How to Advertise on Google

To advertise on Google, you will need to begin by creating an AdWords account. This can be done by heading to google.co.uk/adwords, and clicking 'Start now'.

In order to proceed, you will be asked to provide your website and email address. If you don’t already have a Google Account , you’ll be asked to verify your email, by completing the confirmation instructions sent to your inbox by Google. If you don’t have a website, then you should look into using Google’s My Business My Business instead.

Next, sign in to your account at adwords.google.com You will be prompted to answer questions about your country, time zone and currency. Once this has been completed, you will then be directed to the 'Welcome to AdWords' screen. This page allows you to:

• Choose your advertising budget.
• Create adverts using the AdWords service.
• Search for keywords, to identify what your customers are looking for.
• Enter your billing information, in order to run the ads.

Advertising on Google is a great addition to the digital marketing strategy of both large and small businesses, and when used correctly, can deliver fantastic results. In principal, it is fairly straightforward to use, however, it has an extensive range of features which can be extremely time-consuming, particularly when you’re just starting out. For this reason, many businesses use paid advertising professionals, who have the knowledge and experience required to help businesses make the most of their advertising opportunities.

AdWords is used by businesses to advertise their products and services online, or to enhance their presence in Google’s search results. Unlike other forms of advertising, Google ads can be managed and altered flexibly in terms of budget, content, audience targeting and more.

The Adwords platform uses what is referred to as a PPC (pay per click) strategy, which means that business owners only pay when someone clicks on the ads they have created. While there are precise ways to target when these ads show up, and who sees them, they are primarily influenced by a set of keywords or search terms typed into the search bar by Google users.

The process can be broken down as follows:

• A Google user types in a search query, looking for a particular product, service or solution.
• Having identified the terms or keywords used by these searchers, an advertiser will use these to create an AdWords listing for the product or service they wish to promote.
• If they target the user’s search correctly, a customised listing will appear above or below the regular Google results, marked with green Ad symbol.
• If a user clicks on this advertisement, the advertiser will then be charged for appearing.
• The charge is controlled by a maximum cost-per-click, which is set by the advertiser, based on how much they are willing to spend, and how competitive they wish to be.

While your budget and spend can be tailored to suit businesses of all sizes, the expense of running an AdWords account will depend on several factors:

While your budget and spend can be tailored to suit businesses of all sizes, the expense of running an AdWords account will depend on several factors:

The Quality of Your Advertisement

One element which determines how much you pay, is the quality score, which is awarded based on a number of factors. This can range from how relevant your advertisement is to the page it points at and the term it targets, to factors such as historical account performance. By achieving a high quality score, you will not only pay less for your clicks, but will also increase you likelihood of appearing in higher positions.

The Popularity of Your Advertisement

A factor which can also influence this quality score, is the ad’s click through rate. This simply means, the amount of people who click on your ad. If a lot of people are clicking on your advertisement to explore the web page it is linked to, Google reads this as a sign that it is relevant to what the user is searching for, resulting in a higher quality score.

Despite this, a high click through rate can also lead to invaluable and wasteful spending, if it is not monitored or controlled properly. For example, if a high number of people are clicking on your ad, but are not completing your desired action (making a purchase, filling in a request form etc.), this could mean that you are unnecessarily burning through your budget, and driving up the cost of your AdWords account overall.

The Popularity of Your Advertisement

Another factor which determines the cost of AdWords, is your competitors. Just like any other form of advertising, each account holder wants to appear in prime position for their target term, which means that the cost of appearing in search results is driven upwards. This will, of course, depend on how competitive your industry is overall, which is why an AdWords account should be carefully targeted with this in mind. Expensive terms should either be targeted carefully, with a high chance of success, or should be avoided in favour of less-competitive yet profitable terms.

Your Delivery Method

Targeting is everything when it comes to spending or saving money in AdWords, so it’s highly important that carefully selected preferences for showing these ads are considered, before allowing them to run. You can control everything from which geographical region to target, to what time of your day your ads show up, and how quickly the budget is used, which will naturally have an impact on how much you spend.

While the name ‘AdWords’ suggests a text-only format, Google also offers a number of visual advertising opportunities, using what it refers to as the Display Network. This allows you to create everything from text and image ads, to interactive video advertisements, which appear on websites that are relevant to your target audience.

As well as the quality of the media itself, some of the things that you will need to consider when using the Display Network include:

Advert Size

Depending on the website your advert is appearing on, Google chooses a ‘block size’ which best fits the individual layout. For this reason, you should create ads to fit the various guidelines set out by Google, in order to maximise your chances of appearing.

Targeting

In the same vein as search result ads, display ads should be optimised to carefully target a specific audience, in order to maximise results. This can be edited based on placement (where your ads show up), topics (deciding which industries your ad is relevant to), specific user interests, and more.

Remarketing

If someone has already visited your website, you can encourage them to come back and take a particular action, by using remarketing ads. This means that when someone has left your site, they will later see an advert pointing back to it, on a platform chosen by Google’s Display Network. Like other forms of Google advertising, this can be targeted to varying degrees in order to produce your desired result.