Google forever changed the marketing game when it launched its advertising programme in 2000. Just a decade later, Google AdWords was netting the tech giant $42 billion in revenue and completely creating a new field of digital marketing, enabling small businesses to compete in ways previously unavailable to them.
Today, small business marketing is increasingly reliant on the power of PPC and AdWords campaigns, enabling them to reach niche and targeted audiences in powerful ways – even overtaking bigger brands when they can employ their digital marketing budgets carefully and with precise insight and skill.
If you’re relatively new to Google AdWords, then it’s best understood as a pay-per-click advertising service that lets you make and publish adverts for your business. These adverts will then be displayed in Google search results, for interested internet users to click on. The trick lies in using highly targeted keywords that are optimised for demographic and local geography, where your goods and services are offered through a physical location. By getting these keywords right, you can automatically increase your chances of the right people seeing your advert and clicking through to your website.
6 Reasons Why You Might Want to Explore Adwords
1. Google AdWords is flexible to use and easy to measure
Traditional marketing channels such as print or TV are notoriously difficult to assess with measurements and ROI. SEO is digital but it can also be tricky to measure as various factors will affect your rankings over time. However, AdWords PPC is highly measurable and comes with a raft of metrics that make measurement and analysis simple. This makes it far easier to adapt your campaigns and justify spend – targeting your budget to ads that bring in maximum results. The system is highly flexible and customisable as well, allowing you to match specific keywords and combinations, to display ad extensions such as contact information and images, to narrow your audience right down to strict variables and even to access non-search partner websites such as YouTube and Gmail.
2. Quicker than SEO
SEO can be powerful but it can also take months to see a result. AdWords, however, is instant. Set up a campaign and your adverts will go live the moment that you want them to, providing instant visitor data and measurable results. You can also see which keywords are working for you, which will then help to inform your SEO. PPC takes you to the top of search results instantly.
3. Highly engaging
Google constantly refines its AdWords service and this means that online marketers can look forward to a changing array of rich new content features which engage users and encourage clicks. For example, product listing adverts and in-video advertising is now growing, offering new ways to format adverts and their extensions.
4. Controllable costing
AdWords is also extremely attractive for those holding the business budget because there is no risk of overspend. Simply define your maximum daily limit for marketing and you can budget precisely whilst measuring the results of your spend to date. You only pay at all when someone clicks on your advert. This scalability is vital for most small businesses and gives them confidence in spending money when they can see a need to upscale for a campaign that gets results – and to downscale where a campaign needs further optimising to achieve intended results.
5. Get ahead of the competition
AdWords is so instant that you can rapidly get ahead of your competitors by paying to be prioritised in search engine results and getting more clicks. Even if your competitors are using the service, you can get ahead with clever thinking and campaign strategies.
6. Target just people in Jersey
For small businesses operating in local communities, such as Jersey with just 100,000 residents, you can also benefit from local geographic features such as geotargeting, to ensure that your budget is only being directed towards advertising that reaches local people. You can set geographic locations when creating your adverts that can be as specific as Jersey itself, or a radius around a postcode. This is vital to local business marketing and although fewer people overall will see your advert, you will ensure that those who do are the ones that can access your service!
Want to take things further?
Are you ready to use Google AdWords? What appeals to you most? We can help you setup your Google Adwords campaign and manage it for you so that you get the maximum return on your advertising spend. Find out more on our Digital Marketing page or get in contact now for a quick chat.
