A Beginner’s Guide to Google Ads

We all need more traffic, and of course, organic traffic is the holy grail. An intelligent strategy involving content, backlinking, and a lot of elbow grease is sure to pay dividends, but it can take months or even years to get your site to where it can thrive on this source of traffic. Negotiating your way through subtle or significant algorithm changes can be an art form, requiring focus, a solid plan, skill and sometimes luck.

The quickest way to get targeted traffic to your website is through Google Ads. Delivering as much traffic as you want to pay for, you’ll see results in as little as one day. It can be pure magic and a game-changer for your business, but it too requires skill to make the most of a campaign.

On the surface, Google Ads is pretty straightforward. Choose your keywords, hand over your credit card and appear at the top of the page. Sadly, as many find out, it’s not quite that simple. As a Google Ads specialist, I thought I’d put together some information to help others maximize their ad budget and get the most from their efforts. I do this for a living and believe in paying things forward. If anyone here has questions, I’d be happy to answer them or even take a look at your campaign.

Pro Tip 1– Raise Your Quality Score: A higher Quality Score can save you a bundle. By making an effort to raise your Quality Score, you’ll get a better bang for your buck. Based on your budget, your ads will show up more frequently, higher on the page, and you’ll pay less per click. This translates to more exposure, more traffic, and the potential for more leads. This will also help you mitigate PPC price increases, which creep up as much as 20 percent per year.

Pro Tip 2– Test, Test and Test Again: It doesn’t matter how much traffic you have if you can’t convert it. Test the various elements on your website, your landing page in particular. A/B Split Testing will help you figure out what works to discard what doesn’t. Your Google Ads budget will thank you.

Pro Tip 3– Keep Things Aligned: Make sure that your ad sends traffic to a landing page aligned with the ad. After all, surfers clicked on your ad because they thought it would solve their needs. Don’t lose the visitor by not living up to their expectations, and don’t waste your ad budget. That click is like a customer entering a shop. He is in the store, now convert him!

Pro Tip 4– Zeroing In: Sure, you can make your ad visible to a broad audience, but you’ll make better use of your ad budget by tightly targeting it to your intended customer. Pay attention to geography, demographics and online behaviour. This will improve your conversions and give you more value for your money. Your ad for warm and cozy dog sweaters probably doesn’t need to be seen by people living in hot climates.

Pro Tip 5 – Remarketing: The visitor saw something in your ad that got their attention and visited your site. While you didn’t close the sale the first time, that doesn’t mean you’ve lost him forever. A remarketing campaign will help you get that visitor back and convert him.

Managing your Google Ads account can be extremely time-consuming, especially when it’s neither your strength nor focus. Structuring your campaign, keyword research, expanding that list of keywords and improving your Quality Score all take precious hours away from operating your business.

When someone is starting out, it makes sense to handle things yourself. You really should understand every aspect of your business, including its marketing. At a certain point, though, you may be better off handing the reins to someone whose focus is on this, a specialist who understands the nuances and can work with Google’s changes on the fly. After all, you’ve got better things to do, like running your business.

A Google Ads professional may help you save money and give your site’s visitors a better experience. You’ll pay less per click, get more quality traffic and convert better, and who doesn’t want more of that?