You probably tell yourself that to generate traffic, SEO is good, but it requires time and patience. So is there a faster way to get qualified traffic to your site? Other Digital Marketing tools are available to entrepreneurs, aren’t they?
Yes, you are right, and another solution is to launch a Google Ads campaign. The author confirmed it to me yesterday morning, during a meeting of the Alexis team:
It’s been a while since we did a campaign on Google Ads. Besides, thanks to our work on the natural referencing of #oamori, we don’t really need it! But for a company that wants to gain traffic to its site quickly, Google Ads advertising is still a good choice.
For any entrepreneur, winning new customers is a daily struggle. Find out how Google Ads (formerly AdWords) can help you.
A good entrepreneur must also control costs. If you spend too much to acquire new customers, you are putting your cash flow at risk. I also teach you how to limit your spending on Google Ads.
In any case, what is certain is that paid advertising on Google is an excellent source of growth opportunities. But, to achieve your objectives, you must be organized and follow some good practices.
This is the subject of this complete guide for your Google Ads campaign!
Google Ads campaign: a few preliminary reminders
Let’s start with some general reminders about Google Ads and its features.
Google’s advertising network
Google Ads is Google’s advertising network, formerly known as Adwords. This is the advertising platform that your company should use to show your ads on the famous search engine if your industry allows it.
With Google Ads, you create and serve different types of ads:
- Text ads, visible on the search engine,
- Display ads which are banners displayed on a network of partner sites,
- And more video ads broadcast on YouTube and also on a network of partner sites.
In this guide to Google Ads, we will focus primarily on text ads.
A bit of technical jargon!
To use Google Ads well, there are a few terms and acronyms to keep in mind. To make your life easier, here are the 7 main ones:
CPC
The cost per click is the amount in Euros that you pay for each click on your ad,
The impressions
They represent the number of times your ad is displayed in the search engine,
The CTR
Click Through Rate is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions. The CTR gives the performance of your ad.
Auctions
The Google Ads system works by putting advertisers in competition. This competition is materialized by auctions on the CPC that advertisers agree to pay.
Keywords
Choosing the right keywords for which your ads will display is crucial. The keyword should match your offer as closely as possible.
The position
For a given keyword and depending on your CPC and the other bids, your ad is displayed in 1st, 2nd, or 30th position. Obviously, the higher your ad is at the top of the list, the more clicks you receive. and therefore traffic to your company’s website!
The Quality Score
To determine the position of your ad, Google takes into account your bid but also the quality of your ads and the “good performance” of your Google Ads account in general. Google assigns you a score called the Quality Score.
The optimization rate
The optimization score gives an estimate of the potential of your Google Ads account according to its configuration. It also offers recommendations for improvement.
As an advertiser, familiarize yourself with these terms and acronyms.
How do advertisements on Google Ads work?
At first glance, the operation of ads on Google Ads is very simple:
- Create a Google Ads account, using your Google account,
- Then create an advertising campaign with effective text ads,
- Choose the most relevant keywords for your activity and that Internet users are looking for in Google,
- Decide how much you are willing to invest for each click on your ads,
- Tell Google the budget you want to invest per day,
- Your ads are displayed as soon as a user types a search with the keyword that interests you in Google.
- The Internet user, if he is attracted by your ad, clicks on it to arrive on your company’s website.
All you have to do is convert this visitor to your site into a customer. But that’s another subject!
Let’s now walk through these different stages of using Google Ads.
My dual objective: Save you money thanks to the good practices in force while, of course, generating qualified traffic with a significant volume on your site!
Create your Google Ads account
Here are some key points to remember when creating your account.
Take advantage of the welcome offer
Most of the time, Google offers coupons worth 75 Euros. This amount is deductible from your advertising expenses. Use it to test the tool and launch your first Google Ads campaigns without too much risk!
Set a low but sufficient daily budget to drive traffic
Indeed, many beginners on Google Ads make the mistake of taking a CPC of “1 Euro per day”.
With such a low budget, it takes a very long time to get relevant results. And if in your sector of activity, the average CPC is 2 Euros, you will wait a very long time before having even one click!
My advice: learn quickly from your mistakes when using Google Ads:
- Some keywords are too expensive,
- Some ads are not performing well with few clicks,
- Other ads are on the contrary much more efficient. You will adapt your approach accordingly.
This learning is only possible with a sufficient volume of traffic generated on the website of your company by your advertisements on Google Ads.
So rather invest more (10 Euros per day, for example), to learn more quickly in order to optimize the management of your campaigns.
Work on your targeting
Another common mistake is not working on the targeting of your ads. For example, if your business is local, use geo-targeting very finely. This way, you avoid spending your daily budget displaying Google Ads advertisements to a target outside your catchment area. This targeting is also related to your persona!
The structure of your Google Ads account
What are the benefits of properly structuring your account? Properly structuring your Google Ads account is key to getting results.
More specifically, a well-structured Google Ads account is synonymous with:
- Less time wasted looking for information in your account,
- No risk of competing with your ads yourself,
- A greater probability of obtaining a high-Quality Score,
- And therefore the ability to save money, by paying less for your clicks!
A quick reminder on the structure of a Google Ads account
A Google Ads account is structured around 3 main levels:
- Countryside,
- ad groups,
- And ads and keywords.
My advice: Organize your Google Ads campaigns according to your “product lines” or your main service offers that you offer to your customers.
Also remember that in Google Ads, geo-targeting happens at the campaign level. For example, if you are targeting multiple countries:
- All these countries can see the same advertisements, in the same language. It’s rarely a good idea!
- Create specific campaigns for each country/language. This is the targeting option that I recommend.
How many campaigns, ad groups, and ads?
How do I know how many ad groups to create in each campaign? And how many ads are in each ad group?
