At any given time, only 3% of your target audience actively wants to buy your product or service. In an age of content creation and billions of daily messages, how do you cut through the noise, let alone reach the other 97% of potential customers? If you already have a strong organic strategy in place, it is time to consider digital advertising. Pay-per-click campaigns and social media advertising are great ways to stay top-of-mind with your target audience for when they are ready to buy. Digital ads are cost-effective compared to traditional advertising options. They can generate new leads and sales opportunities, drive website traffic, and raise brand awareness for your business. Proper account set-up and ad organization are key to running successful campaigns. Our Google Ads quick set-up guide below covers account organization basics, and options to consider if you need extra help.
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne
Google Ads: Quick Start Guide
An optimized account enables your business to run successful ads and maximize your advertising budget. Google and Facebook are not “set it and forget it” platforms. Both require weekly monitoring to maximize budget (i.e., reach the volume of customers you want) and maximize efficiency (i.e., reach the type of customers who are more likely to buy your product or service).
For initial set-up, you will need a Gmail, a business website, and the payment method you plan to use for advertising. From there, Google will try to switch your account to smart, automated campaigns. Similar to boosted posts on Facebook, these ads are easy to create, but it gives Google complete control over all ad copy and extensions, and your ad goals are limited to Google’s presets. To get the most out of Google Ads for your brand, you will need to do the following:
Prepare Your Account
- Opt-out of Smart Campaign set-up
- Gather a list of all the relevant keywords for your brand. Creating a list of keywords you want to avoid is also helpful. Google offers a free Keyword Planner that can be filtered for different locations and date ranges. The planner lets you see trends and current competition for a particular keyword. We recommend starting with positively trending keywords that have low to medium competition.
Set Your Campaign
- Use a Search Campaign without a goal for maximum ad control. Search campaigns target the highest intent users, making them more effective for first-time advertisers than Display campaigns.
- Decide on a campaign, ad group, and ad structure. For example, a nursing home might have one campaign targeting its audience through ad groups separated by each unique service offered. Or multiple campaigns are set up targeting different locations. The more concise, the better!
- Set your ad target area based on what makes the most sense for your business. While you can overlap locations, we recommend starting with a list of relevant zip codes to target and expanding from there as your budget allows.
- Decide on a bidding method that makes sense for your business. There are many different options, and you will need to select a bid method that best aligns with your long-term business goals. We typically start with Maximize Clicks for new accounts since our initial goal is to maximize traffic.
Get Creative
- Develop your ad copy and creative (images or video). It is a good idea to create two sets of each that feature minor differences so that you can set up A/B testing (more on this below). Make sure the differences aren’t too significant, or it will be hard to determine what people prefer between the two ads. We recommend utilizing all fifteen headlines and four descriptions.
- Choose the correct extensions for your ad. Extensions, or ad assets, help your ad take up more room on a Google search page, and the algorithm prefers ads with more content. Create at least four Sitelinks and Callouts and at least one Structured Snippet. The algorithm also loves Promotions and Images, so include these if applicable!
A/B Testing
A/B testing is an essential tool to optimize your digital ads. Keywords fluctuate in popularity, as do copy and creative. The only way to be successful with digital advertising is to constantly test different types of ad creative, copy, landing pages, and calls-to-action to determine what resonates the most with your target audience. While it might seem like you are spending more money upfront to test, you are actually minimizing future risk by fine-tuning your messaging and overall user experience, which, in turn, also increases the likelihood that leads convert into paying customers.
“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.” – Craig Davis
The Leverage Difference
As an agency, we come into contact with many types of businesses who share with us a full spectrum of perspectives, marketing experiences, and frustrations. After years of listening to our clients’ needs, we have developed a collaborative digital advertising system that gives businesses ownership over the process without the stress of implementation and management. The Leverage Difference includes:
A comprehensive intake process
During our intake meetings, we go over the ins and outs of your company, from competitive advantages and promotions to who your target audience is and what makes them tick. We look forward to you telling us your story! This initial meeting also serves as a space to ask any questions about digital advertising or how ads work on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more!
You own your advertising account
While we take care of the account set-up, the actual account is owned by your business. If you decide to change advertising providers, we can easily transition your account off our manager account. The existing campaigns and historical data are yours!
Transparent reporting
We believe transparency is important, even when the numbers aren’t great. You will always have access to your company’s Looker Studio and can review performance anytime. Not sure what the numbers mean? Our team is always ready to answer any questions you might have!
Bi-monthly reporting and recommendations
Every two months, our team provides a complete advertising and analytics report. This report includes (if applicable to your package) Google Ads metrics, Facebook Ad metrics, website analytics, and email marketing performance. The report also includes a recommendations section with concise insights on performance, optimization tactics, and future recommendations. We want you to feel empowered in each advertising decision!
We’re not here to sell you on advertising
Yes, advertising works hand-in-hand with an organic strategy and is often an important marketing tactic. However, it’s not for every business, and sometimes, there is a better way to spend your marketing budget, at least temporarily, to set you up for better advertising success in the future.
Smart Advertising Strategies With Leverage Marketing
If you think that digital advertising might be a good fit for your business model, get in touch with our team! At Leverage, we offer clients different advertising packages depending on company goals and budget. Our digital ads management includes:
- Campaign creation and optimization
- Keyword research
- Ad copy creation and monthly copy refreshes
- A/B testing
- Weekly keyword management
- Monthly search query analysis
- Extensions and dynamic content enabling
- Audience optimization
- Campaign and bidding management
- Ad and web analytic reports are provided bi-monthly via email
- Dynamic reporting access via Looker Studio
- Advertising strategy meetings
We take care of initial account set-up (starts at $750) and monthly management (starts at $500). We will then work with you to determine an ad spend that makes sense for your business goals.
Elevate your advertising game in 2024! Leave us a comment, give us a call, or send us an email with any inquiries. We hope you take advantage of our complimentary advertising consultation, and we look forward to connecting with you on your digital advertising needs soon!
