Google Ads are an essential tool for SMEs to maximise their search presence. Studies show that paid search clicks are three times more likely to lead to conversions than organic SEO. It doesn’t always take a huge amount of budget to have a big impact in Google Ads.
However, it does require a well-planned strategy and judiciously executed campaign in order to be a success. This is probably where many companies do fall down. There is a push for instant success. This often results in quick wins being prioritised over long-term gains. To avoid this, it’s imperative for companies to actually take time to work out what they want.
With this in mind, here are some key points to consider before you start writing your adverts.
What Is The Big Goal?
At the core of your Google Ads campaign, there should be a big goal. It could be attaining (x) number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) per month, getting to position 1 consistently in paid search for your key terms, generating a level of awareness for your brand that supersedes current activity or even just driving more traffic to your website. Although it sounds simple, too often campaigns become muddled as people chase multiple objectives and targets and end up hitting none of them.
What Is The Google Ads Budget?
There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to Google Ads budgets. A small budget used well can have a much stronger impact than a company frittering away costs. A conversation about costs is never easy with a client. However, you have to try and articulate the positives for the advertising rather than accentuating how much they should spend. It’s worth bringing up the point of opportunity cost – if they are not willing to spend enough funds, they are likely to miss out on results.
What is the Ideal Search Term?
What is the Ideal Search Term?Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. If you wanted someone to find your business, what would you expect to search? These keywords and phrases should form the basis of your campaign. But it’s not enough to just have a few options. The more synonyms and connection points that you can link to it, the better chance you stand of generating enough noise and buzz.
It’s worth noting that if you aren’t sure about this question initially, it’s not a problem. To begin with, you might be better placed setting up a Smart ads campaign. Smart campaigns run automatically and will generate you a list of prospective keywords and topics that you can expand on to build out your campaigns.
Who is your Audience?
One of the biggest issues that businesses find is they incorrectly define their audience on Google Ads. There are two overarching ways you can define your audience: the first is targeting, which narrows the reach of your campaign to the selected audiences with the option to adjust the bids separately, and the second is observation targeting, which gives you the ability to adjust the bids on the selected audiences, however, does not narrow the reach of your campaign.
You can either search for specific audiences or select from the different categories available.
- Who They Are: Details such as parental status, marital status, education, employment or homeownership status
- Affinity Audiences: Covering what consumer interests and habits are relevant to your audience
- In-Market Audiences: Focusing on consumers who are actively researching or planning purchases
- Remarketing: Aimed at customers who have already engaged in your products or services
- Combination Audiences: Any of the above
You want to spend time stratifying and selecting the right options so you can ensure you are pointing your adverts towards the right people.
What is your Ad Format?
Once you’ve defined all of the above, you can start to look at the most appropriate advertising format. Every format has positives and drawbacks, however, we’ve produced a short summary below:
- Text Ads: The common type of advert, text adverts use a range of different headlines and descriptions to encourage maximum click-through rate.
- Display Ads: Another common form of advert, using headlines and a shorter description with relevant imagery accompanying the text.
- Video Ads: A short clip or video promoting your business or service
- Shopping Ads: Adverts featuring key details about your product including cost, reviews and images in order to encourage a purchase.
- App Ads: Adverts that promote either downloading your app or visiting an app store to find out more about your app.
You should test a range of these in order to find which one is most suitable and then put the majority of your budget towards it.
If you follow these principles, you will have the best possible foundations for your Google Ads campaign.
If you’re looking for any more help with your marketing strategy, please contact us here for a free consultation!
