Google Ads (the new name for Google AdWords) is one of the most effective and used forms of digital advertising out there. Advertisers, from small businesses to big, have the chance of investing their budget into a system that generates significant conversion rates when done right.
Surely you have read or heard of frustrating situations when Google Ads seemed to waste company money, time, and efforts, with no satisfying results. There is no guarantee that the dollar you’ve spent will triple or quadruple from the first try, but here is the most important fact to know: it gets as good as your strategy is.
In other words, understanding how Google AdWords works and how to maximise your chances can get you the results you’ve been hoping for, and you don’t have to wait too long for potential customers to appear.
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How Does Google AdWords Work?
Let’s begin by shortly presenting Google AdWords. It’s an online advertising system developed by Google which follows the pay-per-click model. Advertisers create ads on the Google AdWords platform, then bid on certain relevant keywords related to the message of their ad.
Google then displays its ads in its advertising network, based on the search queries of its users and cookie history. Its algorithm determines where to place the ad and where to show it, within guidelines settled by each advertiser when creating their ad campaign.
Each time internet users click on your ad while browsing web pages, you pay the bid amount to Google. This is one of the advantages of the Google Ad system, as your money will not be used for simple views or displays of your ad, but on actual clicks and leads that you get.
You have surely seen plenty of Google Ads during your own browsing. The two types of ads Google will display are differentiated by their placement. There are two different networks where your ad can show up:
● The Search Network: search engine results pages, Google Maps, Google Shopping, and other search sites that partnered up with Google;
● The Display Network: videos (a large share of them from Google-owned YouTube), Gmail, Blogger, and millions of affiliated web pages that will display Google ads next to their content.
Here is more from Google on how the system works and how to be introduced to the support platform for Google Ads.
One of the main concerns when it comes to Google Ads campaigns is to set it up so that you don’t waste any clicks.
We will further see what makes Google AdWords work, and what issues may emerge in the system. Knowing where your opportunities stand is what will make your campaigns more successful, as you learn the secrets to this advertising model.
How Do You Measure the Performance of Your Google Ads?
There’s a lot of effort and thought going into how an ad should look like, where it redirects the user, how to match the intent, etc. But all this effort can go down the drain if campaigns are not monitored properly, and results fail to be interpreted in a constructive way.
To have a clear idea of how your ads are performing, you have to follow a series of metrics and respond to them accordingly. Google Ads lets you change your strategy along the way and see real-time results on which to base your next steps.
The standard campaign dashboard displays various indicators of your ads’ performance. We will list the most important ones you should be aware of after launching your ads on Google networks.
Click-Through-Rate
This metric tells you what percentage of the people who viewed your ad clicked on it. It’s a very important metric, as it gives you a clear idea of how engaging your ad is, and whether you need to change its format, ad copy, or something else that might be performing poorly.
With Google’s advertising network being so huge, how can you know whether your CTR is good or not? The reference average should be specific to the industry you are part of. To give you an idea, average click-through rates for real estate, technology, healthcare, and other popular industries range between 2% and 6% on the Google Search Network.
Percentages on the Display Network can be dramatically lower, as Google has to match the intentions of users based on their cookies, and not on search terms.
Quality Score
Matching the search queries of its users with the content it displays is one of Google’s top priorities. To reflect your performance in this sense, you have to monitor your quality score. This metric indicates the relevance of the landing pages you set for your ads, the relevance of the ads itself, and your overall performance on the advertising platform.
Clicks and Cost-per-Clicks
One of the biggest advantages of using Google AdWords is that it gives you huge flexibility when it comes to pricing. The same applies to the cost per clicks as it does for the click-through-rate: it depends on the industry you’re in. It’s important to note that it’s usually lower on the Display Network than it is on the Search Network, simply because the latter has a bigger ROI.
On average, a business spends $1-$2 per ad. This cost-per-click is not only important as a value but as a means of calculating further metrics, like ROI and total amount spent.
Other important metrics are the conversion rate, which tells you exactly how many ads have led to the action you were expecting, and ROI: the return on investment.
Monitoring these metrics without an ensemble view will not get you very far. Ultimately, you need to know if your product or services are put in a good light, and that they match the viewer’s search intent, or their browsing patterns.
Knowing what the issue is, whether it’s choosing the wrong match types for your ad groups (like choosing broad match type without defining negative keywords) or not having a good ad copy, is up to you. Google AdWords gives you the means to repair weak campaigns, to analyse ad results, and to tailor your ads in great detail.
Conclusion
As you can see, the Google AdWords dashboard provides plenty of information on how your ads are doing in real-time, which helps you tweak your campaign and improve it along the way.
The Google Ads system gives you the tools and platform to advertise with any budget, and you can permanently check on your ads’ performance. Certainly, it takes time to find the right recipe for your own business, and what works today might not be so successful tomorrow, but we can conclude that Google AdWords does work.
It works when you have the right match type, when you monitor your campaigns closely, you perform well overall, and avoid the most common mistakes.
Need Help With Your Google Ads?
If you are not very confident about using Google AdWords for your business, it’s a good idea to leave it to the professionals, at least until you get confident in learning how the system works.
Contact Australian Internet Advertising for a free consultation with one of our online experts and start making the best out of Google Ads for your business.
