Google Ads for Small Business – Still Worth The Investment?

Would you believe that 50% of people searching online are more likely to make a purchase when they click on an paid online advertisement. Additionally, a whopping 90% of desktop searches are made on Google. These statistics reinforce Google as one of the best platforms to promote your brand. If you’re a small business owner, then it is more important for you to learn how Google Ads for small business works.

You may have already heard of or seen mentions of Google Ads or AdWords while exploring digital marketing or social media advertising options for your business.

If used correctly, Google AdWords can be incredibly effective for small businesses particularly as a complimentary strategy to SEO. In this article, we’re going to dive deep into how you can use Google Ads to enhance your business operations and expand them. But first, let’s look at what exactly are Google Ads?

What are Google Ads?

In this section, we’re going to answer questions such as “what are Google AdWords?” and “how does Google AdWords work?”.

Google Ads or also known as Google AdWords / Google AdWords Express, is one of the many online advertising platforms on the Internet. Businesses of any size can utilize Google Ads to promote their services or products on Google, YouTube, and other popular websites across the Internet.

Google Ads gives the advertisers the option to choose how their ads are run and set specific goals they want to meet. Advertisers can choose to use website visits, or drive phone calls. If you’re a small business owner, you can make a Google Ads account which lets you customize your budget, targets, and even start or stop your ads anytime you want. This is one of the many reasons why Google Ads for small business are so essential to its success.

How Does Google AdWords Work?

Google Ads works by having your ad displayed on one of the top results whenever people search for your product or service. Google Ads utilizes the latest technology and their data to present your advertisements to potential customers as soon as they search for something relevant to it.

These ads are always changing as it is primarily based on keywords, which are selected by the businesses that made a bid on them. This is great as people who are looking for a certain product will receive relevant ads, thus increasing the chances of the business receiving customers.

The great thing about Google Ads is that you don’t have to pay huge amounts of money to have a shot at ranking higher, compared to other bidders. Of course, the higher your bid is, the higher your chances are of landing the top spots.

However, your business should also be relevant to the keyword you’re bidding on. Even if you bid less on a keyword compared to others, you’ll have a chance at a higher position if you use plenty of relevant keywords in your website.

This is why it is very important to optimize your content as much as possible to include highly relevant keywords. It will help you whenever you decide to bid on keywords in Google Ads.

How to Start with Google Ads for Your Small Business?

If you’ve reached this part of the article, you’re already interested in Google Ads and how it works. Now, we’re going to show you how you can start using Google Ads to benefit your small business. Follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to reaching the number one page on Google search and receiving lots of web traffic on your website.

Set the Campaign goals

A marketing campaign without clear and concise goals is bound to fail. Before investing in your campaign, make sure everyone involved is up to speed with the goals, steps to achieve those goals and the resources you will need during the whole campaign. Here is a list to give you an idea of the most common goals of a campaign;

• Sales
• Leads
• Booked Appointments
• Account Registrations

Once you first determine your campaign goals, it will be easier to organize the rest of the needed resources; such as which keywords you need to choose and bid on.

Keyword Research

The next major step is to research keywords that are relevant to your products or services. The more relevant these keywords are, the higher your chances of acquiring higher positions when you bid for them in Google Ads.

You can start by creating an ad group. This will help come up with keywords that most describes what your business is all about. You can also use Google Ads’ Keyword Planner Tool. This is a very useful program that helps you think of relevant keywords that will have your ads appear whenever it is searched. You can provide basic information about your business such as its name, location, and URL address.

For example, if your business revolves around baking, let’s call it Ashley’s Bakeshop. You can create an extensive list of both short-tail and long-tail keywords that your potential customers might use when they are searching for bakeshops. Some example keywords are:

• Ashley’s bakeshop
• Ashley’s bakery
• Ashley’s baking services
• Baker
• Baking
• Buy cakes online
• Cake delivery online
• Online cake delivery
• Ashley’s cake delivery service

These are only some of the hundreds of potential keywords for your business. You might have information on your website like your blog where you can get more ideas. Make the keywords simple and comprised of the most common words that are used to describe your business.

Campaign Planning

What is campaign planning? In short, it is a short-term plan that is designed to complete various campaign objectives as efficiently as possible. Campaign planning typically involves preparing and making media-based marketing such as videos, photos, etc. Remember that the best campaign plans are those that are realistic and clear. You should be very confident to hit these goals, otherwise, you shouldn’t set them up in the first place.

Make sure that everyone in your team is engaged and up-to-date with all the details and plans of the campaign. One of the most crucial pieces and sometimes underrated pieces of a campaign is clear communication. It doesn’t matter how big your budget is or how planned out your campaign is; without communication, it will go downhill fast.

Campaign Research

Every strong campaign research will always start with plenty of questions and even more strategies. The main questions should be what the goals of the campaign are and what are the questions that need to be answered to attain those goals. Once you have clear questions, it should become easier to research the answers for them.

Google AdWords Tips for Small Businesses

Now you know how you can start utilizing Google Ads for small businesses, let’s look at some tips and tricks we’ve discovered through experts and our own experience working with Google Ads.

• Never Overpay

Don’t ever overpay for when it comes to marketing. One of, if not the most important part of keeping a marketing campaign alive, especially for small businesses, is to strictly follow the budget plan. The goal of using online marketing options such as Google ads is to generate revenue online. If you keep on deviating from the budget, you’ll end up overpaying and losing money instead of gaining.

• Establish clear objectives

As we said earlier, establishing clear objectives will make your campaign less headache-inducing. It is very important to outline your goals before investing large amounts of money into an online marketing campaign.

• Utilize your location

You can set your business’ location in Google Ads. You can use this to your advantage by adding relevant keywords that might be used by users in your surrounding area. Google even offers an Enhanced Campaign; this enables the advertiser to specifically target consumers that are located in various postal codes.

By doing this, you’re also saving money by not spending ad costs on people who don’t live locally near you. It knocks down two birds with one stone.

FAQ

Do Google ads work for small business?

Yes, there is plenty of evidence that Google Ads work for small businesses. But it only works if done right.

What are better Google ads or Facebook ads?

There are plenty of differences between Google Ads and Facebook Ads. They are seen as the two huge rivals in the online advertisement world. However, overall, both are very powerful tools for businesses. Our opinion is that you should look at both of these as complementary instead of opposites. Utilizing the power of both is a very effective online marketing strategy.

How much are Google Ads? Are Google ads free?

Google Ads only charge you only when a user clicks on your ads such as clicking on it to visit your website. The price depends on your budget settings.

What is the minimum budget for Google AdWords?

Currently, there is no minimum budget to utilize Google Ads for small businesses. However, it is virtually impossible to make a profit if your budget is too low.

What is a good cost per click?

This is hard to answer as it varies for every vertical. Some verticals a good CPC can be $20 some it might be $1. For that reason its best to focus on Return on Investment or ROI instead. For most businesses, including small ones, a great ROI is 5:1. This means that for every dollar you spend on advertisement, at least five dollars should be produced as revenue. If you are achieving that then you are well ahead !