Google AdWords is an advertising system designed by Google for online marketing, where advertiser create clickable links or ads and compete to have them appear in Google’s search engine results by submitting certain keywords that expect internet users to use while searching.
These ads or links can be to a website, page or e-commerce site, and advertisers use them to generate traffic that they hope to turn into regular visitors and customers. As of 2016, more than 3 million advertising accounts are registered with Adwords, according to Google.
How does it work?
Web page owners and other publishers create ads in form of links to their websites/pages for the ads to become visible to internet users; they must be featured on the first page of any search engine. That is how Google AdWords comes in. The average click rate for the ad in the first position on a Google search results page, according to research done by AccuraCast is 7.94%. Publishers are required to submit a series of keywords they believe will be used in search engines to Google AdWords, which then adds them to its pool of similar keywords.
To work with Google AdWords, one must have an account with them first. The deal is tat publishers pay according to the clicks made on their links. That means that Google gets a share of a publisher’s earning from traffic as advertiser’s revenue whenever some one clicks on an ad embedded with a link to a website.
Businesses today need Google AdWords more than ever before if they are to stay afloat in the murky waters that are marketing and advertising.
Why Google Adword is required?
Efficient advertising
The biggest reason is that the program enables businesses to reach out to customers that are already interested in the product they are selling. Unlike traditional advertising methods where ads are targeted at everyone without considering lack of interest, this method uses the keywords submitted to generate leads that directly reach out to the kind of customers a business would be looking for.
There are additional features such as location based advertising that enable businesses advertise to people in certain areas, making the campaign more productive.
Transparency
When using Google AdWords, advertisers follow the PPC system, or pay-per-click, which means that they only pay for their ad when it is clicked on by an internet user. According to a report by the Google Economic Impact Report, businesses make $2 profit in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords.
This makes it a fair plan, considering that the amount paid by a business for the advertising campaign directly reflects the sales made and translates to a high return on investment. In addition, campaigns are quite inexpensive to start; the pricing plans are tiered from low to high to cater for every business’s needs.
Flexibility
Businesses vary as much in size as they do in advertising budgets. Smaller businesses usually work on lower budgets than bigger corporations and this always has an effect on the returns for each. While using Google AdWords, businesses have the option to choose the budget that suits their needs and then customise it accordingly.
Plans range from $100 and above with each plan having certain features that fit its price. The flexibility does not stop with the price plans though; the program also allows for customisation of marketing campaigns such that they reach out to the right people in the right time frame.
Various marketing channels
The program comes with a wide range of methods designed to push the product in front of customers in real time. Google AdWords enables advertising through either the ‘Search Network’ where adverts are grouped according to keywords and displayed at the top or side of search results when certain keywords are placed in the search box.
It also uses ‘Shopping Ads’ where online shops can advertise their products directly above search results. All these methods are designed to enable internet users view product ads which translates into the traffic business websites need.
Visibility
Anyone who knows anything about online marketing knows that there is no better source of visibility than appearing on the top of Google’s search results, whether paid or organic. The company’s display campaigns reach 80% of global internet users, according to a report published in Google Benchmarks and Insights.
Google itself is the most popular search engine today, used by millions of people every hour of the day. Its also got the largest online ad display network, with websites including Gmail, Blogger and Youtube. To use its advertising program means placing your business in front of all these people. When smartly done, this leads to constant traffic and a large revenue base.
It targets a large market-the online market
Online business has surged in growth with ever increasing force ever since the inception of the internet. It is now a requirement for any business to have a web presence in form of a website, blog, social media etc.
Still, an online presence is nothing without traffic. Google AdWords introduces a business to a whole new league of customers I.e. online buyers, whose effect on online business has in recent years has become a force to reckon with.
Increases customers’ awareness of a business brand
Through paid search results, businesses are accorded more visibility and higher chances of attracting visitors to their sites. Once people visit a business site and agree with its offers, they may become regular visitors and this increases their awareness of the business brand over time. Regular visitors soon translate to other forms of advertising such as affiliate links to the business site, which pull in more traffic.
Additional features
Besides placing business ads on search result pages, Google AdWords also comes with a number of features designed to make marketing campaigns more effective. Some include the extension feature that allows for creation of ad extensions for calls, websites etc and the testing feature that enables marketing managers preview the effect of upcoming promotions by starting them on a trial basis before going full throttle.
Google Analytics is another feature that tracks how your ads are doing in real time by showing how many clicks they’ve received and how much traffic each ad is generating.
Increases a business’s knowledge of its market
Not only do customers learn more about a business when it uses Google AdWords, the same applies vice versa. Through its real time analytics, the program provides businesses with information on their customers including where they come from, what time they usually access the internet, their preferences etc.
Over time, business managers incorporate this information into their future advertising strategies and use appropriate keywords to generate the right traffic.
The mobile market
Everyone has a mobile phone these days that they use to connect to the internet. This market is so big that it recently surpassed desktop advertising in revenue, courtesy of factors such as social media and the large number of phones in circulation today. And with Google dominating mobile search advertising with 97% of the share, the reason is clear.
With a well organised AdWords campaign, not only do businesses reach out to the usual desktop users but they also loop in the many mobile phones logged into the internet every hour of the day. This means more traffic in a shorter period of time.
For a business enterprise new to Google AdWords, it is a good idea to hire an AdWords expert that can handle your AdWords account and carry out comprehensive research into factors such as the most effective keywords, customer data and preferences and campaign management. These factors require an expert eye if your traffic and sales reports are to be accurate and useful.
Well, there you have it! There are probably lots more reasons why other businesses use the program, but the ones listed above are the most relevant to this article. Every business needs to incorporate a good advertising mechanism in its marketing campaign and Google AdWords is exactly the kind that should be used. Looking at the advantages listed above, which one wouldn’t be of benefit to any business, no matter its size?