7 Things to Do BEFORE You Launch Google Ads

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be a powerful lead generation channel for your small business.

But while it is very easy to set up a Google Ads account, put your credit card in and have ads run on Google in just a few minutes, doing it in a way that doesn’t waste a lot of your money quickly is another matter.

Here are a few tips before you plug that credit card in

• Know your ideal customer
  • Have in mind what your best customers look like and have a brainstormed list of the keywords and phrases they’re likely to put in a search engine to find solutions to the problems you solve.
  • If you’re not sure, ask your current customers.
• Do keyword research
  • There are plenty of free tools (Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension is a great one) to help you determine the relative worth and volume of a keyword, but you can get pretty far just spending a couple of hours doing searches and noting other suggested phrases that come up and looking at the ads and landing pages that are returned when you search.
• Use negative keywords
  • I take this for granted, but many small business owners don’t know that you can tell Google certain words NOT to show your ad when they’re put in.
  • Think: “free,” “cheap,” “jobs,” etc. – all phrases you do NOT want your ad to show up for as there is very little chance this is a qualified click or lead for your business.
• It isn’t about you
  • Solve problems. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. They do not care what you do or sell, they care about getting their problem solved.
  • When a searcher looks for “hot water heater repair little rock” they don’t care (in the short term) that you’ve been in business 40 years; they care that you can be at their house to fix their water heater within the next 2 hours – THAT’s what your ad should be about.
• Use a dedicated landing page
  • Especially when you’re using Pay Per Click to attract new customers; make it exceedingly easy for them to choose you. A landing page (the page your ad clicks to) that is solely about one product or service that you’re advertising for is a far better experience than making someone navigate your full site.
  • Plus, Google will likely rate your ad higher (which lowers your per-click cost) with a high quality, problem-specific landing page.
• Test and learn
  • PPC is absolutely not a “set it and forget it” type of marketing. Your ads, campaigns, budgets, landing pages, etc. all need to be closely monitored and adjusted for optimal results.
  • And as you get used to PPC advertising, experiment with new ads, keywords, campaigns, etc. to learn more about what drives positive results and continuously improve your campaigns.
• Know what a customer is worth and measure accordingly
  • If you know what a customer is worth to you (either per transaction or BETTER over a long-term relationship) then you can back-in to what you can afford to pay to acquire them. This should be the bedrock of your Pay Per Click budget planning.

Google Ads Expertise Little Rock

PPC advertising can be very effective…and very complex. So, before you dive in, use these tips to craft or your campaigns, or get in touch and let us help!

Photo by Brandon Green on Unsplash