Google Ads™ (formerly Google Adwords), is Google’s advertising platform where advertisers auction on certain keywords to have their clickable ads appear on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). This platform is pay-per-click (PPC) based, allowing advertisers to reach people through both Google’s Search and Display Networks.
Develop Your Budget
Because this is PPC advertising and that you place maximum and minimum bids on your chosen keywords, there are some key questions to ask when setting up a budget:
- What is the keyword difficulty of each keyword to be used?
- While you are able to set your maximum CPC for any keyword, competitive keywords will garner a higher CPC.
- What is your CPC going to be for your desired keywords?
- Your CPC will ultimately be based on your ad rank which takes into account the keywords, ad text, landing page, and max bid. Keyword research is necessary as well as you can get an idea for what your competition is bidding on.
- What is the average CPC for your industry?
- The average CPC can vary greatly depending on your industry, business type, and which networks you are advertising on. Competitive industries – like legal, insurance, auto dealerships, financial services and software – will cost more per click.
- What advertising metrics are important to you?
- While CPC may be the most important metric to most, other metrics exist that can also affect your Google Ads budget. They include:
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- Impressions – the point in which an ad is displayed on a website.
- Click-through-rate (CTR) – measurement on how often your ad is actually clicked.
- Conversion rate – measurement on an action(s) taken on the website after clicking on your ad taking you there.
- Average position – an indication on where your ad may show on a Google SERP.
- Quality Score – Google’s estimate of the quality of your ad, keywords, and landing pages. Higher scores can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.
In developing a budget, there is no magic formula for determining the “holy grail” paid search budget. By answering these key questions, you will have a road map for success.
Tracking Your Results
When paying for any kind of advertising, it’s very important to know and understand what is working and what is not. The Google Ads platform allow you to collect data, interpret it, and optimize all of your campaigns. Tracking how your ads are performing will effectively show you whether or not you are attracting potential customers. That being said, choosing which metrics to track is extremely critical for your business.
Here are some of the most important metrics you should be tracking in your campaigns:
- Impressions – how often your ad is shown online.
- Clicks – how often your ad was clicked.
- Call clicks – how often a user clicked a “call” button in your ad from a mobile device.
- Conversions – also known as “goals” – by linking your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, you can create “goals” to monitor and track traffic from your ads.
- Spend – how much has been spent on your ad campaigns
- Position – this metric is specific to Search campaigns and shows you where your ad may show up on Google’s SERP.
To achieve success with Google Ads, you’ll also need to track and monitor the performance of your ads as well as their keywords.
This can seem overwhelming to the novice who wants to start running paid ads about their business online. That’s where we can help! BG Digital Group is a Google Partner Agency and we focus on helping small businesses like yours grow their digital footprint and gain more customers. Schedule a call today and let us grow your customer base!
