Google AdWords for Small Businesses

When it comes to promoting your business services or products on line, this is achievable for small businesses using Google AdWords. Small businesses can even tackle the big guns in their industry for an achievable budget on this platform. By setting up an AdWords account correctly, even a small budget can yield impressions and clicks on Google provided you use the right targeting options and account structure.

The Issue

The main point to understand about Google AdWords is that it is a complicated platform and is difficult to master. Anyone who tells you it is a walk in the park is not telling you the truth, however when implemented correctly it can bring great results to your business objectives. Don’t get me wrong. Anyone can go in and set up a campaign. However, to maximise it and make it work for most businesses AdWords takes careful planning and practice to master which can take time. Time most business owners just don’t have, in addition to their already loaded work schedule. This is one of the reasons there are so many businesses who don’t think AdWords really works. However, with time, effort and patience your Google AdWords campaign can yield great returns and there are many businesses out there who have increased their profits dramatically and others who use it as their main advertising medium.

Keep It Simple

What a lot of business owners think about AdWords is that you need to have a huge account with hundreds of keywords in it or a huge budget. The fact is, you don’t need a huge campaign to be successful. If you have an AdWords account with too many words and not enough time to manage it you will most probably overreach and waste money. The best approach is to start your campaign small and over time as you become more comfortable with the platform gradually grow your account. Obviously the size of your account deciphers how much time is required to manage it.

Tracking Your AdWords Progress

One of the best pieces of advice we can give you is to track your AdWords account. By this we mean setting up a Google Analytics account for your website so you can get accurate data on your visits, users etc. You can then link your AdWords and Analytics account and monitor the return from your AdWords campaigns. Also set up AdWords Conversion Tracking which gives you data on your Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads and Keywords. This tracking informs you of clicks and conversions from specific keywords and gives you a great insight into how each keyword or Ad Group is performing.

Don’t Overreach

Keep your account manageable and don’t try to overreach. This can happen in a number of situations such as miss-targeting your ads. Be it network, location, device targeting or even down to the match types used for your keywords, incorrectly targeted ads will guarantee to lose you money. It is always best to plan your account and target your campaigns towards pre-qualified search users, by doing this you will get higher click-through rates and hence higher conversions.

Don’t Overpay – Set A Consistent AdWords Budget

Getting to the top of Google SERP page is not essential in AdWords campaigns, it probably won’t even be a reality when running your campaign on a small budget. So our advice is to take a step back and look at your budgeting realistically. Firstly, set a daily budget that will determine how much you will pay over the month. In AdWords you decide your monthly budget and divide it by the number of days you are running your campaign in the month, to get your daily budget. The budget must tie in with your businesses financials e.g. don’t spend more on clicks that will eat into your company profit unless you have a strategy in place to drive return on investment whether in the short or long term.

By careful planning around your budget. Set up your campaign clearly, this will reduce your time and effort around changing your budget. Also bear in mind if you keep changing your budget it means Google has to recalibrate how it shows your ads and hence can impact negatively on your account.

Google will suggest increasing your budget in order to increase your clicks. Before doing this, ensure that the clicks you are targeting will drive the right traffic for your business.

Bidding In AdWords For Small Businesses

Bidding is a very important factor in determining your ad positioning so it is essential that you calculate correctly how much you will be bidding based on your budget to ensure an ROI. Here is a nice formula to work off:

Revenue or Customer’s LTV * conversion rate = Max Bid

Once you have decided on your maximum bid, your quality score will determine your ad positioning. The higher your quality score, the more likely you are to rank towards the top of the page.

Next Steps

Now having made informed decisions on your targeted traffic, budget calculated and set correctly and bidding set, you are on the way to running a profitable AdWords account.

If you need help setting up or managing your pay per click campaigns, contact WebResults. We have dedicated PPC specialists with the expertise to get your AdWords campaign working for your business. Call us on 01-2071872 or email us at info@webresults.ie

What is Product Listing Advertising (PLA)

Product Listing Ads (PLA):

 

PLA is a pay per click (PPC) form of advertising. This form of advertising is carried out through Google’s Shopping Tool. Upon a relevant search query from a customer, Google will show up placed ads first. In this shopping tool, Google will include

“richer product information such as product image, price and merchant name” (Google 2013)

PLA

The  search to the right shows the results for the search “bicycle helmets”, where placed ads are shown first. The fact that these ads are paid for, is only revealed when you click on the link “why these products” which explains that these are placed ads, as highlighted in the image to the right.

 PLA is another form of PPC where the advertiser only pays Google after someone has actually clicked on their ad. The advertiser and Google will have agreed a set price for every click on their ad. The advertiser can also set a limit on how much they are willing to spend each day, ie:

Razor is willing to pay 50c for every click on the advert for their helmet. However they are only willing to spend €5 per day, so after 10 people click on their ad, the ad will be taken down until the next day. (There are options to choose when the ads are displayed or to spread the display over a period of time). They will also agree the amount of time the ad will run for, which can range anytime from hours to years.

Why use PLA?

 Cost effective advertising:

With PLA you are only paying for people who click through to your site, a concept which has high rate of return on investment (ROI). At Webresults, we can help you arrange a pricing plan for your proposed ad

 

Place high on the list:                            

With PLA you will appear high on the search results with people seeing your product first

 

PLA weans out lesser competitors:       

Google’s Shopping tool’s main appeal to customers is that it shows the best options first. Google users don’t have to thralls through pages to find what they want. Your products are seen at the top of their respective search      

When it comes to PLA, it pays to pay!

 

For more information and advice on PLA, contact us! 

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To read the full article, visit 3 SEO Musts.

For more information on search engine optimisation and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

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If you need more help with your social media marketing, tracking and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

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To read the full article, visit Back to School With Your PPC Campaign.

For more information on PPC advertising and web marketing, contact us.  For further information on this topic, click here.

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To read the full article, visit Facebook Starts Removing Likes.

For more information on social media marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

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To read the full article, visit Keyword Research, SEO Vs PPC.

For more information on SEO, PPC and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

2 Simple Tips for PPC

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For the full article, visit 2 Simple Tips for PPC.

For more information on PPC and web marketing, contact us.  To read more on this topic, click here.

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To read the full article, visit Web Analytics Segmentation Tips.

For more information on web analytics and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.