Google Ads Fundamentals: Five Things You Need to Know

Have you ever searched on Google and noticed that the top results have the word ‘Ad’ or ‘Sponsored’ in bold? You guessed it – these are Google Ads! 

What are Google Ads?

When users search relevant keywords on Google (or other Google platforms such as Youtube), they’ll see a selection of paid ads along with organic results. Which paid ads they’re shown is determined by bids from the advertisers and an auction (which we’ll explore in more detail later). 

Google ads is a form of PPC advertising, as you’re only charged when someone clicks on your ad. Google Ads are uniquely positioned to show your relevant ads to your target audiences, at the exact moment they’re searching for similar products or services. 

While there’s a lot to learn about Google Ads, we’ve compiled the five fundamentals of Google Ads below for an easy jumping-off point: 

Types of Google Ad Campaigns

There are several different types of campaigns to choose from, but some of the most popular are:

• Search Ads: Text ads displayed to users along with Google search results for their query.
• Display Ads: Include images and are shown across a range of Google-owned websites and apps.
• Shopping Ads: Appear on search results and the Google Shopping tab, and show your inventory to users who can purchase directly via links in the ads.

Each ad is made up of a group of features called assets. These are additional pieces of information included in the ad, such as product details, sitelinks or location information. 

How To Set Up a Google Ad Campaign

• Decide on your advertising goal: This will help you to evaluate and improve your campaign performance. Goals include increasing sales, leads, website traffic or brand awareness and reach. 
• Select relevant keywords: This will ensure that your ad is being shown to the right users. We’ll explore keywords in more detail in the next section. 
• Set your budget: This instructs Google on how much to spend on your ads. Budget options include average daily spend, shared budgets between campaigns, or maximum CPC (cost per click). 
• Decide on your bid strategy: Google uses both ad quality and bids to determine which ad is shown to the user. You’ll set your bid strategy depending on your campaign goals, and bid strategies can be automated or manual.

Choosing Your Keywords

Choosing the right keywords to bid on is vital for your campaign success. Highly relevant keywords will help you to maximise your budget for the most conversions. You’ll also set a keyword match type, which determines how closely your keywords need to match a user’s search terms in order for your ads to show up. Available match types are:

• Broad match: Ads can show on any searches that relate to your keywords. 
• Phrase match: Ads can show on searches that include the meaning of your keywords.
• Exact match: Ads can only show on searches with the same meaning as your keywords. 

Measuring Your Campaign Performance

Tracking your campaign performance will allow you to ensure that your strategy is working, and adjust as needed. The best metric for measuring performance will depend on the goal of your campaign. Examples include:

• CTR (Click-Through-Rate): Clicks divided by impressions (the number of times your ad is seen). You’ll want to measure this if your goal is increasing traffic to your website. 
• Conversion Rate: Number of conversions divided by the total number of ad interactions. If your conversion rate is low, it’s time to audit your landing pages and user experience to find out what’s stopping users from converting. 
• ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): Total revenue divided by total spend. This is a must-have metric if you’re looking to get the most return out of your budget. 

Optimising Your Campaign

Google will give your campaigns a quality score, which is determined by various factors such as CTR, landing page quality and keyword relevancy. This score affects how well your ads perform, so it’s worth improving it as much as possible. 

You should review your account regularly to remove irrelevant keywords, and reallocate spending so that you’re spending more money on campaigns and keywords with the most conversions. 

Looking to take the next step with Google Ads? Peaky Digital is here to help! 

Now that you’ve grasped the fundamentals of Google Ads, are you ready to launch your PPC campaign but not sure where to start? Get in touch with Peaky Digital. Our PPC experts will work with you to craft your campaign and get the results you’re looking for.