As a business owner, you’re always wondering how to best spend your marketing dollars to generate more leads for your business. Google Ads (pay-per-click advertising) is one of the most effective digital marketing tactics that any type of business can invest in. Without knowing it, you’ve probably clicked on a Google ad before. These ads typically appear at the top of the search engine results page when you conduct a search. Here are four reasons why you’ll want to consider integrating Google Ads into your digital marketing strategy.
1.) Google has over 267 million U.S. unique visitors and a market share of almost 62 percent (Source)
Google is the number one search engine in the world with 3.5 billion searches every single day (Source). With this massive reach and search volume, it provides your business the opportunity to showcase your products or services to people who are looking for the perfect solutions to their problems. There are certainly other search engines that offer pay-per-click advertising as well, but your best bet is to invest in Google where the majority of the search volume is.
2.) You’re reaching those who have intent to purchase
The great thing about Google Ads is that you know you are reaching those who are in the market to purchase your product or service. People use Google to find the answers to their problems. Imagine a homeowner who needs their air conditioning unit fixed, the first thing they would do is search “air conditioning repair near me” and likely choose one of the top HVAC listings that show up. It’s also important to know that ads are the very first thing to appear in the search results so if you’re not advertising, you’re likely losing out on a lot of customers who may be going directly to your competitors.
This intent to purchase isn’t the case with other forms of advertising like social media. While you can get very specific with your targeting, you still don’t know if they’ll be interested in purchasing like you do with Google Ads. Not only that, you also have to make sure your brand breaks through the clutter with engaging copy and visuals to stop people from easily scrolling past your ad in their newsfeed. This is why social media is a great brand awareness tactic – your business can reach a larger audience at an efficient cost compared to traditional forms of advertising like billboards and radio.
With the increase in privacy regulations around digital marketing, it’s becoming harder for marketers and businesses to reach the right audiences on platforms that rely on cookies for targeting. This is another reason why it’s important to invest in Google Ads because this form of advertising allows you to reach the right people at the right time, based on what they are searching for in real time.
3.) High Return On Investment
Just like the name suggests, with pay-per-click advertising, you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. If your campaign is set up properly, this allows you to spend your money on high quality traffic, decreasing the risk of wasting your dollars on people who will never become a customer. This, along with reaching those who are actively searching for your product or service is why we typically see Google Ads obtaining the highest return on investment compared to other forms of digital advertising.
While it’s important to do your research to understand what you should be spending in order to be competitive, there is technically no minimum to start advertising which makes it scalable for all types of businesses and organizations with any size budget. You can set a cap for how much money you want to spend per day which can further help you control your advertising costs.
4.) It’s measurable so you know it’s working (or not)
It’s important to always measure what matters and Google Ads makes it very easy to do just that. Whether you want to measure phone calls, form submissions, or purchases, this is probably the most important step before launching your Google Ads campaign. It’s crucial that you work with an agency or digital marketer that knows how to set this up correctly or else you could lose out on valuable insight. This will help you spend your budget efficiently and have less waste. You will need to understand what is working and what isn’t so that you can make the necessary adjustments to get the most out of your budget. Google’s system is also incredibly sophisticated and uses this data to optimize your campaign to get as many leads as possible at the lowest cost possible, further justifying why this is so important to set up correctly from the onset of the campaign.
So if you’re looking for an effective way to generate leads for your business, look no further than Google Ads. If set up properly with the right digital marketing partner, you’ll be able to get the most out of your budget.
Originally published by the Rochester Business Journal