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Using Google Ads to promote your site

The omnipresence of Google and its services on the internet today is obvious.

Google maintains a large percentage of market share against other search engines such as Bing.


Google's main profit comes from advertisement. The famous Google Ads and AdSense.


Google Ads can be profitable for your site if used correctly and a waste of time and money if used poorly. You may want to check if you need them at all.


An example, when searching for
An example, when searching for "travel deals", in your browser you will first see the results above the green dashed line. All links above the green line are Ads, not proper search results.
The actual relevant search results appear below the blue dashed line.
The actual relevant search results appear below the blue dashed line.

How Google Ads work

These ads are the promotional links proposed mainly on a search results, triggered by the search terms themselves [see photo above] but they also appear on sites where Google ads are displayed (Adsense). Usually these will be places on sites that have related content to the topic you are presenting.

Note: Implementing a Google Ads campaign is the only piece of advice on this site that has an additional cost. Ads campaigns can be created for any budget small or large.

Managing your Google Ads campaign

Building and implementing Ads and driving a campaign is something that most of us can take great interest in and over time, learn to operate effectively.

Here is a bit of advice on how to get a good start with Google Ads.


1 - No, you don't want to just open a Google Ads account, dump in what you feel could be useful, keep the setttings in standard position, and just pay. You would most probably end up spending more money than needed and having a not very efficient campaign.


2 - Yes, it takes time to get use to the numerous settings and tweaks that are possible, it can be a very interesting process and an incredible occasion to learn more about how all this works. Over time it almost starts to feel like a game. 


3 - You want to maintain a strong consistency between the keywords on your site and the keywords you use with Google ads, both within the text of your ads and the keywords you choose to trigger them.

Google will wait for this consistency to "feel right" before placing your ads, but you will also gain an understanding of how important this correlation is for the people who will actually click your ads.


4 - Go manual! don't trust automation

Using the standard settings at the beginning will give you a good base, but as you observe daily how your ads are doing, and keep on learning, you will retouch a few settings in order to maintain optimal performance. A good start is to make modifications to some of the following settings. 

  • The territory, where you ad will show can be crucial. Will you have clients in France ?
  • The type of network where your Ads appear. (search, search partners, display , ...) can have very different efficiency.
  • The key expressions you place under the "keywords" tab must be chosen and tweaked carefully,  More especially the kind of money you bid on each of them must be monitored and updated. You will quickly see the importance of promoting certain expressions more than others.
  • Often different types of Ads will create very different behaviors in viewers. For an example a text ad may be shown a limited number of times but get a high percentage of people that see it click the ad. While graphic ads can often be shown a large number of times but have a lower percentage of clicks.

5 - Always think about your reader. As usual keep your future reader in mind. What will they type into Google, who will click on the ads, what kind of idea this ad conveys, what kind of expectation does it create once clicked? Is the vocabulary you use matched to the type of clients you would like? 

6 - "Small moves", it is patience game, you often need several days between tweaks to really appreciate the consequence of what you have done. So don't change everything the same day, you will end up losing sight of the effect that the changes actually have. 


7 - Read the very comprehensive help site written by Google

Even if you don't follow blindly their advice and keep in mind to test out the proposed options, most of this helping site on how to use Google Ads is really precious.


8 - More is not always better, some keywords will bring a lot of visitors, but are they clients?

A good example of this is the word "free".  If you offer a free trial or service, free might be a word to use in Google ads. While it will likely bring many people to your site are they really your clients or do they simply click the ad because something is free?


9 - Link your site with Google Analytics (Traffic statistics on your site) and you will be better equipped to track changes you have made on your ads. You will be able to see the number of clicks with the overall number of visits, and sales or contacts you have made. It will simply help you know if you need Gogle ads or not.

Click here to learn more about implementing Google Analytics into your pro site. 


10 - Hiring a Pro: As with many things on your website, what is important is that you gain enough knowledge to coordinate its construction and growth. With enough good notions in hand, you can also better entrust some aspects of your site to be taken care of by professionals. There are a large number of marketing firms that specialize in internet marketing.


Notes: 

• Trying, reading and learning a bit before asking for help. It is always a very good investment, it will help you choose the right person, find the right words to be understood, and save you a lot of money and time.

• We have not tried the Microsoft Advertising yet. But we believe that most of this advice would also be a nice help if you decide to advertise on Bing, here is where to start: https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us

How much money do I need to spend on Ads?

How to choose the best words for my Google Ads?

We advise you to maintain a strong consistency between the keywords on your site and the keywords you use with Google ads, both within the text of your ads and the keywords you choose to trigger them.


Where to learn how to run Ads campaigns?

Start by studying the comprehensive help materials prepared by Google itself: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6146252.

Can my site be seen on Google without Ads?

Yes, websites can have good positions and visibility in Google without ads if they have unique and rich relevant content that gets updated regularly and have correct titles and metadata.

However, if your competitors use Google ads you may want to consider adding them in your promotion strategy as well.