Quick Guide to Google Ad Campaigns

Understanding the Different Types and Formats of Google Ads

Google Ads are an amazing tool used by marketers and small business owners to help boost sales, generate leads, improve brand awareness, and more. But it’s important to understand that creating a successful Google Ads campaign is not as simple as just clicking a button and launching a campaign. There are so many different types of Google Ads that it can be difficult to choose which format would work best for your business. 

In this article, we will discuss the benefits of using Google Ads along with the differences between different ad formats, so you can make an informed decision on what type of Google Ads is best for you and your business.

What Are Google Ads?

Google Ads is a digital advertising platform operated by Google. To put it simply, Google Ads enable you to advertise with text, banner, and video ads on Google, Google-owned platforms, and partner websites.

When you decide to start advertising through Google Ads, you will be tasked with setting up and monitoring what is known as a “campaign.”

How it Works

Google Ads is a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) which means the advertiser must pay every time someone clicks or makes an impression on one of their ads.

As the advertiser, you must target specific keywords on Google and bid against other advertisers for those keywords. You must set your bid as the maximum amount of money you are willing to spend per keyword.

Instead of setting a budget per keyword, you can also set a maximum daily budget for your ad. This means you won’t ever spend more for your ad in a day than that amount.

Along with your bid budget, Google will also rank your ads using its “Quality Score.” The Quality Score takes into consideration the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. A higher Quality Score means you will get access to lower prices and better ad positions.

Bidding Strategies

There are three main bidding strategies within Google Ads that you should familiarize yourself with:

• Cost-per-click (CPC): This refers to the amount you pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
• Cost-per-mille (CPM): The amount you pay per 1,000 ad impressions.
• Cost-per-engagement (CPE). The amount you pay every time a user performs a specific action on your ad. This can include signing up for a mailing list, watching a video, etc.

What Are the Main Benefits of Google Ads?

Here is a quick snapshot of the power that Google Ads have when it comes to PPC advertising:

• Google Display ads result in 180 million monthly impressions
• Conversions from paid ads are double that of organic conversions
• Google Ads have a click-through rate of nearly 2%
• Google paid ads receive 65% of the clicks on Google from users that are ready to make a purchase
• 43% of customers say they have made a purchase based on a YouTube ad

Additional Benefits of Google Ads include:

• Ad spending is highly controlled
• Google Ads are incredibly flexible
• Ads are highly targeted
• The success of campaigns is easily measured
• Campaigns can be managed and monitored easily
• Ads are a great way to build brand awareness

The Different Google Ad Formats to Choose From

Google Ads offers numerous different ad formats depending on your goals and what outcome you are seeking. Below we explain the five main Google Ad formats.

Search

Search ads appear in Google Search results and are one of the most popular forms of Google Ads. For example, if you run an online women’s shoe boutique, you can bid on the keyword “women’s shoes” and have your ads displayed at the top of the Google Search results that appear when someone searches for women’s shoes.

Display

With Display Ads, your ads won’t appear on Google. Instead, they will appear either as text ads on Gmail, as banner ads on Google’s third-party partner websites, or as pre-roll ads before YouTube videos.

It should be noted that Google works with over two million partner websites, enabling you to reach more than 90% of all Internet users.

Shopping

Google Shopping displays a carousel of products that appear when someone searches for a specific type of product. Continuing with the above example of the women’s shoe boutique, if someone were to search for a black leather wedge sandal, the boutique could set up their Google Shopping ads so that their black leather wedge sandal will be shown to someone searching on Google for that particular item.

Video

Google Video Ads are ads that appear during YouTube videos. Rather than Display Ads that appear during YouTube videos, Video Ads use the video format. You can choose for your ads to be either “skippable” or “unskippable”.

App

With this format, your ads will appear in third-party applications within Google’s app network.

Which Format Should You Choose

While all Google Ad formats are effective, the format you choose depends on your business, its goals, and the outcome you want to achieve from using Google Ads.

For instance, eCommerce businesses looking to increase sales can utilize Google Shopping ads, while businesses looking to generate brand awareness can take advantage of the massive reach display ads offer. 

Additionally, Search Ads are great for:

• Growing online sales and signups
• Targeting a highly specific audience
• Businesses with a longer sales cycle

App Ads ads help with:

• Getting people to install, engage with, and signup for your app on their mobile device
• Marketing your business across multiple channels
• Automating targeting, bidding, and creating ads

Get Started With Consultus Digital

Still, have questions or need help getting your Google Ads campaign up and running? Contact our team of Google Ads experts at Consultus Digital today. Our Google Ads agency specializes in creating and managing Google Ads campaigns while being mindful of your budget. We make sure to make the most of your budget so you can start seeing results and growing your business.

Ready to get started? Get in touch with us to get the ball rolling.