Google Ads

Perusal Tech Pvt Ltd

07 Jul, 2021

To understand how Google Ads work, it's important to understand how Google works. With Google it always starts with a person having a thought or an idea and they have a question/query/doubt of something they want to search on Google. So, what do they do? They go to Google to try to get their query solved and their questions answered.

Now, this is the key part. When people search on Google, they want to find the answer to something and this is your opportunity to show your company, product and the solution that your business has to that person's problem. And within Google that's what's called the 'ORGANIC RESULTS' and these are the things that Google puts in the search results for free because it's just really high quality content and Google knows that it's going to provide a solution.

But, Google puts at the top of the search results, 'Paid Ads', and the way to get to the top of the search results on these paid ads is through the 'GOOGLE ADS' platform, formerly known as Google AdWords. So, to get to the top of the search results on Google you have to pay.

At this point you might be wondering, why use Google Ads, especially because right below it is the organic search results? It'd be great to be an organic search results, but, that is extremely hard to do. You have to write rich quality content, get lots of link's pointing to you.

BENEFITS OF USING GOOGLE ADS:

(1) It accelerates your results. You might tell Google you want your ad to be on the top of the search results for a certain Keyword. (Keyword is whatever someone searches in Google.) So, for instance you might tell Google, I want to be at the top of the search results anytime someone types the word Peanut Butter. Now, Google wants to get paid for this and so what you tell Google is I'm willing to give you $1 every time someone clicks on my ad. Now, you don't pay unless someone clicks on your ad. It's a bidding system. Someone else might come along and say I'll pay $10. They would go to the top of the search results. The more people involved, the higher the bid potentially could be.

(2) The other thing that makes Google Ads so powerful is not only you can target very specific Keywords. You can actually target by geography or what time of the day you want to show your ads at or what kind of device someone is using, are they using a cell phone or a computer. So, you can get very analytical in figure things out that work for you in your business.

(3) PRO TIP: If you are selling peanut butter, for instance, you wouldn't want to bid on the keyword peanut butter because people search peanut butter for a ton of different reasons. Instead you'd want to bid on a more targeted keyword like organic 16-ounce peanut butter. Because the person that's searching that is much more likely to buy your product than someone that's searching something more generic. This is called a 'Long-tail Keyword' and is another reason why Google Ads can be so powerful.

(4) Another very important thing to know about Google Ads is you need to 'Split Test'. So, you might have an ad but, maybe you can write a better ad and you might want to try that second one out. So, the message and the actual wording that shows up when someone is about to click on your ad is very important. Google has a feature that will let you test different messages and the goal is to get a message that converts as high as possible meaning that out of every 100 times someone sees your ads, how often do they actually click on your ad. You want that number to be as high as possible. This is called as 'Click-through Rate'. The better your CTR is, the lower Google will charge you per click.

So, to sum all this up. This is what's called a Funnel. At the top of the Funnel is everybody in the world that is searching peanut butter. Now of those people that are searching peanut butter, a small percentage of them will actually click on your ad and of those people that click on your ad, a small percentage of them will actually purchase your product and that's what's important. So, the way to increase your sales is to increase the percentage that goes through every step of your funnel because that'll have a trickle-down effect.

GOOGLE ADS SETUP:

STEP 1 - CREATE YOUR GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNT: You can use an existing Google account to sign-up for your account. You will be managing all of your advertisements in your account.

STEP 2 - USE THE FULL VERSION OF GOOGLE ADS: Avoid using Google Ads Express by clicking on the URL that says ‘Experienced with Google Ads?’

STEP 3 - CREATE AN ACCOUNT WITHOUT A CAMPAIGN: Click on the link that says ‘Create an account without a campaign’ to get started in your account. You can start creating your first search campaign during this step, but setting up Conversion tracking first is preferred. That way, you will be able to optimize your campaign for the conversions you import for your business.

STEP 4 - CONFIRM BUISNESS INFORMATION AND EXPLORE YOUR ACCOUNT: Confirm your billing country, time zone, and currency. Then, click ‘Explore Your Account’ to reach the main Google Ads screen. You may have to confirm a few settings before you launch your account. After this step, you will almost be ready to get started with your first campaign. Ultimately, you need to create your account and ensure you are using the full version of Google Ads to get access to all the features.

STEP 5 - VIEW GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNT OVERVIEW AND LINK YOUR GOOGLE ADS AND GOOGLE ANALYTICS ACCOUNTS: View Google Ads account overview and then Create a Google Analytics account and Link your AdWords and Analytics accounts together. Configure the linking and confirm it through your Google Analytics account.

When you sign-in to your Google Analytics account, go to the Admin screen and click on the ‘Google Ads Linking’ URL. You can go through that URL to make sure you have connected your 2 accounts. Next, you will confirm the link through the Tools menu in your Google Ads account.

Confirm the link by going to the Tools menu, click on Linked Accounts, click on Google Analytics, and make sure the link is completely set-up and Auto-Tagging is enabled.

This is much easier when you are using the same Google account for your Analytics and Ads accounts. Essentially, you need the accounts to be able to communicate so you can set-up conversion tracking and track your campaigns. You should see ‘Linked’ under status on that page and Auto-Tagging should be enabled as well.

STEP 6 - SET-UP GOOGLE ADS CONVERSION TRACKING: Create Goals in Google Analytics or Enable Ecommerce reporting in Google Analytics. Then, import conversions into your Google Ads account.

Now that you have created Google Analytics Goals, you want to go back to Google Ads, click on the Tools menu, and click on the ‘Conversions’ link from the dropdown menu.

Next, you want to import a new conversion action. You will click on the plus-sign from the main Conversions screen in Google Ads to add the key conversions you want to optimize your campaigns for. Generally, that would include driving leads, sales, or both.

Choose to Import conversions from Google Analytics. Choose the conversions you want to import. The Goals you have created can be imported now. You can import a Smart Goal, a Transaction, or you can import Lead actions.

STEP 7 - CONVERSION ACTION SETTINGS: Update conversion action settings to categorize a conversion, set a value for a conversion, and decide whether you want to include the conversion in your conversions column for your campaign.

You can set a conversion value or use the conversion from Google Analytics. That will allow you to track your Return On Ad Spend directly in your Google Ads account. For example, if you sell a product for $50, you can set that value for each conversion.

Next, you want to make sure that you include the conversion in your conversions column. There are some cases where you want to import a conversion and you don’t want to include it.

STEP 8 - ATTRIBUTION MODELING: Choose an attribution model for your conversion. Since people may have multiple interactions with your business before reaching a conversion, you want to pick the best attribution model for your business.

There are 6 different attribution models at this time, those are data-driven, last click, first click, linear, time decay, and position based.

STEP 11 - CREATE A CAMPAIGN: You can click on the plus-sign (+) to create a campaign in Google Ads. Then you will be able to choose your campaign type and your objective. Once you create your campaign, you need to select your campaign type.

STEP 12 - CHOOSE GOOGLE NETWORK, TARGETING AND AUDIENCES: Choose the network you will be targeting. For search campaigns, you should only target the Search Network and Search Partners. For Display campaigns, choose the Google Display Network. In addition, set your location targeting, language targeting, and audiences.

After you name your campaign and choose your network, you want to choose the locations you will target and the languages your customers speak. In addition, you can add audiences to your campaign as well.

STEP 13: SET YOUR BUDGET AND BID STRATEGY: Choose your daily budget and your bid strategy for your campaign. You should consider using a smart bidding strategy like Enhanced CPC, Target CPA, or Target ROAS.

It can be difficult to find the best bidding strategy for new campaigns, but use Target CPA or Target ROAS once you start driving conversions.

STEP 14 - CREATE GOOGLE ADS AD EXTENSIONS: Use all relevant Ad Extensions for your advertisements. Make sure you go through the Ad Extensions one-by-one to apply every one that applies to your business.

STEP 15 - SET-UP YOUR AD GROUPS BY THEME: Your Ad Groups should be grouped together so that you can target relevant keywords that send traffic to targeted landing pages.

STEP 16 - TARGET KEYWORDS IN YOUR AD GROUP: Use broad match modifier and/or exact match keywords. You should avoid broad match keywords altogether.

STEP 17 - CREATE YOUR GOOGLE ADS TO MATCH KEYWORDS IN AD GROUP: Your ads should match closely to the keywords in your Ad Groups. Keywords, ads, and landing pages should align very closely.

STEP 18 - CREATE ADS, SET HEADLINES AND SET FINAL URLS: You need to fill out all of the fields for your advertisements. You want to set Final URLs that match your keywords, create great headlines, and write descriptions that will clearly show the benefits of your products and services.

STEP 19 - CREATE 2-3 TEXT ADS PER AD GROUP: It is a best practice in Google Ads to create multiple ads in each ad group. You should create at least 1 Responsive Search Ad and at least 1 Expanded Text Ad in each Ad Group.

STEP 20 - LAUNCH YOUR GOOGLE ADS CAMPAIGN: Click Save and Continue to launch your Google Ads campaign. Then click to Continue to Campaign to view your search campaign in your account.

Your campaign will begin running after you go through approvals. You still need to optimize your Google Ads campaigns to drive conversions for your business.