How does Google Ads work?
Google Ads is the most powerful lever of the SEA paid search. It is on this tool that you can create a sponsored ad to appear in the first results of the first page of Google. This is a great way to gain visibility and clicks! Between setting up and managing campaigns, defining objectives, setting up a webmarketing strategy, managing the budget and monitoring the statistics of the various Ads campaigns, there are many elements to take into account in order to make good use of your Google Ads account and obtain effective campaigns. Before calling on an agency specialising in SEA to help you deploy your SEO strategy, understand how the Google Ads tool works.
How do Google Ads auctions work?
The Google Ads bidding system
In order for one of your commercial links to appear on Google, you need to set a maximum amount for the keyword on which you are positioned. But in front of you, several advertisers will also set budgets on this keyword. This is why you need to manage your budget in the best way possible so that you can appear in the search results without spending too much money. Several bidding strategies exist to optimise your budget according to your objectives. For example, you can pay for clicks, conversions, impressions, views or engagements. The most common strategy is cost-per-click (CPC) where you only pay once your ad is clicked. Fortunately, a Google Ads auction does not work in exactly the same way as a traditional auction. The budget is not the only element taken into account to appear on the Google search engine via SEA.
The quality score
The quality score is the 2nd essential element to take into account in Google Ads auctions. Indeed, Google has every interest in offering the most relevant sponsored ads to its users. This is why Google also analyses the quality level of your sponsored links in addition to the maximum budget you are prepared to spend. So you may be wondering: how do you increase the relevance of an ad? There are several things to consider when improving a relevance score. Defining the right keywords, writing the ad with the right extensions and a good landing page are all part of it. This is why it is more than important to optimise each of your ads to be displayed as many times as possible without spending a huge budget. Don’t hesitate to call on a Google Ads professional who will know how to increase the relevance of your ads and obtain a high level of quality. This will allow you to increase your results while lowering your investment!
The different networks
To increase your relevance score, you must first set up your Google Ads campaign properly. This involves choosing the network on which you wish to position your advertising campaign. You must choose the network according to the marketing objectives you have set yourself. Because each type of campaign directs you towards well-defined objectives. The best known network is the search network where you will create text ads. These are the ads that appear directly on the Google results page. You can also find ads in the Google shopping network. Finally, there are types of campaigns where the ads are not shown on the search results page. With a display campaign, you show illustrated ads of your brand, especially with banners, on several websites. Finally, you also have the possibility to select the video network to show your ads in video format on Youtube. In order to get good results from your Google advertising campaign, you must first define your commercial objectives.
How to start with Google Ads?
Define your commercial objectives
Before you start creating your first campaign, you must first know why you are creating it, what objectives do you want to achieve? To get new customers, to gain notoriety, to generate traffic, to increase your turnover etc. These directions are good bases, but they will not be enough to optimize the setting of your campaigns. To create a campaign, you will need to define relevant and concrete objectives. This could be to reach a certain click-through rate (CTR) in 6 months, to improve the conversions of your landing page by 10% in 2 months, to aim for a high impression rate in less than a week to gain immediate visibility through the Google Display Network, etc. Finally, these objectives must be achievable in terms of time and money. But this relevance varies from one activity to another, some objectives will take longer to achieve in the real estate or insurance sectors for example. An agency with expertise in SEO campaigns and in your field of activity will be a considerable advantage for your company. They will not only know if your objectives are relevant, but will also be able to analyse your results and know if they are in line with the market average or if there are aspects that need to be reviewed. Don’t forget that you can of course create a specific campaign for each objective in order to reach them more quickly!
Developing your marketing strategy
Once you have defined your objective, you will have to establish the strategy to achieve it with your SEO campaign. One of the bases of your digital marketing strategy will be to define your targets. Indeed, it is useless to set up a campaign that reaches a lot of people but never your potential customers! In order to get qualified traffic to your website, you need to know your prospects by creating personas. Once this step has been completed, you can now manage your campaigns by defining the targeting of the audiences you wish to reach and those you wish to exclude. Several parameters must be taken into account at this stage, such as the place of residence and age of your target audience. Choosing an agency that is an expert in SEA can greatly help you in the implementation of your marketing strategy through its experience and knowledge. Remember that this elaboration will serve you as well for your SEA strategy as for all your other communication levers!
Adapting your bidding strategy
As explained above, there are several bidding strategies to enable you to optimise your Ads budget and achieve your objectives. These are defined according to the objective you wish to achieve, i.e.: increase profits, obtain more sales or prospects, attract more visitors to your site, increase your notoriety. If you have well defined your business objectives, this step should not be a problem. It’s afterwards that things get complicated, because several intelligent bidding strategies are proposed to you for one and the same objective! Between “maximise conversion value”, “maximise conversions”, “target CPA” or “maximise clicks”, it can be difficult to see clearly. We strongly recommend that you seek the help of a Google Ads expert at this stage of the creation of your ads. Indeed, in order for your ad campaign to be profitable, you must not make any mistake when choosing your bidding strategy and choose the most relevant system according to your objective, your budget and your activity.
How to use Google Ads?
Choosing the right keywords
To create effective ads, the choice of keywords is very important. Your prospects will do their Google searches by typing queries composed of keywords. You must therefore choose the right keywords that your potential customers are looking for to get clicks and good results. If you position yourself on keywords that are not searched for, you will have no visibility. Worse, if you position yourself on a keyword that is searched but not relevant, not corresponding to your landing page, you will get a lot of clicks that you will pay for but without any conversion, which will cause your return on investment to drop! So take the time to structure your ad groups so that they respond correctly to an adequate list of keywords.
Analysis and monitoring of KPIs
Launching a Google Ads campaign without monitoring it is a very bad idea. It is by analysing your KPIs that you will know the performance of your campaigns. Because, know that advertising campaigns that work today do not necessarily work tomorrow! As the competition, the Google algorithm and Internet users’ searches change from day to day, it is essential to keep a regular eye on the results of the campaigns you run. There are several key performance indicators that should be observed depending on the objective defined. You may need to monitor your conversion rate for a specific campaign and the impression rate for other advertising campaigns for example. An agency specialising in paid search will be able to monitor the campaign of your choice and will know in no time what data to analyse in order to draw conclusions about its possible optimisation.
Google Analytics: measuring your performance
Did you know that the monitoring of campaigns and KPIs is not only done on Google Ads? Indeed, since you direct users to your website via your ads, you can also find many statistics on Google Analytics. A professional can link your 2 Google tools so that your data is complementary. This will give you more data on your campaigns, so that you know whether they are profitable or not. Lost in all these figures and marketing titles? Don’t hesitate to call on a webmarketing agency to analyse your campaigns and optimise them to achieve all your objectives!
Find out more about Google Ads:
What are the different types of Google Ads campaigns and formats?
What is the difference between Google Ads and other advertising systems?
What are the differences between Google Ads and Google Ads Express?