What are Google Search Ads?
Search Ads are a type of paid ad campaigns on search engines like Google or Bing. They are text ads that follow the PPC (pay-per-click) principle meaning that the advertiser only pays when someone clicks their ad.
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Google Search Ads are a very popular type of paid ad campaigns for businesses as they let you reach your target audience online quickly while keeping full control over your budget.
Search Ads vs. SEO
Search Ads can appear on the top and bottom of the Google Search Results page but are sometimes confused with organic results. Organic results are non-paid listings that depend on good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rather than paying for ad campaigns. The difference is easy to spot by paying attention to the little ‘ad’ symbol next to the URL of a listing.
Google Search Ad
Organic Listing
Are Google Search Ads suitable for my business?
Whether Google Search ads are a good option for you depends mainly on two factors: your type of business and your marketing goals.
Google often advertises their Search campaigns as something that works for every business but in our experience, they perform better for some types of businesses than others. Most B2C businesses like ecommerce, service providers, not-for profit organisations, educational institutions, hospitality and some types or brick and mortar businesses can greatly benefit from search campaigns.
It can sometimes be more challenging for B2B businesses depending on how niche they are and what audience they try to reach but that doesn't mean that it is not possible.
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Get in touch to find out whether Google Ads could be the right digital marketing channel to promote your business!
What are the requirements for Search Ads?
The main requirements to set up your search ad campaigns for success is a well-developed website, a realistic budget to meet your marketing goals and the openness to testing and optimising.
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A well-developed website
The most important requirement to run Google Search campaigns is to have a well-developed, functional website. Your website and its messenging should clearly state what your product or service is, highlight your USPs and use appropriate language to connect with your target group. Depending on what you offer, you need to give visitors options on how to engage with your website.
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You can follow all search campaign best practices but still not get good ad performance due to a poor user experience on your website. For example, ecommerce businesses should have a well-organised shop and efficient checkout system, the option to sign up for a newsletter and a customer service contact for returns or questions. Service-based businesses should have clear information about their services and who they work with as well as offering easy contact options and low-barrier connection opportunities, like free intro calls. Think about what you want website visitors to do on your site and try to make that path to action as clear and easy as possible.
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A realistic budget
Costs involved in running Search campaigns include both the media fee (the campaign budget that is paid directly to Google) and management fees paid to your agency to set up and optimise your campaigns.
In theory, you can start a Google ad campaign with any budget but in practice, a minimum monthly budget is required to make it worth the investment, see results and get enough data for testing. To work out the right budget for your campaigns, we take into consideration your marketing goals, the number of campaigns and the best campaign types to achieve your goals.
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An open mind
And lastly, while there are various best practices when it comes to setting up and running Google Search campaigns, there is no one-size fits all solution and good campaign management requires consistent attention and testing. Ad copy and keywords need to be reviewed and updated regularly and other campaign types like Display, Video or Shopping might be added to support your search campaigns.
How do Google Search Ads work?
In your Google Ads account, we build Search campaigns that include keywords that are relevant to your business. Once a user types into Google a search query that closely matches your keywords, your search ad can be triggered.
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Google Ads works with an auction system where multiple advertisers bid for a spot on the Google Search Results Page (SERP). Multiple factors play a role to determine whether your ad shows up or not (read the full story here) but you are charged only when someone actually clicks your ad. This principle is called PPC (pay-per-click) and is also used by other marketing platforms like Facebook Ads or Microsoft (Bing) Ads.
Once a visitor lands on your website, we track what they and whether they perform any action that is valuable to your business (=conversion) such as a purchase, lead form submission or newsletter signup.
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Ready to get started? Get in touch to schedule a free intro call!
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