Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a type of online advertising that uses targeted digital ads to increase website traffic, visibility and conversions. If you do it properly, it can have a huge positive impact on your small business.
This marketing approach can help you generate leads, earn high returns and build brand awareness quickly.
Google Ads, formerly Google AdWords, is one platform you can use for PPC marketing.
Google has an average of over 80 billion visits each month, reminding us of its dominance in the search engine market. And its ubiquity in the world of digital marketing is just as undeniable.
W3Techs estimates over 48% of all websites use Google Ads, which makes it the most popular PPC framework.
If you’re considering using this platform for search engine marketing efforts, understanding the advantages of Google Ads and how it can improve your small business will help you decide.
That’s where we come in. Our guide covers all the need-to-know info about the benefits of using Google Ads for your small business’s marketing plan and targeted campaigns, so you can determine if it’s the right service for you.
Google Ads explained
Google Ads is a well-known paid online advertising program you can use to create campaigns. These campaigns promote your business through Google’s display and search networks.
The purpose of this PPC platform is to give business leaders an opportunity to advertise their products, services or other types of offering to users worldwide.
Google Ads also aims to help you optimize your online marketing efforts and make them more effective. There are many amazing benefits of Google Ads, and it presents a range of useful tools for small businesses — but we’ll discuss that later.
You can create a few different kinds of campaigns through Google Ads:
Types of Google Ads campaigns
- Search campaigns: Search ads are presented on Google search engine results pages (SERPs), along with organic results, in response to users looking up related search terms. These are mainly text ads.
Search campaigns target users who are searching for terms relevant to your business offer. - Display campaigns: Display ads appear when people visit sites in the Google Display Network — a collection of over two million websites that reaches over 90% of all internet users. These ads might show up in articles, videos or websites.
They can be images, video, text or other formats.
- Shopping campaigns: Shopping campaigns — managed through the Google Merchant Center — are a great option for eCommerce and retail businesses.
Shopping ads appear on the main SERP and through the Google Shopping tab. They’re mainly targeted through product data rather than keywords.
- Video campaigns: These campaigns are done through YouTube. Video ads reach potential customers through this popular platform and are presented only in video format.
- App campaigns: App ads promote applications. Rather than requiring you to create individual ads, app campaigns use all your existing marketing assets to present ads across a range of platforms.
The diversity among ad campaign types is one of the key benefits of Google Ads.
Google Ads bidding options
Google Ads offers a range of Smart Bidding options. These are designed to help you maximize your return on ad spending (ROAS). When using this platform, you “bid” through the Google Ads auction based on one of these payment structures:
- CPC (cost-per-click) or PPC: Pay per each click
- CPM (cost-per-mille): Pay for every 1,000 views or impressions
- CPA (cost-per-action): Pay per conversions or other specified customer action
- CPV (cost-per-view): Pay per view (only for video campaigns)
The variety of choices for both ad campaign types and payment schemas makes Google Ads effective for a range of small businesses.
But that isn’t the only thing that makes this ad platform so useful. It offers tons of other valuable benefits:
What Are The Advantages of Google Ads?
- Increase brand visibility
- Target customers more effectively
- Customize your approach
- Generate more traffic, conversions and leads
- Stick to your budget
- Evaluate your success
- Expand your knowledge
- See results quickly
- Enjoy full control
- Earn more revenue
Let’s look more closely at each advantage.
Increase brand visibility
Using Google Ads is a fast and easy way to rank high on SERPs. That’s not only useful when it comes to traffic and conversions. It also helps show your name, identity and unique business offer to a larger segment of users.
A study by Zenith predicts global advertising spending will reach nearly $885 billion by the end of 2024. And if you want to have a fighting chance at keeping up with the competition as a small business owner, expanding awareness around your brand is absolutely essential.
Target customers more effectively
Google Ads let you strategically pinpoint the right customers and show them the most relevant, effective ads. You can find the best keywords and target leads based on a range of customization options. Target and adapt your ads through:
- Specific keywords and keyword match type
- Age
- Location
- Language
- Time of day
- Frequency
- Device type
These targeting customizations increase the chances that your leads will be high quality. This helps maximize conversions and makes your overarching digital marketing efforts more successful.
Customize your approach
Why use Google Ads? Not only can you target customers more strategically, but you can also customize the way you target them to a higher degree.
Through Google Ads, you can easily mold campaigns to fit your business needs. You can scale your marketing efforts up and down. You can curate your own unique mix of digital ads and include whatever works best to reach your customers.
You can even partner with a Google Ads expert. These advisors help you plan and execute campaigns. Plus, they usually offer one-on-one consultations and recommendations.
The customization possibilities are truly endless. And customization is key, as no two customers are exactly the same.
Generate more traffic, conversions and leads
According to StatCounter, Google makes up over 93% of the search engine market worldwide. Take advantage of that huge market share with Google Ads and reach many more potential customers.
Adding high-quality paid ads to your existing search engine optimization (SEO) marketing or digital marketing strategy is a great way to directly increase traffic, conversions and leads. You can increase online sales along with in-person sales.
Stick to your budget
With Google Ads, you only pay for what you use. And it has no minimum spending requirement. Choose how much you want to spend, when you want to spend and what you want to spend on. This framework in itself will reduce your costs.
The lack of hidden fees makes it easy to cap your budget and immediately stop spending once you reach your projected ad spend.
Plus, Google Ads uses automation to help optimize your spending. You can plan monthly budgets and adapt them in real-time as needed. You’ll also get useful suggestions from Google.
So Google’s AI not only helps you stick to your budget, but it also helps you budget better.
Evaluate your success
It’s easy to track trends and measure the success of campaigns, which is one of the most important benefits of Google Ads.
Google presents graphs, custom reports and performance indicators. Through smart programs like Google’s conversion tracking tool and Google Analytics, you can monitor the effectiveness of campaigns.
You can also follow important metrics and keep an eye on your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Expand your knowledge
As you keep track of metrics and monitor your success, you’ll gain access to a range of informative Google Ads data. Through this data, you’ll find valuable insights about your target audience, their habits and your own approaches to engaging them.
You’ll notice revelatory patterns emerge. You’ll see how well your marketing strategy is working while gaining insights about your clients. You’ll learn more about your industry and market segment without spending a dime on data collection. You can even measure brand awareness with ease.
This expanded knowledge base is an invaluable bonus that can help you with future decision-making and strategic planning.
See results quickly
SEO efforts for small businesses can be hugely successful over long time periods. In contrast, Google Ads campaigns provide an impressive return on investment (ROI) within a short time.
You can generate new leads, increase your conversion rate and build brand awareness in just a few weeks.
Enjoy full control
Google Ads offers users complete agency when it comes to managing marketing efforts. You won’t have to compromise. Instead, you’ll have total control over your ad campaigns.
As a small business owner, this helps you ensure consistency with brand values. It also assists with staying on track toward reaching your main goals and fulfilling your vision.
Earn more revenue
Last, but certainly not least, you can easily increase your profits with Google Ads.
Google conservatively estimates that for every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they get $8 in profit. This ROAS is impressive and shows how much of a difference Google Ads can make when it comes to increasing revenues.
Google conservatively estimates that for every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they get $8 in profit.
These impactful advantages of Google Ads make it clear that using this service for your small business can be very beneficial. But why, exactly, should you choose Google Ads over another digital advertising platform?
Why you should use Google Ads for your small business
While Google Ads isn’t the only PPC advertising model, it’s by far our favorite. That’s why we recommend it to small business owners in almost any industry.
Let’s discuss our reasoning.
Benefits of Google Ads
Google’s dominance in the search engine and advertising markets is incredible. As we mentioned earlier, Google has had over 80 billion visits each month in 2023. Facebook, on the other hand, has had a much lower average: 17.3 billion visits per month in 2023.
Google’s market reach is larger than its competitors. This leads to optimized lead generation and information accessibility. But it isn’t the only unique feature helping Google shine. Here are a few more:
- Superior connectivity and integration options due to the expansive Google ecosystem
- Unparalleled market insights emerging from huge and transparent datasets
- Offline account management options through Google Ads Editor
- Dynamic remarketing capacities providing options for you to adapt your approach in real time
- Automated PPC campaigns through Smart campaigns that save you time and energy
- Useful tools, such as the keyword and performance planners, optimizing your approach
- Ad scheduling services that make your life easier
- Flexible platform options empowering you to promote your ads wherever you want, even through apps
But as a small business owner, you’re likely fixated on what this service can actually do for you.
What Google Ads can do for your small business
As a result of the extremely valuable benefits of Google Ads, it can have huge impacts on your small business.
The increased visibility and smart features it offers help your business break through the noise and truly stand out from the competition. As you measure your success with tracking programs, you can also grow your business by informing your own marketing strategies with your competitors’ approaches.
The flexible custom targeting options empower you to establish your business as a local market leader. You can also develop your reputation as a top-notch provider in a new market segment.
The insights, control over marketing efforts and augmented brand awareness you gain through Google Ads can help you optimize your business’s entire site.
The diversity in ways to pay for ads, and the pay-for-what-you-use model, can make your business much more profitable. The automated tools and programs modernize and streamline your business processes.
All in all, Google Ads can make your business more successful across the board.
Final thoughts: 10 advantages of Google Ads for your small business
A strategic approach to marketing is key for cultivating a successful small business. Google Ads is an effective PPC digital advertising platform that can help you do just that.
There are many benefits of Google Ads for small businesses. It offers unique features that competitors don’t and can do a lot for your business.
Are you interested in growing lead generation, sales and brand awareness as fast as possible?
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