When should I use Google AdWords?

Knowing when to use Google AdWords shouldn’t be a difficult decision to make. We see many businesses jumping right in without really considering how it might work for them. They do this because everyone else is, and they may miss out.

So, when should you use Google AdWords?

There are many good reasons to use Google AdWords:

1. Drive traffic to your website
2. Increase conversion to your top landing pages
3. Expose your brand to your customers

Each of these has a different measurement criterion, and budgets should be set appropriately for each. Where most businesses go wrong is allocating a fixed budget across the entire account, then failing to measure the outcome. Let’s explore each reason in more detail.

Reason #1: Drive more traffic to your website

Seeking more traffic would have to be the main reason people use Google AdWords. Unfortunately, it’s the one reason that will chew through your advertising budget faster than you can say “where is my advertising budget going?”. Why is that?

Nearly all campaigns, we see set up drive traffic to the homepage of the website, and for generic keywords for the business. This approach works, but it’s not the cheapest option, it is the most expensive option available to you. Companies make this mistake because it’s easy to set up, easy to see the traffic bump. They have no idea that they are paying a premium for this!

You can drive cheaper, target adverts and keywords to the right pages on your website. We hardly ever set up a campaign that drives traffic to the homepage; it’s usually the least relevant traffic for a keyword set.

Reason #2: Increase conversion to your top landing pages

Target campaigns using landing pages work extremely well. It requires coordination of your web developer AND your marketer (if they’re not the same company). They will be focused on ensuring your website has Google Analytics Conversion Tracking enabled and correctly set up. They’ll be interested in the CPA (cost per acquisition) rather than the cost per click. The focus is on dollars into leads or sales (if your site is an e-commerce site). This is a smart campaign, as much as its goal-focused, it’s also going to cost you less, and you’ll know precisely where your Google AdWords spend is going.

If you want this kind of campaign set up, it takes more time due to more planning and more configuration. This is the kind of campaign everyone should want, because it’s measurable, and you can see how many dollars go out against how many dollars (or leads) come in.

Reason #3: Expose your brand to your customers

Ah, the famous “brand exposure” campaign. These are also like #1 above, expensive. But you can control this spend very easily. Usually, we’d recommend running a display campaign targeting those people that have visited your website at least once. This technique will keep your brand under their nose, and the chances are, they are more receptive to your brand because you’re smartly advertising to them.

Of course, you can always create a non-retargeting campaign that drives traffic to your website, but this is similar to #1 in that they’re a shotgun approach - lots of people, not targeted and hard to measure.

Bonus tip: Remarketing

If you’re looking into #3 (and you should), remarketing can be very good to drive traffic to landing pages that encourage prospects to engage with your company more. A seminar, webinar or freebie will help these visitors to sign up to your mailing list. Webinars require more work on your part, but re-engaging a visitor to your website with one of several free offers will likely entice them back - and the first thing they looked at might not be what they are interested in.

Want to know if your Google AdWords campaign is wasting your marketing dollar?

Download our free Marketing Audit and see how you’re doing. If you find you have some gaps, book in a free coffee session with one of our team to explore better where we could save you money and drive better enquiry to your business.