5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Invest in Google AdWords Bid strategically on keywords that can convert for your business.
By Jason Parks Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As a business owner or marketer, there's no worse feeling than the sound of crickets. When there's a lack of contact form submissions, online orders or phone calls, you have to do something to fill your pipeline.
Related: Use This Google AdWords Hack to Lower Costs and Increase Leads
I recently read a ridiculous article that stated you shouldn't use AdWords for the following reasons:
- You pay for clicks.
- It's hard to compete with big companies.
- You have a limited number of characters.
- Mistakes can cost you dearly.
- It doesn't fit your niche.
I'm going to explain to you why this article was completely inaccurate and how you can grow your business instantly through AdWords. My digital marketing agency manages millions of dollars in ad spend so we have extensive experience when it comes to pay-per-click advertising.
1. You pay for quality and strategic clicks.
With pay-per-click advertising, you only pay for the keywords you strategically bid on. For example, if I'm a plumber and want to generate new leads for "plumbing companies near me," I can bid on just those keywords and I'll only get charged when someone clicks my advertisement and visits my site.
According to the Google Economic Impact Report, businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords.
Can you think of another form of advertising where the intent to purchase is higher? Your potential customer is literally typing what they want into Google and your advertisement will only populate based on the keywords you select and you will only get charged when someone clicks on your ads.
If you do a good job managing your search terms report and add negative keywords, you can drive amazing quality traffic to your site.
Make sure you are bidding in a smart way using broad match modifier, phrase match or exact match to drive traffic quality.
Related: How to Improve Your Google "Quality Score"
2. You can compete with big companies.
Unlike television ads in the '80s and '90s where a business needed a substantial budget to get on the air, you can get started on AdWords for as little as $300. Theoretically, you can start with less of a budget, but $300 is the minimum we recommend for our clients. The reason behind the $300 budget recommendation is so we can generate enough clicks and data to make changes and enhancements to drive conversions.
According to CLUTCH, 45 percent of small businesses use PPC advertising. Once you start generating conversions for your business, whether that's ecommerce purchases for an online retailer or contact form submissions, and prove the effectiveness of this form of advertising, you can increase your budget.
If you have the proper tracking in place and can justify the return on investment with a metric called ROAS (return on advertising spend), you can double down on your advertising spend. That's the beauty of AdWords. You can actually track the performance and once your campaigns are profitable, you can continuously invest more. If you aren't seeing results, it can be paused with the click of a button.
3. Be creative with a limited number of characters.
People are obsessed with quality score for AdWords. They have this notion that if they place the exact keyword they are bidding on in the advertising copy, their quality score will improve and their cost per click will be reduced.
I'll let you in on a secret. If everyone is bidding on the term "Columbus Digital Marketing Agency" in the title of their advertisement, there's not going to be anything that distinguishes your ad versus the competition. I've included an advertisement below that is unique and distinguishes our agency versus others. Don't make your ad copy similar to everyone elses.
Related: The 6 Best Bidding Strategies for Google Keywords
4. Mistakes can cost you dearly.
According to the CEO of Disruptive Advertising, 61 percent of Google AdWords budgets are completely wasted. Mistakes can make or break your AdWords campaign. The same notion is true in every component of business. If you have a lazy accountant, your taxes could be inaccurate and cause you penalties down the road. It helps to hire an expert who knows what they're doing. If you haven't set-up an AdWords campaign before, I recommend letting a Google Certified Expert do this as it will save you time and money. Be transparent with the PPC manager and inform her that you want to learn the tactics she is deploying so down the road, you can do this yourself, if you have the time and are willing to learn the craft.
Below are the biggest mistakes we most often see on AdWords:
- Improper bidding, not using broad match modifier, phrase match, exact match and broad match properly
- Not monitoring the search terms results and adding negative keywords
- Improper conversion tracking set-up, which leads to inaccuracy on reporting and the right decisions can't be made
- Poor advertising copy
- Location targeting not properly set-up based on business objectives
- Improper budget allocation -- Budget should be better distributed to most profitable parts of the business or areas business is looking to grow
- Improper date/time bidding -- For many businesses, there is no need to bid from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.
- Bad landing page experience where the user is exposed to content not directly related to what's being seen in the advertising copy
5. It doesn't fit your niche.
If you can't think of a search term that will help someone learn more about your business, then Facebook or Instagram could be a better play. The majority of businesses can reap the benefits of Google AdWords and drive instant traffic to their site for relevant keywords.
If executed properly, AdWords can be a gold mine for your business. The beauty is that if you want to get started on AdWords, a campaign can be set up in less than an hour and can make a monumental long-term impact for your business.
