Small and medium-sized businesses are hardly dummies. They work so hard to get the job done, fighting the current of competitors both large and small. To help them, we’ve assembled this list of must-haves so that these companies can have that chance. We want you to find success in reaching your target audience on Google Ads. This won’t be useful for every company, and many are very unlikely to find success running ads on Google search. It will work if you meet a few criteria. First, if you are targeting consumers or a large market of other businesses to sell. Second, if you have a product that presents well online. Third, perhaps, if you have a hunch that Ads could work. We’ve assembled 4 must-haves for you to have the best shot at making a great campaign. We want this Google Ads for dummies post to help you get the best start you can in reaching your customers. This is part 1 of 2. The other blog post in the series focuses on 4 more essentials to making a campaign achieve your goals. You can find it here- Google Ads for Beginners: 4 Things Your Ads Need (Part 2).
The Search Network (Typically)
Google offers a number of different places to advertise. It even offers a new scattershot product called Performance Max. Performance Max combines YouTube, display, search, discover, Gmail, and Maps ad runs into one. It can work very well if you have the right conversion goals (in the next part). It also requires a good number of visitors completing your goal action. But most small businesses won’t drive a high volume of customers or leads when they launch. Because of that, we’re going to make a claim that we believe is concrete. Most business owners want to start advertising on the search network. Google Ads can’t be spray and pray: this isn’t billboard advertising. You can’t just put your message out to the world and hope that the right people see it. This is especially true in a world of rising digital advertising costs over time. These days, your advertising will usually be most effective when it’s targeted. The central claim to search advertising is that you can do this. In terms of what they’re seeking, but also in terms of timing. Search network ads allow you to reach people in the exact moment they’re searching to buy products like yours. We recommend you first setup ads on the search network and only on the search network. To do this make sure to disable 2 campaign settings in the “Networks” section. First, you’ll want to disable Google search partners. Search partners are “sites in the Search Network that partner with Google to show ads.” Google says that “your ads and listings can appear on search pages such as a list of search results, Parked domain search results, site directory pages, product detail pages, YouTube search results and Watch pages.” If you’re looking at a parked domain are you actively searching to make a purchase of anything other than a domain? How about if you’re browsing videos on Youtube? Most of the time this traffic is a lot less focused on making a purchase and a lot more focused on browsing. We recommend leaving this off to start. Second, you’ll also want to disable the Google Display Network. If you wanted to run display ads you would have launched a display campaign. Still, Google keeps this on by default for advertisers, perhaps those that don’t know better than to turn it off. Google defines this as “a group of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps where your ads can appear.” Imagine yourself watching videos, using apps, or visiting content websites. Are you ready to make a purchase most of the time? Leave these off to start, and only turn them on as a test to start expanding a working campaign to a broader audience.
The Right Location
Search network with the right location targeting; a recipe for success. The right location is more of an art than science; you’ll have to operate off instinct here. We can’t tell you how to know exactly the right location to choose, but closer is a better start than further. Inherently, customers who come from ads are just meeting you. Your current customers likely come from a certain radius from your business. It’s unlikely people just meeting you on ads will come from further away. So, set your location to the range you currently get customers from. Most businesses should also choose the advanced option. It’s labeled as “Reach people in or regularly in your targeted locations.” There are some exceptions to this. Travel companies could see a purchase from a location the visitor has “shown interest in.” But for most, our suggestion keeps your ads showing to people in a location where they can buy most of the time. Choosing the right location can have a massive difference in the percentage that buy. It also may be the difference between a healthy ROI and an unsustainable one. When choosing your location it’s recommended to be deliberate.
Relevant Search Terms
Relevant search terms those that target someone searching for your products. Or, at least searching for the benefit you get from them. The perfect keywords include this, but also an indication that they intend to buy. They include modifiers like “for sale,” “in (zipcode),” or another indication of purchase. You may have heard of keywords when researching Google Ads. These are your input in the Google Ads platform of who you want to target. You can’t just stop here. People often say that you need the right keywords, but we think this is misleading. You need the right search terms, which Google defines as “actual searches.” You can observe these in the Google Ads Search Terms report. In there you should see product or benefit searches combined with an indication of purchasing intent. If you don’t see this you’re likely not as targeted as you should be. This will show Google Ads substituting your product with a different type that is only loosely related. This problem could be that you just added a few errant keywords. But just as often, it’s that your keyword match types are too loose. Match types are defined by Google as “how closely the keyword needs to match with the user’s search.” You have three match type options. They range from most loose to most strict; called broad match, phrase match, or exact match. Broad match tends to be too loose for brand new advertisers. Exact tends to be too strict. We recommend starting with phrase match. This gives you the option to get more or less strict depending on your needs. But it’s not enough that your search terms are relevant, overall, to your business. They also need to be relevant to the ads being shown. Imagine you’re searching for a pair of basketball shoes ahead of your next day with friends on the court. If you get an ad for orthopedic shoes, or high heels, you’re not very likely to click and make a purchase. Likely, most people won’t even click the link and bother to browse around to see if you sell other types of shoes. Be careful to make sure people using search terms see the right ad. You can do this by grouping keywords by product or related concepts. This way you’re able to show people the right product, service, or offer at the right time. This gives you the best odds of closing the deal, where before you may have only driven traffic to bounce. In our courses we call these “Keyword Ad Groups.”
Compelling Products & Ads
It sounds silly, but advertising is effective when you sell products people want. These products either need to be desired, or exciting. Exciting products are what all the news articles are written about. Sometimes they’re a product that offers a new twist on something people already love. Other times they’re more visually appealing. This works great, but there’s a weight to innovation. Innovative products the consumer needs to be able to grasp what’s being offered. Instead, what can work even better is just offering a product that’s desired NOW. You need either of these, or ideally both. Google Ads offers a way to test appeal or demand. You can estimate product interest from early research and ad runs. Compelling products are the right start, but you also need compelling ads. Compelling Ads are those that compel both the reader and Google’s algorithm. This means ads that are written for both people and the algorithm. You need compelling copy, certainly. This is copy that offers your product benefits and sometimes features. They also might position your products against competitors. They could push an emotional appeal like fear or greed, or make people feel good. But you also need to include relevant keywords in 1/3rd to 1/2 of the headlines and descriptions. Google operates an auction, obviously. This auction factors in your willingness to pay for traffic. It also factors in something they call quality score. The combination of these makes your Ad Rank. Quality score is the estimated quality of your ads as they relate to keywords. Landing page experience, ad relevance, and expected clickthrough rate make quality score. Seeing your keyword in headlines and descriptions tells Google an ad is high quality. Quality score your ads to show more often, and at a lower cost-per-click. Making your ads compelling to Google is a skill that will literally save you money.
Small companies have too many disadvantages in this world. Economies of scale, taxes, there are many examples. In marketing and sales this is even more true. Simply put, everything is harder for most smaller companies. Despite that, smaller companies and their teams don’t mind. Every day they choose to enter the fray, and build the business they believe in. Through hard work they strive for a future that they know is attainable. The bet on their dream of autonomy and pride that most never get to experience. This bet is backbone of the American economy. Every small business deserves a chance. They deserve a shot at reaching their target market with their message. they deserve to see if the world cares as much as they do about their vision. We hope this post helped you get a little closer to proving this. We salute your hustle.