Considering starting google ads?

Is Google Ads worth the money? If you are wondering whether Google Ads is worth the financial investment, you are most probably at the early stages of considering whether or not to start running your google ads campaigns. There are several key factors you need to consider before launching into Google Ads. Many digital marketers often sell Google ads as the ultimate advertising platform for lead generation and sales, this is often true for companies with a good foundation and advertising budgets, however for smaller and local businesses the prospect of investing into Google ads and getting no return is daunting.

What to consider before starting Google Ads

Lets make this clear, Google Ads is a great platform to promote your business, in fact, generally speaking I would personally argue it is the best, no doubt in my opinion it is the most successful and sophisticated of the advertising platforms. However we are not here discuss the pros and cons of Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC). The ultimate question is, are you and your business ready for PPC advertising on Google Ads?

Is your website ready?

Even the best set up Google Ads campaigns fail simply because the website in question is not ready, not up to industry standards in design, technical features and search engine optimisation. Take for example load speeds, navigation, ease of use, content etc are some of the many factors which will influence your general performance, conversion rates, quality scores and bids etc

Many companies and business owners make the mistake of permanently ruling out Google Ads after a bad run with it, not knowing what caused the lack of performance in the first place. The advertising platform is usually good scape goat to hide other deficiencies of the business. The key considerations here can be divided into three areas, SEO, CRO and competitor analysis, get a professional to critically review your website and compare it to others in your the industry.

Do you have the right technical skills?

You are considering whether to DIY campaigns or outsource it to a freelance google ads consultant or agency. The question here is, do you have the right technical skills and experience to set up campaigns for your business?. Setting up campaigns is not just about identifying what keywords you think your customers will search for and adjusting your target location radius. Factors such as keyword, match type, ad copy, landing page, quality score, budget spread must be taken into consideration. Successful digital marketers spend long hours, sometimes days researching the above and putting strategies and plans in place, the technical setup and getting the campaign settings right for your business sometimes comes with learning and experience.

Many times we have seen accounts full of board match keywords, no negative lists and the wrong targeting features set up, this simple means most of the already limited budget wasted on irrelevant audiences and success is harder to come. What is more worrying is sometimes these accounts are set up by so called “professionals”, it is important whether you choose to do it yourself or outsource, to find the right person for the job.

How will you measure success?

Among small to medium sized businesses there are most probably more accounts set up without tracking then with, this is a major problem even among some “professionals” and “agencies” who do quick turn around jobs and fail to set up goals and conversions properly in Google Analytics. It would be very interesting if one day Google published the percentages of how many Google Ads accounts are linked to Google Analytics and goals are being reporting.

Without further straying from the point, the question here is can you attribute your sales and leads (if any) to the correct source it came from? further how much have you spent and what was your return of investment? among other KPI’s. Often smaller businesses make the mistake of thinking of assuming there enquiries and sales came from a particular source, larger companies spend thousands on tracking, reporting and software to attribute sales and leads correctly, it is worth considering how you can implement this on a smaller scale.

Can you sustain your budget?

Many companies launch campaigns expecting immediate results, with the right foundations this is possible however like with anything else in life, consistency in Google Ads is key. To many times campaigns are run and paused without giving it enough time to collect data to be able to analyse and make optimisation changes, thinking long term is very important.

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is “what should our Google Ads budget be” this question is best answered by extensive keyword, competitor and cost per click (CPC) analysis. Once you have identified your average CPC it becomes clearer how much you should spend per month to acquire a certain number of clicks, this leads to the next question of “can you sustain this budget consistently?” and optimise your account to improve efficiency within the budget you can afford, until you break even or make a profit.

Conclusion?

I am a huge advocate of Google Ads however businesses should plan carefully before jumping onto the platform, if you feel you tick off majority of the points above there is nothing stopping you from starting your paid advertising campaigns, if you do not then this should be a good opportunity to reflect and analyse weaknesses to build a strong foundation for success.

We offer bespoke google ads training courses and a free consulting session to help businesses understand and get started with digital marketing, for more information and guidance feel free to contact us.