If you’re looking to advertise your business online, a good place to start would be a platform that has over 4.8 billion interactions every single day.
That would be Google.
Given Google’s dominant reach across the internet, chances are you’ve clicked on (and maybe even bought from) a Google ad, which means your future customers have as well.
If you’re new to the platform, we’ll tell you everything you need to know in this beginner Google Ads Course.
Let’s dive in!
What Is Google Ads?
Google Ads is the paid online advertising platform that is offered by Google. It was originally called Google Adwords until its rebranding to Google Ads in 2018.
The way it works is simple: when someone searches for a keyword, they get results on a search engine results page (SERP). These results will often include paid advertisements on the top of the page for that particular keyword.
For example, let’s say you look up “Wine Subscriptions.”
Before the search results begin, you’ll see a couple of options at the top of the page for paid ad wine subscription companies. They look almost identical to the organic search results except for the word “Ad” next to them.
This is great for the advertiser, as most clicks start at the top of the page.
But paying for Google Ads doesn’t guarantee the top spot. Many people are fighting for the same spot you are.
Let’s look at how it works.
How Does Google Ads Work?
Google Ads operates under a PPC model or a pay-per-click. This means that businesses and marketers target a keyword on Google and make a bid for that keyword against other competitors.
The bid you make is the “maximum” you’re willing to pay for that ad.
For example, if you make a maximum bid of $10, and Google decides that your cost-per-click is only $5, you win the ad placement. If it’s more than $10, then you don’t get the ad.
There are three options to bid:
- Cost-per-click (CPC) — How much you pay when someone clicks your ad
- Cost-per-mille (CPM) — How much you pay per 1000 ad impressions
- Cost-per-engagement (CPE) — This is what you pay when someone commits an action to your ad, like opting in to your email list
Google will also give you a Quality Score from 1 to 10 for your ad. The better your digital ads are, the better ad positions you’ll get as well as lower prices for the ad.
Your quality score and your bid amount put together create your Ad Rank, which is the position your ad will appear on SERPs.
Once a person clicks on your ad, the business will pay a small fee (pay-per-click), which will hopefully lead to whatever their goals are: generating leads, making sales, etc.
Nowadays, there are systems like programmatic video and programmatic radio that allow bots to buy ad space for you based on the prerequisites you set. Read more about it here.
Types of Google Ads
Google has five different campaign types that you can use. Let’s take a brief look at each of them.
1. Search Campaign
Search campaign ads are the advertisements that appear as text on SERPs when people search for a certain keyword.
Like our “wine subscription” example earlier, they’ll appear before other organic results appear. There will be a bolded “Ad” that differentiates it from other results.
2. Shopping Campaign
A shopping campaign advertisement appears as images across the top of search result pages that showcase the price and product.
If you have a physical product, you can skip the middleman and get qualified leads by showing your product the price and picture upfront.
3. Display Campaign
Display campaigns utilize Google’s website partners to showcase ads on websites all over the internet.
They’ll appear on other websites as banners across the top of the page, pre-roll on YouTube videos, “email advertisements” on Gmail, and even on apps that Google partners with.
Google has over 2 million websites and can reach more than 90% of internet users with Google Display ads.
4. Video Campaign
Video campaigns are ads that appear before YouTube videos in pre-rolls. This is a great choice if you have a video campaign you want to try out. These come in skippable and unskippable videos.
5. App Campaign
App ads are another type that can be selected as a targeted campaign. Google will take your text and photo assets and furnish ads on their partnering apps for you.
There are several other advertising forms as well. OTT ads are advertisements that are delivered directly through video streaming services.
A Simple Guide to Advertising on Google
Although there are several ways to advertise on Google, we’ll show you an easy way to get your first ads up on Google.
Already experienced? Check out some other Google Ads courses.
You’ll need a Google account for your business first, so make sure you have that on hand.
Step 1: Define Your Goal
First, go to Google Ads. Hit the Start Now button in the middle of the page or on the top right-hand corner.
It should take you to your dashboard, where you can select +New Campaign.
Here, you can select your campaign goal. This will help Google decide what audience to target and what your bidding process will be.
Some examples are:
- Get more calls
- Get more website sales or sign-ups
- Get more visits to your physical location
Make sure to choose carefully!
Step 2: Choose Your Business Name and Keywords
Hit Next. Add your business name and website URL in the next few sections. Select the keywords that you want to use for your ads.
A tool like the Google Keyword Planner will help you select the best keywords you can use for your ad.
Step 3: Choose Your Target Audience
On the next page, you can choose the location you want to target for your ad. You can choose from specific addresses or by broader regions such as cities or zip codes.
Step 4: Create a Great Ad!
Here’s the fun part.
In this section, you can create your ad’s headline and description. They offer some great tips and samples that can spark your creativity.
Make sure you do proper research on your audience and spend time writing great copy to grab your audience’s attention.
Step 5: Set Up Your Billing
In the last section, simply set up your billing information and hit submit.
Congratulations! You just created your first ad.
If you want a more advanced Google Ads course, check out these ones.
Key Takeaways From Your Beginner Google Ads Course
Google Ads is one of the most powerful and far-reaching platforms to get your business out to the world.
If you want to drive more leads, sales, and real results with your digital marketing, contact us today to get a free consultation!
