Google advertising sounds like a very obvious concept; advertise within Google. Google advertising is therefore very similar to search engine advertising or SEA marketing. Because Google is the most popular search engine or search engine on the internet, we have chosen to write a special page for Google advertising. There are many different parts of Google advertising covered. These are all different from each other in their own way. However, they all have one common goal. Google advertising is all about getting high positions with your website or webshop in Google’s paid search results. How to start with this as an entrepreneur, what different options there are, and why Google advertising is so important is explained in more detail below.
What is Google Advertising?
With Google advertising you are therefore advertising with advertisements in the paid search results of the search engine Google. The paid search results are shown in Google at the top of the results page (SERP) and therefore above the organic search results. Google advertising therefore costs you money as an entrepreneur, but can be very profitable when applied in the correct way. That is why it is very important to have a clear plan when you start with Google advertising. At Convident we always start the Google advertising process with an extensive keyword research. In the keyword research, our online marketers look for the search terms that your target group(s) search for. These search terms are very relevant to your business. We use the results of keyword research, among other things, to develop successful advertising campaigns. The only question is how are the developed advertising campaigns displayed within Google. There are all different options for this, which are explained in more detail below.
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“Advertising in Google requires a strategic plan”
What parts does Google Advertising contain?
As mentioned before, there are different ways in which your advertising campaigns can be launched within Google. 95% of internet users in the Netherlands use Google as a search engine, so how do you reach them in the best way? The most well-known form of advertising within Google are text ads and Shopping ads. Other possibilities within Google are display, discovery, video advertising and remarketing. We will discuss every form of advertising in a moment, but first we will look at what Google Ads is and how it works.
95% of Dutch internet users use Google as a search engine
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is an advertising program developed by Google. Within Google Ads, it is possible for the entrepreneur to manage his various advertising campaigns. In addition, Google Ads is required to participate in Google’s auction model. To be able to show your ads on the Google Network, you need to make a bid. All entrepreneurs who have developed advertisements and want to display them in the search engine participate in this auction model. But how does the Google Ads auction model work?
How does the Google Ads auction model work?
The auction model within Google Ads is based on two factors: the level of competition and the quality score of the ad in question. The competition level indicates how many advertisers want their ads to be shown for a specific target group or search term. The more competitors want to show their ads, the higher the demand. This means that the cost per click or CPC will increase, after all, many advertisers want to show their ads. The second factor that is included in the auction model is the quality score. In doing so, Google Ads looks at the following factors:
Read on for the different bidding strategies
1. Relevance of your ad in relation to the relevant keyword.
Google Ads analyzes whether the relevant search term corresponds to the content in your developed advertisement. Google Ads wants it to be able to show relevant ads to its users when they search for a certain keyword. If the keyword doesn’t appear often in your ad, your Quality Score will drop. For example, by including the relevant keyword in your title and meta description, the Quality Score will increase.
Ensure relevance of the keyword and the underlying page
2. Relevance of the underlying webpage
In addition, Google also wants the underlying webpage of your ad to be relevant. This means that the web page your ad directs the user to contains relevant content related to the ad’s keyword and search query. When you link a web page to an ad that does not match the relevant search term, your quality score will be lower.
3. The expected click-through-rate (CTR)
Google determines in advance the expected number of clicks per day on a developed ad. Google calls this calculation the expected click-through rate (CTR). How Google Ads makes this exact calculation is difficult to say. A high CTR means that Google Ads expects many users to click on your ad. Your quality score will then increase.
As we have seen, the Quality Score, together with the level of competition, determines whether or not your ad will be shown on the Google Network. The Quality Score of your ad is a number between 1 and 10. A low competition level and a high-Quality Score of around 9 will lead to a favorable position with your ad within the auction model.
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In order to use Google Ads and thus to advertise in the search engine, a Google account is required. When you have created this you can develop your ads, determine a bidding strategy, participate in the auction model, hopefully, win the auction and then show your (relevant) ads on the Google Network. If your ad form is subsequently live in the Google Network, it will be shown to internet users. Please note: only when an internet user clicks on your advertisement do you as an entrepreneur have to pay your costs per click CPC. If your ad is shown but a user does not click on it and scrolls further, you do not have to pay.
Below we explain the different bidding strategies within Google Ads. Read them carefully and determine which goal is relevant to your ad campaign and company.
1. The smart bidding strategies
Within Google Ads there are several smart bidding strategies. The smart bid strategies are also known as the Google Ads automatic bid strategies. This is because with this strategy the actions are taken out of the hands of the entrepreneur. Google Ads determines on the basis of your chosen smart bidding strategies what should be bid, etc. This bidding strategy is especially suitable if you as an entrepreneur are looking for conversions through your advertising campaign. Google Ads uses machine learning for its smart bidding strategies. Google Ads determines your bid for each auction. When the chance of a conversion or the conversion value is high, Google Ads will offer more. Google automatically determines for you to offer less and not to be visible when the chance of a conversion is small.
The machine learning only works within Google Ads when enough data is available. Otherwise, Google Ads won’t be able to determine an appropriate bid for your ad campaigns. In addition, you also need to set the conversions, otherwise Google Ads will not know what the goal is. Within the smart bidding strategies, there is a choice of five different bidding strategies. They are listed below:
- Maximize Conversions
- Target CPA
- Maximize Conversion Value
- Target ROAS
- ECPC (Enhanced Cost Per Click)
Google Ads uses machine learning in smart bidding strategies
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2. The click strategy
In addition to the smart bidding strategies, there is also the click strategy. Within Google Ads, you can also have the goal of getting clicks with your ads. If you, as an entrepreneur, want to generate traffic to your website or webshop, there are two bidding strategies to choose from:
- Maximize clicks
- Manual CPC bidding
Below we take a closer look at both strategies.
More visitors as a goal for your website or webshop?
Maximizing clicks
The name of maximizing clicks already somewhat indicates how the strategy works. When the maximize-clicks strategy is chosen, Google Ads will try to get as many clicks as possible within your chosen budget. Furthermore, it does not look at what your website visitors do on your website or webshop. The strategy is therefore only suitable if you aim for more visitors.
Manual CPC bidding
The other strategy for clicks is the manual CPC. The manual CPC bidding strategy gives you as an entrepreneur the most control. With this strategy, you can determine how much you want to spend per keyword or ad group. You will then never pay more for a click than what you have set yourself. This strategy is recommended when you start with Google Ads and therefore have little data to base your choices on. When the data continues to grow, you can choose to make the switch to an automated strategy.
3. The Visibility Strategy
The final strategy within Google Ads is the visibility bid strategy. With this strategy, the goal is to show your ad when a user is looking for the products or services you offer. For the purpose of visibility, there is one strategy possible within Google Ads. This bid strategy is target-impression share. Target Impression Share is an automated strategy in which the trader has to manually set a maximum CPC bid. In this way, the entrepreneur can never pay too much than he would like. This strategy is aimed at making you as visible as possible in Google. You can choose where within the results page (SERP) you want to be visible with your advertisements:
Viewability bid strategy is target impression rate
- Everywhere on the results page (Both the first three and bottom results on the page)
- At the top of the results page (First three results)
- At the very top of the results page (Top result)
Finally, as an entrepreneur, you also specify a percentage for in how many of the cases you want to be shown in the indicated place. Suppose you want to be displayed at the top of the results page in half of the cases. Then you indicate the target percentage of 50%.
Google Ads has 6 different ad formats to get started with
Ad forms within Google Ads
Now that we know how Google Ads works and the different bidding strategies there are within Google Ads, it’s time to look at the different ad forms that are possible. The ad forms can be shown in various places in the Google Network and all have their own goal in mind. We start by explaining the most famous form of an advertisement: the text advertisement.
1. Text ads
The most well-known form of ads is text ads. Text ads are shown to internet users at the top of paid search results within Google. Within Google Ads, the entrepreneur can determine for which keywords or keyword groups your advertisement can be shown. But as we’ve seen in the Google Ads auction model, this doesn’t mean your ad will actually show. For this, you first have to win the auction model from Google.
Text ads are the default ad form in Ads
A text ad is the standard form of an ad. As the name implies, a text ad consists of text. For example, the ad contains a title and a meta description. Here you try to persuade the user (call to action) to click on your ad and visit your website/webshop.
Within Google Ads, the advertiser determines a fixed daily budget for an ad campaign. When your ad is shown in Google, you pay the specified cost per click CPC when users click on your ad. Based on the CPC and budget, Google Ads can therefore determine whether advertisers are still eligible to show their ad or whether the budget is exhausted.
2. Display advertising
Display advertising or display advertising uses advertisements in the form of banners. Banners are advertisements that are displayed on websites such as NU.nl, NOS.nl and YouTube. They are graphic ads and can therefore convey more images than the standard text ads. With so many people active on the internet today, the potential reach of display advertising is huge.
A banner ad differs from a standard ad in terms of text, images, videos, flash and audio. With display advertising, for example, you can give a positive boost to your brand awareness. Through the applications of banner advertisements, you can make your advertisements very targeted and have them match your target group(s).
Display advertising or display advertising is a form of advertising that uses banner ads. Banner ads are graphical ads and are shown on the Google Display Network (GDN). Examples of this are banners on NU.nl, YouTube and Nos.nl. Nowadays many Dutch people are actively present on the internet and the potential reach of display advertising is therefore enormous. Because as an entrepreneur you are advertising with banners at display advertising, it costs you money. It is therefore important to carefully consider the costs and benefits of any display advertising campaign.
Banner ads are shown on the Google Display Network (GDN)
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Discovery advertising, just like display advertising, is even more focused on your target group(s)
3. Discovery advertising
Since 2020 it is possible to choose discovery advertising or discovery advertising within Google Ads. With discovery advertising, your ads are shown within the discovery pages of websites or platforms. Examples include:
- Google Discover Feed
- Instagram Discover Feed
- Homepage Youtube and Watch Later Feed
- In Gmail under promotions and social
Discovery there are often additional visual advertisements and sometimes also contain a carousel. A carousel means that multiple images are used which can be swiped. The possibilities in terms of targeting are comparable to those of display ads.
4. Video advertising
Video advertisements are advertisements that use video aspects. These advertisements can be shown to users on, for example, YouTube or video partner sites. Within the video ads, there are different formats that allow you to create highly targeted and relevant ads. Always keep the purpose of your advertisements in mind.
The following ad formats are available:
- Skippable In-Stream Ads In-Stream
- Unskipable Ads
- Video Discovery Ads Bumper Ads
- Outstream
- Ads
- Masthead Ads
5. Google Shopping
Google Shopping is an online sales service from Google. You may have already seen Google Shopping when you searched for a certain keyword in Google. Google Shopping makes it possible to show your products to internet users when they search for keywords that are relevant to your products. The products from Google Shopping are shown at the top of the results page (SERP) in Google. It thus provides the internet user with an overview of the most relevant products related to his search. Within Google Shopping you can be shown in the organic way or in the paid way.
Google Shopping is very relevant for webshops
Before you are shown in Google Shopping, you must upload your store and product information (product feed) to Google. You can do this manually by entering your product feed in Google Merchant Center. This can take a lot of time. So people prefer the way you upload your product feed via the Product Feed Pro plugin for WooCommerce in Google Shopping. If Google Shopping owns your product feed, it can show your products in Google Shopping when users search for relevant searches. If you want your products to be shown more often, you can set up an advertising campaign. You then link your Google Shopping with Google Ads.
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6. Remarketing
The last form of advertising in Google is remarketing. Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is an online marketing method in which you let previous visitors to your website or webshop find their way back to your website/webshop by means of targeted advertisements. This group of website visitors has visited your website before and is therefore interested in the products you offer. Because consumers often need multiple contact moments to make a purchase, a remarketing campaign can be very relevant for your business. In addition, remarketing often gives the extra boost with the help of highly targeted image, text and video ads.
Now that we know what remarketing is, we can look at which different platforms remarketing can be applied to. But first, we need to know which internet users are eligible for remarketing campaigns because they have visited your website or webshop before. That is why the remarketing process always starts with placing a remarketing tag on every page of your website or webshop. A remarketing tag is a code snippet that is placed in the backend of your website. Visitors to your website/webshop are added to so-called remarketing lists by means of a remarketing tag and a (legal) cookie. These lists are used to segment and then show them advertisements.
The remarketing tag has been placed and web users have been added to the remarketing lists. Through which channels can we target people from these remarketing lists with targeted ads? The best-known form of remarketing is through Google Ads. You can develop your remarketing campaigns via Google Ads and then show your ads to people from your remarketing lists via the Google Display Network (GDN). Nowadays it is also possible to apply dynamic remarketing. Google can show ads about specific products to users from the remarketing lists when they have already searched for these products in question.
Remarketing can be very profitable with the right implementation
Finally, for a remarketing campaign, you can also use the channel for the Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) feature. If internet users have already visited your website or webshop via text advertisements, you can target this group again via RLSA with remarketing advertisements.
“Advertising within Google brings many advantages, do you also keep an eye on the disadvantages?”
What are the pros and cons of Google advertising?
Applying Google advertising to your business can have several advantages and/or disadvantages. Below we have prepared a list for you.
What are the benefits of Google advertising?
1. Immediate results
By applying the right method of advertising at Google, direct results are often possible. When the ad has been developed in Google Ads and the budget has been determined, the ad can go live. This means that your ads can generate equal traffic for your website or webshop. The direct result does require that the ad campaign remains live. The moment you as an entrepreneur decide to stop advertising in Google, your advertising campaign will also stop. More about this in the cons.
Without a clear plan, Google advertising quickly missed the mark
2. Targeted advertising
In Google Ads you can advertise very specifically in the search engine giant. This is made possible because the advertiser can indicate within Google Ads on which search terms or keyword groups your ads should be shown. In addition, the advertiser can also create target groups and indicate which advertisement is shown to which target group(s).
3. Appear at the top
As mentioned before, the Google Ads ads are shown to internet users at the top of the results page (SERP0). By entering the correct bid in the Google Ads auction model, you can ensure that you are shown at the top of the paid search results. It costs an entrepreneur in search engine optimization or SEO much more time and therefore money to obtain high positions in the organic search results.
4. Brand awareness
By advertising in the Google search network or the Google Display Network (GDN) you can increase your brand awareness. Highly targeted and relevant advertisements give users a positive association with your brand and company.
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What are the disadvantages of Google advertising?
1. No Organic Traffic
The disadvantage of Google advertising is that it does not generate organic traffic for your website or webshop. With organic traffic you realize website visitors from the organic search results. With Google advertising you have to pay to show your ads in the paid search results on the SERP. This allows you to realize paid traffic to your website or webshop. The moment you as an entrepreneur decide to stop advertising in Google Ads, your advertising campaign will also stop. This can result in a huge drop in the number of website or webshop visitors. So always keep in mind that Google advertising yields immediate results but stops when your campaign stops. A strategic plan is therefore required for a long-term Google advertising process.
Set up a long-term trajectory for Google advertising
2. Costs money
As we have seen, Google Ads is based on the auction model. In which the auction model chooses whether your ad will be shown in Google based on the competition level and the quality score. Determining your cost per click (CPC) and advertising budget can be very tricky. Google advertising can therefore quickly add up in costs if it is incorrectly done.
3. High Competition
In some industries, the level of competition for Google Ads is very high. There are many advertisers present, all of whom want to show their advertisements. When the competition is high it will drive up the CPC further.
Why is Google advertising important?
More and more companies have started advertising through Google. This means that it is becoming increasingly expensive, but also increasingly popular among entrepreneurs. This has to do with the many benefits of Google advertising when applied correctly. We see commercials on television nowadays more and more as annoying or intrusive. While ads from Google still retain their value. As we have seen, ads within Google have become smarter, more targeted and therefore more relevant for internet users. With Google advertising, you often target users who have already shown interest in your products. You have the solution for this group of people and offer it through a targeted advertisement.
Moreover, Google advertising is an important part of online marketing. This is partly because the standard text ads can no longer be distinguished from the organic search results. Internet users often felt disapproved of the paid search results. This was partly because entrepreneurs paid for this and the organic search results come up because they provide the best answer to the entered search. In recent years, the ads within Google have been greatly optimized. As a result, the paid advertisements are hardly distinguishable from the organic results. The format of both results is the same, only the paid search results are labeled ‘Advertising’. Because internet users increasingly want to find the right answer to their search query, they do not orientate across the entire search results page (SERP). On the other hand, users often click on one of the paid search results (a text ad).
“Convident’s SEA specialists can set up your Google advertising campaigns”
What does Google advertising cost?
We have seen that for advertising within Google one has to be on Google Ads. An advertising campaign within Google Ads is based on the auction model. This determines whether or not an advertisement is shown in the paid search results. The auction model depends on two factors. Namely the level of competition and the quality score of the ad in question. With a high level of competition and a low-Quality Score, your ad will probably not be shown. Conversely, with a low competition level and a high-quality score, your ad will be shown. The costs that you as an entrepreneur pay for running an advertising campaign within Google are therefore highly dependent on the competition.
Advertising campaigns used to be set up through newspapers and magazines. Entrepreneurs could advertise here in various forms. The cost of these ads was highly dependent on the reach of the newspaper or magazine and the actual size of your ad in the medium. When entrepreneurs want to advertise in the present, they quickly turn to the internet and therefore Google. An ad campaign within Google is not about the size and place of an ad, but about the competition. The minimum cost that an entrepreneur pays for a click on his ad is €0.01. Within the Google search network, the average cost of a click is estimated to be between $1.00 and $2.00. In the Google Display Network, this average cost-per-click is around $1.00.
The cost of advertising in Google is highly dependent on the competition
The above shows that the average cost per click in the Google search network is higher than in the Google Display Network (GDN). The Google search network includes search in Google, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Google images, discussion groups in Google, and Google search partners. On the other hand, the GDN consists of sites such as Gmail, YouTube, Blogger, Google Finance, and sites set up as search partners such as NU.nl and marktplaats.nl. Within the search network, the click-through rate or click-through rate is higher than within the GDN. As a result, the costs for an ad campaign in the search network are also higher than if the ads are only shown in the GDN.
Finally, the costs of an advertising campaign strongly depend on the sector concerned. For example, in the financial & insurance sector, the average cost of the CPC is around €50.00. Larger companies, such as Amazon, pay $50 million a year in Google Ads for their campaigns. These are amounts that smaller companies cannot afford to pay. Fortunately, the average cost of the CPC in SMEs is lower. For example, an SMB company spends an average of $1,000 to $2,000 per month on Google Ads. This equates to $18,000 a year for the company. For example, we see that the average costs for an advertising campaign on Google depend on several factors.
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Outsourcing Google advertising to Convident
As we have seen and read, a lot of things are involved when setting up an advertising campaign within Google. What will your ad look like, what is your bidding strategy within Google Ads, where will you place your ads and how will you measure the results? There are many steps for a company, in which difficult choices have to be made. Outsourcing advertising within Google can therefore be very efficient. In terms of time and money, you save hope and you can focus on your products, services, customers, employees, and partners.
At Convident we set up your advertising campaign and manage it during the month. We have experience with different goals within ad campaigns, such as generating traffic or conversions. We do this, among other things, through the following applications:
1. Grip on the results
At Convident you always have a grip on the results with your advertising campaigns. We work with certified SEA specialists for placing your advertisements. For example, we have already been able to help several large and small brands with the responsible growth of their business in the online world. Through thorough research, we ensure that only potential customers are targeted who have a need for your products or services.
2. Control
As an entrepreneur you always have control over your advertising campaigns and (daily) set budgets. You can view everything in Google Ads, which makes it so handy and clear. This way, ads and keywords can be adjusted at any time of the day, as well as your budget and therefore campaign costs.
3. Measurability
At Convident we find it very important that growth and commitment can be measured. That is why you will receive a report from one of our online marketers every month of your executed advertising campaigns. With these reports you get/keep an overview of your website or webshop visitors. In addition, the monthly overviews answer questions such as where do my visitors come from, what is their age or which channels do they use. The information and findings from the reports are used to align your advertising campaigns even more with your target audience(s).
A success story never goes without a tactical plan
Could your website or webshop use more traffic and/or conversions? Contact us to advertise within Google with a targeted advertising campaign for your target audience(s). Do you just want to spar with an online marketer from Convident? Then visit the office to discuss the possibilities of advertising in Google for your company.
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