What Is Google Advertising And How Does It Work
Management Summary
What is Google Advertising?
Google has a so-called Google Ads system that is used to advertise products or services online. You can register for this system for free. In it, advertisers create suitable ads and define how much they want to pay when users click on their ad. Google then shows these ads to people who search for the phrases (called keywords) you select.
When searching, paid posts are displayed together with organic posts; you can recognize these by the “display” tag. The ads are usually located at the beginning or end of Google search results, although it doesn’t always have to be on the first page.
The advantage of Google Ads (AdWords) is that you can target your ad group very specifically. The target audience is the people who should be most interested in your product or service.
And how much does it cost?
Unlike newspapers, banners or billboards, you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. This method of payment is known as cost-per-click (CPC) or pay-per-click (PPC).
Four basic types of ads in Google Ads
Search advertising network advertisingis the place for your classic search ad. This will appear when users search for the keywords you are targeting. Text ads are used here. This means that it is important for you to create suitable text that is relevant enough for users to click on your ad and ideally become customers.The Display Networkis a website or application that provides space for advertising. Image ads usually appear here, but in some cases text ads also appear. Even in this case, they mainly target the keywords or interests that correspond to the content of the page. Additionally, you can select the websites on which you want your ad to appear.
Another type of Google Ads areVideo campaigns. These are short videos, usually 6 to 30 seconds in length, that are shown before a video starts playing on YouTube.
Additionally, if you own an online store, you canShopping adscreate. These are displayed when searching in the form of an image, a price and a link to your website – this allows users to make a purchase directly. To use these ads, you will also need a Google Merchant Center account where you can add the specific products you want to advertise on.
Remarketing function
If users have already visited your website but have not carried out the desired action, such as a purchase, you can lure them back with the so-called remarketing function. This allows you to target people who have already interacted with you in some way but have not yet completed their purchase.
There are different remarketing formats. One of them, for example, is dynamic remarketing, a strategy to reach people again for you. To use this, simply upload the basic ad elements you want to show to potential customers and Google Ads will do the rest for you.
Of course, you can still adjust many settings manually, such as: B. where your ad should (not) be shown or what type of target group you prefer.
Basic elements of advertising
A Google Ads ad is made up of the three most important elements: the keywords you’re targeting, the ad copy, and the landing page you want to direct users to. So let’s take a look at what each of these elements means and how you can use them effectively.
You target your ad to specific keywords that you add to the list you create in Google Ads. You want to target the keywords or phrases that users are most likely to search on Google when searching for your product or service. This is your primary ad targeting.
When you promote a specific keyword, you enter an auction that determines the ranking of ads for that keyword. For instructions on how to proceed with the Google Ads auction, see the section below. For even better definition, you can use the negative keyword feature to show your ad to the right audience.
If you sell t-shirts for men only, add “women’s” (t-shirts) as a negative keyword. Look for the right keywords and focus on selecting them.
With search ads, as well as display ads, the right text is more than half the battle. The text you present should be truthful and enticing to motivate users to click on the ad and take action.
When creating this text, you should first think about what message you want to give to users and potential customers. Remember that these people are usually looking for a solution to their problem – for example, they are planning to go hiking and don’t have suitable shoes, or they are hungry and are looking for a suitable restaurant. Offer them your product or service as a solution to a problem. Ads are the voice of your products and services.
Be precise and clear in the text. Use so-called call-to-actions (CTA) that directly invite people to take an action – e.g. “Click here to find more details!”. Pay attention to grammar and the correct use of activating special characters and symbols.
The landing page is the link you want your ad to redirect to. This should be a page that is relevant to the ad and keywords you are using. This means it should be directly linked to the product or service you are promoting. Of course, if you state in your ad that you are offering a 40% discount on a t-shirt, that discount should also appear on the page. If you want people to make reservations directly at your restaurant, the landing page should include a form for them to do so. The landing page is also one of the factors taken into account when evaluating the Quality Score of your ad.
This is how Google Advertising works
Of course, advertising space is limited in both search and the content network. Ad ranking and subsequent ad placement are based on auctions and bids. You primarily target your ad to specific keywords. An auction then takes place for these words or word combinations.
This auction consists of two parts or variables – the maximum cost you want to pay for an ad click (cost-per-click) and the quality score. With this step, Google has left traditional auctions to show that the valuation also depends on the form and content of the ad created. Even with a lower bid, your ad may not appear until it has a high Quality Score. Finally, the price is calculated by adding 0.01 to the share of the advertiser’s position in front of you and the Quality Score of your ad.
Quality Score depends on several elements. Every ad is checked before it is published. If the quality is not good enough, not only will the score be low, but the ad may not be approved at all.
For example, the click-through rate (CTR), the consistency and understandability of the text, the use of non-traditional symbols, grammar, the number of keywords or the structure and content of the target page or its relevance to the search query are taken into account. A high Quality Score can offer a lower cost per click to appear at the top of search or in attractive locations on the display network.
Give Google a little time
Creating an ad with Google Ads is relatively easy. However, not every ad you create automatically will be an effective ad. Advertising is dynamic and the fact that it has been published does not mean that it no longer needs to be maintained. You can therefore continuously monitor and gradually improve your ad performance.
However, before you begin the evaluation, you must wait a few weeks to collect enough data. Once you have collected the necessary amount of data, you can then evaluate whether your ad needs to be optimized. The effectiveness of your ads can be determined, for example, by calculating your return on investment (ROI).
Optimization examples might include: If your ad is primarily clicked by people from countries other than the one in which you sell your products or services, make sure you correctly target your ad geographically. If your ad is showing but people aren’t clicking on it, change the text to make it more appealing. There are “no” limits to the possibilities.
Advertise effectively with these practices
Creating ads and offers is undoubtedly a complex process if you want to do it well and efficiently. It used to be enough to set up PPC correctly, but today the situation is a little more complicated and requires more sophisticated strategies. There are a number of best practices worth using if you want your ads to perform as well as possible.
1. Automate
Automation is essential these days. The market is so dynamic that it is difficult to adjust by manually creating and optimizing ads. Agencies and advertisers therefore have to deal more and more with this topic.
2. Create product-focused campaigns
Promote the products you sell on your e-shop. There are different tools that make it possible to automate the entire process and create advertisements for hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of products in just a few minutes. This means you get better performance for your ads and higher conversions without unnecessary manual work.
3. Promote products that pay off
When creating product-related campaigns, focus on products that have higher margins and are competitive enough. You don’t have to waste money promoting products that don’t pay off or aren’t available.
4. Use remarketing
Be sure to use remarketing. This strategy allows you to target potential customers who have already visited your website but have not yet completed their purchase. In our experience and the campaigns we manage for our clients, more than half of conversions (purchases) are achieved thanks to remarketing.
This is also related to market dynamics and the variety of options available, which is why people want to do their research first. We want to use remarketing to remind these users of our online shop and convince them to buy.
Remarketing is a feature that you can easily set up in Google Ads and is available for Google Search, the Google Display Network, YouTube or Gmail.
Of course, these are just a few strategies you can use when creating and managing Google ads. We recommend testing them right at the start of your Google Ads advertising journey as they will make your work easier and reduce the time you spend on basic Google Ads strategies. You can then test other relevant strategies and optimize your ads to make them even more effective.
