Get Google Ads explained and learn how to use the platform to create targeted ads, increase your visibility, and attract more customers to your business.
Jannick Troelsen
6 things you need to know about Google Ads
This blog post is for those who do not know much about Google Ads, but would like to learn a little more about what Google Ads actually is. Here, you will find an easy-to-understand introduction to Google Ads.
You will gain a solid understanding of Google Ads, even if you have never worked with it or read about Google Ads before.
Google Ads is the platform behind the adverts you see on Google every time you enter a search on the Google search engine. You can see these ads at the top/bottom of the search results and on the right side after you have made a search.
Google Ads works with Google Ads advertisers to find the best online ads that match your search.
The key word for Google Ads is “relevance”. Google uses various factors in a mathematical algorithm to ensure that the ads are tailored to your search. This means the ad is relevant to you, and you are more likely to click on it.
Remember, if Google’s search engine is not relevant to users’ searches, users will not use Google as their search engine.
Below, you can see where Google Ads typically appear after you have made a search.
The search results/ads within the red box are all Google Ads. The listings outside the red box are “organic” search results. There is a significant difference between the two, which I will explain below:
Your website’s position in Google’s organic search results depends on how good your website is and how well it has performed over time in relation to SEO (Search engine optimisation).
Search engine optimisation covers both the website’s code and the content on the site. There are countless parameters that can cause a website to rank higher or lower in the organic search listings. It is important that you comply with Google’s rules and guidelines – otherwise, you risk being penalised and pushed far down the organic results, where it can be almost impossible to climb up again.
In theory, Google’s organic search results are free, but not entirely. It requires considerable expertise in SEO. Generally, the top positions are held by large brands – though this also depends on the specific search query.
Another important factor is how many inbound links your website has, if these links are relevant to your site, and whether there are links from other “good” websites.
A quick and effective way to attract good and relevant traffic is through paid Google Ads. The ads are typically displayed based on selected keywords.
You can optimise your ads so that you reach exactly the target audience who are actively searching for what you offer. For example, if Mrs Hansen searches for “cheap ceramics”, you can target your ad to her. Of course, you need to actually sell the product she is looking for and be skilled at targeting your Google Ads and campaigns correctly.
This type of paid advertising is also called PPC marketing. PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click. This means you pay every time someone in your target group clicks your ad and visits your website.
This brings us to the next part of the blog.
Google Ads can cost nothing or everything. Sounds cryptic? Slightly…
What I mean is that you can set exactly the budget you want to spend on Google Ads. If you have a small business and can only afford to spend 200 DKK per month on online marketing, you simply set the budget to 200 DKK, and you will not spend more than that. Google Ads will display your ad as many times as possible until your budget has been used. After that, your Google Ads stop showing until the following month.
In most cases, it will almost always be worthwhile to advertise with Google Ads, depending on your market. Most importantly, everything is measurable. This means that whatever you do and write in your ads, you can measure whether your ads, campaigns and keywords are successful.
You can then optimise your Google Ads, keywords and campaigns so they improve continuously – and focus on the campaigns that perform best. You just need to read the statistics. You can analyse with Google Ads itself, as well as other tools you can connect directly to Google Ads. Google Analytics is the most commonly used tool. I will not go into further detail about statistics and how to analyse them in this post, as it can quickly become technical and confusing.
There are no restrictions on who can use Google Ads. It depends a great deal on the individual business. For example, if you sell fresh strawberries from your farm, you may spend your whole day picking strawberries, and the profit margin is not that high. Therefore, you might not have the resources to spend time and money on Google Ads advertising.
On the other hand, Google Ads advertising is highly relevant for an online shop selling clothes. I have looked up a couple of generic keywords on Google. I want to show the difference between the two searches and present one of the tools you can use when targeting your ad correctly.
I have analysed the traffic generated by both “clothing online” and “fresh strawberries”.
Both of these statistics are from the same statistics source and can therefore be compared. Most importantly, you can see the frequency of how often the two different search terms are used and the competition for each keyword. You can also see which term generates more traffic and how much Google expects you to pay to compete for that keyword. The keyword “fresh strawberries” does not cost much to bid on. That is, it is the amount you pay whenever someone clicks your ad (see suggested bid).
Later in the blog, I will link to a video that explains how Google Ads click prices are calculated – a very informative video from Google itself.
So what am I trying to say? If you have a bit of spare time to work with Google Ads, you can do it yourself. Alternatively, you can hire a web agency to do it for you if you do not have the resources. You set your own budget and you can compete for the keywords you want.
But can’t the big companies just pay more and secure all the top spots?
Simple answer: No.
Earlier, I mentioned that relevance is the most important thing for Google. That remains absolutely true. You will learn much more about this in the video linked at the bottom of the blog.
Google uses a very complex algorithm. Many different factors come into play. How good is your landing page? That is, the page people visit when they click your ad. How relevant are your keywords to what the target audience is searching for? And much more. All these different factors are combined into a “quality score”. This is then combined with your bid price. Therefore, you can easily compete with large companies if you are skilled at writing the right ads and have effective landing pages on your website.
Setting up a Google Ads account is free and takes very little time, depending on the structure of your account. You can set up your own account here completely free of charge.
You only pay once you start advertising. It only takes a couple of minutes to create a Google Ads account, but a lifetime to master.
Google Ads is constantly evolving, so it is important to stay updated. You will need to invest time in researching and reading about Google Ads. You must also develop the necessary skills to achieve the best results. Otherwise, you may end up wasting money, which happens all too often. Therefore, it is highly recommended to hire a web agency for consultation regarding your Google Ads account.
Here is a link to Google’s own page where you can get help getting started: Google Ads Help
In addition to the search network, you can use Google’s “Search Partners”. Search partners are websites that use Google web search. You can choose to advertise on Google’s partner network. This acts as an extension of the search network’s possibilities. There are many more options, but I will briefly describe two of them.
On the “Display Network”, you can advertise on various websites that are part of the Display Network and have allowed Google ads to be shown.
On the right, you can see a section from mx.dk. They are part of the Display Network and have chosen to show ads from Google. This gives you an opportunity to showcase something visual and engaging, rather than a short text ad.
However, this form of advertising requires more effort. You need to produce graphic material, which takes time.
On the Display Network, you can choose to pay “per impression”, meaning you pay each time your ad is viewed – instead of each time it is clicked. This can be useful if you want to build your brand.
You can also spend more time on your ads by creating a video to be shown on YouTube. On the right, you can see an advert from CallMe, which appeared on the YouTube homepage at the start of a video tutorial.
The user can skip the video after five seconds. Your first question might be: “Why should I pay if the user just skips the video?”. A very relevant question in this context. Google has been clever here. The user must watch more than 30 seconds of the video, or the whole video if it is under 30 seconds, before it costs you anything. In theory, you can therefore gain a fair amount of “free” exposure by creating a video for YouTube.
In addition to the typical skippable ad, Google has recently launched bumper ads – short 6-second videos that viewers are required to watch before seeing the content they have chosen. With a 6-second format, you are less intrusive but still get your message across. This ad type is especially good for general branding.
The list below shows what you can use Google Ads for:
And as promised earlier in the article, here is an explanation of how the interplay between your bid and quality score determines where your ad is shown – or if it is shown at all.
I hope this article has provided you with enough information and tools to get started or to better understand what Google Ads involves and what it can do for you. Below you can find a short video summary, where Thomas explains the most important points about Google Ads in one minute:
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