Google Adwords: 7 Benefits for your Business

Talk around the office this week has been leaning towards Google AdWords, and how it’s drawing more and more businesses away from older advertising methods like the Yellow Pages. If you can even get your hands on the Yellow Pages these days, you’ll notice they’re a lot smaller than they used to be; visible evidence of their decline in popularity and effectiveness.

And if you’re looking to get a decent ad in the Yellow Pages, it could cost upwards of £200… After parting with your cash, your advert will be printed in a single Yellow Pages edition, and the next time you hear from them is when it’s time to renew your subscription. You will never know the statistics on how effectively it’s working for you, you can’t change the ad after it’s been printed, and you’re only reaching people who don’t immediately dump the publication! These are a lot of serious limitations.

A survey of 3000 Canadians found that the Yellow Pages only influenced 10% of purchases, compared to search engines influencing a massive 80%. 

Predictably, the internet is crushing this outdated advertisement medium!

So what is Google Adwords and what can it do for me?

Google Adwords is an online advertising service, provided by Google (shocking) that allows you to get advertisements for your business/products onto Google search result pages. Having mentioned Google three times in that last sentence, you probably won’t be surprised when I mention that Adwords has become Google’s main source of revenue. In 2012, Google’s total advertising revenue was $42.5 billion, and in 2013 that rose to $50.5 billion.

The reason it's so successful is because, quite simply, it is a fantastic service! But more on that later…

Example of a Google Ad for Humble Pie, Edinburgh

For the very best Google Adwords campaign, you need a Google Partner

Vital Hike is a Website Creation & Online Marketing business, and we have achieved Certified Google Adwords Partner status.

In order to become a Google Adwords Partner, we had to do some exams, run successful Adwords campaigns (above a minimum level of spend), and Google reviewed our customer accounts to make sure we were providing fantastic customer service. We are assessed each year by Google to ensure we still qualify to be Google Partners, so you can be confident that we possess the most up-to-date skills and know-how on making Google Adwords work for your business.

For more on what Google Partners actually means, check out our earlier blog: Please be upstanding for the new partners, Vital Hike and Google!

64.6% of clicks for high commercial intent keyword searches are on Google Ads. Source: WordStream

7 Benefits of Google AdWords for your Business

So what makes it so fantastic? I’m glad you asked. There are a number of features and tools designed to make Google AdWords super adaptable to your needs. It puts you in control, and operates in a completely transparent manner, letting you get your business mentioned on Page 1 of Google for certain search terms. You no longer have to wonder if your advertising campaign is a waste of money; with Google Adwords, you know if you’re gaining customers or just losing cash.   

Here are just a few more benefits…

1.  You can edit your adverts at any time

Unlike the Yellow Pages, where you write up an advert and never hear from them again until it’s time to renew your bill, Google AdWords can be changed and updated any time.

For example, if you submit an advertisement to the Yellow Pages with a spelling mistake, and no one picks up on it before it’s printed, then you’re sunk. It’s going to be in all the Yellow Pages copies getting sent out, and your business will look unprofessional. With Google Adwords, you just log in and fix the mistake. Simple.

2. Minimal cost

Similar to pay-as-you-go mobiles, Google AdWords will only charge you for results, i.e. you only get charged for your advert if someone clicks on it. This is why AdWords is also known as Pay per Click (PPC) advertising. And to avoid this spiralling out of control if the whole internet clicks your advert, you can very easily set up a daily budget. This limits how much you spend on Google AdWords to an amount you’re comfortable with, e.g. £20 a day. What we would recommend will largely depend on the industry you’re in and how competitive your search terms are.

For example, someone using Google Adwords to promote their dog breeding business might be interested in people searching Google for “puppies”. Here is a quick rundown from Google AdWords of the stats on various versions of "puppies" searches.

Google AdWords statistics on search terms related to "puppies"

As you can see, over the past year, there were 61,550 searches on Google for the phrase “Bulldog Puppies”, and only 12,350 searches for the phrase “Puppies for Free”. This tells us how popular the phrase is among your potential customers, and therefore if it’s worth attaching an advert to it.

The next column, Competition, shows us how many advertisers are showing for each search term, ranging from Low to High. This is important because it tells us how many other businesses are competing for this phrase and if the competition is high, then it might not be worth your time. More competitive phrases can also cost more per click.

3. You get to see statistics!

We realise that not everyone shares our enthusiasm for statistics, but they really are fantastic. Your advertising campaign doesn’t have to be a mystery! Google AdWords keeps track of a number of statistics on your ad campaign, so that you can determine if it’s worth your time and money. And if you decide it’s not, then you can stop it at any time, since there is no contract or strings attached.

For example, you decide to target the search term “fresh fruit Dundee” to promote your Fruit business locally. One month later you check the stats, to find that only 3 people have clicked your advert, and the Cost Per Click (CPC) was £3.50. This isn't great news. Luckily, the stats let you know what was going on, so now you can stop targeting “fresh fruit Dundee”, because it’s not profitable for you, and target something else instead! At least it only cost you £10.50 to find out this search term wouldn't be successful. However, if you wanted to advertise in the Yellow Pages if could be an upfront fee of hundreds of pounds, with no stats to tell you if it was all worth it.  

Organic search results account for just 14.8% of the Google search results page, before scrolling down. That leaves 85.2% of the space for sponsored ads! Source: WordStream

4. Run multiple ad campaigns if you want

You can run as many adverts as you want, and you only pay when someone clicks one. There are very few limitations with Google Adwords! So instead of only targeting “fresh fruit Dundee”, you could also capitalise on other search terms like “summer fruits Dundee”, or “local produce Dundee”, and have them all running simultaneously.

5. Get more visitors to your website

Google Adwords gets results. If you have a very clear goal in mind for your ad campaign, such as getting more website visitors, or growing your online sales, then Google Adwords can help. A carefully targeted campaign can have fantastic results, but for long-term cost effectiveness, we would recommend optimising your website via SEO as well.

6. Target customers

One of the powerful tools within Google AdWords is the ability to target certain individuals. If you’re trying to sell fresh fruit in Dundee Scotland, there is no point in paying for people in America who click your ads. Never fear, with Google AdWords, you can target people only within the U.K., or even just in Dundee if you wish!

The Yellow Pages might claim to have a circulation of around 10,000 people, but how many of those people are just dumping the publication? And how many of them are looking for fresh fruit in Dundee? Potentially, only 1 reader might be interested in your business. The internet isn't as limited; focus your money on targetting potential customers.

7. AdWords is faster than SEO

Google AdWords can be set up fairly quickly, although it does take time to craft the marketing strategy. Your ads could be up and running within a day, and could potentially get you immediate results of more website visitors/orders/enquiries, etc. Search Engine Optimisation on the other hand takes up a lot more time, and is reliant upon Google detecting your changes. Over time Google should recognise your website is optimised for dog breeding terms, if that’s your business, and rank your page higher for relevant searches, but it can take time for this recognition to occur, just because there are so many websites!

SEO Organic Search Versus Google Adwords PPC. Source: WordStream

All-in-all, Google AdWords is much more user-friendly than more traditional methods of advertising, like the Yellow Pages. The service provides you with loads of useful information on how well your adverts are doing, so you know in real-time if you need to change them. And best of all is that you’re advertising on Google, which saw 114.7 billion searches in December 2012, which is 65% of all search engine traffic.

We’ll leave you to digest that for now, and will return soon with more in-depth information on how Google AdWords actually works. In the mean-time, if you have any questions about Google AdWords for your business, then feel free to give us a call on 01382 250 240, or drop us an email with your query!

Find out what Google AdWords can do for your business,

With Certified Google Partners,

Vital Hike

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