Is your company utilizing Google’s online advertising platform, Google Ads, to reach its business goals? If not, you’re allowing a golden opportunity to pass it by. According to a 2023 report, about 80% of businesses use Google Ads globally to experience increased sales and earn a return on investment (ROI) of about $8 for every $1 they spend. So, how can Google Ads help you advance your business goals? Keep reading to find out.
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is the most popular pay-per-click, or PPC, digital marketing platform. Companies use the platform to advertise their products and services on Google-owned properties, such as:
- Google.com
- YouTube
- Gmail
- Google’s partner websites
Google Ads provides companies with the chance to earn prominent placements and use enhanced assets and targeting to make the most of Google’s dedicated ad delivery network. This is what separates Google Ads from other digital marketing platforms, like Facebook Ads and Microsoft Ads, that don’t offer the reach Google does.
How does Google Ads work?
Google Ads don’t operate like traditional online advertising platforms. You won’t just buy ad space on different websites and see ads for your company appear. Instead, Google Ads utilizes an innovative auction process to increase the chances of your company’s target audience seeing your ads. It works like this:
- People conduct Google searches or visit websites that are part of the Google Display Network.
- A Google Ads auction begins running in the background.
- You and other companies bid on ad spaces available through Google Ads.
- The winner of an auction receives ad space.
- This process repeats during each of the roughly 8.5 billion Google searches that occur daily.
However, simply winning a Google Ads auction won’t secure a prime advertising position for your company. Google takes things a step further by assessing other factors before deciding where to place ads. These factors include:
- Relevance
- Quality
- Ad Rank
Google emphasizes relevancy above all else to ensure your ads only appear following relevant searches on its various properties.
What are the advantages of using Google Ads over other online advertising platforms?
The biggest benefit of using Google Ads over other online advertising platforms is that Google.com is the most-visited website in the world. Over 130 billion people visit it monthly. Google is also the most often-used search engine worldwide, with a market share of just over 91%. Other options like Bing (about 3.5%) and Yahoo (about 1.1%) fail to capture anywhere close to the amount of attention Google does. No matter what business you’re in, there’s a good chance many of your potential customers utilize Google regularly. A successful Google Ads campaign can help you connect with them through entirely new channels and platforms you can’t reach organically.
Top ways Google Ads can help your business grow
Google Ads is the largest and most lucrative online ad platform, which is fantastic news for Google. But how can Google Ads help you advance your business goals? Let’s look at several ways it can promote business growth.
Acquiring new customers
A 2024 study discovered many American businesses are currently struggling to market to new customers. Some reasons for this are:
- Low confidence in the latest digital marketing techniques
- Limited time for developing online marketing campaigns
- Lack of knowledge about new marketing tactics
Google has a proven system with Google Ads that dishes out 30 million ads per day. It’ll get your company’s products and services in front of the right people.
Furthermore, Google Ads doesn’t just display ads. The platform also provides you with the power to actively engage in audience targeting to ensure your ads reach those most likely interested in them. Additionally, it collects important business data highlighting how people interact with your ads to make targeting them towards your preferred audience even more effective moving forward.
Reducing marketing expenses
Depending on the industry, the average American company devotes anywhere from 1.5% to over 25% of its yearly budget to marketing. If your company is in a highly competitive industry, Google Ads could actually help reduce marketing expenses.
Although Google Ads might sound expensive, you won’t pay anything unless people click on your ads. With a properly structured Google Ads campaign, you can make your advertising efforts more cost-effective overall by preventing unwanted searchers from even seeing your ads in the first place, ensuring that they never cost you any money.
Google Ads also enables you to take control of how much you spend on ads by:
- Creating daily and monthly budgets
- Divvying up budgets across multiple campaigns
- Allowing you to increase or decrease bids by day and by hour
Improving company profitability
A successful Google Ads campaign can make your marketing costs more manageable in many cases and automatically increase your company’s profits. But this is far from the only way Google ads can potentially make your business more profitable.
Here are other ways it may positively impact profitability:
- Leads to higher website traffic numbers and more opportunities to sell products and services
- Targets people most likely to buy products and services
- Provides invaluable data on customers to improve future campaigns
Engaging new and existing customers
Google Ads comes with built-in tracking and remarketing functionality. It can monitor the behaviors of those who:
- Place orders with your company
- Add your company’s products and services to shopping carts and abandon them
- Browse through pages on your company’s website
Equipped with this vital information, you can create more compelling ad content tailored to remarketing products and services to certain consumers.
Can Google Ads help my business if I already invest in SEO?
Over 60% of American companies invest in SEO. If your business is one, you might not see the sense in asking, “How can Google Ads help you advance your business goals?” But before writing off the idea of paid ads, know that investing in SEO isn’t always enough. Even if you push your company’s website to the top of the first search engine results page (SERP), your organic results will still appear beneath competitors taking advantage of Google Ads.
A SERP might look like this:
- Google Ads at the top
- Several organic listings
- A map pack
- A “People Also Ask” section
- More listings
It’s easy for your company’s website to get lost in the shuffle when you aren’t using Google Ads in conjunction with SEO.
How can Google Ads help build brand awareness for my company?
If building brand awareness is one of your company’s business goals, launching a Google Ads campaign may assist you in this department. So, how can Google Ads help you advance your business goals from a brand awareness perspective?
Well-executed Display and Video campaigns are both great examples, as they can give people a proper introduction to your company. When someone searches on Google.com or another Google-owned property for keywords related to your products and services, Google Ads can serve ads that help familiarize people with your company. They may decide to invest in your products and services at that point even though they weren’t actively searching for them.
When won’t Google Ads be right for my business?
There is only one instance where Google Ads won’t work well for your business: when you haven’t created a website yet. About one-fourth of American companies find themselves in this predicament. Your company’s lack of a digital presence will make Google Ads ineffective.
In this case, begin by creating a website, including developing a landing page for a Google Ads campaign. Connective can lend a hand with our custom web design services.
Let Google Ads take your business to the next level
The best way to answer the question, “How can Google Ads help you advance your business goals?”, is by putting Google Ads to the test and seeing how it works for yourself. More than 1 million American businesses have reaped the rewards associated with Google Ads already, and your business could be next.
Get assistance with Google Ads now!
FAQs
Are you still unsure whether a Google Ads campaign is right for your business? Below are answers to other questions you may have.
Can I automate my Google Ads campaigns?
You can automate your Google Ads campaigns, but we would advise against it, at least initially. A successful automated Google Ads campaign will depend on the strength of your website‘s back end. To function properly, Google Ads must access certain data points, such as user actions, conversion values, and customer lists, so manage Google Ads campaigns manually until you’re sure your site can support automation.
Can I advertise on Google for free?
You can advertise on Google for free if you run a 501(c)(3) organization and qualify for Google Ad Grants. It can provide up to $10,000 in free advertising monthly. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay to advertise on Google.
What are the different types of Google Ads?
Many different types of Google Ads are available to businesses, including Search Ads, Display Ads, Video Ads, and Performance Max Ads. Google also recently added Smart Shopping and Demand Gen options. Each type will deliver a different answer to the question, “How can Google Ads help you advance your business goals?”.