Google Adwords & Search Engines
Paid Search Advertising
People conducting a search online are looking for something specific and will click on the first result they believe is going to be the most helpful to them.
Paid search advertising gives advertisers the opportunity to capture the attention of their audience in a more targeted way than with organic search alone.
Search ads allow you to anticipate the wants, needs, and desires of your potential customers and serve ads to them that are highly contextual. Over time, the analytics of your search ads can help you analyse and improve those ads to reach even more people.
Keywords
But how does Google know how to deliver the right ad to the right person? That’s where keywords come into play. A keyword is one word or phrase that someone uses to describe what they need in search. Basically, advertising on search platforms takes the targeting capabilities available on social media platforms, like demographics and location, and layers it with the addition of keywords.
When a Google user types a query into the search field, Google returns a range of results that match the searcher’s intent. Keywords align with what a searcher wants and will satisfy their query. You select keywords based on which queries you want to display your ad alongside.
Keyword research is just as important for paid ads as it is for organic search. That’s because Google matches your ad with search queries based on the keywords you selected. Each ad group you create within your campaign will target a small set of keywords and Google will display your ad based on those selections.
Do Google Ads Work
Google Ads can work for all types of businesses – big and small. It’s an affordable form of advertising that can target qualified, in-market prospects when managed correctly.
- The key to making Google Ads work for you is to understand the ins and outs of paid search, bidding strategies, keyword research, account structure etc.
- Map out what you’re able to spend on each campaign, set your daily budget accordingly and keep track of the spend
- Do your keyword research and bid on the phrase and exact keywords at higher bids to get more relevant clicks
- While creating ads make sure they are relevant and enticing enough for the viewer to click
- Optimize your landing pages by running A/B tests to try out variations of a page
- Try remarketing to reinforce your brand
Google Ads Network
Google AdWords allows businesses to target users on two main networks – the search and the display network.
On the search network, advertisers bid on the relevant keywords. This gives them a display their advertisements to users who enter those keywords into Google as part of a search query. The paid search results are usually displayed on the top and bottom of the page have a small ad icon next to them.
The display network, on the other hand, offers advertisers the chance to display their banner advertisements on the websites that are a part of Google network.
Pay Per Click
The amount that Google AdWords charges advertisers depends on what they are advertising.
Since Google AdWords is a pay-per-click advertising program, your ads are displayed for free and you’re charged only when someone clicks on your ad on Google search results page. Also, the AdWords system is a live auction, therefore, the click prices are determined by the amount of competition, and how much they’re willing to pay for a click.
When done correctly, Google AdWords can drive high-quality traffic to the website at costs that are much more competitive as compared to other forms of advertising.
However, when you don’t know how to expertly manage the process, costs can rack up fast while you potentially drive low-quality traffic.
Google vs. Bing vs. Yahoo
There are a few advertising platforms out there for search, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But Google is by far the most used search engine out there. But this doesn’t mean you should entirely rule out advertising on these other platforms. In some cases, you can achieve impressive results with a smaller ad spend on Bing and Yahoo than you could on Google since there is less competition from advertisers.
My recommendation is to dig into your organic traffic to identify if Bing or Yahoo make up a significant amount of traffic for any given keywords or topics. This might indicate that advertising for those keywords on Bing or Yahoo could be profitable.
Regardless of where you advertise, the good news is that advertising on all of these platforms more or less work and look the same.
Native Advertising
Publishers like BuzzFeed produce content that snowballs in popularity on social media almost every day. And they make money by helping other brands do it too. Brands will pay these publishers to craft posts and videos that follow the publishers’ formula for virality. They also pay publishers to distribute this sponsored content to their massive audience through social media and their website.
This is native advertising.
When you pay for a publisher’s native advertising services, you’ll be able to leverage their editorial expertise and audience reach to help your brand tell captivating stories to a bigger and better viewership.
During the creative process, you’ll collaborate with publishers to craft sponsored content that covers one of their main topics and looks like a regular piece of content on the publisher’s website.
This way, even though your post is technically promotional, it won’t disrupt their audience’s browsing experience. They’ll enjoy reading your post and won’t feel like you or the publisher are advertising to them. Native advertising creates a symbiotic relationship between publishers and brands.