I will admit when I first heard talk here at Dogwood about “google ads” I kind of cringed. I imagined those awful pop-ups that interrupt you when reading a website. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to pay for those things and why we would promote them. Well, I was right and I was wrong. I was right in that we don’t do those annoying pop-up ads (thank goodness!) but I was wrong in what a google ad actually is. No, they are not those “pop-ups” at all. In fact, it is a form of advertising that I can really respect and promote. Chances are you have clicked on an ad yourself today. Read on…
What really is a Google Ad?
Google Ads, once called Adwords, are a very helpful and classy form of advertising. Think of the last time you googled something. A list pops up of search results based on what words you put in the search bar. If you look very closely at the top search results, you will usually see at least one listing with the tiny green square with the word Ad next to it.
That, my friends, is a paid google ad. Do you realize how you found it? It certainly was not popping up on your screen as you tried to read a new recipe. You found it because you searched for something it was connected to. To me, Google Ads are very helpful because they are connected to specific words that the user is already searching for. They help you find answers and give you options. I find joy in digital advertising when I am helping to educate a person on a business’s products and services or the mission and events of organizations and that joy is multiplied when their customers find what they are looking for. Creating social media content, writing blogs, or running a google ads campaign for clients is not just advertising but providing valuable insightful information that our client’s customers are actually looking for.
How does Google connect my ad to future customers or followers?
Google Ads are linked to something called “keywords.” A keyword is the actual search term that you put in when searching for something in google. A keyword can be very general like “Social Media” or it can be a custom keyword such as “Facebook”. Social Media includes all the platforms but Facebook is specific. Another example could be “Christmas Tree” vs “Christmas Tree Farm.” You can link the general keyword or the custom keyword to narrow down the search for whoever is looking for you. When someone types in the keywords we have linked to your google ads, your ad is shown higher in the search results page.
People are searching for your business. Keywords through Google Ads help them find it faster. Your website may show up organically without paid google ads, but a lot of things have to be right on your site to make that happen (my blog on SEO expounds on this) and that often takes time. We can help with that too!
Targeting Your Audience
Sometimes showing your ads to anyone and everyone who searches your keywords is a good thing but more often than not, the best results come from choosing to show ads to a specific audience. Google Ads also allows you to target by demographics, geography, affinity, topics, and keywords.
This combination of keywords that connect you to people who are already looking for you and targeting that helps the right people see your ads is a beautiful thing!
The Cost
One of the most beautiful things about Google Ads is that you control your budget all of the time. You set your monthly budget and you only pay when people take action by clicking on your ad (called Pay Per Click). You can adjust your monthly budget anytime and completely pause ads if you need to. As little as $5 gets you started. We recommend starting with at least a $50 monthly budget and adjusting from there.
If you’d like to talk more about how Google Ads could help your business or organization, contact us today. We promise we will never recommend those terrible “pop-ups!”
