not go for Google AdWords just because they have seen it to be useful to some other person. You must first find out if it is suitable for the kind of business you are involved in and if it is then the next step is figuring out what types of ads. can be of use to you.
Google AdWords can be of your use only if these criteria are met:
- Only if you have an online audience for your product or service.
- If the search terms or keywords which are related to your area of business are searched online often. This can be found out with the help of Google’s Keyword Planner.
- Whether articles related to your service or industry are published online by online bloggers and magazines
- Whether Google displays relevant search results related to your keywords
- If your rival competitors are also investing in online marketingthrough paid or unpaid means.
Top 10 PPC Management Firms of AdWords
- Ignite Visibility 5060 Shoreham Place, #260, San Diego, CA 92122
- Directive Consulting Orange County, California
- Jellyfish Baltimore, Maryland
- Galaxy Weblinks Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Powerweave Columbia, Maryland
- Hanapin Marketing Bloomington, Indiana
- USA Marketing Associates Mansfield, Massachusetts
- Jumpfly Elgin, Illinois
- Agency PPC Chicago, Illinois
- ZeroCompany Dana Point, California
Source: http://www.10bestppc.com/companies/adwords/
Drawbacks of AdWords
Unawareness: Even the perfect things will have one or two drawbacks so does Google AdWords. Even though it works so well, it has been observed by a study conducted that about 40% of the online consumers are not aware that the Google AdWords are advertisements. Most searchers usually skip the AdWords search results thinking it to be something unrelated or spam. This is a major drawback as it directly goes against its very own purpose.
Alternatives to Google AdWords: The Yahoo Bing Network: the YBN accounts for about 29% of online searches in the United States. Its own data shows that the searches made on the YBN spend about 23% more on the same sites from other search engines
Search engine optimization: SEO includes all the processes, methods and tactics to bring your website to the top and rank high in the results of search engines. If you have an awesome SEO, there won’t be any need for an option for the paid ad. services. But experts suggest that both SEO and online ads. are vital in the area of online marketing and is effective differently.
In The End
Since Google AdWords is a powerful way to reach out to your audience, we can’t find a reason to not do it. In addition, we recommend that you use Google Analytics when you start your Adwords campaign. Google Analytics is a tool to review your ad strategy in more detail than the standard Adwords data.
If you have any useful information to add to it, feel free to share in the comments below.
1 comment
Thanks for the tips, adword is hard for newbies and ad agencies are expensive unless they start support local currencies