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Google Ads Campaign Tips For Small Businesses

Google Ads Campaign Tips For Small Businesses

Google Ads can be a great way to reach new customers and grow your business. But before you create your first campaign, there are a few things you should know.

In this article, we’ll share some Google Ads campaign tips for small businesses. First, let’s briefly discuss what Google Ads is and how it works. Then, we’ll give you some tips on creating a successful Google Ads campaign. Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!

What Is Google Ads And How Does It Work?

Google Ads is a form of online advertising that allows businesses to place ads on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). When someone searches for a keyword that you’re targeting, your ad may appear in the top spot on the SERP. Google Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform, which means you’ll pay Google every time someone clicks on your ad.

Now that you have a basic understanding of Google Ads, let’s move on to our Google Ads campaign tips.

1. Define Your Goals

Before you create your Google Ads campaign, it’s important to define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your campaign? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Once you know your goals, you can create a campaign that’s designed to achieve them.

Do you have analytics set-up so that you can track the progress towards your goals? For most campaigns, that is simply a matter of dropping Google’s tracking pixel on your thank you page.

Once you know your goals and have set up tracking, you can create a campaign that’s designed to achieve them.

2. Choose The Right Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is crucial for any Google Ads campaign. You’ll want to choose keywords that are relevant to your business and that potential customers are likely to search for. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to research keywords and get ideas for new keywords to target.

Google allows four types of keywords. What they call Broad Match, Phrase Match, Exact Match and Negative Match.

Broad Match: Example is Running Shoes. Your ad will appear for any search related to your keyword. Which in this example could mean your ad shows for searches like Tennis shoes for men or running socks.

Phase Match: “Running Shoes”. Your ad will appear for searches that include the meaning of your phrase. For example, Men’s running shoes and best shoes for running.

Exact Match: [Running Shoes]. Your ad will appear for searches that have the same meaning as your keyword. For example, Running Shoes or Sneakers.

3. Create Compelling Ad Copy

Once you’ve chosen your keywords, it’s time to create your ad copy. Your ad should be clear, concise, and persuasive. Include a call-to-action (CTA) that encourages people to click on your ad.

Headline: People are most likely to notice your headline text, so consider including words that people may have entered in their Google search. Your text ad consists of three headlines where you can enter up to 30 characters each to promote your product or service. The headlines are separated by a vertical pipe (‘|’) and may show differently based on the device that someone is using when they view your ad.

Description: Use the description fields to highlight details about your product or service. It’s a good idea to include a ‘call to action’ – the action that you want your customer to take. If you’re an online shoe shop, your description might include ‘Shop now’ or ‘Buy shoes now’. If you offer a service, you might want to add something like ‘Get an instant quote online’ or ‘See pricing’

Display URL: The display URL, usually in green, shows your website address. This display URL is made up of the domain from your final URL and the text in the optional ‘Path’ fields. These fields are designed to help people who see your ad get a better sense of where they’ll be taken when they click it. Your path text doesn’t have to match the exact language of your display URL.

4. Bid Strategically

Bidding on keywords is one of the most important aspects of any Google Ads campaign. You’ll want to bid enough to get your ad in a good position on the SERP, but not so much that you’re overspending. Google’s automatic bidding option can be a helpful tool for small businesses that are new to Google Ads.

Three ways to help make your bidding strategy more effective are:

Ad Relevance: Include the keyword in your headline and description as Google also bolds the query that was searched, which attracts eyeballs and clicks.

Quality Score: Every keyword in your Google Ads account is assigned a Quality Score. A Quality Score of 8–10 is considered very good. If you are creating new campaigns and groups, know that you need to reach a certain threshold of impressions and clicks to have a Quality Score. Make sure that the keywords that you are targeting, and the ad copy you are using, are relevant to your audience.

Click-through-rate: A high click-through rate will bring up your Quality Score, which is why writing good ads is so important as it allows you to spend less money than your competitors.

5. Track Your Results

Once your Google Ads campaign is up and running, it’s important to track your results. Google Analytics is a free tool that can be used to track the performance of your Google Ads campaign. By tracking your results, you can see what’s working and what isn’t, and make necessary changes to improve your results.

By following these Google Ads campaign tips, you can set up a successful campaign and achieve your business goals. Google Ads can be a great way to reach new customers and grow your business. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!

If you’re looking for help with your Google Ads campaign, contact Braveheart Digital Marketing. We’re a PPC agency in Manchester, NH that can help you create a successful campaign and achieve your business goals. Get in touch today to learn more!

How To Select A Programmatic Advertising Agency

One of the follow-up questions we got from our recent post on programmatic advertising was how do I pick a programmatic advertising agency? There are a lot of lot of companies out there in the programmatic space. How can I make sure that I am picking the right one?

To answer that question I turned back to programmatic expert Tom Burke from Centro. This is what he had to say.

When picking the right programmatic advertising agency for your business, here are two things to consider.

The first consideration are tactical, day-to-day media-based questions. These are a bunch of boxes you should check around inventory sources and supply-side, what exchanges are they integrated in, how many PNP deals they have, what type of data they have, etc.

11 Questions To Ask A Programmatic Advertising Agency

What do you classify yourself as? A trading desk? A DSP? Something else?
What DSP do you use? is it different based on inventory type (desktop, mobile, video)? Is it your own or a 3rd party?
If you are a DSP, do you have a self-serve interface and if not, do you have any plans to put one in place?
Do you have your own direct PMP deals or do you trade on the open exchanges?
What split of retargeting vs prospecting are you proposing and can this be monitored ongoing?
What are your fees and how are they calculated?
What buy models do you support? CPM, CPC, CPA?
What post view and post-click conversion window will you apply to my activity?
Is there anything automated in your bid optimization process or is it managed by people?
What third party data providers do you typically use?
What level of transparency do you provide on reporting? Can I get a domain list including impressions served?

While you need to check these boxes, realistically the majority of the day-to-day work has become so commoditized at this point, that it would be a red flag if someone could not answer clearly any of these questions.

The second consideration is how does programmatic advertising fit into your business? This is the question that I’d recommend, almost every agency – especially in the mid-tier – focus on answering.

The two questions I ask agency partners about choosing a programmatic advertising agency are:

The IAB released a study in May 2018 indicating that 18% of programmatic advertisers have completely brought programmatic media buying in house, while an additional 47% have at least partially done so.

If you are thinking about bringing your programmatic services in-house, here are four things to consider:

What’s does “in house” mean to you?

A closer look at the IAB data indicates that few advertisers are aligned on what “fully in house” means.

For instance, some brands viewed taking their entire programmatic process in house as working directly with a DSP instead of using a creative agency to help execute buying. To others, it meant having their agency of record provide them with a programmatic strategy while their in-house team performed the media buys.

You Will Need an In-House Team

The number of people you’ll need to develop and execute your programmatic media depends on how much of the process you’re bringing in house. Some brands have brought in programmatic department heads, but continue to have an agency of record with whom their experts work to develop the programmatic strategy to execute buys. Others have essentially modelled the structure of a trading desk to manage strategy and execution. Any one of these structures can work, but all require that you staff up a team of programmatic experts.

In-House Programmatic Advertising Is About Data Management

Programmatic media buying requires tons of data—collecting, aggregating, layering, and swiftly drawing actionable insights from it. Depending on your strategy for taking programmatic in house, you may need to take some or full responsibility for managing your data, which would require an experienced (and expensive) data science team.

A Long-Term Programmatic Strategy Is a Must

As with everything in digital media, programmatic advertising buying will not remain stagnant. Technology, key players, channels, and formats will continue to change and evolve. Many companies have built their entire business model on this evolution. Therefore, your strategy needs to account for, and proactively address, the constant changes in the industry.

That means hiring exceptional talent that fully understands the landscape, and can act autonomously to address innovation. It also means providing employees with ongoing opportunities to continue their industry education.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

This is a question that we get when we are reviewing paid media plans with clients. What is programmatic advertising? It’s a great question and I turned to paid media expert Tom Burke to answer that question. This is what he had to say.

Programmatic advertising is the use of automated technology for media buying (the process of buying advertising space), as opposed to traditional (often manual) methods of digital advertising. Programmatic media buying utilizes data insights and algorithms to serve ads to the right user at the right time, and at the right price.

In other words, as Tom points out, programmatic advertising is simply another way to buy advertising or media.

How is buying programmatic advertising different from traditional ad buying?

With traditional or direct ad buying you purchase advertising space on a website or in a traditional publication directly from the publisher.

You negotiate the price, pick the placing and the date the ad will run, and for how long the ad will be shown to the publisher’s readers. It involves people talking with people, and the process can take time, as ad copy is sent back and forth for approval. Results are calculated manually and provided to the buyer when they become available. Ads are optimized manually based on the data.

The most common example of traditional ad buying is buying ad space on a site like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or Boston.com. Everyone who visits these websites will see your ad, regardless of whether they could be interested in your product/service or not.

Purchasing programmatic advertising, on the other hand, is very similar to Facebook or Google where the ads are bought and sold through an automated process through a dashboard. Real-time optimization occurs and KPI data are available as it comes in. There is no need to interact with any salespeople at the publishers.

Unlike in the first example, your ad is only shown to the website visitor who matches the behavioral or demographic characteristics of your ideal customer, increasing the likelihood that they will click on your ad.

Programmatic advertising misconceptions

One of the common misconceptions about programmatic advertising is that the quality of the ad inventory is not top tier quality.

That is completely incorrect because today you can buy almost any type of ad programmatically. In the last twelve months, companies we have worked with, have bought TV advertising on Hulu programmatically. They have bought streaming audio on both Pandora and Spotify programmatically. And they have bought ads on major websites like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.com all programmatically.

When you can target your ad buy so that your ad is only shown to someone who matches your ideal customer profile, why would you not be using programmatic advertising?

Want More Live Conversions From Your Google Ads?

Years ago I was talking with a client about a new campaign we were launching. I asked him how he would measure success. He pointed to the telephone and said “that will ring more often!”

Fast forward to today, business owners still want their marketing efforts to make the phone ring. Nearly half of all marketers say that driving phone calls from paid search ads is their top priority. Today Google Ads allows us to build “connect to call” features right into your ads. These ads are perfect to make it easier for potential customers to reach you. Would you like to get started? Let’s Start Strong together! Start Strong is our new Economic Recovery program to maximize and optimize your marketing efforts.

What is Google Connect To Call?

Google’s Connect To Call feature (also called Google Ads Call Tracking) allows you to track the number of prospective customers called your business after seeing or clicking one of your paid ads. Paid ads include Google search ads, Google call only ads and Google My Business listings.

Why implement Google Ads Call Tracking in your ads?

Did you know that 43% of all search-related conversions happen over the phone? And that 65% of businesses find their most valuable customers are calling them because they are ready to do business?

People actively searching for your products and services are doing their research. When they are ready to buy, they are ready to talk. You can make it easier to start the conversation using Google Ads Call Tracking features.

What are the benefits of Google Ads Call Tracking?

In addition to providing you with a reliable, accurate and quantifiable way to track the effectiveness of offline conversions and phone conversations, Call Tracking also gives you actionable insights and comprehensive reporting on the true return of PPC investment – leads.

Google Ads Call Tracking allows us to:

Set up the minimum length of call before it becomes a conversion. This allows us to filter out non-buyers meaning we can focus on reaching the people most interested in your product or service
See which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns are best at driving the most valuable phone calls to your business.
Understand your return on investment (ROI) and make better informed decisions about your ad spend.
Use automated bid strategies (such as target CPA) that automatically optimize your campaigns according to your business goals.

Types of phone call conversions you can track

There are three types of phone call conversions you can track via Google Ads:

1. Calls from ads: Track calls made directly from call-only ads or call and location extensions used in your ads. You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.
2. Calls to a phone number on your website: Track calls made when someone clicks on your ad, then calls the forwarding number we display on your website. You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.
3. Clicks on a number on your mobile website: Track calls made when someone clicks on your ad, then clicks on a phone number, button, or link on the mobile version of your website. In this case, we can only track these clicks, not the phone calls themselves.

What’s possible for your business if the phones ring more often now? Would you like to get started? Let’s Start Strong together! Start Strong is our new Economic Recovery program to maximize and optimize your marketing efforts. Let’s have a conversation!

Not sure if you are ready to advertise yet? Then check out our post on 4 Reasons Why You Should Be Advertising Right Now.

The BEST Way To Generate Leads In 90% Of Industries

A new report from Bizible analyzed more than 480,000 leads through its Salesforce marketing analytics platform and the data showed that Search does a better job of generating leads than any other marketing channel.

A Hubspot report last season showed that SEO provides the best ROI of any inbound marketing channel, and the Bizible study reinforced that data. There is a subtle difference between the two reports as the Hubspot report was able to track both SEO and PPC separately. In the Bizible study they combined both organic and PPC under the single search umbrella.

The Bizible data showed that when looking at first touch, Search drove 56% of leads generated. When looking just at last touch, Search accounted for 41% of the leads generated.

Not a surprise then that the combination of Search first touch and Search last touch was the most productive channel for lead generation, accounting for 37% of all leads from first/last touch combinations.

For those marketers who believe that search will not work in their market, Bizible refuted that. The data showed that Search was the leading channel for 9 out of 10 of the industries measured for generating leads by first touch. The software/SaaS sector was the only sector in which search did not drive the majority of first touch leads.

Don’t Overlook Social In Lead Generation Process

Social is a market that has really matured into a valuable inbound marketing channel in the last year of so. When Bizible looked at the percentage of closed deals that were won by first touch in each channel, social impressively came in third with a 30% win rate, despite driving just 5% of leads. Social impact on lead generation is a not widespread yet because the social leads were concentrated among two industries; Education and Finance.

Note that Direct and Search had the two highest closed rates at 56% and 40% respectively with Display having the worst at only 12%.

Social shortens the length of the marketing cycle. When Social was the first touch, the marketing cycle was 30% shorter than average.

Takeaways

Search is the most popular first touch channel for lead generation accounting for 56% of all leads acquired. Search, especially organic SEO, has to be a part of your company’s inbound marketing strategy. Whether your market is B2B or B2C, Search generates more leads, more cost-effectively. The Bizible report shows that the last touch severely undervalues the top of the marketing funnel and does not account for the buyer’s decision journey. Companies need an inbound marketing analytics program that allows for Multitouch attribution. You can’t ignore Social in B2B marketing; it has a 30% shorter marketing cycle than the average inbound channel. Social is not just for posting statuses anymore. It is also a valuable lead generation channel. The full paper “Multi-touch Attribution for Companies with Sales Teams” is available for download here.

SEO Provides The Best ROI Of Any Inbound Marketing Channel

I built my first web site in 1996. In those days I just needed to update a meta keyword tag in order to have a site rank highly in the search engines. Today’s search engine algorithms are very sophisticated and you’ve got to have deep knowledge and well-honed skills to win at SEO. SEO is still the most productive and economical way to generate qualified leads and customers. It’s also the one that Marketers say is the hardest to execute. As a result, more and more companies are letting their marketing budgets get eaten up by PPC and switching their attention away from SEO to the latest shiny toys like Instagram. SnapChat or TikTok. Despite the appeal of all these new social channels, one thing remains consistent: SEO ROI provides the best return of any inbound marketing channel.

SEO on average is 12% of a typical marketing budget, but generates 14% of leads. PPC, on the other hand, is generating only 6% of leads, despite having 8% of the marketing budget. If you are spending more of your marketing budget on PPC than SEO then your lead generation program is likely upside down.

It’s not just the number of leads generated from SEO that makes it such an important inbound tactic it is the QUALITY of those leads.

In the same study, Hubspot asked marketers for the average percentage of leads converted to sales by marketing channel. SEO leads inbound marketing conversion rates, netting 15% above the average conversion rates.

SEO continues to deliver the best ROI of any inbound marketing channel. It’s worth more attention from marketers. Don’t let the idea that SEO is hard keep you from winning the online game. The right resources will make it easy for you. Has your organic search traffic has fallen over the last couple of years? If it has then a technical site audit will uncover why the search engines are not ranking you as highly as they used to. Contact us today and learn how you can increase the ROI of your SEO campaigns.

Google Ads Campaign Tips For Small Businesses

What Is Google Ads And How Does It Work?

1. Define Your Goals

2. Choose The Right Keywords

3. Create Compelling Ad Copy

4. Bid Strategically

5. Track Your Results

Recent Posts

How To Select A Programmatic Advertising Agency

11 Questions To Ask A Programmatic Advertising Agency

What’s does “in house” mean to you?

You Will Need an In-House Team

In-House Programmatic Advertising Is About Data Management

A Long-Term Programmatic Strategy Is a Must

Recent Posts

What is Programmatic Advertising?

How is buying programmatic advertising different from traditional ad buying?

Programmatic advertising misconceptions

Recent Posts

Want More Live Conversions From Your Google Ads?

What is Google Connect To Call?

Why implement Google Ads Call Tracking in your ads?

What are the benefits of Google Ads Call Tracking?

Types of phone call conversions you can track

Recent Posts

The BEST Way To Generate Leads In 90% Of Industries

Don’t Overlook Social In Lead Generation Process

Takeaways

Recent Posts

SEO Provides The Best ROI Of Any Inbound Marketing Channel

Recent Posts

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