Add AdWords to Your Brand Toolbox

Google AdWords gives you the ability to build your brand by reaching your audience across millions of websites, apps and billions of minutes of watch-time on YouTube. Google AdWords has the ability to reach further than you could ever dream– if you do it right.

You can pick and choose who to show your ads to as they visit specific websites and apps on the Google Display Network and YouTube by picking interest categories. These categories can improve your customer’s’ online experience while helping you increase your ROI. There’s four different ways you can target your audience with your ads:

adwords audiences

Remarketing– remarketing will allow you to show your ads on the network to people who have previously visited your website or interacted with your business and tailor a special message just for them.

Audience targeting– this can be broken down into two sub-categories to even further your targeting methods. Using audience targeting allows you to reach people based on their interests. You can find someone who enjoys high-end shoes or someone who gardens. Maybe you want to reach someone who researches the latest book releases or a frequent movie-goer who purchases their tickets online all the time. No matter what, you can find an audience to target.

Under audience targeting, you can go further with affinity audiences and in-market audiences. Affinity marketing allows you to select from audiences to reach potential customers and just make them aware of your business. An in-market audience lets you select to find consumers who are in the researching phase and are considering buying products or services like what you’re offering. In-market audiences can help drive your remarketing efforts and reach consumers closer to the buying stage.

Demographic targeting– when using demographic targeting, you can select people who are associated with certain demographic categories. You can select someone by their gender, their age, parental status, household income and more.

To better understand what demographic marketing is, Google’s own guide breaks it down. When talking about effective demographic marketing, Google uses this example:

“Marc is advertising for a financial institution, and he wants to market different products to seniors versus college students. He uses demographics to show different ads to each group of customers and adjusts his bids for demographic groups that may be more likely to spend more. Marc finds that middle-aged customers tend to have the largest initial deposits, and increases his bid for people ages 35 to 54.”

Google AdWords Guide

Customer match– finally, Google allows you to show your ads to customers based on data about those customers that you share with Google. This means that Google takes in information about current customers and finds prospective customers who match your target demographics browsing history and demographical information.

why use adwords

So why should you use Google AdWords for your brand? Yes, you can target specific people but what makes Google AdWords different?

If you’ve ever wondered if AdWords could help your brand, you’re not alone. “Why use AdWords” and “does Google AdWords work” are very common search queries, according to Google. But AdWords can work for any type of business on any budget. Using Google AdWords does take time and money but it delivers measurable ROI which makes that money well spent.

Pay-per-click does best when used in conjunction with other marketing activities. The key to building a better brand is to be well-rounded and Google AdWords is just another tool to achieve that.

If the idea of measurable ROI doesn’t attract you, maybe the flexibility of the platform will. There are tons of options on Google AdWords, more than just targeting by audience tastes. You get to choose the keywords you want to associate your ads with. You can display your ads for people who search and exact keyword and filter out general traffic. You can’t do that with SEO.

You can also use ad extensions to display product images, phone numbers, relevant links, company reviews, your location or even start a chat with a potential customer. Pick the time of day you want your ad to show, or what language, browser, device and more. You don’t have to display your ads all day or around the globe if you don’t want to.

Flexibility is great, but maybe you need more. What about speed? AdWords is faster than SEO. It can take months to see results from SEO (and they’re definitely worth the wait) as your brand fights its way through the ranks of competition to get to the top. AdWords is great because you don’t have to wait long to see results. While you’re working on your site’s SEO– because it takes many tools to do the job– you can start an AdWords campaign to get traffic to your site and start getting clicks and impressions immediately. You can also get started fairly cheaply since Google likes to give new users vouchers for a free PPC budget. It’s kind of their way of letting you try before you buy.

AdWords is also easier to learn. Google puts out easy-to-find guides about AdWords and exactly how to make it work, what the terms mean and how to get the most out of it. But with SEO, Google won’t release how their algorithm works and how things will rank. As Google changes their algorithm, it can be difficult for casual users to become aware that anything even changed.

If you’re still not convinced that AdWords is good for building a brand, consider this: AdWords traffic might convert better than organic traffic. Yes, organic traffic is the goal of building SEO and it’s highly important to get that organic traffic. But there’s some evidence out there that paid searches convert up to two or three times higher than organic traffic, Of course, conversion rates will vary by industry but the targeted marketing helps find more qualified buyers.

Finally, AdWords is very complimentary of your other marketing efforts. Remarketing lets you talk to people who previously interacted with your brand. Your ads can “follow” them around the Internet and keep you top of mind. If you’re gaining organic traffic, your remarketing through AdWords can follow those new visitors through the web so they remember your brand.

optimizing your website to optimize your ads

It’s not enough to just run some ads, link some pages and hope for the best. Your AdWords landing page is your key chance to convert customers and too many brands don’t take the opportunity. If you’re not taking the opportunity, you’re almost throwing away your advertising dollars. You have to have a high-quality landing page to optimize your conversion rates and lower costs– it’s non-negotiable. The most important quality of a great AdWords landing page is relevance. Just like your ad text needs to be relevant to the keywords you’ve chosen, your landing page should be relevant to your overall ad. The page should prominently display whatever you promised in your ad. Landing pages with copy directly relating to your ads get higher quality scores and better ad ranking results. Create specific landing pages that correlate with your exact ads can have a positive impact on your AdWords account and drive more conversions. So, when you’re setting up your AdWords ad groups, don’t forget to devote some time and effort to optimizing your landing pages. 

But with unlimited space for copy and images, where should you start when building a landing page?

It can seem like a daunting task to build a landing page from the ground up– especially since you don’t have the ability to create landing pages in the AdWords editor. Google doesn’t really offer any advice on how to start creating a landing page (other than a few vague tips) and it can feel like you’re on your own in uncharted territory. There’s an incredibly high amount of specific requirements to consider in order to be successful. 

adwords landing page content

When you write your headline and body copy, write them with the goal of showing off what you have to offer. Your headline should be incredibly powerful since it’s the most important aspect of your whole copy. In fact, it’s often the only thing people will read. Even though not everyone will make it to the body copy on your landing page, you should still put in effort. Your copy should also be clear and concise and explain in more detail what benefits you offer. You can add bullet points to make it easy to scan or other visual elements that attract the eye to what should be the most important parts. You want your copy to be easy to digest. 

landing page forms

Your form is just as important as your copy, sometimes maybe more. It collects key data from users for you to begin the conversion process. Choose your form fields very carefully and remember that you’re offering information in exchange for your potential customers’ information. If you’re asking for a lot of information but your offer isn’t high-value, people are less likely to go through the trouble of filling out your form. Generally speaking, your form should ask for the basics: name, email address and sometimes phone number. The more information you ask for, the higher value content you need to be delivering. 

There also needs to be a call-to-action with lots of personality. Forgetting a call-to-action is a common mistake that can cost big in conversions. When deciding where to put your CTA, typically a button will work better than linked-text. Why? In our increasingly mobile society, people typically view a webpage for the first time on their cell phones. Buttons make it easier to click where viewers want to go and to navigate purposefully. They’re also more eye-catching– typically, a CTA in a contrasting color surrounded by white space is a great choice. Deviate from common button texts like “Submit” or “Click here” for more descriptive options that specifically relate to your offer.

conclusion

Google AdWords is an incredibly powerful tool for advertising your business and finding your audience. If you thoughtfully set up a campaign, it can provide an excellent ROI and create sales for your business you might not have seen otherwise. AdWords is consistently seen as one of the best ways to reach your customers– prospective and current– and drive traffic to increase sales.

Feel like AdWords is right for your brand but not sure where to start?

At Hummingbird Creative Group, we have certified Google AdWords consultants who are obsessed with your pay-per-click marketing performance. We know how the AdWords environment works so we can successfully steer your company’s advertising campaigns and build your brand. Contact us today to get started!