Google Ads Basics

Getting Started with Google Ads

Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is an online advertising platform that can be used by businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations to reach people using any of the Google products – email, search engines, YouTube, and so on – with ads. These paid ads can be set up in a variety of ways, including the display of brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and video content. Depending on who and where you’re trying to reach potential customers, Google offers a whole host of powerful options to connect with your target audiences and funnel traffic to your website. In this blog, we’ll cover the Google Ads basics to give you an idea of just how beneficial leveraging these types of ads can be for your business.

Types of Google Ads

When using Google Ads, there are many ways you can create your ads and set up your parameters to get the most out of your advertising budget.

First of all, let’s cover the types of ads you can choose from in the Google Ads system:

Search Network Campaign – These ads are the most basic form of Google Ads and allow you to put an ad at the top of any Google search result that is related to the parameters and keywords of your ads. These ads are text ads that appear only when the search specifications meet those of your ad setup.

 

Google Ads Basics

Display Network campaign – The Google Display ads are another type of ad in which you can create a graphic that appears to users in a variety of places on websites all across the Internet. The ads are served to people who are interested in topics related to your ad parameters and will direct people to your site.

Google Ads Basics

Shopping Campaign – On the Google Ad platform, you can have specific ads targeted to people who are shopping for certain types of products. By using these types of ads, you can have your company’s products seen by more customers.

Video Campaign – If your company has nice, polished videos, you might consider using Google’s Video ads to encourage more people to watch your videos on websites like YouTube.

App Campaign– And finally, if your company has an app, you can utilize Google Ads to encourage more app downloads and increase in-app payments.

Google Ads Basics
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Google Ads Basics

Google Ads can be used to help you reach a variety of goals for your company including sales leads, website traffic, product awareness and sales, brand awareness, increased reach, and app promotion. Depending on your company’s individual goals and budget, there are a few Google Ads basics you should consider before deciding on the type of ad you’ll invest in:

  • Keywords and Keyword Planner: No matter what kind of ad you decide to run, the ads will be served to Google users based on a set of keywords you choose when setting up the ad. These keywords will help Google determine who is the best user to get your ad, based on what they are currently searching for and their past web history. Choosing the right keywords for your campaign will help ensure that the people seeing your ads are the most likely to act. Google’s Keyword Planner Tool helps you determine what keywords you should be using in your advertising; utilize it to pick the best and most viable keywords for your ads and target audience.
Google Ads Basics
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  • Detailed Targeting: Speaking of target audience, Google Ads allow you to set very specific parameters to reach the right kinds of users. You can choose who to reach based on location, age, and other online behaviors. When you utilize the detailed targeting options, your reach will be improved and you’ll only hit the people who are most likely to act.
  • Determine Your Budget and Set It: When you set up a Google Ad campaign, you will need to think through how much you want to spend per day or month on the ads. You are charged per click, and certain types of keywords are more expensive to serve ads to than others. In Google Ads, you can set very specific budgets to make sure you’re not overspending your account. This can include a daily budget that lets you spend only a certain amount per day, and when that limit is reached, the ads will be automatically turned off until the budget resets the next day. You can also set cost per click (CPC) budgets that help you avoid using keywords that would quickly eat up your budget, based on how expensive they are to run ads on. You can use the Google Ad Bid Simulator to help you estimate how much it will cost you to achieve your goals and reach your target audience.
Google Ads Basics
  • Continual Monitoring: As with any kind of marketing activities, you will want to continually monitor your ad campaigns to ensure they are performing well, giving you a healthy conversion rate. The Google Ads system provides plenty of reporting information to help you see which keywords are working best and how your budget is being spent. For many businesses new to the Google Ads environment, it’s important to also experiment and try new campaigns to find a setup that works best for your goals.

This quick Google Ads basics rundown is just enough to get you started, but if you really want to learn more about the full potential of the Google advertising network, we invite you to join us at Digital Workshop Center for our Google Ads class. This class will give you an in-depth understanding of just how to leverage this kind of advertising to grow your business. Click here to learn more about the course, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or to register.

Grow Your Business with Google Ads