How To Advertise on Google and Boost Your Small Business
Google advertising is a great marketing strategy for small business owners. You can show an ad for your business to people who are searching for your type of business at that very moment AND who are looking for businesses in your area. This type of targeting makes most small business owners want to advertise on Google.
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What is Google AdWords?
Google Adwords is an online advertising service that allows businesses to have their ads run on Google’s search results page. The ads look almost identical to the normal search results, with the only difference being the small word “Ad” in green.
How Advertising on Google Works
When a consumer searches for a term or phrase, Google will show the consumer relevant ads based on the keywords used in the search. Websites that want their ads to show on the results page bid on keywords that they believe people will use when looking for their type of business. For example, a plumber located in Atlanta might bid on the keywords “plumbing atlanta,” “plumber,” or “broken toilet.”
Depending on how much you bid compared to other plumbers in the area, your ad may show up on the results page when people search for the terms you bid on. In addition to how much you bid, Google also takes into account the relevance and quality of your ad and website. So even if you have the highest bid, the ad for your plumbing company will probably never show when someone searches “flower store.”
We will go into more detail below on how Google determines which ads to show on the results page and how much advertising on Google costs. If you want more help with Google advertising, you should look at Adzooma. They offer an easy and intuitive Google ad builder, a simple performance report dashboard, and insights to help you improve your ads. There are three primary benefits to advertising on Google.
Searchers Have [Local] Buying Intent
People searching Google are typically in the market for the keywords they are searching for. For example, if someone searches “pizza nyc,” it is not too presumptuous to assume they are looking for a pizza spot to eat lunch at later that day. Since you can set the geographical location that you want your ad to show, you can make sure only people in your area are seeing your ad. For example, you can tell Google to only have your ad show to people located in New York.
Compare this to advertising on Facebook. Even though you can show an ad for your restaurant to someone who is a known pizza enthusiast, you can’t show it at the moment they are looking for a pizza restaurant. Instead, you are targeting them when they’re looking at pictures of their cousin’s golfing vacation. This is not as effective.
This is what makes advertising on Google so successful and unlike any other type of advertising. You are specifically targeting people that are in the market for your goods or services at the moment they’re seeing your ad. Not only that, you can target only people that are located in your area, which is a huge plus for local businesses.
You Only Pay If Someone Clicks On Your Ad
Another enticing factor is that you only pay if your advertisement works. Since Google uses a pay-per-click advertising model, you only pay if someone is searching for the keyword you have bid on AND is interested enough in your ad to click on it.
You can set how much you are willing to pay per click on your ad and set a maximum daily budget. This differs from advertising in your local newspaper, which costs a standard price that is paid whether or not someone even looks at your ad.
Google AdWords has revolutionized the way advertising works by only making you pay when the user has taken an action to view your site. We will go into more detail about how much it costs to advertise later in the article.
Advanced Tracking Ability
With the AdWords dashboard you can track how many people see your ad, how many click on your ad, and how many take an action once on your website. That way, if you notice that a lot of people are clicking on your ad, but no one is buying anything once on your site, you know you need to edit either the landing page or the ad itself. By keeping a pulse on how your ad is doing, you can make any necessary adjustments quickly in order to have a successful ad campaign.
The tracking capabilities with advertising on Google is a huge plus for small businesses. Imagine you own a flower store and decide to buy a billboard advertisement. Unless a customer told you, there would be little to no information telling you if anyone came to your store because they saw the billboard. You would be making a big investment without really knowing if it was yielding a positive return.
With Google ads, you can track exactly how many people visited your site because they clicked on your ad. There is little risk since you can stop running an ad at any time if you notice that you are not getting the results you want. We will explore the best ways to track your ads a little later in the article.
How Does Google Determine If Your Ad Will Show on the Results Page?
Google uses a combination of three primary factors to determine when an ad shows on the results page:
Get $150 in Free Google and Bing Advertising
Want free advertising right out of the gate? When you sign up with Bluehost.com, you get a domain name, website, business email, AND $150 in free advertising with Google and Bing. Click here for instruction on claiming your ad credit.
What is Google AdWords?
Google Adwords is an online advertising service that allows businesses to have their ads run on Google’s search results page. The ads look almost identical to the normal search results, with the only difference being the small word “Ad” in green.
How Advertising on Google Works
When a consumer searches for a term or phrase, Google will show the consumer relevant ads based on the keywords used in the search. Websites that want their ads to show on the results page bid on keywords that they believe people will use when looking for their type of business. For example, a plumber located in Atlanta might bid on the keywords “plumbing atlanta,” “plumber,” or “broken toilet.”
Depending on how much you bid compared to other plumbers in the area, your ad may show up on the results page when people search for the terms you bid on. In addition to how much you bid, Google also takes into account the relevance and quality of your ad and website. So even if you have the highest bid, the ad for your plumbing company will probably never show when someone searches “flower store.”
We will go into more detail below on how Google determines which ads to show on the results page and how much advertising on Google costs. If you want more help with Google advertising, you should look at Adzooma. They offer an easy and intuitive Google ad builder, a simple performance report dashboard, and insights to help you improve your ads. There are three primary benefits to advertising on Google.
Searchers Have [Local] Buying Intent
People searching Google are typically in the market for the keywords they are searching for. For example, if someone searches “pizza nyc,” it is not too presumptuous to assume they are looking for a pizza spot to eat lunch at later that day. Since you can set the geographical location that you want your ad to show, you can make sure only people in your area are seeing your ad. For example, you can tell Google to only have your ad show to people located in New York.
Compare this to advertising on Facebook. Even though you can show an ad for your restaurant to someone who is a known pizza enthusiast, you can’t show it at the moment they are looking for a pizza restaurant. Instead, you are targeting them when they’re looking at pictures of their cousin’s golfing vacation. This is not as effective.
This is what makes advertising on Google so successful and unlike any other type of advertising. You are specifically targeting people that are in the market for your goods or services at the moment they’re seeing your ad. Not only that, you can target only people that are located in your area, which is a huge plus for local businesses.
You Only Pay If Someone Clicks On Your Ad
Another enticing factor is that you only pay if your advertisement works. Since Google uses a pay-per-click advertising model, you only pay if someone is searching for the keyword you have bid on AND is interested enough in your ad to click on it.
You can set how much you are willing to pay per click on your ad and set a maximum daily budget. This differs from advertising in your local newspaper, which costs a standard price that is paid whether or not someone even looks at your ad.
Google AdWords has revolutionized the way advertising works by only making you pay when the user has taken an action to view your site. We will go into more detail about how much it costs to advertise later in the article.
Advanced Tracking Ability
With the AdWords dashboard you can track how many people see your ad, how many click on your ad, and how many take an action once on your website. That way, if you notice that a lot of people are clicking on your ad, but no one is buying anything once on your site, you know you need to edit either the landing page or the ad itself. By keeping a pulse on how your ad is doing, you can make any necessary adjustments quickly in order to have a successful ad campaign.
The tracking capabilities with advertising on Google is a huge plus for small businesses. Imagine you own a flower store and decide to buy a billboard advertisement. Unless a customer told you, there would be little to no information telling you if anyone came to your store because they saw the billboard. You would be making a big investment without really knowing if it was yielding a positive return.
With Google ads, you can track exactly how many people visited your site because they clicked on your ad. There is little risk since you can stop running an ad at any time if you notice that you are not getting the results you want. We will explore the best ways to track your ads a little later in the article.
How Does Google Determine If Your Ad Will Show on the Results Page?
Google uses a combination of three primary factors to determine when an ad shows on the results page:
- Bid – The bid is the price you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. You bid against other websites on keywords that you believe people search for if they are interested in your product. A flower store might bid on the terms “roses” “cheap bouquet” or “wedding flowers.”
- Quality and relevance of the ad – Your ad needs to be relevant to the search being made in order to show on the search results page. If someone searches “wedding flowers” it wouldn’t make sense for Google to show an ad for a nail salon. You want to make sure you have a lot of the same keywords that you are bidding on in the ad itself, so Google can tell your ad is relevant to the search.
- Landing page experience – When someone clicks on your ad, the landing page that they are sent to should have similar content as the ad itself and the keywords used in the search. If you own a salon and are advertising manicures, you’ll want to link directly to a page that has more information on manicures, instead of to the homepage which includes all of your services.
Differences Between Mobile and Desktop Advertising
Mobile and desktop ads on Google are very similar. They both display ads at the top and bottom of the search results page, and you bid on keywords the same way with both. Though some business owners overlook mobile, it is something you definitely want to think about when advertising on Google. More than half of Google’s searches are done from mobile devices, and people searching on their phone often have local intent. The key differences between desktop and mobile advertising are:
- There is less space on a mobile device, so you need to make sure your message is straight to the point.
- People on their phones are on the go, so you want to tailor your message depending on if it’s for desktop or mobile.
Below is an example of two ads for the same company with the first showing on mobile and the second showing on desktop. Notice that the mobile ad incorporates a “click to call” button so that people searching on their mobile devices can easily call for more information.
When setting up your account, you can decide whether you want your ad to show on desktop, mobile, or both. We suggest setting up separate campaigns for desktop and mobile in order to track how your ads perform across different devices. Depending on your type of business, you may want to focus your efforts on one over the other.
How Much Does Advertising on Google Cost?
In pay per click advertising, you only pay if someone clicks on your ad. The cost per click of an ad depends on how much you bid on certain keywords. The cost ranges greatly depending on if you are in a market where a lot of other businesses are willing to pay a high price to rank on a certain keyword.
For example, if you are a realtor in a small town you might be able to bid less than $1 per click on a keyword and still have your ad show on Google. However, if you own a medical malpractice law firm in a big city, the cost per click will be much more expensive. Learn more about the cost to advertise in our guide to Google advertising costs.
You can use Google’s keyword planner to see how much the suggested bids are for your ad to show up when someone searches for specific keywords. However, instead of strictly focusing on the cost of advertising, you will also want to think about how much you stand to earn from advertising on Google, and whether this will yield a substantial profit for your business.
Example: the average suggested bid for keywords related to the term ”real estate providence” is $1.50 which we can compare to the average bid of $30 for terms related to “medical malpractice attorney providence.” A malpractice firm might be thrilled to pay $30 for a click on their ad if 1 out of 10 clicks becomes a new client. Even though they are paying $300 for a new client, they will likely still profit from the ad at the end of the day. We will go over the keyword planner in more detail later in the article.
How can you save 33.5% on the Adwords cost per click?
The simple answer is to advertise on Bing. In many ways, Bing provides a very similar service to Google Adwords. The only big disadvantage of Bing is that there are fewer clicks available for purchase. As a result, many advertisers focus on Google Adwords and ignore Bing. The lower competition means less fierce bidding, which in turn lowers the cost per click. According to an article by Wordstream, Bing is typically 33.5% cheaper than Adwords for the same term.
Experimentation is Key to Best Results
Just like how you wouldn’t settle on the first pizza recipe you come across if you own a pizza restaurant, you also don’t want to settle on the first ad that you write. You should always have at least two ads running at once. You will want to change something in one of the ads and then test which one works best. Be careful to not change too many things at once, because than if an ad starts doing exponentially better, you won’t know which change led to the better results.
You should also consistently clean your keyword list. Use Google’s search term report to see what actual searches are triggering your ad. You can find this report in your account under the keyword tab by hitting the search terms button. If you notice that your ad is showing for keywords that are not relevant to your site, you will want to remove that keyword, add it as a negative keyword, or turn it into an exact match keyword.
For example, imagine you own an eyeglass store, and your ad is showing when someone searches “wine glasses” because one of your keywords is “glasses.” You will either want to add “wine” as a negative keyword, or you can make sure Google only matches your ad when someone searches the full phrase “eye glasses.” Having a good set of keywords is key because you only want your ad showing to people that will find your businesses useful. Otherwise, you could be wasting money on unnecessary clicks.
How to Run Multiple Ads at Once
After you get the hang of running your first Google ad, you will want to start running multiple campaigns at once. A campaign is a set of ad groups that all share a budget, location setting and device setting. So if you own a business that has two locations, you will want to have a separate campaign for each. Then you can use targeted keywords depending on which location the campaign is for.
Each campaign is made of different ad groups. Each ad group shares a list of keywords and should have a similar theme. Therefore if you own a home goods store, you could have an ad group that consists of keywords related to dishware, and one that has keywords relating to furniture. Keep in mind that you don’t want two ad groups in the same campaign to share too many of the same keywords, because then you might be bidding against yourself to have one of your ads show.
Want an Easy Way to Improve Google Advertising?
Don’t forget to check out Adzooma if you want professional help to improve your ad performance. They offer a simple performance report dashboard and insights to help you generate more revenue from you ads. Click here to try Adzooma.
The Bottom Line
When you advertise on Google, it can go a long way towards helping you get new customers, especially since you can target your ad specifically for people in your area. Once you create your account, constantly test ads so you are using the best performing material, and keep your keyword list clean. This will help you pay the lowest amount possible for your ads. Check out our guide to Google advertising costs to learn more.
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