What is Google Ads?
Google Ads - originally called Google AdWords until a rebrand in 2018 - was launched in 2000. It provided users with the ability to set up and manage their own digital campaigns for the first time.
Pay-Per-Click
Unlike most advertising options up to that point, where advertisers paid for ads to appear in a specific place, Google Ads used a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model, with advertisers only charged when ads received clicks. As you can imagine, this was a particularly desirable offering for advertisers.
Tried and trusted
Over 20 years later, Google Ads remains the most popular and trusted advertising network:
- There are more than 7 million advertisers using Google Ads
- In 2021, Google held a 29% share of total ad spending
- Over 80% of businesses around the globe trust Google Ads for PPC campaigns
- 96% of brands are spending money advertising through Google Ads
- 97% of Google’s revenue comes from Google Ads advertising
- 2 in 5 small- to medium-sized businesses are running a PPC campaign on Google Ads
Webreality is a huge advocate of Google Ads. Since 2006 we have introduced extremely successful Google Ads strategies that have helped to achieve our client’s objectives.
How does it work?
There are a number of campaign types available in Google Ads. They all work slightly differently, but the basic principles of the platform are consistent across all campaign types: relevance, control and results.
Targeting
Google has made it simple to target relevant users with appropriate ads. Advertisers have full control over how they target and manage their campaigns. This helps to ensure that the campaigns deliver results that meet the objectives of the business.
Advertisers are given the ability to decide:
- what type of advert they want to run
- who they want to target
- where they want them to be shown
- how much they want to spend.
Placement
Depending on the targeting and campaign type, users can then see the adverts appear in a variety of different places, including:
- Google search results pages and search partners
- Google Display Network - a group of more than 2 million websites, apps and videos (including YouTube)
- Google Shopping
- Google Play
- Google Discover
- Gmail
Conversions
Google Ads is not simply about driving traffic to a website (unless that is your sole objective, of course). The majority of businesses also want users to complete particular actions on the website after they have clicked on an ad.
These actions are called conversions. Google Ads gives advertisers insight into which campaigns are best generating conversions, enabling advertisers to optimise their campaigns accordingly.
Many different actions can be considered conversions - some more obvious than others. A purchase on an e-commerce website is a clear conversion action. Other actions such as contact form submissions, file downloads and video views can also be used to gauge the efficacy of campaigns.
Different types of ads and targeting
A variety of campaign types are available in Google Ads. Here’s a brief summary of the ones we use most often at Webreality.
Search Advertising
Billions of searches are conducted on Google all over the world every day. Search advertising allows advertisers to target specific keywords or phrases. If users search for those keywords and meet the other targeting criteria (for example, geographic location), they can then be shown a search ad on Google search engine results pages (SERPs).
Of all campaign types available, search advertising typically generates the best conversion rates, as they’re targeting what users are actively searching for.
Display Advertising
Display ads are image or animation adverts shown on the Google Display Network. This includes millions of websites, apps and videos across the internet.
Display ads are visually engaging. They are mainly used to attract attention and improve awareness of brands, services, careers opportunities, events, and so on. A wide range of targeting options are available ensure that you’re finding your audience:
- Geographic location
- Demographics (for example, age and gender)
- Time of day
- Day of the week
- Placements - selecting specific websites for ads to appear on
- Topics - sites related to a pre-defined topic
- Keywords - matched to contextually similar content on websites
- Remarketing - users that have previously visited the website and/or completed a specific action
- Customer match - remarketing audiences based on email addresses provided by users
- Similar audiences - users that have similar browsing behaviour and characteristics to users in the remarketing audiences
- In-Market audiences - users that are currently in the market for products or services
- Interest audiences - based on users’ interests, identified through their browsing behaviour
- Affinity audiences - similar to interest targeting, but based on longer-term habitual browsing
- User searches - keywords that users have searched on Google recently
- Websites/Apps - people who browse similar websites/apps to those added to the audience.
Display advertising is highly effective at raising awareness. But it can also drive conversions, especially now that Google Ads has both expanded and refined the targeting options.
Video Advertising
Video campaigns allow you to reach audiences with video ads on YouTube, as well as in apps and on websites. Like Display ads, Video campaigns are most effective at building awareness of a brand, product or service.
YouTube is the second largest search engine, with 112 million daily viewers watching over 1 billion hours of video a day. Its popularity is growing faster than ever and, as a result, it is one of the preferred places to advertise. Video ads can help you connect with potential customers in a unique and memorable way.
There's a range of video ad formats available in Google Ads:
- Skippable in-stream ads - play before, during and after other videos. After five seconds, viewers are given the option to skip the ad
- Non-skippable in-stream ads - play before, during and after other videos, are up to 15 seconds long and cannot be skipped, so that viewers receive the entire message
- Bumper ads - play before, during and after other videos, are under six seconds and cannot be skipped
- In-feed video ads - only appear on YouTube in places of discovery, including next to related YouTube videos, as YouTube search results and on the YouTube mobile homepage
- Outstream ads - only available on tablet and mobile, these ads are shown on apps and websites running on Google video partners and extend reach for brand awareness beyond YouTube.
The audience targeting options available for Video campaigns are similar to Display campaigns. Different types of targeting can be combined to reach potential customers more successfully.
A key difference compared to Display, however, is that you can use a Pay Per View payment model, rather than Pay Per Click. This means that you pay for views of your video ad that are longer than 30 seconds. If views are shorter than 30 seconds, then you’re not charged - an attractive prospect for many advertisers!
Discovery
Discovery campaigns are a relatively new campaign format in Google Ads. They use visually appealing ads built by uploading a range of logo, image and text assets. This campaign type reaches users on the Gmail app, Google app and YouTube app. They are a valuable way of reaching users when they’re ready to discover new products or services.
Discovery campaigns are different from other campaign formats because there is less granular control for advertisers. Instead, Google uses machine learning to determine when users are most likely to engage. However, a broad range of targeting options are available to ensure ads are shown to relevant audiences.
A key benefit of Discovery campaigns is that they achieve a high number of impressions, and high levels of website engagement more akin to Search campaigns.
Why should a business use Google Ads?
Google Ads is ideal for businesses of any size, as there is no minimum spend and you have full control over campaigns. The results are also completely measurable, enabling you to evaluate your return on investment.
The broad range of channels and targeting options available make it straightforward to implement a strategy that fulfils all of a business’ marketing objectives.
If you’re not currently using Google Ads, it’s highly likely that your competitors are.
What can Webreality do?
Webreality is a Premier Google Ads Partner. This accreditation demonstrates not only our extensive knowledge of Google Ads, but also that we have met the performance threshold in our accounts.
We have successfully planned, implemented and optimised Google Ads campaigns for a wide variety of local and international clients in a range of industries, and across all campaign formats.
If you’re not already using Google Ads, contact Mark Evans to learn more about how Webreality can help you to achieve your business goals.
If you are already running Google Ads campaigns, but are curious to see if they can deliver better results, Webreality can audit your campaigns to identify opportunities to improve and grow.