If you had to choose, would you rather spend your advertising dollars on building brand awareness or getting sales? Pretty sure we can guess your answer. It’s a no-brainer, right?
Don’t get us wrong, every small business can use brand awareness and increased exposure.
But when we speak with business owners, they want more leads or sales ASAP. After all, that’s what marketing and advertising are about, promoting a business to boost recognition and sales. And that’s why Google ads are a great option for small businesses.
Yes, you’ll spend more money with Google ads, but you’ll also get immediate results. Of course, there are free options like social media and email marketing, but they’re tactics that work best over time.
Running Google ads is a great short-term strategy while you wait for the long-term ones to pay off. This assumes you have a good process to convert leads or close sales.
How it works
Before we dive into our top reasons for using Google ads, let’s explain how it works.
You get your ads to appear on Google by first identifying keywords or search phrases related to your business. If you have a floor store, for example, you’d choose keywords like “wood flooring store Austin,” so your ad appears when someone runs that search in Google.
These ads are called PPC or Pay-Per-Click ads because you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Prices per click are set by a bidding system and depend on the competition, the ad’s quality and other factors.
When you set your bid price, you’re telling Google the max you’re willing to pay for each click. You’ll often pay less than the bid, but it depends on how many others are competing for those keywords. A personal injury lawyer will have more competition and probably pay more per click than a local bakery, for example.
Why should you run Google ads?
You might think that advertising on Google is only for big businesses with deep pockets. But the truth is, small businesses with limited budgets can benefit as well.
Here are just a few reasons why you should run ads on Google:
1. Get more leads and sales with Google Ads
As we mentioned earlier, Google ads are one of the best tools for generating leads for immediate sales. As long as you have a well-run campaign and a process to close leads, you can see a good return on investment.
2. Target consumers at the moment they’re looking to buy
Unlike Facebook and Instagram ads, Google ads aren’t running in a social media environment where users are looking to connect and laugh with friends. Instead, your ad will appear in front of prospects at the moment they’re searching for your product or service on Google. It’s the best time to reach them.
3. Google ads are faster than SEO & Social Media
SEO and social media both work well, and we recommend them highly, but they’re also longer-term strategies. While you’re waiting for SEO and free social media posts to bear fruit, use Google ads for immediate leads.
3. Assess and adjust midstream to improve results
Traditional advertising in print or broadcast media don’t provide nearly as much data as digital or PPC ads, nor do they let you change the wording to tweak results in the middle of the campaign. With Google ads, you can assess how well your ads are doing and adjust at any moment to improve results.
4. Set your own budget to make it cost effective
Despite what you may have heard, you don’t need a large ad budget to get leads on Google. Sure, it’ll work better if you spend more, but we’ve helped many businesses with smaller budgets. We recommend starting with at least $500 per month to generate results and get a good ROI.
5. Build brand awareness and get one over on your competitors
Although your priority might be lead generation, you can still build brand awareness with Google ads. And having an ad at the top of the page positions you as one of the standout companies in the area, especially if your competitors aren’t advertising.
A last word of advice
As you can see, there are many good reasons to use Google ads. But we’re going to tell you upfront that they’re less likely to work for your business if you don’t do two things: devote a decent budget and use a professional to manage your ads.
If you read our post on Facebook advertising, you’ll know we’ve changed our recommendations a bit for Facebook ads.
The same is true for Google ads. We advise that you have enough of a budget to see results. That means at least $500 a month of an ad budget for a small business.
We also recommend using a professional like us to set up and manage Google ads. Yes, we’re biased, but it’s too easy to lose money on this system, which is promoted as easy to use. In fact, it can be pretty complex. A couple of settings can mean the difference between blowing your ad budget in 2 days or pacing it out over 1 month. Small details are crucial when working with a limited budget.
Overall, Google ads are very effective, targeted, and affordable. Just make sure they’re set up well. You have many options online to promote your small business, but to get leads that can bring immediate sales, Google ads can’t be beat.
Have any questions? Let us know below or get in touch.
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