Advertising on Google. It is ( if properly implemented ) an interesting and rewarding way to come into the picture with your target group or potential customers. Moreover, advertising on Google has a major advantage over other forms (print, DM, e-mail) of advertising. You only pay when people click on your ad. So honest, right?
Google Ads
With a Google advertisement, you can advertise your company or organization in the Google search engine. You sign up for Google Ads, compile an ad and determine which typed keywords the ad should be displayed with.
Besides, you can then set all kinds of variables, so that you can further optimize the visibility of your advertisement based on results over time.
Consider the maximum amount you want to pay per click, but also keywords that you want to exclude because of disappointing results or because they do not deliver the right traffic.
Advertising in Google Search, Display Network and YouTube
The advertisement can be displayed in various places on the internet. You can choose to only show the advertisement in the Google search engine, but it is also possible to offer your advertisement on the Google Display Network or YouTube.
The Display Network consists of a large collection of websites on which space has been made available to display Google advertisements. That way your advertisement can also be displayed on other relevant third-party websites.
Google Shoppig
Another possibility to advertise on Google is Google Shopping. Google Shopping is a relatively new part of Google that is particularly interesting for web store owners.
Google Shopping makes it possible to display products with images and prices. For example, if you search for ‘wetsuit ladies’, you will get an overview of Google Shopping results at the top of the search results.
Google Shopping gives fast and clear results for searches. This way you can easily compare products or services with each other and, if interested, click through directly to the advertiser’s website.
Because setting up a Google Shopping campaign is considerably more complicated than starting a Google Adwords campaign, I will limit myself in this article to set up ad campaigns in Google Adwords.
Ready? Seat belts on. Here we go.
Step 1: Create an Adwords account
Go to https://adwords.google.com and log in with a Gmail address or create one if you don’t already have one. Then link your Google account to an Adwords account.
Step 2: Company details and payment
Enter your business details and authorize Google to debit any future advertising costs from your account. Once you have done that, you are ready to further organize your first advertising campaign.
Step 3: Your first Google Adwords campaign
Google Adwords now completes several standard campaign settings and asks you to check your billing profile. Do not pay too much attention to the content of the advertising example or the set budget – you can adjust this later to your insight and wishes.
Are the entered details correct? Then click on the blue button ‘Finish and create campaign’ and you are ready to set up your first ad campaign in Adwords.
Step 4: Focus on your target group
You are now so far that you can start setting up your advertising campaign. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab and give your Adwords campaign a clear name.
Preferably choose the name of your website or your company. Then choose which networks the advertising campaign should be visible. You have roughly three options:
- An impression in the search network ( google.com )
- Display in the search network with Display Select
- Video ads ( YouTube )
If you want to make a distinction per advertisement, it is advisable to create several campaigns.
By default, new advertisements are displayed on all device types (desktop, tablet, computer, and smartphone). You can make changes to this later at the ad level.
Then choose the target location. In which areas do you want your ads to be displayed? It is important to keep a good focus on this.
Do not target regions where you are not active. Keep the area rather too small than too large. It prevents unnecessary costs. Moreover, you can always increase the range at a later stage.
Then choose the language areas where you want your ad to appear. Bear in mind that when choosing a language other than Dutch you will also have to offer your advertisement in a different language.
Step 5: The bidding strategy
An important part of setting up a successful Google AdWords campaign is determining your bidding strategy and budget. Google offers various ingenious bidding strategies.
You can pay for ad clicks (CPC), ad impressions (CPM) or ad conversions (CPA).
The bid amount that you set is the highest amount that you are willing to pay and affects the position of your ad. A higher amount generally leads to a higher position (although more factors are of influence).
It is sometimes difficult to determine in advance which strategy will work best for your campaign. It can’t hurt to experiment with this and fine-tune your campaign based on the results.
Step 6: Ad scheduling
Your Adwords campaign can only go live if the landing pages on your website – the page on which someone lands after they have clicked on an advertisement – are completely set up. If this is the case, you can enter the start date of your advertising campaign.
It is also possible to set an end date for your advertising campaign. Enter an end date if you have a clearly defined period in which you want to advertise (for example around Christmas or a specific event) but also if you want to prevent you from exceeding the specified advertising budget.
If everything is set up correctly, you can further organize your advertising campaign. The ideal structure of your advertising campaign is as follows. The campaign has the name of your website or company. Below you create one or more ad groups. You then hang one or more ads below that.
This can look like this:
Advertising campaign: Torontoadvertisingagencies.com
Ad groups: Marketing / Social Media / Advertising
Classifieds: Marketing: SEO / Lead Generation / Adwords Agencies / Etc.
Do you need help determining the keywords that are often used and that match your ads? Then use the Google keyword planner. With this program, you gain insight into frequently used keywords.
Do not copy everything indiscriminately, but keep your goal in mind and move into your target audience when selecting the keywords that you want to use for the display of your ad.
You are bound by the rules of Google Adwords for the preparation of advertising texts. After you have created an advertisement, it will first be checked by Google. Only after approval can the advertisement be shown.
It is advisable to pause the advertising campaign while designing your ads. This way, you prevent some advertisements from being displayed immediately after approval by Google and you can launch the campaign in one go. Are all advertisements satisfactory and approved? Then it’s time to go live.
I hope this article helps you get started with setting up your advertising campaign on Google. Do you have questions about this article or would you prefer to get professional help? Then contact us. We are happy to help you be successful on the internet!