A Beginners Guide to Google Ads

Running Google Ads is a great way to grow your business by getting your website in front of people right when they’re looking for your product or service. 

Unlike other digital advertising platforms, Google Search Ads uses a pay-per-click model which means you only pay when someone clicks your to visit your website.

How can your business benefit from Google Ads? 

I’ll use the example of a business selling men’s skincare. In this example I encourage you to replace men’s skincare with whatever products or services you’re selling. 

When setting up a Google Ads campaign we target keywords relevant to our business and to what people will be searching for. In this example it is men’s skincare so our core keyword will be “men’s skincare” as we want our Google Ads to show whenever someone searches “mens skincare” into Google. 

If we have active Google Ads running for this keyword, then whenever someone searches for men's skincare our text-based search ad has the potential to show, often at the top of the page above organic (unpaid) search results for other websites selling mens skincare.

Key benefits of Google Ads

• Pause your campaigns at any time
• Only pay when people actually visit your website 
• Real insights into what people are searching for in your industry 

What about cost? 

There is no fixed amount to how much Google Ads cost, you can enter practically any amount into your daily budget. Where it gets complicated is that many Google Ads agencies all choose different ways fo charging for their service. 

If you decide to run a Google Ads campaign, I tend to recommend a minimum monthly spend of $60 which equates to ~$2/day. Any less than this and you’re unlikely to get the results you’re after. 

A key metric to look out for regarding to cost is cost-per-click (CPC) which is how much on average it costs for every ad click onto your website. Many factors determine how high this is, the main one being completion for other businesses running ads with the same keywords as you. As Google Ads runs with an auction model, whoever is willing to pay the highest CPC gets the best ad placement and so on. 


Is Google Ads a good choice for your business? 

Google Ads is a great advertising option if: 

a) you know there is a demand for your products but worry people may not be aware of your business
b) you have a website optimised to inform people and bring them closer to becoming a customer or making a purchase online
c) you have a monthly marketing budget of at least $60 - $100 (excluding agency fees)
d) you want to ‘test the waters’ of any advertising channel before committing to a year of advertising

What about SEO?

SEO (search engine marketing) is optimising your website in order for it to rank highly organically (for free). While this is also a great digital marketing strategy (one that is not my area of expertise) it is typically a long term investment and the results don’t come immediately, plus Google’s algorithm’s are constantly changing. If you’re looking for short-term results and sales then Google Ads is the way to go. 

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 Want to learn more? 

The above is only a simple guide to using Google Ads, the finer details can easily confuse the average person however an effective Google Ads campaign is very simple to set up and to start seeing results from. 

If you’d like to learn more about running Google Ads and to see if it’s a good match for your business and current marketing goals then reach out to me below to start a conversation about growing your business.