Does Advertising on Google Still Work Today?

These days, Google is king when it comes to just about anything on the internet. From search engines to cloud storage to basic email, Google has something for everyone. But how does Google make any money if most of their services are free?

The answer lies in their powerful yet subtle advertising system.

Google Advertising – An Overview

When you search for something on Google, many of the first results you receive are advertisements that have been paid for by that company. Knowing these results are advertisements, some savvy searchers will skip right past these links to get to the content they are searching for.

But does that mean that Google advertising doesn’t work? There must be something to these ads that have pushed Google to become one of the largest online advertisers in the world.

In this post, we’ll take a look at how to advertise on Google, how Google Ads works, and discuss whether Google advertisements are worth a portion of your advertising budgets.

Google Advertisement Offerings

Google first released their Google AdWords platform in early 2000 with the goal to help customers connect with online businesses. In its early stages, a business would pay a monthly fee to Google to set up and manage their online campaigns. It wasn’t long before the service expanded their AdWords service, creating a new platform that allowed small businesses to create and manage their own advertisements.

Google Adwords

Throughout the years, Google AdWords took on many changes to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies. As of July 24, 2018, Google has changed their AdWords service to Google Ads. Google Ads is a more inclusive advertising platform that reaches across all of Google’s services, including YouTube and Gmail. They also added a few new management tools to help businesses make the best ads for their budget.

Let’s take a look at the advertisement offerings currently provided by Google to get a better understanding of how they can be used.

Google Ads

Google Ads originated from Google’s widely popular AdWords advertising service. Many of the features are the same as they were previously, with some new additions that aim to help businesses reach customers.

With Google Ads, businesses can create advertisements for a variety of different Google platforms. For example, a company may want to have an advertisement that plays before a YouTube video with related content. Google Ads offers graphic display ads, keyword-based search ads, in-app mobile ads, and more.

How Google Ads Works?

Google Ads also gives you complete control over which potential customers will be able to see your ad. Say, you’re a local flower shop looking to stir up business in the surrounding metro area. It wouldn’t make sense for your advertisement to show up on the screen of someone who lives in an area you don’t service. Google Ads lets you fine-tune who will see your advertisement, allowing you to maximize your customer potential.

Google Ads comes with an extensive analytics system that is well-known for its highly accurate results. This system allows advertisers to see how many people have viewed your ad, clicked on the webpage, or called your business. You can look at your keywords, compare clicks to cost, and even fine-tune your audience. You can also use this platform to tweak your ads based on how well they’re performing.

Google Marketing Platform

Google Marketing Platform is another new offer from Google that includes an integrated set of advertising and analytical products to streamline a company’s cross-channel advertisements. This allows you to manage every step of the customer journey so you can lead your prospects through an optimized experience.

The Google Marketing Platform combines seven Google products: Analytics, Data Studio, Optimize, Surveys, Tag Manager, Display & Video 360, and Search Ads 360.

The first five tools can be used by anyone, whether or not you have an advertisement running through Google Ads.

Analytics. The Analytics tool allows you to get a better understanding of who your customers are and what they’re looking for.
Data Studio. The Data Studio tool gives you the ability to combine your data into easy-to-understand spreadsheets for reporting.
Optimize. The Optimize tool allows you to run free tests on your website to see what works best for you and your customers.
Surveys. The Surveys tool allows you to send out surveys to gather the information you need to understand your audience.
Tag Manager. Finally, the Tag Manager allows you to update tags so you can make informed business decisions.

The final two tools on the Google Marketing Platform deal with the management of advertisements through Google Ads.

Display & Video 360. The Display & Video 360 tool deals with all kinds of visual advertisements, including those with photos or videos. You can use this tool to collaborate across your marketing team, view your ad insights, set automation, and control your budget.
Search Ads 360. The Search Ads 360 tool has many similar features but focuses entirely on text-based advertisements.

Google Ad Manager

The Google Ad Manager uses many of the tools found in the Google Marketing Platform but is more specifically tuned to the advertisement experience. This tool is useful for companies that are running multiple ads at the same time and want to be able to compare and edit them in the same place.

Google Ad Manager allows you to edit ads in bulk, check out insights, and adjust publisher controls all in the same platform.

Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is an intuitive service that gives advertisement customers insight into the best keywords for their business. To use the Keyword Planner, search for words or phrases that are related to your business’ product or services.

The Keyword Planner will provide you with hundreds of keywords that are closely related to your business. You can also get suggested bid estimates based on how often the keywords are searched, and narrow your keywords down to further optimize the effectiveness of your advertisements.

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Google Ads App

Google knows that many customers operate entirely on mobile devices, so they created the Google Ads App to allow businesses to manage their advertisements while on the go.

Using the Google Ads App, you can view your campaign status, update your budget, edit keywords, and more. The app will send you real-time alerts and notifications, so you can keep up-to-date on all of your ads. The Google Ads App also offers simplified suggestions with a clear call to actions to help keep your ads running smoothly throughout the campaign.

The Google Ads App is currently only available for existing Google Ads customers with an Android mobile device.

How to Advertise on Google

Google has made their advertisement process simple, so just about anyone can get an ad started with a few simple clicks.

To advertise on Google, start by visiting the Google Ads website and click on the button that says, “Start Now.” This will bring you to a guided setup, where you’re prompted to put in your email address and the website you wish to advertise for.

The Initial Step

It’s time to set up your first Google Ad campaign. The simplified setup allows you to set your daily budget, location, networks, keywords, and more. Google Ads will automatically set your bids to get as many clicks as possible, though you do have the option of setting your own bids.

The last step is to write out your first text advertisement. Google gives you a few areas to enter in your ad content, including two headlines and a description area. The headlines will appear at the top of the ad and are linked to your site, while the description is the small blurb at the bottom.

Once your ad copy is done, simply add a payment method and send your ad in to be approved and published.

Cost of Google Advertisements

Google knows that not all of their customers are large businesses with bulky advertisement budgets that can afford hundreds of dollars a day. This is why they created the budget system, which is made to optimize pricing based on the individual budget that is set.

Google Ads is based on a bidding system, which prioritizes ads with high-quality results and proper placement.

Typically, the average cost per click for a Google advertisement is between $1-$2. Small businesses that use Google Ads spend an average of $9000–$10,000 a month, while large enterprises have been known to spend over $50 million a year.

Is it Worth it to Advertise on Google?

Google Ads is a very popular advertisement campaign, and it’s not hard to see why. Google is a huge brand that reaches across just about every aspect of the internet and is used by millions of people every day. Their advertisement platform is incredibly intuitive and can be easily navigated by just about anyone looking to place an ad.

Their pricing flexibility gives businesses peace of mind that they won’t overspend their advertisement budget and can be easily fine-tuned for optimal results. No matter what your business is selling, Google Ads will have the right advertisement solution for you.

Featured Image: CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay