Getting Started With Google Ads - Part 2

Our last post provided an introduction to Google Ads; covering what they are, how they work, and how they can form an integral part of your online strategy.

This post follows on from our Part 1 introduction and will share our thoughts on how to pick the best selection of words to bid on as part of your Google Ads strategy, and all the advanced settings that can give your ads even more exposure.

Without further ado, let’s get stuck in.

A Recap…

Let’s take it back to part one for just a minute. Google Ads are also known as ‘Pay Per Click’ ads, with you (the business) being charged for every time that a user clicks through to your website thanks to Google Ads. The Google Ads system works like an online auction, where you bid on terms that are relevant to your product, service, and brand. The amount that you bid will determine how highly Google will rank your site on a search results page, and how much exposure it will give your brand.

With that in mind, let’s talk about how to select and choose the right words to bid on.

Choosing The Right Words For Your Google Ads Strategy

There are a couple of different ways of going about this, and we touched on some of them in part one. As a business, you should be viewing your keywords as the portal which links your ideal customer with your brand - that is, which words would that ideal customer associate with and search for in order to find your brand and product?

INDUSTRY: If your ideal customer knows about and searches within your wider industry.

PRODUCT: Keywords to do with your product but not necessarily your brand.

PROBLEM / SOLUTION: Customers who are more likely to search via the problem/solution route - i.e., who don’t know what they want but they have a problem they want to solve.

BRAND-SPECIFIC: Those who know about your brand and are searching for it directly.

Having some keywords which fit into each of these categories will ensure that your Google Ads are being seen by the widest possible group of potential customers.

Keyword Match Types

Bear with us - this is where it gets a little more complicated, but we’re here to guide you through it and make sure that every keyword you enter into your Google Ads strategy is as close to your audience search as possible.

Keyword match types refer to the ways in which you enter your keywords under a Google Ads campaign - and they are responsible for letting Google know how much variation to expect from users searching for your product or brand.

If you’re targeting the very specific keywords, for example if you’re selling red lipstick, then your exact match keyword is [red lipstick]. The closed brackets allow for no variation and means that your ad will only show to those users who type in that exact search (or that exact search with the odd spelling mistake).

Widening this out a little, we come to the phrase match keywords - and this is where you would enter “red lipstick” as your keyword. This means that those two words are still the main part of the search term, but other words might be typed in and around those words to bolster the search a little - for example “matt red budget lipstick”.

A broad match is one where you don’t add any extras, but simply type the words as they come - red lipstick. This keyword attributes to any search which uses those words in any order and in any variation - and is thus one of the widest keyword options.

Google also used to include a modified broad match as a final option, however this is being phased out in 2021, with the search engine allowing variants on the search terms (as a result of plural or verb tense variations) as a phrase match.

Gaining Greater Exposure For Your Ads

We promised you some tips on gaining greater exposure for your ads through the advanced settings, and here they are.

• Pay attention to your budget. Whenever you launch a new Google Ads campaign, you should be aware that Google will be paying attention to the match between your ads and the traffic that Google sends you. Google uses those metrics to establish credibility as the campaign doesn’t yet have a solid history, and so one of the best things you can do to prove the validity of the campaign is to appoint a higher budget to it in those opening weeks. Remember that Google will want to put only the most relevant ads in the eyesight of users, so a higher ads budget will help yours get the airtime it needs in those crucial early days and weeks.

• Get rid of the slow campaigns. If a keyword isn’t performing, scrap it. Look at which keywords are gaining the most searches and bringing in the most users and customers and get rid of any which aren’t getting much movement.

• Look at low performing keywords and ask yourself why they aren’t doing as well. If they match your product and brand, and perform well for competitors, it could be that your landing page copy is doing the damage instead.

• Use your competitors! We can’t stress this enough - if you notice that a competitor is repeatedly buying a keyword and consistently using the same framing and structure around their copy, use that information to boost your own campaigns.

• And finally, use long-tail keywords which are more specific and will likely lead more targeted and conscious customers to your website. These will likely be searched less frequently but will lead to greater conversion and more clicks for less money - with long-tail keywords typically including some location information or product information.

The Takeaway

Google Ads are a great way of using the search engine to drive the right customers towards your website and landing pages - providing you with a model whereby you only pay when they click. Because of this, every click counts, and it’s up to you to use the right keywords and the right ad strategy to ensure that only genuine prosects are clicking through and costing you money.

For more support on building a Google Ads campaign that works, get in touch with us.