PPC ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN – GOOGLE ADS

Before I jump into explaining what Google Ads is all about, let’s have a look at one example from the image presented below.

As you see from the above illustration, you can clearly notice that when somebody types a keyword "Project Management" on Google search engine, there are two websites appeared on the top of the search result page where they are marked by sponsored categories. Yes, that is exactly how Google Ads has been running across its search engine. Nonetheless, what you see from the above picture is simply one of the examples of displayed ads aside from its other interactive form of ads placements such as banners and videos.

To kick things off, Google Ads or formerly known as Google AdWords, is an online advertising platform developed and operated by Google. It is a powerful and widely-used digital advertising tool that enables businesses and marketers to promote their products or services to a vast online audience. Google Ads in addition to this allows advertisers to create and manage advertisements that appear on Google's search engine pages, as well as on other Google-owned platforms – e.g. YouTube.

Historically, the platform has been around since October 2000 and has evolved and expanded its offerings; rebranding its name to Google Ads somewhere in 2018. In fact, the platform has become a great way for companies to increase the visibility of their websites to potential customers across its vast array of the Google network. When it comes to the technical implementations, the core principle of Google Ads revolves around Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising where advertisers bid on specific keywords or target audiences and they pay a fee only when their ads are clicked. Needless to say, this particular approach ensures that advertisers can reach potential customers actively while searching for products or services related to their offerings; making it a highly efficient and cost-effective method of digital marketing.

Furthermore, understanding certain terms of Google Ads is essential. As we delve further into the world of Google Ads, we will encounter a unique set of terminologies and acronyms which are important for managing our campaigns effectively. Thus, here are some of the key terms that we should familiarize ourselves with:

1. Impressions: This refers to the number of times our ad is displayed to users (humans) which does not necessarily mean they interact with the ad, but rather than it is simply a measure of how often our ad is shown.

2. Clicks: This represents the number of times users click on our ad. It is a crucial metric as it directly relates to the performance of our campaign.

3. CTR (Click-Through Rate): The CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks with the number of impressions. Simply put, this helps us to measure the effectiveness of our ad running in encouraging users to take an action.

4. Keywords: The Keywords are basically the words or phrases that trigger our ads to appear when users search on Google. In other words, selecting the right keywords is essentially vital for reaching our target audience.

5. Conversion: This occurs when a user takes a desired action after clicking on our ad, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a newsletter. And I would say this is the most pivotal element which determines our Return on Investment (ROI) after spending some budgets on using the platform.

6. Quality Score: This is a Google-assigned rating which measures the quality and the relevance of our ads, keywords, and landing pages. As it directly impacts our ad position and cost-per-click, we have to make sure that our ads are among the top quality ones.

CREATING EFFECTIVE ADS CAMPAIGNS

Alright! We’ve already learned the above theories and now let’s get to the execution part. When it comes to creating an effective ad campaign, firstly, it is crucial to start by defining our clear objectives. Well, we need to ask ourselves what we want to achieve with our campaign in the first place. Perhaps, the simple questions would be of asking whether we are looking to drive website traffic, generate leads, increase sales, or raise brand awareness. Having said that, by setting our specific goals will certainly guide us to run our campaign strategy and gauge our measurement of success.

Secondly, configuring our campaign settings properly is also vital following our goals establishment. These settings, in fact, will include budget allocation, ad scheduling, location targeting, and device preferences. Needless to say, our choices here will impact when and where our ads appear and we must ensure that they reach the right audience at the right time.

Thirdly, writing compelling ads is imperative to successfully capture users’ attentions. At this point, the headline of our ad is the first thing that users will look at, hence, we have to use concise, yet, impactful language that relates to our keywords and offers a clear benefit to the audience. In many cases, a compelling headline piques curiosity and entices clicks so we need to make it count.

Finally, aside from our eye-catching headline, the body of our ad should render more contextual messages to convince users to take an action. We can do this by highlighting our unique selling points, extra benefits, and a clear Call-to-Action (CTA) using a persuasive tone of language that addresses the users’ needs. Therefore, it is highly recommended to keep our ad copy concise and straight to the point.

Note: Below here is the screenshot of my targeted locations where there are roughly around "49 countries + 14 cities" which I bid on Google Ads specifically in order to help me promote this blog of mine that you are currently browsing through. Nonetheless, keep in mind that you need to be fully aware of your initial budgets since every cost per click triggered by users and the number of impressions (how often your ads appear) will vary on the basis of geographic locations, aside from the types of keywords that you are placing on your ads descriptions. After all, there are no conversions seem to be generated as you can notice from the image below due to the fact that my primary objective to utilize Google Ads is simply to promote or introduce my website to other visitors around the globe.