What is Google AdWords (Now Google Ads)?
When I was first
asked to run Google AdWords campaigns 6 years ago, I had the same question
on my mind. It was my first job, and I had joined for a role in Market
Research. Google Ads was a concept that seemed completely new.
I know, I know…now
it’s everywhere – digital marketing is taught as a course in MBA programs,
there are multiple certification programs, several tutorials available for
self-starters, and people are overall more informed about it as an
advertising option, and as a lead generation channel. But, that wasn’t
the case then.
Google AdWords…whaaaat?
So, when I was asked
to run these campaigns, I started doing some reading to get started. That’s
when I realized that I have already seen and interacted with these ads for
a long time, just that I didn’t think of them as ads. Anyway, long story short,
that’s how I began, and have now run and experimented with all possible types
of ads on Google AdWords.
And, my intent of
writing this guide is to help clueless beginners who are just getting started
with AdWords. Because believe me, even after you have learned all the theory
that you possibly can, you’ll still need several rounds of testing different
things to get AdWords right – and even then, there’ll always be room for
improvement.
The ever-growing
popularity of Google AdWords
Take a look at the trend for the term “what is Google AdWords now Google ads” since 2004. It has continuously grown and would continue to grow as more and more businesses keep coming online.
So, what is Google
AdWords?
To give you the
dictionary definition, Google AdWords is an online advertising service
developed by Google to help marketers reach their customers instantly.
When someone searches
on Google for a particular term, say ‘travel packages’, Google would throw a
list of searches for you. But if you look closely, you will notice that the top
and the bottom results are generally ads.
But how did Google know which ads to display?
Now that we have that
sorted, let’s discuss the types of ads you can run using the Google
AdWords platform.
Type of ads in Google AdWords
Now, let us look at
each of these ad types in detail.
A) Search ads
Like my travel example earlier, when a user searches for something on Google, the list of ads that appear above the organic listing are called search ads. For example, when a user searches for “Kashmir holiday packages”, the search results will look something like this.
The ones marked “Ad”
are ads. And, the results below that are organic.
Google considers many
factors before deciding which ad to display first, as well as the sequence of
ads that follow. We’ll discuss all these factors, their relative importance,
the correlation between different factors etc. in a more detailed
chapter later. But, let’s take a brief look at them:
Important factors in search ads
1. Targeting
– For instance, your ads will be
shown in the geography that you choose (you can go as specific as the ZIP code)
2. Search
term and keyword – What is being searched for by the
user + the keyword that you optimize the ad for.
3. Ad
copy relevance – Ads that appear for a specific
search term should be relevant. A search for colleges should not throw results
for travel packages.
4. Landing
page experience – How relevant is the landing page
to what the searcher wanted? Did he get what he was looking for?
5. Conversion
rate – This is again controlled by
relevance, landing page quality, and experience.
6. Bids
– If 2 advertisers have perfect ads and
landing pages, the higher bid will get preference over the lower one.
7. Quality
score: Quality score again depends on
all of the other factors mentioned above. So, it’s more like a cycle than
everything else. Everything is interrelated.
In addition to the
standard search ads, you can also run these special ads in search
network.
1. Call-only
ads – This ad is available only
on call enabled mobile devices. After clicking the ad, instead of taking you to
a landing page, you make a call directly.
2. Dynamicads– This ad type is more suitable for
businesses who have a well-managed website. This is because the content of the
ad as well as the landing pages is taken dynamically from the website. They are
very similar to text ads, except that no keywords are involved here. For example: a training institute is running dynamic search
ads. A user searches for “java courses”. Google displays a list
of ads. But dynamic ads would automatically replace the ad headline with
“java course” (the search query) and the ad text with the
relevant website content and landing page”.
3. Mobile
app promotion- These ads are suitable for
businesses with mobile applications. The goal of this ad is to encourage users
to download your app or take a desired action within the app.
Note: All these special ads are
available on the search network. Except for call-only ads, others are
available in display and video campaigns as well. The concepts are the same,
but the platforms are different.
The ‘Business en Motion ‘ example:
Let me emphasize my point with an
example from ThinkWithGoogle.
A Dubai-based consultancy called ‘Business
en motion’ started running search ads to drive traffic to their website and to
generate more leads.
As you can see,
search ads, when targeted and run properly can prove very profitable for your
business, just like for business en motion.
B) Display ads
Have you ever noticed them? While you are reading a post or viewing a video on some random website, you see ads in a lot of different places on the page, and in different dimensions. These are display ads.
Here the searcher is
not explicitly looking for what is ad offers. But, based on a number of factors
like keywords, audience interest, managed placements etc, Google decides to
show them to you. These display ads only appear on advertising-supported websites.
Below are the
targeting criteria, based on which Google selects the websites to place
the banner ads.
1. Keywords – The ads are displayed based on the keywords that they are
optimized for. Let’s say the keyword for the ad is “Social Media Marketing”,
then Google would choose websites that have content on the topic.
2. Placements – Placements are nothing but the websites on which you want your
ad to appear. Just add the websites where you want to show the ads, instead of
keywords. For example, if you want to show your ads only on travel related
websites, then look for advertising supported travel sites and add them to your
targeting.
3. Remarketing – This helps you reconnect with your existing website visitors. Using
this, you can target visitors who have come to your website but have not taken
any action.
4. Topic – There are specific topics in AdWords, under which all websites
are grouped. It will be easier for the advertisers to choose topics related to
the businesses. For example, websites related to travel will be listed under
the topic ‘travel.’
C) Shopping ads
If you are a retailer, this campaign
type would make more sense for you. This ad type boosts traffic to your website
and helps in generating quality leads as well as
increasing your conversions.
This is how shopping ads would appear on the search network.
Requirements for running shopping ads:
1. Setup an account with Google Merchant Center (It is a platform that
helps retailers to upload all their product listings in a specificformat).
2. Setup an account with Google AdWords & link them together.
3. Submit updated product data every 30 days to Google Merchant Center.
Since both the tools
are linked together, shopping ads take all the product details from
Google Merchant Center, matches the search query and displays relevant ads
to the user.
D) Video ads
This ad type lets
advertisers run video ads on YouTube and other Google Display Networks.
The 3 main benefits of running video
ads are:
1. Better
targeting – This ad type has demographic,
location, interest, keyword and device targeting which helps you reach the
right audience on YouTube and Google Display Network.
2. More
reach – As of January 2017, YouTube
is the 3rd most
visited website and has 30 million visitors every day. Additionally, video ads
are also available on Google Display Network. This means that you have access
to a wider audience.
3. Measurable – Unlike advertising on TV, YouTube ads let you know all the necessary
metrics like views, view rate, clicks, reach and frequency, engagement,
performance etc. This helps you measure the success of video ads.
Example: video ad from Grammarly
The Almarai Example:
In order to understand the importance of running video ads on Youtube, let me cite an example from Almarai who is into the dairy farming industry.
E) Universal app campaign
This campaign is
helpful for businesses with a mobile app. Here, the advertiser can promote
the mobile app across search, PlayStore, Display &
YouTube. AdWords uses ad text ideas and other assets right from your
app store listings. All you need to do is provide some text, a budget. and
a starting bid. Also, don’t forget to set languages and locations for the
ad.
By utilizing all this information, AdWords itself designs a variety of ads in different formats. Google will automatically test different ad combinations and display the one that performs the best.
Financial institution, KCB group, used Universal App Campaign to increase awareness about KCB mobile banking app.
Conclusion:
So, now you know
what Google AdWords is, and the types of ads that are available for you to run.
My next chapter will give you solid reasons to start with Google ads right
away and to improve your ROI using them.
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