Google Ads is, without a doubt, the forerunning tool in the SEM space. It can help you get highly qualified traffic, increase the visibility of your brand around the world, and increase conversions, all at a very competitive cost.
But while Google Ads has an intuitive interface, there are many parameters to control and tracking, making it difficult to optimize everything the way you want. So let’s clear up the confusion and take a look at how to master this tool, using a step-by-step guide to creating the best campaign.
A keyword is the set of terms that a user enters in search engines such as Google. It can be a single word, several words, or even an entire phrase, for example "cheap tickets to New York".
Keywords are like the "bricks" of a Google Ads campaign. Google uses keywords to understand what topics a specific user is interested in when they conduct a search and shows them ads that match the phrase or word. In order to create truly relevant ads you have to use a good selection of keywords. Remember that keywords do not have to be just one word and can sometimes even be phrases.
Keyword Match Types determine the extent to which the term entered by the user should match your ad’s keyword. There are five options:
Search engine advertising always consists of text ads. These ads should correspond as much as possible to the terms that the user has entered in the search engine. For example, if you searched for "Buy cheap tickets to New York," you might find an ad titled "Find Cheap Tickets to New York". By contrast, if you find something like "Cheap flights to Singapore", you probably won't be interested.
Within a Google Ads text ad, we can distinguish several elements:
It’s the million dollar question: How much does a Google Ads campaign cost?
Advertising in Google's search engine follows a pay-per-click or PPC model. This means you will pay for each of the times a user clicks on the ads.
Google Ads uses an auction format in which all advertisers bid for space and keywords and decides the maximum price they are willing to pay. From there, Google uses a number of parameters to determine which ads are shown and in what order.
So, what exactly are the parameters? The most important one is the Quality Score.
The Quality Score is a score of 1 through 10 that Google assigns to each keyword. The higher the score, the less you'll pay for the ads and the better they'll be located in the search engine. This score is determined by several factors, including:
Just like in any marketing activity, setting realistic and consistent goals for your business will be your first step.
Google Ads campaigns are very versatile, because you can use them to target the user in different stages of the funnel.
The more traditional strategy is to target users who are in the bottom phase of the funnel (aka users who are ready to buy). This allows for high conversion rates and fast results, but has the disadvantage of very high competition. Because advertising is paid based on auction, this usually involves a high cost per click. You can also use Google Ads as a reinforcement for your inbound strategy.
Keywords selection can make the difference between success or failure in Google Ads.
In general, it is advisable to start with "brainstorming" techniques to come up with potential keywords. Then analyze each potential term to determine which ones will be worth investing in. For this first step, enter in a keyword and take a look at Google’s related searches at the bottom of the search engine results page. This is a good starting place.
To get deeper, you can use Google Ads' own keyword planner (Keyword Planner), although there are also other options like SEMRush. These tools will help you determine how difficult it will be to rank for different keywords, their average search volume, and other relevant specs.
To decide whether or not you should use a certain keyword, consider these key aspects:
To get started with Google Ads, you need to be clear about the different levels of structure within an account.
First, there are campaigns. In general, each goal will have a separate campaign. Within the campaign, there are several options:
Now that you’ve done all your set up, it’s time to get to work! Let's break down how to create a Google Ads campaign, step by step.
And that's it! You now have everything you need to get your ads showing up in Google’s SERP. Depending on the account structure you've defined, you may have to spend some time creating and organizing your ad groups.
A/B tests are one of the most effective ways to optimize your Google Ads campaigns.
A/B testing involves experimenting with different key elements of your ads, such as calls to action, title, visible URL, landing page, or copy. In each A/B test, you will test two identical advertisements, and there will be one key difference in one of the elements. Because everything is the same except one element, you can determine which of these has a better click rate. . If you have more than two variants, you can do a second A/B test and then compare the winners to each other.
For an A/B test to be truly effective, we have to wait until both versions have received a significant number of impressions and clicks before drawing conclusions.
With this technique, you'll be able to filter out which creatives and options really work with your target audience and create increasingly effective Google Ads campaigns.
Finally, don-t let all the work you’ve done go unnoticed.
No matter how well designed your campaign is, it needs a little pampering, attention, and adjustments to do its best. I recommend setting regular control times (for example, every end of the month) to analyze how your campaign is going and see what you can improve.
As you've probably already noticed, Google Ads offers lots of different metrics and it's impossible to be truly aware of them all at once. Instead, choose which KPIs best match the goals set. In any case, it's always a good idea to have quality and conversions under control.
You're now ready to succeed with your Google Ads campaigns! Good luck!