If you want to spend money on online advertising, you better spend wisely!

Google Ads is the best way to go. You'll certainly find the right audience and get your ROI as soon as possible with Google Ads.

Google is a unique search engine with 259 million visitors and 4.8 billion daily interactions. Those figures are large - the reason why Google Adwords is an effective digital marketing tactic.

This article will talk about Google advertising and the tactics that can help bring new customers, increase conversions, and drive more traffic to a website.

Without further adieu, let's begin!

Why should you advertise on Google?

Google receives over 5 million queries a day. It is the most-used search engine on the web.

Google advertisers make $8 for every $1 spent on Google Ads - one of the reasons you should consider Google advertising.

Another reason is, competitors are using it to promote their business. So, even if your page is ranked organically, there is a big chance that it will be pushed down because your competitors have the edge - Google Adwords, SEO, and other online advertising tactics.

Lastly, if you're using PPC for advertising, Google Ads should be a part of your online marketing tactic. There's no other way except Facebook ads, but that's a different story.

Google Ads Overview

Google Ads is an online advertising platform that falls under Pay-Per-Click (PPC), where advertisers (you) pay per click on an ad.

It is one of the most effective tactics that help drive traffic to a website and find potential customers. With Google Ads, expect an increase in web traffic, engagement, phone calls, and store visits.

Google Ads is the best way to capture audience attention because display ads also appear on other search engine results pages via Google search and Google Maps. In that way, the potential customer can reach out to you when it's time for them to use any of your services or buy your products.

As time passes, Google Ads can help you improve your ads to reach more people and attain your paid campaign goals.

Google Ads is tailored to a specific budget set by the marketer or advertiser. There are tools and features that enable you to stick to your budget and even pause or stop the ad anytime.

The Basics

First off, it is important to learn some of the basics to ensure that we are on the same page as we go along.

Keywords? PPC? Google Adwords? Impressions? Click-through-rates? We'll get to it!

A keyword is a word or phrase the users input on the Google search query bar to look for products and services. Your ads will appear for the keywords that you choose.

Google will charge you each time your ad is clicked. It also counts the number of impressions - how often your ad is shown when users search for the keywords.

To get the click-through-rates, divide clicks by impression. The result is the number of users that landed on your page through the ad. Click-through-rates are important because it tells you if the ad is working.

Moving on, Google Adwords is compared to an auction house. Advertisers are required to bid for each click. Naturally, if you are the highest bidder, your ad will be shown to more people.

On the other hand, if the keyword bid amount is less, Google will not spend your maximum bid. Instead, it will count impressions and bids. That way, you can pay less on a keyword search terms that you want your ad to show up for.

The good news?

The cost-per-click can be cheaper than your maximum bid amount if your ads produce a high Quality Score. Quality Score is a metric system based on user experience on your landing page, ad, and website relevance.

Google does not only favor the highest bidder. User experience is also a key factor. Also, they'd rather show relevant and better ads even if the advertiser is paying less. In that way, people will keep coming to the platform.

Companies prefer to invest in Google Adwords and pay-per-click advertising because the budget is set. The ads can run forever unless you stop or pause them. On the other hand, it is important to manage your running ads efficiently to ensure that it's working.

How Google Adwords Work (How to advertise on Google)

Buckle up because things ahead will get nerdy!

In the old days, advertisers can bid on any keyword. There was no relevance between the keyword and what the searcher is looking for.

But it changed when the Quality Score came. Quality Score uses a metric system that determines how good a web page is in terms of the landing page, homepage, and overall user experience.

Here's how it works.

Each keyword gets a Quality Score even if they are from the same ad group, and they have different scores.

Relevancy is the key factor in obtaining a high Quality Score.

For example, if someone is searching for "house rentals," which key phrase gets the highest relevance score?

1. House rentals
2. Cottage rentals

The first one is obviously the best fit.

It is important to become more specific to obtain a high relevance score and for optimization purposes.

Click-through-rates are also another factor to consider. Higher CTR means that your ad is working and it has a high relevance score.

Account history should be considered as well. It plays a key role in letting Google know that your business is legitimate.

All of these are important factors in pay-per-click online advertising. And most significantly, the landing page - the page where users are directed when they click on the ad.

A landing page should be relevant to the search. It should be user-friendly and informative to prevent visitors from leaving the site.

If visitors leave your site, Google thinks that the web page sucks, which means that your Quality Score drops and your ranking will be affected as well.

But, if you do it right, you'll be on top, and if you do it wrong, you lose!

In other words, it all comes down to Quality Score and Ad Rank.

Ad Rank is determined by multiplying Quality Score and maximum bid. It dictates which position you're going to appear on the Google search results page.

To determine the amount you're going to pay per click, Google Adwords will assess the maximum bid, Quality Score, Ad Rank and compare it with your competitors. You'll get the result in a matter of seconds.

The cost per click depends on the demand of people searching and how much the competition is spending.

Setting Up Google Adwords: 5 Easy Steps

Setting up Google Adwords is straightforward. All you have to do is go to Google Adwords and click Start Now. Enter your email address (use Gmail) and homepage URL to open a Google Ads account.

Decide how much your daily budget is, choose a target audience, set your bid, and write your ad to get started.

I hear you! How are you supposed to know these things if you're new in Google advertising?

Well? Let's dig deeper to enlighten you further.

There are different types of ad campaigns that can run on Google Adwords, such as PPC advertising - technically refer to as Search Network, where text-based results appear when searchers perform a search on Google.

Network selection is also an option - it extends your ads to other Google partnered search engines such as AOL.

And we have Google Display Network, which appears on other websites in the form of banner ads that are sent out on Adsense networks in blogs of all sizes. There are two million websites on the Display Network that can help you reach 90% of their visitors.

Targeting blogs and websites of specific niche is the best way to drive conversions, improve branding and achieve better visibility. It is also one of the best digital marketing tactics most businesses use.

Step 1: Calculate Google Ads Budget

Define your goals for your PPC efforts. The goals should be carefully thought out, measurable, specific, attainable, realistic, and timely.

Unfortunately, only one goal is selected for each Google Adword campaign that you run.

To calculate your max CPC, multiply the profit, Google's share, and conversion rate.

For example, let's say you're selling lipsticks - you need to work on conversion rate and profit per sale.

A box of lipstick costs $200, and the profit you make is $100 per box. In every 1,000 views on your page, 10 people buy the lipstick. So, that's a 1% conversion rate.

At this point, Google gets a cut as well. If you think $70 profit on each box is okay, then it's okay to give a 30% commission to Google for a successful conversion through Adwords.

So, it works like this: Max.CPC = Profit x Google Commission x Conversion Rate. That would be $100 x 0.3 x 1% = 0.30

Meaning you can spend $0.30 per click on Google Ads and get $70 per sale. That sounds pretty clear, right?

Step 2: Choose a keyword

It's time to pick a keyword. Use the Google Keyword Planner to start searching.

Think like a customer. If you want to buy lipstick online, what would you input in the Google search bar?

You can set product category, country, and language under targeting to find the most profitable keywords to optimize. You'll find the monthly search volume and average CPC for each keyword on the region by navigating to the Keyword Tab Ideas feature.

There are different keyword research tool that you can use to help you pick the right keywords to optimize - SemRush and Keyword Explorer are a few examples.

Step 3: Check out your competitors!

Find out how your competitors are doing. Peek into their business to see how you can outrank them.

So, to gather competitor intelligence, go to Spyfu.com. Enter your keyword, and it will show you the average CTR and the number of companies for the same keyword in the past 3 months.

Plus, it also shows relevant keywords that perform well. If you want to see the ad copy your competitors use, go to Advertiser History.

If you know how to gather competitor intelligence, you can uncover your competitors' entire PPC ads ideas.

But, do not compete. Instead, dominate the market by creating and launching better Google Ads campaign.

Step 4: Work on your landing page

Do not hurt your Google ad campaign effort with a poor landing page. If your landing page sucks, you'll lose visitors. And money!

It's worth hiring an SEO expert to work on your landing page to ensure that all CTA elements, phone numbers, emails, and other details are present. There are a few online tutorials that can help you create the best landing page.

Here are a few points that can help you:

• Keep it simple. Avoid fitting in tons of videos, animations, and images.
• Be clear and concise.
• Use bullet points, videos, and images for visual impression.
• Create a powerful statement.

Related: How to create a landing page that converts

Step 5: Set up your Google Ads campaign

You're all set! Follow the instructions on your screen to set up your first Google Ads campaign.

Write your first ad. Keep it short and unique. Add statistics to increase conversion and click-through-rates.

How can B12 help?

B12 gives you built-in email marketing tools to promote your business and SEO tools to enhance your site’s online presence and visibility with the search engines. With B12, you’ll dominate your niche, bringing qualified traffic to your optimized website.

For more resources on building your brand awareness and generating website traffic, check out the B12 Resource Center.