How Google Ads can raise your profile

Firms who want to get noticed can go a long way towards raising their profile with a great digital marketing strategy. Enlisting a good blog writer with knowledge of how to produce the best SEO is a great start.

That approach is known as ‘organic’ in terms of search. It means that Google and other search engines will send their crawlers - small bots that search the internet and assess content - in order to rank content and give it the highest relevance. The organic content that achieves the best SEO will make the first page. Since almost nine out of ten people searching on Google do not look past the first page, this is where you want to be.

However, this is no easy task. With around 200 elements involved in determining rankings - and what they all are is, of course, a closely guarded secret - there is plenty of trial-and-error involved. In addition, as trustworthiness is undoubtedly a factor, it can take time for a company to build this up by producing a large volume of good, reliable content.

Understand Google Ads

You can make a success of organic content with patience and persistence, but if you want to get results sooner, Google Ads offers a fast-track alternative.

Formerly known as Google Adwords, Google Ads is a form of paid search that works on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. The aim is to get the ad on the first search engine rankings page, so when somebody searches under a specific term, your advert will appear there, above the highest-ranking organic searches.

So, for example, you can use one of your main services as a keyword. The aim here is to get a high click-through rate, so you can measure the success of keywords for a particular website.

 

How to get a good Google Ad ranking

However, keywords are just one of the factors that Google will take account of before providing a listing. Others include the quality of your content, the provision of useful extra details such as your contact information, plus location. The last of these can help ensure more local searches find your ad if you operate in just one geographical area.

Other important factors include spending enough money on the ad, as a low budget will mean ads do not show up often. The keyword quality score is also very important and this means keywords must be relevant and help describe what you are offering. In addition, extensions featuring important details such as services and contact details can also boost your ranking.

Put together, these amount to what is known as an ad rank. Even among those ads that are listed on the first page, this ranking will determine the order in which they are shown.  

A key benefit of using Google Ads is that people clicking on them will know they are adverts. By law, online adverts cannot masquerade as something else, so a small box with ‘ads’ will appear on the left-hand side.

Know the rules

As with any advertising, it is important to ensure legal compliance. This includes advertising standards and GDPR. For instance, advertising standards regulations require that no advertiser should make a claim that cannot be substantiated, such as offering a service that is not actually available.

Also, it is worth noting Google Ads has its own set of standards. Many of these will probably not apply to your firm, such as adult content or dangerous goods, but close attention should be paid to avoid misrepresentations or promotions that do not meet destination requirements. In the last case, this would involve links that do not take the person clicking on them to where the call to action indicated.

Integrating Google ads with your wider strategy

Using Google Ads may be used as a standalone strategy, particularly if a marketing budget is limited and investment in PPC is seen as a priority. However, Google Ads can also be used alongside other digital marketing methods. For example, you might want to use social media advertising or email as another means of swiftly reaching your target market.

In all of this, it is important to ensure the ads are in line with the rest of your marketing strategy. In particular, your target market must be the clear focus of your ads.

A strategy that may work very well is to use both Google Ads and work on building up your organic, SEO-rich content through things like a marketing blog. One way to proceed is to use Google Ads as the means of getting going until your organic content is ranking highly enough for you to focus on that. It can also help build up awareness of your brand.

How BeUniqueness can help

At BeUniqueness, we have the expertise to help you plan your digital marketing strategy. This includes helping you decide if Google Ads has an important role to play, as well as how this may work alongside other forms of digital marketing ranging from organic and social media posts through to e-mail marketing. As ever, we seek to tailor the solution to the nature of your firm and the challenges facing it.

P.S. Google Ads won’t be the best solution for everyone, but for many firms, it could provide a significant boost to visibility and help attract plenty of new customers. 

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