Contributed by Gabby Klesser
Here’s a mind-blowing statistic: a whopping 3.5 billion Google searches are made every single day! That’s one of the reasons Google Ads (formerly referred to as Google Adwords) is considered one of the best advertising options available.
Not convinced? Consider this: for every $1 spent on Google Ads, the average return is $2! That’s an ROI other advertising platforms find hard to match. No wonder many brands and businesses consider paying for PPC management a smart investment!
Getting Started
Setting up a Google Ads search campaign is not rocket science. However, if you don’t know how to go about it, it can be overwhelming. If you are considering setting up your first campaign, the following steps should get your efforts off to a good start:
Step#1: Visit the Google Ads Website
Go to https://ads.google.com Click on the “Get Started Now” button and sign up for your Google Ads account. From there, click on the “Create your first campaign” button.
Step#2: Decide on a Campaign Name and Type
While you have various campaign type options, it’s recommended that you choose “Search Network only” when you’re first starting out. When giving your campaign a name, you might want to consider something that has to do with the product or service you’re advertising.
Step#3: Select Ad Display Location
You have a vast option when it comes to people’s locations. You have an option to pick a small or large area (i.e., a city or country). If you want to target a specific area, you can make use of the latitude-longitude coordinates.
It is crucial that you know the locations of the people you want to target. If you are a local business owner, you might want to target the people within your area. If you are looking to sell your products or services throughout the US, pick the United States.
Step#4: Set Your Daily Budget
Until you’ve mastered Google Ads, it would be best to set a low daily budget first. This strategy allows you to start slowly, gather data, and expand whatever works once you are more familiar with your campaigns.
Keep in mind that Google might go beyond the daily budget you’ve set. With that in mind, you must keep a close eye on your campaigns and make budget adjustments weekly. This is also important so you don’t go beyond your maximum ad budget each month.
Step#5: Add Keywords
For first time advertisers, this part can be tricky. If you are like most people, your first inclination is to add as many keywords (relevant to your business) as possible.
Fight the urge! Instead, focus on what is referred to as bullseye keywords. Bullseye keywords are those keywords searchers type in when they are ready to buy.
Step#6: Create Your Ad
As a general rule of thumb, create an ad that attracts consumers and entices them to click on the ad. Prospects tend to click on ads that have keywords used in the Google search bar. For instance, if you target a keyword phrase your target audience uses, ensure you use the phrase in one of your two headlines.
When doing the ad description, focus on the key benefits your product or service provides. If you have a special offer, make sure you mention it. End the description with a strong call-to-action.
It is recommended that you send people to a landing page created primarily to match your ad. Ensure the ad’s information is reflected on the landing page as this can lead to more robust conversions. Remember, your landing page should be highly targeted for the keyword phrase that appears in your ad.
Step#7: Set Up Your Conversion Tracking
This step gives you the apt conversion tracking for your business. The following options are available to you:
- Webform leads
- Calls from ads
- E-commerce orders
- Imports from sales that happen off of the internet
It is essential that all the appropriate conversion tracking options have been set up before turning the ads on. Otherwise, you will have no way of gauging the effectiveness of your ads.
Final Thoughts
When running your ads, keep a close eye on your analytics so you’ll see what is working and not working and make the needed adjustments. Once you’ve determined the ads that have garnered the most clicks, you can then create identical ones for higher cost-per-click keywords to increase your ROI.
If you are unsure how to create a powerful Google Ads campaign, it might be a good idea to leave the task to the able hands of experts. Taking into account the returns, there’s no denying it’s something worth investing in!
Next: Optimising Paid Search