How to use Google Ads for your small business?

If you’re a small business owner, you probably advertise with Google Ads or plan to do so. Since some advertisers question how useful Google Ads can be for small businesses, we decided to look deeper.

SMBs (small and medium-sized companies) can significantly benefit from SEM (Search engine marketing), including SEO and Paid search engine ads like Google Ads.

Ways to use Google Ads

You can use Google Ads to find customers who intend to buy your product or service. Also, you can generate brand awareness by targeting the top of the funnel audiences, usually via educational and informative content.

Depending on your business, advertising on Google allows you to find your leads in the moment of need. If people are already familiar with your brand and product, there is a big chance they will purchase thanks to a new reminder ad of what they had already been looking for.

Since people are using more than one device–visiting websites in different stages of intent, surfing the internet, and scrolling through social media channels–their journey to purchase is a mix of touch-points. Sometimes, they might get on your site through social media at the first touchpoint, then search for your brand and get through a paid ad. After that, they see your display ad, search again, and get to landing through organic search results to finish the purchase. This path is just an example of how they can be engaged and how complex it might be. For that reason, one advertising channel is usually not enough.

Brands and customers 

Some products and services perform well with Google Ads, even without the best possible budgets, while others are not doing great. When considering advertising on Google, keep in mind the broader situation of your business. Who are your customers, how are they engaging with your brand, and where can you find them? Google Ads can bring you leads through search campaigns when people actively look for products or services.

Important note: only running Google Ads probably won’t bring you expected results, especially if you have just started. Since Google uses a machine learning system to develop the best possible results for advertisers, you need to “feed the algorithm” with campaigns to let Google optimize performance. 

Most small businesses have low budgets, and they are eager to see results through sales. Depending on numerous factors, some middle-of-the-sales-funnel-type campaigns can start performing well and bring you initial conversions. Your ads on Google can start scaling or dropping sales depending on the marketer’s expertise and other parameters.

PPC and Google Ads can bring significant value to small businesses if they know their strategy and ways to optimize performance.

Google Ads Advantages

Some of the advantages of Google Ads are:

• Precise targeting in the moment of need (Search campaigns)
• Geo-targeting can help you expand your customers based on their location
• Campaigns based on multiple audiences, depending on the stage of awareness
• You can define a landing page for your ads following your goals
• Google Ads gives you fast and transparent results

How can you find out if your business has the potential for Google Ads? Very simple, start searching for products and services like yours and find out if your competitors are already present with campaigns. Explore other brands and find out if there are enough relevant searches through the web regarding your product or service. Also, you will find out how many competitors are already advertising on Google. 

Campaign creation 

There are many ways to structure your business Google Ads account. You can create campaigns based on your location, categories of products or services you are selling or based on your sales funnel. Define your goals for the initial period, and depending on them, you can start building a campaign structure and focus on the most significant campaign type.

Every small business, in most cases, knows its niche well. If you know your niche, buyer persona, and general target audience, you can easily decide which keywords are the most important for your leads. Working on deep keyword research is crucial for small businesses running Google Ads for showing ads on the right terms with low costs. During keyword research, you’ll also find negative keywords to add to your account, which will save you a lot of money.

Creatives

You need a well-designed and prepared landing page to convert leads into customers. When potential customers come to your landing page, they need to be attracted to relevant content and focused on your objective. Make it simple and appealing to the target audience, including an adequately highlighted CTA button.

Separate campaigns for different stages of a potential customer journey (awareness, consideration, purchase, and retention). Depending on your campaign goal, the focus should be on one of these stages.

Budget

We left the budget for the end. It can vary for all kinds of reasons. Start with a reasonable amount that will bring you initial CPC data and give you something to work on later with optimizations. This type of advertising needs time and patience to get great results. Without providing enough time for campaigns to adjust, you will probably have poor outcomes. For a start, it will take two or three months as a testing period. 

Conclusion

Be aware that no one knows your business better than you do. Start targeting your well-known customers based on their interests, purchasing habits, and demographics. Use the moment of need when they are searching for some product or service. At that point, you can offer the best solution to their problem. Select your location or time of the day when your potential customers will most likely be online and use the budget wisely. When setting your landing page, confirm that the message from your ad will be relevant and explained on your landing page.

The most important thing for your business is to test different elements in your campaign and gather relevant data to improve your results. In that way, you can discover which parts of campaign settings or some of the ad’s features are bringing better results. 

If you have more questions about Google Ads, schedule an appointment with our team to find the best possibilities on Google for your business. 

About the author

Danijela Petković is a PPC Specialist within Google Ads Team at Sellers Alley. She helps clients get a broader audience and increase sales through different sales channels–Google and DSP (Demand Side Platform). Her previous work experience includes creating and executing digital marketing strategies and performing analyses for improving various clients’ results.