Guide to get the most of your Google ads

Google is still one of the biggest players (if not the biggest player) in the advertising industry thanks to its search engine's 1.2 trillion annual queries and 40,000 searches per second 💵.

Many advertisers use Google Ads to enhance the positioning of their websites and landing pages. This ensures that users and potential customers find you; if you are not in the game, you are out! Here's a crash course on Google Ads to get you started. So let's see how Google ads work so we can find the most effective game plan.

One thing is for sure, it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate yourself from competitors in online advertising products and services. That's why we have created this guide for Google ads improvement or to start using it.

Depending on our goals and available resources, we can choose between the various types of ads available in Google Ads. Picking the best type of advertisement for your needs would certainly be the first step in developing a successful advertising strategy.

1. Pick the best type of Google Ad 🎯

FYI: Even though different types of Google advertisements are typically used for specific goals and demand specific resources, this does not preclude you from picking any of these advertisements and focusing them on a different goal!

Search Ads Network (or Google Search Ads)✏️

Type: text ads with a maximum of three lines (30 characters) for the title and two description lines (90 characters each) for the body copy. You also will need to select the search terms or keywords you're targeting (this implies specific keywords and negative keywords but we don't go that deeper).

Placement: Google Search Results (search engine results or Google Play).

Objective: online traffic and conversion. The Google Display Network serves 6 billion impressions per day.

Good if: your brand is well positioned and you know your target's interests.
Bad if: your market is very saturated or there are very strong players.

Display Ads 👣

Type: images also called banners or videos.

Placement: websites associated with the display inventory. You can choose the theme of the site where you want to appear. The Google Display Network serves 180 billion impressions each month (about 6 billion a day!) (comScore).

Objective: visibility, branding, and brand awareness.

Good if: you have a recognizable brand and are familiar with the interests of your target market. According to Specific Media, consumers who see display ads are 155% more likely to search for terms or keywords related to a specific brand or market segment.
Bad if: you lack solid graphics, design, or support resources.s.

Shopping Ads 👟

Type: a product image with a description of up to 70 characters, and the product price.

Placement: Google Search Results in the Google shopping bar.

Objective: eCommerce with conversion goals.

Good if: you run an online store and sell physical goods.

Bad if: your online store does not permit purchases directly, it’s under construction, or you lack high-quality product images.

Universal App Campaigns (UAC) 📲

Type: image, app name, and description.

Placement: Playstore. 97% of the money spent on mobile search advertising goes to Google, according to Search Engine Land.

Objective: app download.

Good if: you have an app that has been developed.

Bad if: your app has negative reviews or you failed to correctly target your audience.

Local Ads 🏢

Type: Google My Business tab.

Placement: Google Maps.

Objective: booking or positioning of a store.

Good if: you have a physical store. When making a local search, 72% of customers decide to go to a store that is five miles away.

Bad if: You have negative reviews or incomplete information on your listing.

The Google Ads help center is available, where you can find information on all kinds of Google campaigns.

2. Choose your Google Ads Strategy 💥

As soon as we decide the campaign type we want to run on Google ads, we need to consider the resources we'll need to build them and research the tactics we'll employ.

We should evaluate our resources in terms of both what we already have and what we can get for our Google Ads campaign.

This is something really interesting to do in our first Google ads campaign. For instance, if we don't have a graphic designer but have the funds to hire one, we might be interested in creating some images for the display network. Similarly, if we have a store but no online sales are currently available, we might be interested in starting an eCommerce site or selling some of our products through social media, external platforms, or other means.

We must decide what approach to take after taking stock of what we want to test and how. To achieve this, we can look for inspiration in other campaigns that we find appealing, consult with our clients, or research the competition.

In the case of Google Search Ads, for instance, we might consider the following tactics:

• Product, where we place a greater emphasis on discussing the advantages of our products or services.
• Problem or pain points, where we will concentrate on the difficulty or suffering experienced by our target audience (and provide a solution).
• Offer or discount, if we have something relevant that could be interesting for our target audience.
• Alternatives to your competition, and be very clear about the contrasting benefits we offer.
• Complementation of products or services, if we have some kind of integration or collaboration with other companies.

It goes without saying that the strategy you choose must always be connected to the goal of your campaign, and by extension, the goal of your company, but don't be afraid to research and test various options! In this article, you'll find different methods for your Google ads campaigns.

3. Decide your Google Ads budget 💸

It's time to bargain with your manager and use all of your brainpower to balance the budgets and set your ad spend, so let's get started!

Ads have the advantage of making it simple to set in your Google Ads account the daily budget limits so you can modify your bidding to fit your needs, but you should be careful not to set them too low or your Google Ads might not be as effective as possible. The bidding strategy should be aligned always with your Google Ad strategy.

What's the typical bid or spending limit? It depends... On the nature of your company, its size, your objectives, your plan, your campaign, etc.

For inexperienced beginners or companies making their first Google Ads investment, Google advises capping the daily budget for a campaign at $50.

However, we recommend you follow our method based on your objectives:

1. Set your goal for new marketing leads [Example: 1000 leads].
2. Distribute the leads you think you will acquire in each channel you have established for this quarter [Example: Google Ads 20% of leads].
3. Identify the conversion rate of your website. If you don’t have this info, you can search on Google medium conversion rates for your type of product [Example: 10% website conversion rate].
4. Investigate the Average Cost per click for your keywords [Example: $5/click*]. *average cost per click recommended by Google Keyword Tool for relevant terms.

With this info, we can calculate the Investment in Google Ads:

• Total leads gained with that channel/ Conversion rate from the website = Total users to impact with GAds

• Total users to impact with GAds * Average Cost per Click = Investment in Google Ads

Let’s see it with the figures from the example:

1000 total leads / 20% from Google Ads leads = 200 leads from GAds

200 leads / 10% website conversion rate = 2.000 impacts from GAds

2.000 impacts * $5/click = $10,000 inversion in GAds

But be careful; if you don’t invest enough, the algorithm won’t optimize your ads correctly.

The cost per click should be aligned with the ROI to make sure you invest according to your other marketing efforts.

4. Analyze your Google Ads Results📊

The best or worst part is now about to happen: testing and result analysis!

It can be a dream or a headache to dive into an open, seemingly endless sea of statistics, PPC (pay-per-click), conversions, impressions, etc.

You can use tools that create dashboards or visual comparisons, or you can go directly to the Google Ads platform to assist with campaign validation.

The best course of action, in our opinion, is to have a variety of options available and select the one that best suits each circumstance:

• Google Ads to have a more thorough understanding of all campaigns and to track them on a weekly basis. Here is an article on how to track conversions.
• Google Analytics is also a way of tracking your ads as advertising on Google is tracked with this tool.
• Gretel to receive notifications in real-time about the progress of your campaigns and learn what is or what is not working.
• Dashboards that allow for the cross-referencing of data from various campaigns to assess the costs and resources allocated to each channel.

We hope this will help with better ad execution, and if you have any successful, proven tactics that worked for you, please don't be shy about sharing them with us 👂!

If you are already working with Google ads and need more to boost them, check out this great list of 9 recommendations for 2023.