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Running a small business is challenging, especially\u00a0if you’re just starting<\/a>. There’s much to learn, understand, and unpack.<\/p>\n And significantly, you must stretch every dollar to get maximum value for your marketing budget.<\/p>\n But, while many marketers and small business owners worry that their small budgets can’t compete with big spenders in Google Ads, this is not always the case.<\/p>\n Google Ads (formerly called AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click platform. The platform lets you place brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to promote your business, help sell products, and increase website traffic. Pay-per-click (PPC) means you pay only if people click on your ads. The ads are at the top of Google search results but can also be on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos.<\/p>\n <\/div> You’ll need a healthy budget and a willingness to pay hefty amounts for the most competitive keywords. But if you choose your keywords carefully, you can compete with the big spenders.<\/p>\n Compared to expensive print advertising, Google Ads can be a cost-effective way to create engaging and compelling ads that target specific audiences<\/a>.<\/p>\n Google Ads helps you to:<\/p>\n Over the past fifteen years, our team has frequently experimented with Google Ads, sometimes using vendors and, at other times, managing our PPC campaigns directly. We’ve also helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses build visual ads for Google advertising.<\/p>\n This guide shares the actionable insights, tips, best practices, and expertise we’ve developed after helping over one hundred thousand brands. The guide will help you compete with a small budget to drive brand awareness<\/a> and leads, maximize ROI, and grow your business faster.<\/p>\n <\/div> Let’s get started.<\/span><\/p>\n Businesses can target a specific keyword and bid to rank higher at the top of search engine results.<\/p>\n For example, when a person is looking for “sustainable makeup” on Google, a brand that would typically organically appear at number 150 in search results can use Google Ads to appear among the first few advertising results on page 1.<\/p>\n Starting your first Google Ads campaign is simple. You need to follow these steps to help you get started:<\/p>\n 1. Set up your Google Ads account. <\/strong>Go to the Google Ads home page<\/a> and click the ‘Start Now’ button on the top right-hand corner. Make sure you already have a Google account to make the process easier<\/p>\n 2. Add your business name and website. <\/strong>Next, provide your business name<\/a> and website.<\/p>\n Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> 3. Pick your advertising goal. <\/strong>Google will ask you to select your main advertising goal. The choices are:<\/p>\n Choose the advertising goal that best fits your business needs. And remember that your goals can change over time and across campaigns.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Create your ad. <\/strong>Your ad copy can make or break your campaign. Google provides tips on how you can write your ad better, but it’s best to write an ad that is:<\/p>\n Re-read and rewrite as many times as necessary to achieve an effective and engaging ad. You can also A\/B test your ads to find an ad copy that works best.<\/p>\n 5. Choose keywords. <\/strong>Pick the best keywords that match your brand. But don’t just pick the cheapest keywords. You’ll need a balance of higher-cost, high-reward, and lower-cost keywords to succeed with Google Ads.<\/p>\n If you have a business that operates in a specific geography, search on Google to better understand how your competitors leverage local SEO<\/a> and SEO tools<\/a>. Local organic search results will help you understand how people search for businesses like yours and the keywords and phrases you can use for Google Ads.<\/p>\n For example, suppose you’re a makeup brand. In that case, you can use general keywords, such as “makeup,” “sustainable makeup,” and specific keywords that include your brand name, such as “(brand name) makeup,” “(brand name) sustainable makeup.” This will increase your chances of reaching your target audience.<\/p>\n Also, how about doing a little detective work with Google scraping<\/a>? It’s a handy technique to peek at your competitors’ keyword and ad strategies. You can snag details like the top-ranking websites’ meta titles, descriptions, and keywords they love. This little treasure trove of data, including negative keywords<\/a>, can give you smart ideas to pump up your Google Ads campaigns. If you dive into this data extraction method, you should learn about web scraping without getting blocked<\/a> to make your research as smooth as possible.<\/p>\n 6. Set ad location. <\/strong>This step lets you choose where your ad should appear. It can be near your local address or anywhere else.<\/p>\n 7. Set your budget. <\/strong>Google will provide you with budget options for your ad campaign, but you can also set your budget\u2014the higher the budget, the greater the estimated reach. When starting, experiment with modest amounts (e.g., $10 per day, depending on your ad cost) and increase your daily budget only when you start seeing conversions.<\/p>\n 8. Confirm the payment. <\/strong>Pick your payment option and click “Submit.” Your Google Ads campaign will be good to go. Expect to reach the estimated ad clicks according to your budget, but since this is an estimate, it’s not always accurate.<\/p>\n 9. Link your Google Analytics account to Google Ads. <\/strong>You need to monitor\u00a0the progress of your ad campaigns. A good way to do that is to connect your Google Ads account with your Google Analytics account. Make sure that you have your\u00a0Google Analytics set up on your website<\/a>. Then, link your\u00a0Google Analytics account to Google Ads<\/a> to make analyzing, reporting, and tracking your ad campaigns easier<\/span>.<\/p>\n 10. Provide Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes. <\/strong>UTM codes<\/a> track performance from your ad campaigns. You can see campaigns that use UTM codes in Google Analytics. These codes will help you pinpoint how different ads are converted. You can use Google’s UTM builder <\/a>to make the process easier.<\/p>\n 11. Allow conversion tracking. <\/strong>Google Ads conversion tracking lets you know the number of customers or leads you’ve gained from your ad campaign. You can also track sales or other relevant activities on your website, app, or calls from your ads.<\/p>\n 12. Keep track of all data in one place. <\/strong>Integrate your Google Ads account into your customer relationship management (CRM) tool<\/a>. To avoid wasting time, it’s best to have all your data in one place instead of switching from different channels.<\/span><\/p>\n Knowing how to set up and run a Google Ads campaign isn’t enough. You must also master best practices to optimize the campaign to help you achieve your campaign goals. Here are 7 Google Ads best practices to guide you:<\/p>\n 1. Create objectives. <\/strong>Don’t blindly set up a Google Ads campaign and hope for the best. You need to start with a plan and set goals you wish to achieve through your ad. Some examples of goals could be:<\/p>\n Achieving these goals is only possible if you have a focused ad crafted to hit your target audience.<\/p>\n And don’t worry if you’re not directly converting visitors into customers from a Google Ad. Ultimately, your share of impressions in your market can also be important. For example, an ad might not cause the visitor to buy something from you immediately, but it could create awareness, translating to purchase later. So, while you should carefully understand the ROI for your ads, don’t worry if the ROI isn’t immediately positive, as it can take a bit of time to develop awareness through advertising.<\/p>\n 2. Avoid broad keywords. <\/strong>Ensure only to pick the keywords fitting and relevant to your business and its goals. Using long and broad keywords can make Google put your ads in front of the wrong audience \u2013 effectively wasting your time and money.<\/p>\n Make testing a crucial part of your strategy to know what works best for you. You can also try Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool<\/a> to help you get started on which keywords and search phrases will help your ad appear in relevant searches.<\/p>\n 3. Leverage Dynamic Keyword Insertion. <\/strong>Google’s DKI (dynamic keyword insertion)<\/a> automatically and in real-time ads terms to your ad’s headlines or descriptions to match the search query.<\/p>\n 4. Set a budget. <\/strong>Calculate the highest amount of money you will spend for your Google Ads campaign. Remember that the higher the plan pricing in Google Ads, the broader the ad reach. And as a small business, budget planning is vital. Consider the following when planning your budget:<\/p>\n And be sure to check the budget report in your Google Ads account periodically. The budget report shows you how much a campaign has spent and a monthly forecast for overall spending. If you want to change your daily budget, the report can show how changes to your campaign’s daily budget could impact performance.<\/p>\n 5. Study the competition. <\/strong>There’s no better way to learn about running a successful Google Ads campaign than to\u00a0learn from your competitors<\/a>. You can use Google’s keyword tool to determine how other businesses use keywords and bidding to their advantage. Search online and learn how to leverage Google Ads from other successful websites to meet their business goals. And be sure to run a SWOT analysis<\/a> to understand your strengths and weaknesses relative to your competitors.<\/p>\n 6. Optimize your website<\/a>. <\/strong>Your landing page is the first thing people see when they click on your ad. Optimize it to prevent people from leaving your site and increase your bounce rate.<\/p>\n Some ways you can optimize your website include:<\/p>\n The goal is to make your new website visitors from your ad stay and not deter them from having a slow or faulty website. Your ad is your hook, but a good website should make them stay and convert.<\/p>\n 7. Focus on local areas. <\/strong>As a small business, your chances are higher if you hit local zip codes to advertise. People will be more interested in your company because you’re nearby and accessible. Make sure to write the local area you’re advertising in your ad to attract local customers.<\/p>\n 8. Only run relevant ads. <\/strong>Know when to run an ad and when not to run an ad. If you think your ad doesn’t solve any customer pain points, it’s best to save your money and effort. Make sure only to run helpful ads that provide value to your target audience. Ensure the copy and headline of your ad are suitable and connected to address a searcher’s need quickly. When running ads, it’s important to carefully choose where to place them, as strategic ad placement<\/a> can significantly impact the success of your advertising campaign.<\/p>\n 9. Build a holistic Google strategy. <\/strong>PPC ads can help generate leads, but the best way to grow your business is to use a combination of paid and free campaigns. For example, organic search results<\/a> can complement your ads.<\/span><\/p>\n Now that you know how to set up and run your Google Ads campaign, you must learn some bidding strategies<\/a> to help you rank better in Google Ads. Here are several popular bidding strategies to help you get started:<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Target <\/strong>Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong>This strategy focuses on optimizing conversions. You can set a CPA and will only pay when a user converts into a customer.<\/p>\n 2. Automated and Manual Bidding. <\/strong>Automated bidding<\/a> makes Google Ads adjust your bid according to your competitors and depending on your budget. Manual bidding<\/a> allows you to set the bid amounts for keywords and ad groups and reduce spending whenever possible.<\/p>\nWhat is Google Ads?<\/h2>
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Google Ads:<\/h2>
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<\/div>\nHow do Google Ads work?<\/h2>\n
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<\/span><\/p>\nHow to use and setup Google Ads<\/h2>\n
Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n\n
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Nine Google Ads best practices<\/h2>\n
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Google Ads bidding strategies<\/h2>\n
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