What You Really Need to Know
before Launching Google ads
What you need to know before launching any Google ads campaign
If you have a business, then advertising on Google and it’s partner networks may help you get more traffic, exposure, leads and sales in a much shorter amount of time than any other marketing strategy (as of now, 2023).
My journey with Google ads started in 2014 when I was running a retail store in Denver, CO. And as a beginner, even with quite a few mistakes, I could get the store listed number 1 in Google in just a few months. And that was basically because of 2 Google powerful tools:
- Google My Business (now it’s called Google Business Listing)
- Google Adwords (now Google Ads)
*Note. I had no website when my store was listed on top of search.
Now, sliding real quick through the years, we’re in 2023, and Google Ads is still one of the most powerful tools to be used. But, before you go ahead and start testing those tools, there are a few essential things you’d want to know and leverage.
1. Google Analytics
If you never heard of it, then let me introduce it to you and the first thing you need to know – set it up ASAP. That is because Google Analytics will give you all the data about who is coming to your website, what they do, how frequent, which device, which pages, at what time, and a lot, a lot more (that was just bearly scratching the surface).
Why you need that information?! – Good question. That’s actually the core data your business needs to adjust whatever strategies it has in getting more exposure, more traffic, and more sales; All the lower costs! So yes, your business needs it.
By linking your ads account to Analytics, you’ll get access to critical metrics like conversions, traffic sources, even audience reports. By seeing what users are doing on your site after they click on your ads, you can identify what’s working and what’s not.
2. Ad Account Metrics
Google dashboard is the window of your account performance. These are the metrics you’ll use to track how well your campaign is doing.
- Impressions – This is the number of people who viewed your ad.
- Clicks – This is the number of people who visited your website after clicking on your ad.
- CTR (Clickthrough Rate) – This is the percentage of people who click your ad after seeing it. CTRs can vary by business type, but keeping yours above 1% for Search campaigns is a good start point.
- Conversions – These are valuable actions customers take after clicking your ad, like purchases, calls, leads, or app downloads.
3. Your Audience
You may have the greatest product, but if you show it to the wrong person it will not ignite the desired action. So knowing who you are targeting is actually one of the most important keys, not only for a campaign but for the entire business.
Here are a few ways to understand who the right people are, so you can position your ad for that target audience:
- Understand their behaviors . You can use another Google’s tools Think with Google
- Reach the Right customers by understanding their preferances, habits and traits. Once built, you’ll be able to choose the right settings when setting up your campaigns.
You can also use Google Trends for data and insights on what your users are searching for. This will definitely help you build your client avatar.
4. Choose the Right Keywords
Selecting high-quality keywords can help you connect with the right people, at the right time. Below are a few tips to help you get started.
- Relevancy. Keep your keywords relevant. Include phrases that people would use to describe your products or services.
- Right People at the Right Time. The Keyword Planner can help you pick keywords that make it easier for people to find you when they’re searching by product, service, or location.
- Add Negative Keywords. You can help reduce costs and prevent your ad from being shown to the wrong people by adding negative keywords.
5. Creating ads that resonate
At this point you should already have a list of selected the keywords and an audience to target. Now you can start writing engaging text ads that resonate with your target audience. Below are a few tips.
- Include at least one of your keywords.
- Make your ads actionable.
- Make sure your ad matches with your landing page
6. Set your Objectives Right
Before launching any campaign, on any platform, you have to decide what exactly you want from them. Saying “I want more customers” is not an option, beccause algorithms are way more advanced than that, and for the best results you need to define your specific goals.
Here are some of the most popular objectives we have experienced:
- Lead Generation
- Traffic to the Website (or landing page)
- Online Sales
- Brand Awareness
So before launching a campaign, decide what are the results you want, and set accordingly.
7. Monitoring and Adjusting
Once you have your ads running for days, and weeks, it’s time to monitor their performance. You can inspect Google campaign dashboard, also, for more and deeper insights – check with Google Analytics (which you should have already had it set up).
With the data acquired, now you have the leverage to decide if you want to increase your budgets, run split tests, change audiences, etc.
You can use this information to improve your marketing, as well as to refine your efforts so that you do not waste money advertising to people who are not interested in what you have to offer.
Again, Google Ads is one of the most powerful advertising tools ever created. It deals with millions of searches by internet users every day and then gives business owners a unique opportunity to convert many of these people into business leads and customers.
However, many businesses are turned off by the expense of advertising on Google Ads, especially when they are unfamiliar with how this platform works.
On the other hand, if you are smart about your online advertising strategy, the rewards from Google Ads can be huge.
At the end on the day, you can set it up yourself, or use our powerful marketing agency team to create a successful campaign for you business.
Serge Moisei
Digital marketing strategist at IQ Avenue Marketing. We have created our SEO & Digital Marketing Agency to help succeed all enthusiastic entrepreneurs, small business owners and life changing ideas.
I'd be happy to walk you through our system and solutions, and see if it's a good fit for your business. Click below to schedule a time that works for you.
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