Market competition has never been higher, and staying afloat among the fierce competition of business online can be tough for small businesses. As such, it’s important for small business owners to use resources wisely, making the most out of paid ads and your digital marketing budget.

As a small business owner, you might wonder if Google Ads is worth including in your marketing budget. Google Ads is a powerful tool for businesses, and it’s difficult to dispute its value. With 90% of all desktop searches happening on Google and 90% of consumers admitting advertising influences their purchases, it’s easy to understand why investing in a Google Ads campaign can be beneficial. The more people who know about your products or services, the more people will buy them and the more profit you’ll make.

What Is Google Ads?

Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google where advertisers pay to display brief advertisements. You can also use it for product listings, service offerings, video content and generating mobile application installs. It all happens within the Google ad network and is visible to Google web users.

Google Ads aims to create relevant and targeted ads for the potential customers most likely to be interested in your products. Advertisers pay when their ad is clicked by an internet user — this is known as “pay-per-click” or PPC advertising.

The platform includes features and tools advertisers can use to create effective campaigns like text ads, image ads, video ads, shopping ads, lead-generation ads and app promotion ads. Besides the various types of ads, there are also several auction formats for auctioning ad space on Google Search and sites within the Google Display Network.

Google Ads is an effective way for businesses to reach their target audiences with relevant and targeted ads. It can help businesses increase reach, driving traffic to websites or online stores and generating sales leads. Google Ads is a complex platform with many features and options. So, it’s important to seek professional help if you’re unsure how to set up or optimize your campaigns.

Can Google Ads Help Small Businesses?

Google Ads can help all types of businesses to scale and reach sales goals. As long as your campaigns are organized methodically and targeted toward your main customer base, you’re likely to see positive results. You can target your ads to specific demographics and interests, and small businesses can set a budget for how much they’re willing to spend on each ad campaign. If your ads aren’t carefully targeted, you risk wasting money on ads no one will see or click on.

For this reason, using data analytics, doing competitor research and understanding your target demographic are influential keys to Google Ads campaign success. Let’s explore some of the key features of setting up a successful campaign in more detail.

Banner image of a PPC campaign under way for an SMB

Setting up Google Ads Campaigns

Not all Google Ad campaigns are created equal — some perform better than others. What’s important is understanding the factors that lead to success and how you can leverage them in your small business campaign. As a small business, getting it right from the beginning is even more critical for you. Your budget isn’t as large, so you have less freedom to make experimental mistakes. Here’s an overview of a few crucial aspects of a solid campaign.

Keyword Research

Every successful advertising campaign starts with good search engine optimization (SEO) keyword research. Keywords are terms or phrases in search engine results that people use for searching online. By understanding which keywords customers use, businesses ensure their ads reach more people. Effective target keywords help businesses avoid wasting money targeting the wrong audience.

For example, if a business sells women’s clothing, there’s no point in targeting the keyword “men’s shirts.” By conducting thorough keyword research, you’re focused on the right keywords, resulting in more leads and sales.

Consider Hiring a Professional In Google Adwords

If you don’t know how to conduct keyword research to a competitive standard and avoid negative keywords, you can waste a lot of time, especially if you’re also running other aspects of your business.

Choosing keywords that maximize ROI and your chance of turning up in search results is complex. It might be worth hiring a professional or freelance SEO specialist to help with the initial stages of your campaign.

Sean Bolton

Marketing Consultant Expert

Reach Out for a FREE Google Ads Review

Competitor Research

Competitor research is an important part of planning a Google Ads campaign. By understanding your competitors, you can develop strategies to gain a competitive advantage. There are many ways to collect information about your competitors. These include doing online research, surveys and having focus groups.

Once you have the information, use it to develop a Google Ads campaign tailored to your target audience. This gives you the best chance of success. Competitor research helps you understand the competitive landscape. It allows you to develop campaigns that put your small business at a competitive advantage.

Using Google Analytics

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to ignore the benefits of using data to tailor marketing campaigns. The word “data” is thrown around a lot, often by people who don’t truly understand it. In the most basic sense, a piece of data is a piece of information — data can be a collection of information. With the right tools and understanding, you can use data to understand who your audience is and what they want to see more of. This helps you learn about market gaps, putting you in a position to fill them.

Landing Page Development

Landing pages are a crucial part of an advertising campaign. They provide potential customers with a concise and effective way to learn about a product or service. When designed well, landing pages can help to increase conversion rates by highlighting the key features and benefits of an offer. For small businesses, this can be especially important, as it can help level the playing field against larger competitors.

Additionally, landing pages can collect customer data, such as contact information and demographics. This data can be invaluable for understanding the needs and interests of potential customers and tailoring future marketing efforts. Landing pages are an essential tool for any business seeking success in today’s competitive environment.

CRO Implementation

CRO, or conversion rate optimization, is the process of making changes to your website with the goal of improving conversion rates. This can involve anything from changing the color of a call-to-action button to redesigning your checkout page.

The reason CRO is so important for a Google Ads campaign is that it can help you get more value out of your ad spend. Even small improvements in conversion rates have a big impact on your bottom line. And CRO is one of the most effective ways to achieve those kinds of results. CRO is also a relatively low-risk investment, since you’re not likely to lose any money if your changes don’t work out as planned.

CRO is an essential element of any successful Google Ads campaign. By taking the time to implement relevant changes, you improve conversion rates and get more value for your advertising budget.

Will Google Ads Work for Your SMB? An image with the Google ads logo, a calendar for an ads campaign and a virtual piggy bank for ad spend

Get More Customers With Google Ads

Small businesses might wonder, “Is Google Ads worth it?” The short answer is yes. If you spend on Google Ads, you don’t need to rely on expert keyword specialists to come up with terms that achieve Google search results.

You’ll also get paid when someone clicks on your PPC ads, creating an income funnel. PPC campaigns are an attractive marketing tactic for small business owners looking to grow and find new customers.

By creating professional-looking landing pages, creating a Google Ads account to rank on its search engine results page and using the same keyword strategy as your competition on Google, you can turn a small budget into big profit. Using Google Ads can help generate more sales, attract local business and mitigate keyword costs.

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