Running an online business can be tough especially when you have huge brands to compete with such as Amazon. Google Ads is a popular advertising platform that is used by businesses to promote their products and services on Google’s search engine and partner websites. Google Ads can be highly competitive as businesses are racing against each other to reach the first page of Google.

First Things First, What Are Google Ads?

Google Ads is Google’s online advertising platform. Google Ads allows businesses to create and manage digital advertisements that appear on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) as well as on various partner websites within the Google Display Network.

Advantages Of Google Ads

When it comes to Google Ads there are plenty of advantages, some of these advantages are:

Reach A Large Audience

As we all know, Google is the most widely used search engine. There are billions of searches performed on Google every single day. By advertising on Google Ads, you can tap into this huge audience and reach potential customers who are actively searching for products or services related to your business.

Highly Targeted Advertising

Google Ads provides extensive targeting options to help you reach the right audience. You can target specific keywords, geographic locations, demographics, and interests, and you can even customise your targeting based on device types or time of day. This precision targeting ensures that your ads are shown to relevant users. 

Measurable and Trackable Results

Google Ads provides comprehensive tracking and measurement tools that allow you to monitor the performance of your ads in real time. You can track important metrics such as impressions, clicks, click-through rates (CTR), conversions, and return on investment (ROI). This data-driven approach enables you to optimise your campaigns, make informed decisions, and improve your advertising strategy over time. 

Various Google Ad Formats and Placements

Google Ads offers a range of ad formats to suit your advertising goals and reach your target audience effectively. You can create text ads, image ads, video ads, responsive ads, and interactive ads. These ads can be displayed on Google’s Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs), partner websites within the Google Display Network, YouTube, and other Google properties, providing you with diverse placement opportunities. 

Remarketing Capabilities

Google Ads allows you to implement remarketing campaigns, which target people who have previously interacted with your website or app. By showing ads to these users as they browse the web, you can increase brand recall, encourage repeat visits, and boost conversions.  Remarketing is a powerful feature for reaching potential customers who have already shown interest in your business.

How To Build A PPC Campaign

Building a PPC campaign involves several steps to ensure that it is successful. Here are the steps that you need to take to build a successful PPC campaign:

Set Boundaries

If you do not set boundaries then you can run the risk of your ad being untargeted and therefore not effective. When you are thinking about creating ad campaigns, you want to put them into the context of your business goals. Think about what you want to accomplish with your ads and how much you are willing to spend.

Set Campaign Goals and Metrics

Clearly define your campaign objectives. What are your campaign goals? Some of your goals may be to increase website traffic, drive sales, and raise brand awareness. Setting specific goals will guide your campaign strategy and allow you to measure success. Your goals and metrics will determine how much you spend. It is important to note that your goal metrics should not be confused with your campaign goals. Below we have outlined some of your potential goals and how you can measure them:

Increase Website Traffic

You can measure this goal by tracking metrics such as impressions, clicks, and CTR. Analysing these metrics will give you insights into how effectively your ads are generating traffic. 

Generate Leads

If you want to collect contact information or generate leads, you can track conversions, specifically form submissions or sign-ups. By setting up conversion tracking and assigning a value to each conversion, you can measure the number of leads generated and calculate the cost-per-lead. 

Drive Sales

Measure metrics like conversion rate, cost per conversion, and return on ad spend (ROAS). This data will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns in driving sales and optimising your ROI. 

Raise Brand Awareness

You can track metrics such as impressions, ad recall, brand search volume, and social engagement. These metrics can give you insights into the reach and visibility of your ads, as well as the impact that they have on the audience’s awareness of your brand. 

Choosing The Right PPC Platform

Select the PPC platform that best aligns with your goals and target audience. Google Ads is the most popular and widely used platform but other options include Microsoft Advertising, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads. Consider factors such as audience reach, targeting options, and budget requirements. 

Choose Your Campaign Type

On Google Ads, there are different campaign types that you can choose from. The campaign that you decide to choose completely depends on where you can reach your audience. However, you can choose multiple campaigns. The different campaigns that you can choose from are:

Search Ads

These ads are the common type of PPC. Search ads are the text ads that we see on SERPs.

Shopping Ads

Shopping ads are the most popular type of ads for e-commerce sites. This is an ad that includes a product name, description, and price on a carousel on a search page based on your keywords. 

Display Ads

Display ads allow you to place ads on external websites, these ads are usually image-based. 

Social Ads

The hint is in the name, but these are ads that you see on social media. You can pay to show up in your target audience’s feed or somewhere within their profile. This depends on the platform.

Perform Keyword Research

Keyword research is important when setting up your ad campaigns as you want to identify the relevant keywords and search terms that your target audience is searching for. Use keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner to discover high-volume keywords with low competition. From here, build a list of keywords to use within your campaign. 

Create Ad Groups

Once you have completed your keyword research, it is now time to group them into your ad groups based on their relevance and common themes. Ad groups allow you to organise your ads and tailor them to specific keywords. This enables you to create more targeted and compelling ad copy. 

Write Compelling Ad Copy

Craft persuasive and relevant ad copy that entices users to click on your ads. Include your targeted keywords in your ad headlines and descriptions to improve relevancy. Create multiple ad variations to test different messaging and CTAs. Ensure that your ads provide a clear value proposition and stand out from competitors. 

Set Campaign Settings

Configure your campaign settings based on your goals and preferences. This includes choosing your campaign type (e.g. search, display, video, etc), setting your daily or monthly budget, selecting your geographic targeting, and determining bidding strategies. Align these settings with your campaign goals and budgetary constraints. 

Designed Optimised Landing Pages

Create landing pages that align with your ad copy and provide a seamless user experience. Optimise your landing pages to increase conversions, such as clear CTAs, removing distractions, and ensuring mobile-friendliness. Make sure that your landing pages are relevant, engaging, and easy to navigate.

Implement Conversion Tracking

Install conversion tracking codes on your website to track and measure the actions users take after clicking on your ads. Set up goals in Google Analytics or use platform-specific conversion tracking tools. This allows you to track and optimise your conversions, such as purchases, form submissions, or sign-ups. 

Monitor, Analyse, and Optimise

Regularly monitor the performance of your campaign and analyse key metrics such as impressions, clicks, CTR, conversion rates, and cost per conversion. Use this data to identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven optimisations. Adjust bids, refine keyword targeting, test different ad variations or experiment with other campaign settings to optimise performance. 

Test and Iterate

Continuously test different elements of your campaign, including ad copy, ad extensions, targeting options, and landing page designs. Implement A/B testing to compare performance and make data-informed decisions. Learn from the results and iterate on your campaigns to improve their effectiveness over time.

Remember to regularly review and optimise your PPC campaigns to maximise their performance. Stay updated with industry trends, best practices, and platform updates to stay ahead of the competition and drive better results. If you are interested in learning more about PPC, digital marketing, SEO and more, then feel free to read the rest of our blog posts on the Lumos website.