Looking to put your business in front of the targeted audience? Well, first you must rank on the first page of the Google search result.
Google Ads happens to be the fastest and most effective way to expand your digital marketing campaign as compared to SEO.
These ads will make your business visible to the customer anytime they are searching for something they need desperately/urgently on the Google search engine.
Recap on What are Google Ads?
Google Ads is Google’s paid advertising product (PPC). These are usually the little ads that appear at the top and bottom of the Google search result page.
These ads have a huge success in driving traffic. The companies’ advertising will bid for keywords related to their particular business.
Google will enter thousands of keywords and ads into an auction to help determine the most relevant search query. The winning ads will be served at the top of the result.
And all these happen on a real-time basis.
PROS: Let’s Dive Into Google Ads Like a Pro
1. The Result from Google Ads is Instant
Ranking on the first page of Google search results using SEO will take months. Besides, mastering the technique is not an easy thing. It’s like Bruce Lee learning the way of a dragon.
Therefore, Google Ads can be really helpful if you’re looking to drive traffic to your site quickly. Just run an ad campaign on Google Ads platforms and it will bring instant results. The benefit if the ad campaign takes the top spot position in a Google search result, there is a high chance of sweeping 90% of the organic traffic.
2. Creating Google Ads Campaign is Easy
Unlike advertising on the newspaper, setting up and running Google Ads takes the shortest time possible. However, you are required to have a deeper understanding of fundamental building blocks of this platform or hire a PPC expert to do it for you.
Each ad will appear immediately after approval from Google. Hence, the ad will start appearing in different platforms of Google — i.e Search network, Display networks, Gmail, Youtube and etc.
If the keyword targeted is of high demand then it is likely to appear in many websites that are relevant to it. Hence, it helps to dramatically drive authentic traffic to your business faster.
3. High Exposure to the Search Result
Google search engine is one of the largest platforms and used by many people across the world. Many people benefit from the search engine to figure out solutions to their problems.
For instance, if your ad campaign appears at the top position of the search engine based on the user’s query then they are likely to click on it. This will increase the amount of traffic and further expose your business to potential customers.
4. Google Ads Have Increased in Size
The length of the ad tends to play a crucial role when it comes to persuading visitors. Short ads are less visible and the chances of being ignored by visitors are high.
Recently, Google Ads have increased the length of their text. The aim is to make the ad more visible and purposeful to increase the chances of getting you the value for your money.
The increased text makes the ad more engaging when adding site links and structured snippet extension. It becomes more structured and clear than the typical organic listing.
5. Test New Ideas and Continue to Improve
The good thing with Google Ads is that you can test new ideas without focusing on SEO. You can try many keywords, landing pages, and even learn the behavior of your customers.
For instance, you can identify a keyword that you want to drive for then set up an ad. Running this ad for a couple of days will help to know the behavior of your customers in the right manner.
6. You Measure the Result
Google ads help to gather a vast amount of data quickly. It will help you identify the number of visitors to your site. The data will allow you to learn more about your customers.
The number of clicks on the ad will tell how many people are visiting your website or landing page. It will also help to identify the geographical location of your potential customers.
7. You Set Your Budget, Big or Small
Google Ads can be run on a budget. The good news is that these ads are relatively inexpensive. Both small and big businesses can use them.
The Google account allows users to specify their budget before running the ads campaign. Big budgets tend to help reach out to a large number of potential customers unlike small budgets.
Big budget also can help run the ad for longer periods.
8. You Can Control Your Ads
You can turn your ads on and off with ease. If you are looking for more visitors, then turn on the ads. When the inquiries are enough, then switch off the advert.
Google Ads accounts tend to allow ultimate control over your ads campaign. You can switch off the ads when the budget runs out or when you have an overflow of incoming customers.
9. Offers Retargeting Opportunity
Retargeting is the effort of reaching out to the previous visitors to your site. The aim is to give the ad a big chance to convert either as a lead or sale. The ad usually appears as a display network or search, it follows you wherever you go on the Internet.
Here you will have an opportunity to change the demographic and geographical location of your ad campaign. You can opt to target either adults or children in a certain geographical area.
10. Ideal for Tracking ROI with Conversion Tag
Google Ads will enable you to know which keyword and landing pages are converting. Tracking down the keywords can be challenging, but Conversion Tag tracking has made things simple and easy.
The tool will help to track the keywords that are converting while running the ad campaign. It can easily be integrated with Google analytics to help monitor the ad campaign.
CONS of Google Ads
1. You Pay For Each Click To Your Website
You will only pay whenever someone clicks on your ad regardless of whether the click converts to sales or not. Therefore, some visitors will click on your ad with no intention of buying the service.
For instance, some ads are quite attractive and people will click through due to curiosity. Therefore, you will end up incurring the cost of clicks without getting any conversion.
So, crafting the right balanced message is very important.
2. Competitive Industries Have a Higher Cost Per Click
Some industries are quite competitive, and running ads campaigns might be super expensive. This is because the cost per click is increasing daily.
This happens since two or more advertisers are competing for the top spot ad position in the Google search result page. The bidding war ended up being quite expensive without getting a better conversion.
3. Ads Tend To Stop When There Is No Budget
Ads tend to have a short lifespan since it is dependent on the budget. Once the account runs out of funds, then the ads will stop running.
The biggest disadvantage of Google Ads marketing is that the listing will disappear as soon as your budget runs out. And it also impacts your future performances on getting the best price for each click.
4. Adverts Have Limitations
Writing a selling ad is quite tricky. Google tends to limit the number of characters on the headlines and descriptions. The restriction makes it difficult to customize your ads.
Google Ads tend to allow a headline to have 25 characters and the two lines of description text to have 35 characters per line. Hence, making it hard to customize your ad according to your desire. If you do not have a long winded Huckleberry Finn story, then you are safe.
5. Be Careful With Keyword Targeting
The chances of showing your ads to the wrong people are relatively high. You need to add the right negative keywords to your campaigns to get a result.
Keyword lists tend to determine the page where your ad will be shown. Therefore, you need to choose a keyword for display network campaigns. The Google ad will find the relevant website that contains your keyword so as to be displayed.
For example; if a web design company advertises for the keyword for “website”, then it may attract lots of negativity like how to build a website or free website services. And those are relatively for students or amateurs. The correct relevant keyword should be “website for business”, then we are talking to potential customers.
6. You Need To Invest Your Time
Customizing ads that will convert need dedication, patience and a lot of time. Any small mistake will cost you dearly. You need to invest a lot of time setting up the campaign to run correctly and monitor the conversions.
First you need to come up with a phrase that can convert. Then, draft a catchy headline before setting up the ad campaign. The process of researching the keyword and drafting the best headline tend to be time-consuming.
For this part, usually Don Draper from Mad Men will do the best job!
7. Your Landing Pages Need To Be Top-Notch
Google tends to use intelligent bots or AI to assess the quality of your landing pages. You need to ensure these pages are relevant to the search query. You cannot rely on Google Ads alone to drive traffic while neglecting the conversion landing pages.
Learning how to write landing page copy’s that convert is arguably difficult. You need to enroll in some courses that offer copywriting skills to write top-notch copy’s for your landing page. Besides, these copy’s will also help to boost your ranking in the search engine rather than relying on just the ads.
8. Customer Life Cycle
If the products you’re selling require the user to think, save and research your product, you may not see the ROI instantly as you expected. Simply because you have a customer life cycle to go through. Your deal could be potentially 5-6 figures high, so you are talking about high-ticket sales here. If you’re used to playing the long game, then Google Ads can help you to reach more potential customers.
Therefore, you need to think and research the products you are selling before running an ad campaign. Many customers want something that can help solve their problems.
9. Click Fraud
Google search engines rarely discuss click frauds. Google bots tend to inflate the clicks which in turn increases the cost per click to the advertisers.
Many Google Ads advertisers tend to use different IP addresses to fake clicks during the ad campaign. The click fraud enables them to gain the top spot over their competitor.
10. Complexity as it Sounds
There are a lot of complicated variables involved in setting up Google Ads. If the ad campaigns are not done correctly, your campaign will likely burn lots of money.
Some of the key variables to consider are keywords, ad headlines and descriptive text. Doing keyword research tends to involve the use of other paid tools and getting the right one is a daunting experience.
Summary
Understanding the pros and cons of Google Ads will help you make an informed decision about whether these ads are ideal for your business. If you need PPC expert consultation before placing your bets, please let us know.
The good news is that Google Ads will help boost your online presence and generate conversion. Besides that, you can reach your targeted audience with ease.
Contact us today if you require help with setting up and running your Google Ads account.