The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads: Getting Started with PPC Advertising

When it comes to online business, traffic is the primary requirement. Google ads are known to be one of the best traffic sources. It can generate high-quality traffic for your business which is the ultimate requirement. However, it also comes with a lot of complications. If you don’t have the knowledge of whether you are doing the right thing or not, you are just wasting your valuable time and money on them as they are not going to perform as you expect.

If this is the first time you have started making use of Google ads, make sure that you read this guide and find out a single thing about PPC advertising and Google Ad management. We will take a look into all the necessary steps in order to create a successful campaign and check some necessary information. If you want to attract more customers to your ads, paid channels are the best way to start with. This can also be said for the shortcut to getting yourself known in the crowd.

However, as it is a little bit complicated, let us take a look at some basic information.

What are Google ads?

Google ads are the paid online platform that has been created exclusively by Google. It was initially known as Google Adwords, and then this search engine company again rebranded the service in 2018 as Google Ads.

The way it performs is almost the same. When users are looking for something using a search keyword, they will get a whole lot of lists in the search engine result pages. These results include both paid and organic results. However, paid advertisements are always on top.

No matter what keyword you use to search, you will always find advertisements by Google on top of their pages. They almost look identical to the organic results with the only identification of “Ad” in its prefix. This is an excellent choice for advertisers as the initial results will always get huge traffic on search queries.

However, you must also know that purchasing Google ads does not always mean that you will get the top position. After all, there are several other marketers like you who are competing using the same keyword by using Google ads. 

In order to understand how this ranking actually happens, you have to know how Google ad works.

How does it work?

Google ads generally operate under the PPC model. This means that when marketers target specific keywords on Google and place their bid on the keywords, there are others who are also targeting similar keywords. If you put the maximum number of bids, it means that you have to pay the maximum amount for the Ad.

For example, if the maximum bid amount is $4, Google will take the cost per click to $2. However, if Google determines that it is over $4, you may not get the placement.

However, you also have the ability to set a daily budget for the ad. You will not spend more than the mentioned amount for ads every day, which gives you a good sense of the amount you need to set for ads every day.

Marketers will generally come across three options when it comes to bids.

• CPC or cost per click is the amount you pay when users click on the specific Ad.
• CPM or cost for mille is the amount you pay for every thousand ad impressions.
• CPE, or cost for engagement, is the amount you pay when users take a specific action on the ad, like watching a video, signing up, or doing other actions.

After this, Google will take the bid amount and make an ad assessment which is also known as a quality score. Quality score is defined as the estimation of ad quality, landing pages, and keywords. High-quality ads can give lower prices with a better position of the act.

The score is generally between 1 to 10, where 10 is the best score. When you rank higher on the score, you will get a better rank and have to spend less for conversion. The quality score is combined with the bid amount to determine the ranking or the position of your ad.

What are the different types of Google ads?

It is also important for you to understand that there are different types of ad campaigns that you can use for your Ad. So let us take a look at all the types of Google ads.

• Search Campaign
• Shopping campaign
• Display campaign
• App campaign
• Video campaign

You must understand each type of campaign type individually to determine which one would work best for your specific purpose.

Search Campaign

The ads of search campaigns generally appear as text ads in the Google result pages for specific keywords. This is the most common type of Ad that you are familiar with. They appear on the page with the word AD placed next to the URL.

However, if you take a complete look at the entire search network, you will also find different kinds of ads present. So let us take a look at the other types of ad campaigns.

Shopping campaign

Shopping campaigns are the next variant that helps you promote the product in a visual manner. It is much different from text campaigns as these ads only provide images on the top search results.

If you want to showcase your physical product and want to improve customers, shopping ads on Google can be the best choice. It can help you get qualified leads by properly showcasing the product to your customers.

Display campaign

The display network of Google generally leverages the huge website partner for showcasing the ad on different websites present on Google throughout the internet. There are quite different varieties of ways that they appear. They can also appear on third-party websites. You might also find the ads appearing before YouTube videos and a lot more.

However, display ads have a great reach. This is one of the prime benefits of using a display network. Google has partnered with over 2 million websites and has the ability to reach 90% of internet users to ensure that the ads get the most visibility. These ads are known to be extremely flexible when it comes to style. You can add video, text, GIFs, and images.

If you make a careful decision about where to put the ads, you can garner the extreme advantages of the Google display network.

Video campaign

Video campaigns are those ads that generally appear prior to YouTube videos as pre-rolls. Google will provide options to choose video ads. This is a great choice if you have a great video idea and you want to test it out.

These campaigns generally are available in different forms. They can be skippable videos or unskippable ads. Besides, as there are several banners and overlays present, you get the opportunity to choose.

App campaign

Similar to video ads, app Ad has been included in display networks but are generally used to get targeted campaigns. In order to do this, he will not require designing individual app ads. Rather than that, they will simply take the text and asset-like photos and furnish Ads according to your expectations.

The algorithm generally assesses a set of asset combinations and makes use of it to perform the best. So these are the different variants of ad campaigns that you need to choose according to your requirements.

How to research keywords for Google Ads? 

One of the most essential parts of Google ads is choosing keywords. As it is integrated with a keyword planner tool, it can be beneficial for marketers to find keywords for search marketing. You can use this tool to find relevant keywords according to the business and find out the estimate of searches that it can receive, along with the cost that you need to pay to target them.

Another common option is to develop search campaigns by focusing on doing keyword research with the use of a keyword planner. There are several benefits of using a keyword planner when it comes to doing keyword research.

• You will be able to discover new keywords as you get keyword suggestions according to the website, service, and product.

• You will also find the estimated monthly search for the keywords available on the tool, which will help you to get a rough estimation.

• You will also find it easy to determine the cost of creating your app and helping it to appear in the searches.

• You can easily organize keywords by examining how the keywords fit into different categories related to the brand.

• You can generate campaigns, depending on the keyword research, by using the keyword planner tool for creating new ones.

When you’re using a keyword planner, it is important for you to understand that, even when it will help you to find the right keyword, the campaign’s success will be determined by several factors. For example, the campaign’s effectiveness is generally influenced by customer behavior, bid, product, and budget in the industry.

Best Practices for Google Ads to improve sales

There is no denying the fact that there are several competitors who are also doing the same thing to acquire the best results. Besides, when it comes to working with Google, you have to put your best. You need to strategically move ahead to get the best results. So following are some of the best practices when it comes to setting your Google ads and acquiring improved results.

• Properly define your goals – Start by selecting product categories and the offers you’re willing to highlight. These are the categories where you are going to put your money. It is important for you to think properly and then choose the areas that can give you the maximum return.

• Choose effective keywords – Even when you require paying to get a higher ranking, it is always essential for a business to provide descriptions in a manner that is noticeable. When you choose the best keywords and put relevant page content, this is the first requirement. You require learning important skills, where you have to be strategic regarding the killer keywords and understand the purpose of proper positioning.

• Properly aligned account structure as per the website – The very first thing you would want is to always get more prospects than your competition. It is definitely not an easy path. So you require making sure that the structure matches the website along with the keyword and content present in the ads.

• Make high-quality advertisements – Remember that advertisement is the point of contact between the potential customer and your business. So, it is a must for you to create relevant, appealing, and specific advertisements. For example, you can choose to highlight unbeatable prices, exclusive offers, new and innovative products, and much more. All you need is to be unique and appealing.

• Check the ROI: It is a necessity for you to calculate the return you will get from every dollar spent on the advertisement by making use of Google ads. When you get a good return on investment, it will help you to manage the budget. So here, the question is not about the money you have, but you have to find out how much you can spend. When you analyze the reports and determine the margins, it will help you to understand How to improve the ROI. Remember that return on investment is mostly affected by conversion rate, click rate, cost per click, average basket, and quality score.

• Ensure a user-friendly website design: One of the primary benefits of choosing a Google ad campaign is that it can help you to find websites and get the best results. You require observing your customer behavior to create strategies that will lead you to success. You will understand what the customers are looking for when you make a comprehensive analysis with Google Analytics data and read Google ads. The data provided will help you to make fast decisions. You can modify pictures, provide better features, properly design the product page and ensure putting the right thing in the right place.

So, these are some of the most effective things that you need to pay attention to when you’re creating Google ads. Remember that choosing the best practices will help you to yield the best results.

Tips for managing Google Ad Campaigns

There is always a need to properly manage Google ad campaigns in order to acquire the best results. So here we will check out some of the essential steps that will help you to handle ad campaigns efficiently and effectively.

Check the performance of your current Google ad:

The very first step of managing Google ad campaigns is checking their performance. You can simply take a look at the campaign dashboard and check the metrics. The data provided will help you to determine the areas that require improvement in the campaign, or you can also use Google Analytics.

Some of the most essential KPIs that you have to check include the following.

• Impression and clicks
• Average CPC
• Conversion rates
• Click through rate
• Relevant score
• Average position
• Budget
• Amount spent on the campaign

These are the vital metrics that you have to pay attention to when you start managing the Google ad campaign. Always take a look at the performance metrics of Google ads, and it will help you to guide in creating and developing new ad campaigns.

Properly evaluate the Ad targeting:

The next important step is to re-evaluate the targeted audience for the ad campaign. It refers to re-evaluating the demographics, interests, keywords, and remarketing options that you are choosing for the Ad group. The primary goal is to find an audience that will help you to get more clicks and have more conversions at a low cost. However, it will maintain the Ad relevance score.

It might seem that it will take a lot of time, but it will not if you have knowledge beforehand. If you do it properly, reworking audience targeting for the campaign can take less time. To make the process a bit more speedy, it is better to write down the interest and keywords which are paying off more to your business. Later, you can narrow down and create separate ad groups.

Create A/B test Ad design and copy.

The next step is to test and optimize your ad copy and its design. You require coming back to disturb very frequently as you will easily find new data coming up, which will again require you to change the ad content or design. In order to do this, you can use testing tools like A/B split testing.

You can create two different versions of the same ad, and then you can easily switch back and forth. You can keep altering them until you get a clear version according to your requirements. If you’re not sure and your concerned regarding certain elements that might affect the performance, it is better to run the test after making certain changes.

Take a look at the negative keywords.

Another vital step that every advertiser forget is checking the negative keywords. There will be phrases and words that you must add to the negative keyword list of the campaign if you find them relevant to your business or industry. This is mostly applicable when you have a tight theme campaign.

For example, when it is about a local business, which mostly deals with house painting, some of the common words, like fencing or locksmith, should be on the negative keyword list. The same goes for someone who is selling fruit baskets. If the ads are showing Fruit Ninja, then it is important to add Fruit Ninja to the negative list.

Optimizing landing pages

The next, most important thing is optimizing the landing pages by making them as relevant as it is possible. This is mostly true for the quality score of Google ads. You might be wondering why the relevance of landing pages matters to Google Ad quality score so much. Well, the reason is the performance of the ads are generally judged by the behavior of User after they click on the ads.

So, if a user clicks on an ad that is for swimming pools, but they ends up landing on a page about home insulation, it will have a bad impact. So, page relevancy is one of the most important factors for Google.

Mistakes to avoid while creating Google Ads

Even after getting all the knowledge, there are marketers who make mistakes. If this is the first time you’re about to create your Google ad campaign, there are chances of making mistakes. So here we will briefly take a look at some of the most common mistakes to avoid while creating your Google ad campaign.

• Do not use too many negative keywords, as it will result in giving too many restrictions on the search ad. Therefore, the search Ad will not show up in most of the relevant places.

• If you don’t specify the exact match types, it can result in issues. When you choose closer match types, it will result in getting predictable website traffic. So don’t let Google decide the terms but create keywords for every match type to ensure getting the expected results.

• It is a need to keep a proper budget strategy, but you have to make smart decisions while spending it. Make sure to keep a daily budget to work on their business while not being too restrictive.

• Ignoring quality scores is one of the most common mistakes made by marketers. Remember that quality score is one of the most important aspects of Google ads that can have an effect on the paper click and add noticeability. 

• Another common mistake is using too many ad extensions. When you add quite a good number of extensions, it makes the ad look like spam and has an effect on the ranking. So only use the extension to the lowest amount to make the best results, and that will work great on your ad placement.

Conclusion 

So these are some of the most effective information that you need to know before you start your Google ad campaign. Remember that it is not easy to go higher when there are multiple other competitors looking forward to acquiring the same results. Make sure to choose the right approach and avoid making common mistakes. It will help you to get the right and desirable results.

Choosing the right tool, regular audits, and paying attention to the quality score will always help you to eat the best results from PPC advertising. Even when it might seem hard for any ongoing business, there are several PPC advertising companies available to provide PPC advertising management services. If you want to take the lead on the market, it is important for you to choose professional services.

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