How effective is Google advertising and how to get started

Google advertising is essentially a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising system, which allows users to dictate where their ad appeals by bidding for words and phrases. Like other PPC services, you will only pay for Adwords if someone clicks on your ad.

The process behind Google advertising is quite simple – you choose keywords relating to your business, products, or services. If someone’s search matches your keywords, then your paid-for ad will appear above their organic Google search results. Hopefully, the searcher will then click on your ad, go through to your website, and learn more about you – or, even better, buy! As the campaign is PPC, you will only pay when someone clicks on your link, rather than every time your ad is displayed.

But how effective is Google advertising?

As a general rule, Google Adwords is considered to be effective when it comes to driving traffic and ROI. In addition to this, when someone arrives at your site via a Google Ad, it is because they are searching for the terms you have selected – they actively looking for your brand, product, or service, rather than just stumbling across your site by pure coincidence. So rather than having millions of browsing visitors, your ad should generate specifically targeted clicks, which, in turn should increase your conversion rate.

That’s not to say that Google advertising is effective when used alone, however. Far from it. Adwords is effective only when implemented as part of a full campaign that calls upon a mixture of channels and platforms, such as search engine optimisation, email marketing, and social media. As you implement and evaluate your campaign, you will soon start to see the channels that are most effective for you business goals, and adjust your budget allocation accordingly.

Getting started

When setting up your campaign, there are a number of tips that you should take in order to ensure that your Google Adwords campaign is as effective as possible…

Identify your goals – Before you start your campaign, it’s important to identify exactly what you’re hoping to achieve and set out clear, well-defined goals. This will enable you to make better decisions about how to apply your budget and also give you a criteria to evaluate your results against.

Is your website up to scratch? – Your Google advertising campaign is designed to drive traffic to your site. So, before you start welcoming people in, it’s important that you ensure that your website has the necessary information and calls to action to reinforce your Adwords campaign.

Assess your budget – It’s all too easy to jump into a Google Adwords campaign and expect to see instant results. But the fact is that these campaigns don’t usually generate substantial results for around 3 months, so it’s important that you allocate your budget over at least a three month period, rather than blowing it all in one go.

Digital Ethos are experts in Google advertising and PPC management in Leicester, get in touch to find out how they can help you to achieve the best results from your campaign.