How to Use Google Ads to Grow Your Small Business Online
Google Ads is a great way to advertise your small business online. It lets you show your ads to people who are looking for your products or services on Google, or browsing websites that are related to your business. But how do you use Google Ads effectively? How do you make sure you get the most out of your money and time? Here are 3 simple tips to help you run Google Ads successfully for your small business.
1. Know what you want and how much you can spend
Before you start making your Google Ads campaign, you need to know what you want and how much you can spend. What is your goal with your ads? Do you want to get more people to visit your website, sign up for your newsletter, or buy your products? How much money are you willing to spend on your ads? How will you know if your ads are working?
Having a clear goal and budget will help you plan your campaign better, choose the right words and phrases that will trigger your ads, target the right people who are interested in your business, and adjust how much you pay for each click or impression. It will also help you avoid wasting money on clicks or impressions that are not relevant or helpful.
2. Pick the right words and phrases and how they match
Words and phrases are the key to Google Ads. They are what make your ads show up on Google search results or other websites. Picking the right words and phrases and how they match is very important for running Google Ads effectively. You want to pick words and phrases that are related to your business, have a lot of people searching for them, and have low competition from other advertisers. You also want to use different ways of matching them to control how closely they match what people search for.
There are four main ways of matching words and phrases in Google Ads: broad match, phrase match, exact match, and negative match. Broad match is the default and most flexible way, which lets your ads show up for any search that is related to your words or phrases, even if it has extra words or different word order. Phrase match is more specific, which lets your ads show up only for searches that have your words or phrases in the same order. Exact match is the most precise and narrow way, which lets your ads show up only for searches that exactly match your words or phrases, without any extra words or variations. Negative match is the opposite of the other ways, which lets you exclude certain words or phrases from triggering your ads.
By using different ways of matching words and phrases, you can balance between reaching a lot of people and targeting a specific group. You can also avoid showing your ads for searches that are not relevant or useful, which can lower your click-through rate (CTR) and quality score.
3. Check and improve how your ads are doing
Running Google Ads effectively requires checking and improving how your ads are doing regularly. You need to check different numbers and signs that show how well your ads are doing, such as impressions, clicks, CTR, cost per click (CPC), conversions, cost per conversion (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and quality score.
You can use Google Analytics or other tools to check these numbers and see how people who come from your ads behave on your website. You can also use Google Ads reports or dashboards to see an overview of how your campaign is doing and find areas where you can improve.
Based on the data and insights you get, you can improve your Google Ads campaign by changing your words or phrases, bids, ad text, landing pages, targeting options, and more. You can also use Google Ads features such as smart bidding, responsive search ads, or dynamic search ads to make some of the changes automatically and save time.
Using Google Ads to grow your small business online can be easy and fun if you follow these 3 tips: know what you want and how much you can spend, pick the right words and phrases and how they match, and check and improve how your ads are doing. By doing so, you can increase your online visibility, reach more potential customers, and grow your business online.