By Bennett Queen, Digital Media Specialist
If you’ve been looking for a way to promote your business, then look no further than Google Ads. Google, the largest search engine in the world, can be as targeted as you like but can also reach a wide audience.
Traditional marketing methods like TV, Radio, Direct Mail, and billboards can be a wonderful way to get your message out to a broad audience but digital marketing and Google Ads, in particular, is a great way to find your customer in different stages of the buying process and can help them choose your brand over your competitors.
It can seem daunting to jump into a platform as robust as the Google Ads platform with no formal training and can be a misguided way to spend your money if you don’t have a proper strategy. In order to help push you along the right path, we’ve put together the to 3 questions to ask yourself before diving into the platform yourself.
Who is the audience that I’m trying to reach?
Before you spend your entire marketing budget casting a wide net on Google Ads, it is imperative that you ask yourself who it is that you’re trying to connect with. For example, if you’re a new product or line of products, it might be a good idea to set a broad audience to make people aware of your brand and product. Depending on your budget, you may have to break up your audience into smaller chunks by geography, age, interests, or other demographics to make your budget last longer. Launching a new product is all about creating brand awareness & recognition to try and create buzz. If you’re a more niche product like a dandruff shampoo or a service like Landscaping you’ll need to narrow down your message to only those who are interested in what you’re selling. People without lawns will never buy your product because they have no need. Google Ads has targeting features that let you choose groups of people based on interests. If you’re selling something that appeals to a specific type of person, be sure to know who that person is before you start spending money.
Do I have enough budget to get my message across?
Getting into online advertising might seem like the first task that you need to cross off your list, which may not always be the case. Deciding whether or not you should begin spending money on Google Ads may depend on the amount that you’re willing to spend. Let’s think of it this way, if you’re a toy seller who has 30 different toys to choose from and you’re trying to sell them online, then you’d better have enough money to sustain a campaign for at least a few months. Seeing results isn’t always immediate and can take some time to blast off because the algorithm and your digital strategist to learn about the behaviors of your buyers. If you don’t have enough money to advertise all 30 products then that shouldn’t be a reason to pass up advertising online, it just means that you need to be more concise about the products that you do feature. We’d recommend focusing on your top-performing products first. If these products/services are already selling well, reaching new audiences may just add gas to the fire and increase overall revenue. Once you’ve got more revenue to play with, it’s time to start testing out some of your mid-tier offerings to see if you can find the audience that is best served by your product.
Is this something I should be handling myself?
There are plenty of resources out there to help you learn about the intricacies of Google Ads. If you have the time, Google offers FREE online classes that will help you learn to create and maintain ads for your business. In these classes, you will learn everything from what the platform looks like to how to assess the data that you’re receiving. It can take a bit of time to listen to the lessons and to put what you learn into practice but once you do, you’ll have a basic understanding of the platform. We believe that even if you aren’t running your own ads, it can be a good idea to take this class in order to better understand where your budget is going and where your audience is living. If you ask yourself this question and ultimately decide that this is one of the hats that you’d rather not wear then give us a call.
There are a lot more intricacies that go into running ads for a business and the granularities are what truly make a business successful when it comes to Google Ads. If you’re ever looking for support in the realm of Google, Facebook, SEO, Website Management or really anything involving Digital Marketing, then give Ace Studios a call.