How to Advertise your Small Business on Google

How Does Advertising on Google Work?

Google Ads work like an auction but a unique one where it is not only your bid that counts. The auction will also take into account the relevance and quality of your ad campaigns. This essentially means that the playing field is equal and level for all, as it does not favor the advertisers with the highest amount of budget.

The Google Ads auction revolves primarily around keywords. Advertisers will actively look for keywords that are most relevant to their brand and that users are most likely to search for when trying to find something. After which, they will bid on their chosen keywords, stating the amount they are willing to pay every time a user clicks on the ad.

This ad auction takes place when a searcher inputs a keyword, which means that each search for a keyword that an advertiser bids on represents a chance for the ads to be displayed to potential new customers. Since all the prospects are actively searching for the products or services you are offering, your ads will be appearing at the right time. This is essentially what makes Google advertising so powerful, and definitely one of the most strategic ways to grow and expand your brand.

How to Advertise on Google?

Here is a simplified process to Google advertising:

1. Set your ad campaign goals
2. Establish your target audience
3. Research on keywords
4. Determine budget and bids
5. Design relevant and unique ads
6. Create high-performing landing pages
7. Conduct search engine optimization

Leveraging the Features of Google Advertising

Google has introduced many new features, such as:

1. Promotion extensions

With Google Ads promotion extensions, advertisers are able to update the promotions added to text ads. You can keep the sales and promos of your brand up to date without needing to change the copy of your ad. Not only can your headlines and description be used to increase ad relevance, but you will also be able to maintain the CTA of your headline. For instance, you will have enough space to say both ‘Buy now’ and ‘Get 30% off this holiday season’ instead of having to choose one over the other.

Whether you are sharing a site-wide offer or discount code, you will definitely be seeing an increase in the click-through rate with these ad extensions.

2. AdWords new interface

The new user interface allows you to bid on call extensions, specify your targeting by income, make use of extensions to promote offers, and review performance of landing pages. More control and useful data are being provided in this new interface – it offers advanced insights, campaign snapshots, and superior analytic reporting.

3. Message extensions

Message extensions are very unique and provide an opportunity for your prospect to contact you directly on the search engine results pages instead of going through your landing page. Message extensions are incredibly convenient, and there is no doubt convenience sells.

Typically, a user could click through a standard text ad but may not interact with the brand. With a message extension, even if the lead is not converted, you would have had an opportunity to connect with them and understand their pain points. These are priceless information.

4. Call only ads

Call only ads are the ones running on phone enabled devices. They are designed to be optimized for phone call clicks and will direct users straight to the auto dial page on a touch screen. There will only be a URL and number description, without any headline. You may be surprised to find out how a simple call-to-action can be so effective.

With Google Ads, there is more than enough data available to manage and run a successful ad campaign using only call only ads. You will have access to the following information:

• Number of users who clicked through but did not initiate a call
• Number of calls made
• Length of every call
• The ad and keyword that contributed to the call

5. Ad variations

The new Google advertising experience now makes it easy to conduct split testing with various variations of ads. You will be able to test and make amendments at scale, in a shorter amount of time. The ad variants interface will also allow you to:

• Search and replace specific key words in the ads
• Invert headlines
• Update text and copy of the ads

Google Advertising for Small Businesses

Google has built Smart campaigns for small business owners by tailoring the technology involved. With this new ad experience, small businesses are now able to design high-performing ads in a short amount of time. Whether you are hoping to increase traffic to your website, find more leads, or boost sales, advertising on Google will help you achieve the results you desire.

As Google makes use of a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model, you will only need to pay if a user has searched for a keyword you have bid on and clicks on your ad. There is a function for you to set a daily budget and determine the maximum amount you are willing to spend for a click on your ad.

For small business owners who are looking to stretch your marketing budget on Google ads, do check out the Aspire Corporate Card. It offers attractive cashbacks on all digital marketing and Software-as-a-Service spend and includes advanced smart features that will help your business save both time and money. Check out the list of qualified merchants here.  

Thinking about advertising on Youtube? Read this article to learn more.