Is Google Ads Worth It for Small Business?

Reach people when they’re looking for you

By having the right keywords for your PPC ads you can gain traffic from potential customers that are extremely likely to lead the conversation. For example, if you type in “buy phone online” you will see that these keywords are mostly used by someone who is looking to purchase a phone in the near future. Therefore by having ads for your businesses products is a great way to gain new customers that are also going to bring income to your website.

Target based on geography

This is particularly great for local businesses that are focused on getting customers from their local community. Google Ads lets you target your PPC ads to viewers based on geography. If you combine this with local SEO I will help to drive the most traffic to your website from your community.

Target multiple audiences that use the same product

If you have a product that is used by multiple audiences, a produced page only lets you optimise that page for either a chosen specific audience or a more general audience. However, using PPCs ads you can target multiple specific audiences by creating individual PPCs and choosing appropriate keywords for that audience. By doing this you are making an ad that is tailored to that audience and will persuade them to click on it compared to a generalised one.

Send people to specific landing pages

Sometimes you want to send users to your homepage, however sometimes that can actually be a drawback. For example, if you are selling a product and you have an ad for that product but when the user clicks on it, it takes them to the homepage, this can leave a negative impression on that user. This is because the user expects to be taken to the product page ready to buy the product. Therefore this isn’t ideal and can lose you customers, so you want to set the landing page of that ad to the product page to increase your potential conversions.

Track results

Google Ads lets you track the clickthrough rate, ad spend and conversion rate. By having this information you can test different ad titles, ad copy and landing pages to see which one has the best return on investment (ROI).

Get results quickly

Getting your website to the top of a search result organically can take a long time with a lot of work, so PPCs are a great way to help you move up the results page faster. PPC ads don’t guarantee that you will be at the top of the SERPs as that does depend on your keyword and budget, but the closer you are to the top of the page the more users that will visit your site.

Unconventional uses of PPC ads

A common tactic that is used with PPC ads is to target your competitor’s company name. This means you can put a PPC ad up for the keywords of their company name, therefore driving customers from their website to yours.

Things to consider before using PPC ads for small business:

Google Ads has a learning curve

Like I said earlier you can spend a lot of money very quickly on Google Ads as you are paying per click. Therefore you want to make sure that you set a daily budget limit and make sure that your ad title, ad copy and landing page are good before you start the ad. If you do get stuck, Google has a lot of educational material on Google Ads that can help you.

Understand your value propositions

If your value proposition is unclear or not compelling, the users visiting your website through the paid ad will leave straight away, therefore wasting your money. You want to make sure that your ad title, ad copy and landing page are good and are what your customers respond to.

Keyword selection is critical

Depending on which keywords you choose to put a PPC ad on, depends on who will see your ad. Google Ads helps show you how many potential users search a particular keyword. Therefore choosing a keyword that is only viewed by a few is going to limit your visits. You should also search your keyword in Google to see what the competition is like and whether your company fits with the other listings, as sometimes a keyword you think links to your website is actually mainly used for something else. There are 3 main types of searches:

• Informational -someone looking for information on a specific topic
• Navigational -someone looking to find a particular website
• Transactional -someone who wants to buy something

Therefore these are all things that you need to know when choosing your keyword.

Conclusion

So is it really worth doing if you’re a small business?Google Ads can be very useful for a small business if used correctly. If you know when it is suitable for your business to use PPCs and how to optimise them. Remember before you start paying for traffic you need to plan:

• Who you are targeting
• What your keywords are
• What your ad title is
• What your ad copy is
• What landing page you are using
• Have a strong value proposition
• What your daily budget is