You’ve got yourself a website and IT. LOOKS. AMAZING. Congrats! You’ve taken the first step in getting serious about marketing your business. Now you really need to think about making the most of your marketing money.
On it’s own, a well designed and written website will certainly help to make a lot of headway up the rankings on Google. We call this organic reach. With great Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), your website should have you ranked nice and high in relevant google searches and customers will naturally find you when they search for products and services like yours in the right areas (naturally, organic, get it?).
We’ve written previously about optimising SEO for local searches and given you a general look at how Google actually, you know, works. If haven’t already, go take a look. We won’t be offended if you haven’t had a chance to read them yet (but we will if you don’t go and read them soon).
Now you’ve noticed something though, when you do a search on Google the first results aren’t actual search results. In fact, the first three or four results have this terrifying little word in front of them – Ad. What does it mean though?
PPC
What you are seeing is Pay Per Click advertising. With modern technology comes modern marketing techniques.
Once upon a time, businesses would pay for advertising space on media such as radio, newspapers and TV. And whilst you could pick places where you would think your ideal clients are going to be, such as choosing a sport that connects with your intended market, it was largely a blanket form of marketing. Directed, but only vaguely.
It was a bit like if William Tell was aiming for the apple on his son’s head by facing in the right direction, then closing his eyes and hopping up and down on one leg.
PPC is significantly more targeted in that it can be incredibly specific. You’ll hit only the people that you really want to. And more importantly, you’ll only be paying if people actively begin the interaction process by clicking on you. Win!
PPC Variety
Now there are quite a few different options for PPC and it can be a bit confusing trying to figure out where to use your budget if you want to be making the most of your marketing money. We go into detail about different types of PPC in another post.
Display Ads, Social Media Ads, Paid Search, Price comparison. *Phew* there are so many options. And by all means, spend money across the board and see what fits best for you. But, for this post, we want to look at making the most of you marketing money when the budget is limited. Like, if you had to pick one form of PPC to place your bets on, which should you choose?
Go Google Ads
Want to make the most return on your marketing investment? Google Ads is undoubtedly the way to go. Yes, there are benefits and upsides to all of the other PPC types and providers but Google simply stands head and shoulders above the rest.
And when we say go Google Ads, we mean specifically Paid Search.
If you are looking at making the most of your marketing money then you can’t go wrong with Google Ads primarily because you are dropping yourself right in front of people who are actively searching for you (as long as your campaign is set up correctly).
Google Ads works quite simply. When a user types in a search, Google looks at keywords in the search and will return their results. What it will also include are results that have paid to be included. For instance, if someone searches for ‘Volkswagen’ to find about more about the brand, they will be also given results that lead to a dealership.
Effectively, Google Ads allows you to create adverts that will piggyback on searches and search results that are relevant to your business. You choose from (LARGE) set of parameters and Google will then include your ‘advert’ in search results. In this case, your advert isn’t a flashy billboard style poster campaign, it’s a simple bit of text designed to look like a search result.
Why go Google?
Intent
There are several reasons to get Google Ads. The most significant, and we can’t stress this enough, they are the most effectively targeted PPC adverts you can get.
With an effectively designed and planned PPC campaign, you only be getting people clicking on your advert that are actively interested in what you have to offer.
Because of the keyword-based nature of this form of advertising, coupled with the fact that it is on the search engine people are actively searching for what you are offering. Other PPC types use keywords, for sure. But keywords on Facebook and LinkedIn is a different kettle of fish to when they are used in Google.
Someone using the keyword ‘Volkswagen’ in a Facebook search is likely looking to find VW interest groups. Facebook is Social Media after all, that’s what people use it for. Users do not use Facebook to be advertised to. 74% of social media users think there are too many ads on there. They are effective, but it’s not the BEST place to spend.
Volume
As well as intent is the sheer volume of searches per day. That figure stands at 8.5 billion. That’s more than every single person on the planet doing at least one Google search per day. Want to see that as an actual number?
8,500,000,000
Enough said really, isn’t it?
Budget
One of the best things about PPC that really makes it stand out for businesses is the fact that you are only paying every time someone clicks on the link that you provide in your advert. Win! You can show up in searches, but you don’t pay unless you’re clicked on.
That means that not only are you only showing up in a targeted search, but you’re only paying if the user is interested in what you have to offer.
And you can start with any budget you like! OK, so Google knows what it is doing and will suggest a budget to you depending on the different parameters that you include when setting up your campaign, but theoretically you could start with as little as a fiver.
Post-Click Experience
As we have looked at before, Google watches what happens for users after they have clicked on a link to get to your site. They measure all sorts of metrics.
And you having spent on getting a good website with great content is going to pay dividends, because Google likes businesses that give good experience!
‘post-click landing page experience is Ads’ measure of how well your website gives people who click your ads exactly what they’re looking for – quickly and effortlessly’
So you’ll not only be making the most of your marketing money in your ad spend, but it’s making the most of your previous marketing spend. Digital Marketing really is great!
Next Steps
Sold! I want to Google Ads it up. Let’s get my business a flood of customers, you’re thinking. What do you need to do to get going?
Just head over to Google Ads and set up and account and get going!
Aha so it may not be quite as simple as that. Google Ads is such a vast and intense solution that many businesses will hire teams of people to just handle it. You CAN get on and experiment with it, but there are so so so many options and filters and factors that you’re absolutely not going to be making the most of your marketing money that way.
Realistically, the best solution is to have an agency help. We can do that for you. Or you can complete Google’s own intensive training program if you have a spare 30 hours.
Get in touch if you’re interested. And good luck on your journey to marketing excellence!
