The web is a vast and exciting place. From the point of view of a consumer, it’s a treasure trove of new products and answers to be found. From the point of view of a business, it’s a mass of potential to be tapped.
If you’re looking to ramp up your site’s traffic and deliver your message to the most interested parties all at once, Google Ads can help. With the right strategy, it’ll have you generating revenue before you know it.
Are you ready to launch your next successful campaign? Then let’s get started!
All About Google Ads
Remember the old days of advertising? Back then, the goal was to toss a single message out into the world, casting the widest net possible. You could only hope that it stuck!
These days, Google Ads is all about creating focused ad groups that target only the most relevant demographics. By speaking to the interested few (as opposed to the disinterested many), you end up driving more quality traffic to your business.
Like the old adage says: Quality really does trump quantity—especially when it comes to conversions.
As Google Ads accounts are free to register, it probably seems like a no-brainer solution for any business. That being said, it may not work for you unless you’re willing to put the time into it.
Keywords Make the Campaign
Keywords are the meat of every Google search query, and naturally, they’ll be at the root of every campaign, too. The more precise your keywords are, the more quality traffic you’ll be able to garner.
As you begin selecting keywords for your campaign, it’s important to envision things from the consumer’s point of view. Consider your typical customer’s:
- Tastes
- Pain-points
- Language
It’s important to not only understand what your customer may be searching for, but also how they’re searching for it. What kind of phrasing might they be using to find a specific product or service?
Let’s Get Specific
Envision a start-up business. Perhaps we have a long-time seamstress who’s begun selling sewing kits and products to help others develop their skills. What kind of keywords might someone search to find these kits?
The obvious answers come to mind first. In this scenario, someone might search for “sewing kits” or “learn to sew.” The seamstress, like many others in her field, thinks that casting wide is a surefire way to get some hits. The truth is, however, that to drive that quality traffic, she needs to get more specific.
Be descriptive when selecting keywords. Tighten up your keywords with added specificity and supportive examples. The net will begin to shrink, and the number of interested people seeing your product will grow. Try this:
- “Quilt sewing kits beginner” as opposed to “sewing kits”
- “Learn to sew curtains step-by-step” as opposed to “learn to sew”
As you may have noticed, those keywords aren’t structured in the same way we’d speak them; but that is something you’ll want to play around with. Organize your keywords in the way you think people are most likely to be searching them!
Choose Your Match Types Carefully
In crafting a clever Google Ads campaign, the words themselves are only part of the battle (albeit a big one). To take those keywords from good to great, you have to select the correct match type to guide the search engine…
Exact match keywords are self-explanatory. Place your keywords inside of brackets, and you’ll advertise directly to people who searched that same thing.
Broad match keywords will be your default. They cast a wide net, but sometimes allow Google to stray from your original intent. Google is intelligent, but if one of your keywords has many meanings, it can get confused.
Phrase match keywords fall between exact and broad. When you place a phrase inside of quotation marks, it draws in variants of the exact match.
Negative match keywords are designated with a minus sign. They allow you to cut out some of the alternative meanings Google might drum up. In other words, you can disqualify irrelevant homonyms from the search.
Get Crafty with Your Text Ad
No matter what you’re searching for, you’re sure to see a couple Google Ads at the top of the page. Very little separates these from the other top-ranking links on the page, except for a green “Ad” box next to the URL.
Once your keywords are all picked out, you’ll have to start crafting your text ads, too. They come with a pretty simple structure—one you might not think twice about. Don’t get complacent, however! You have a lot of leeway within this structure to spruce up your ads and drive traffic, so get creative.
- Your chosen headline should be simple and punchy, including your brand’s name and message.
- The display URL doesn’t have to be your full website URL, just a destination URL.
- Come up with a couple descriptive body lines to support your headline and entice prospective customers.
- Contact information is optional but can be useful if you’re looking to garner leads over the phone or in person.
- Site links are also optional and can be used to briefly display some of the best features your site has to offer.
- A “call to action” or CTA is the finishing touch, as it directs leads on to the next step.
It Pays to Bid
Now that you’ve had the opportunity to flex your creative muscles with keywords and text ads, you’ll want to get down to brass tacks: Bid management. To get your ad at the top of a Google search page, you have to bid against other companies. What are you offering? Whatever you are willing to pay for a click on your ad.
If your business is young and the budget is tight, bid management may seem like a big hurdle. Fortunately, the bid isn’t all that matters. Your quality score is important, too.
Quality Score: Character is Everything
When you’re searching for a product or an answer on Google, you expect precision. This is the internet, after all! If Google can’t respond to your query with a useful answer in the time it takes you to blink, what good is it?
Relevance plays a huge role in an ad’s quality score. If your ad is relevant to both the target keyword search as well as its landing page, the quality score gets an immediate boost. At this point, you’re really going to thank yourself for being as descriptive and creative as possible in choosing keywords and ad text.
Prior performance can affect the quality score, too. Once your account has been open for a little while, your track record with click-through rates and favorable response can greatly sway your score. Google knows yours is the ad to show if it has received plenty of clicks in the past.
Revenue-Generating Results
Generating revenue with your Google Ads campaign may take time, but as long as you perform your due diligence, the rewards are there for the reaping. All it really takes to achieve success in Google Ads are thoughtful keyword choices, creative text ads, and smart bidding. Stay relevant, and your quality score will take care of some of the work here.
It all sounds simple. So, why isn’t everyone using Google ads for their business? A poor strategy and hastily crafted past campaign may have led them straight into a costly hole.
While Google Ads accounts are free to register, you will be charged each time someone clicks on your ads. If those clicks aren’t quality clicks, you won’t generate the conversion rate necessary to validate the cost.
Refining Your Campaign
Managing an effective Google Ads campaign, like anything else, takes a bit of practice to master. It’s rare that you can achieve a perfect campaign on your first go. In order to generate the revenue your business needs to grow, you’ll want to continually refine your ad strategy.
Like Google Ads, Google Analytics is free to use. It will judge your keywords, text ads, and landing pages to determine what is working for you and what is not. You can even compare one type of ad or landing page with another to forecast future performance.
By identifying the weak links in your Google Ads campaign, it’s easy to replace, refine, and boost your revenue over time. Eventually, that strategy will become second nature.
Allow Our Team to Strengthen Your Campaign
The steps to creating a revenue-generating Google Ads campaign may be simple. However, within each of those steps, you’ll have a lot of variables to consider. Depending on how large your campaign is, you may be working with hundreds or thousands of possible keywords. Once these keywords are in place, it’s up to you to mine your site’s traffic and conversion data to determine what works.
Even with other tools such as Google Analytics at your disposal, outside help can be invaluable. At Stream Companies, we’re armed with the technologies and expertise necessary to help you home-in on quality traffic.
Contact our team today to learn how you can start making money through Google Ads!
Some information in this blog was sourced from “A Beginner’s Guide to Making Money with Google Ads” by Disruptive Advertising.