Some companies come to ALINE eager to start running Google Ads, but others are skeptical about the benefits. Either way, they want to know how Google Ads can help grow their business. The short answer is that Google Ads (Google’s online advertising platform) provides the opportunity for you to reach essentially anyone who searches online using Google, which is A LOT of people. This means a broad audience for your ads and a lot of potential for your business growth. Whether you’re a small business with a limited budget or a big company with nationwide reach, Google Ads can help you reach the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
Benefits of Google Ads
If you’re hesitant to dip your toe in the waters of online advertising, Google Ads is a great place to start. There are a lot of benefits, and they apply to any business using the platform. Here are just a few.
Extensive Audience Reach
In 2020, Google captured over 92% of the search engine market share worldwide and 88% in the U.S. There’s no question: if you want to reach a large digital audience, Google is the place to do it.
Strategic Targeting
Google Ads offers multiple ways to target your ads, meaning you can show your ads to people who are interested in a product/service like yours or who match the criteria of your typical customer. You can go big or stay small with your audience size depending on your goals and budget.
- Location targeting allows you to define the geographic location where you want to show your ads. If you are promoting a local business, you can target your ads to just your city or even specific zip codes.
- With Search Ads, you can capture customer intent by showing your ads to people who are already interested in what you have to offer. You compile a strategic list of words or phrases relevant to your product/service (we call these keywords), and your ads will show on search results pages when someone searches for one of those keywords. When someone sees your Search ad, you know they are interested in what you have to offer because they’re already searching for it!
- With Display Ads, you can show your ads to a specific audience by targeting demographics, interests, and devices. There are a lot of options for creating custom audiences, and you can reach people who are already in the market for your product/service or you can grow brand awareness among people who match your typical customers.
Manage your campaigns
Google Ads makes it easy to change, pause, or create new campaigns whenever you need to. In your Google account you can:
- Edit ad text or images and make changes to your campaign settings instantly.
- Customize your ad message based on your target audience.
- Scale your campaigns to your specific budget and needs.
- Monitor multiple campaigns in one place and provide access to multiple users.
Control your ad spend
At the top of everyone’s mind is money - how much is a Google Ads campaign going to cost? There’s no minimum ad spend so you can technically run an ad campaign on any budget (although your budget can impact your campaign’s performance). You have the flexibility to increase or decrease your budget at any time, and you can pause your campaign instantly if needed. There are also tools within the Google Ads platform, like Performance Planner, that can help you optimize your budget for your goals.
Measure campaign performance
If you’re going to invest in online advertising, you’ll want to measure the success of your campaigns. Google Ads tracks how many times your ad is shown (impressions), how often someone clicks on your ad, and if the ad led to a valuable action on your website. In the Google Ads platform you can:
- Analyze valuable data about your ad performance.
- Gain insights about customer behavior and adjust your campaign accordingly.
- Review Google’s recommendations for improving your ad performance.
- Use Google tools like Performance Planner and Keyword Planner to optimize and plan for future campaigns.
Are Google Ads Right for My Business?
Even if you’re sold on the benefits of Google Ads, you might be wondering how an ad campaign would translate to greater growth for your business. First, you need to consider your marketing goals. Are you trying to increase product sales on your website, promote foot traffic to your store, encourage website visitors to request a quote, or spread the word about your new business hours? Google Ads can help, but you’ll need a clear vision of your business goals to make sure you take advantage of the right ad formats and features.
Need a marketing plan? Learn how to make one.
When you align campaign objectives with your business goals, Google Ads can help you achieve these kinds of results:
- New website visitors
- Online product sales
- Calls to your business
- Contact form fills
- Newsletter signups
- Foot traffic to your store
By narrowing your target audience to people who are interested in your products/services or who fit the description of your typical customer, you improve your chances for success. Additionally, since you only pay when someone interacts with your ad, you can control your budget to ensure you’re getting the ROI you need to grow your business effectively.
By bringing all of these components together - clear marketing objectives, defined target audience, controlled spending - your Google Ads campaign can promote your products and services in a cost-effective way. A successful campaign can help grow your business by putting your products or services in front of potential customers and encouraging them to take valuable actions.
For example, ALINE developed a Google Ads campaign that helped accelerate growth for a new rooftop bar in NYC. The ad campaign helped the client achieve their marketing goals by boosting online reservations and generating event sign-ups for their New Year’s Eve event.
Read the full case study to learn more.
If you’re still not sure Google Ads are right for your business, then please reach out! We’d love to answer your questions and discuss your marketing goals to determine if Google Ads are right for you.
