Of all the search engines out there, Google is easily the biggest. Google offers a lot of great features that small businesses and organizations can use for little to no cost. While these options are great places to start, that’s not all Google has to offer. Among the business listings, optimized search results, and customer reviews, another way to make connections with customers is through using Google’s pay-per-click advertising.
What is pay-per-click?
Google isn’t the only place you’ll see the term “pay-per-click.” A lot of online platforms use similar models for their paid advertising. Essentially, each click is worth a certain amount. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you will be charged that amount.
One benefit to using a pay-per-click model is that you can still receive a lot of impressions for a low amount of money. Even if someone doesn’t click on your ad, they can still see it and learn about your business. In that way, it’s similar to more traditional forms of advertising.
Why should you use pay-per-click advertising?
Google is a massive platform by itself, but it also has connections with thousands of websites. Depending on the type of campaign you choose, you can post ads across tons of relevant sites, along with video ads on YouTube and text ads in Google search results. No other online platform has the same size and scope of advertising possibilities as Google.
Along with those great numbers, Google also has the benefit of being Google. Because most people search for sites through Google, it can see where each user goes, how long they stay there, and what kinds of things they like to do. Through cookies and algorithms, Google can help you find your ideal customers.
After those ideal customers are located, Google can take on the heavy lifting of tracking them and where they’re at in the purchasing journey. You can input ad copy and imagery in such a way that Google can then tailor the ad (and even the landing page) to that purchasing journey. Over time, Google will shift the ads and help to move the customer towards making a purchase.
Additional Features
The amount of features offered by Google’s pay-per-click advertising is almost too much for one post. However, here’s a brief list of some more things to keep in mind:
- You can enter keywords and key phrases—Pick things that relate to your ad, to the promotion you’re running, or to the type of customer you want to attract.
- You can exclude keywords and key phrases—If there’s a certain type of content you don’t want to advertise alongside, or a certain competitor you want to avoid, you can add keywords that Google shouldn’t use to push your ad.
- You can see how often each keyword or phrase is used, and how much they cost.
- You can adjust bid strategies to increase or decrease how often your ad is shown.
- You can set the hours that your ad is shown, like during business hours, early in the morning, or late at night.
- You can use Google Ads in conjunction with Google Analytics to see what customers do on your website after they click on your ad.
Ready, Set, Click
Google Ads has a robust set of features available to use for advertising your small business or organization. If you’re interested in running a Google Ad but are unfamiliar with the platform, we can help! Bold River Marketing has experience in running pay-per-click ads on Google, and we’d love to work with you so you can make the most of advertising there. Give us a call for more info!