Advertising is an effective way to inform your target audience about your small business.
With Google Ads, you can capture the attention of consumers. You get to meet shoppers where they live online, rather than advertising everywhere.
Vanessa Pintea, a digital marketing consultant based in Vancouver, explains:
'Google AdWords has become the largest online advertising network in the world. It offers an incredibly powerful tool for small businesses to get noticed online, with a friendly learning curve and palatable initial investment.'
Open your virtual doors to new marketing possibilities. Below are five ways Google Ads can help you on this journey.
1. Choose Different Ways to Advertise
Marketing is a fickle process for small business owners. There’s no silver bullet or a magical stone to rub. You learn quickly that there isn’t any one-size-fits-all solution for anything.
This principle holds true in advertising as well. Because you cater to distinct audiences, you can’t advertise in one manner. You have to diversify how you bridge the gap between brand and customer.
Sticking to only a single medium means you serve just a portion of your audience, translating into less sales. Therefore, you must use various ways to reach and swoon your buyers. You’re compelled to advertise where customers reside online.
Google Ads is one solution to this marketing issue. The platform offers multiple ways to connect your brand to consumers. From search ads to app ads, you get to decide how to manage your online presence and dominate the competition.
With different ways to advertise, you can build a sound strategy to achieve your goals. You might focus on increasing website traffic with display ads. Or you may want to boost brand awareness with your app ads. Google Ads gives you several advertising options.
2. Pinpoint a Specific Location
With the introduction of the Internet, companies possess the power to bring the world to their business’s online doorstep. It’s an exciting (and sometimes overwhelming) experience to introduce products to a new consumer base.
Even though the world may be at your fingertips, it doesn’t mean everyone fits into your target audience. You may find it difficult to sell wool sweaters to people living in humid, hot areas in South America.
Google Ads makes your campaigns run better with location targeting. Rather than advertising to anyone, you can narrow your reach by geographic location. You can choose specific countries, areas within a country, or a radius around a designated location.
'Use the geographic targeting options to your advantage. If you own a business with a storefront in a certain city or state, it makes sense to make sure that your ads are only showing to people within your relevant location,' writes Brian Lee, a growth hacker and demand generation wizard at Fivestars.
By selecting a location, you then can create ads that fit the local area. You can reference an upcoming festival or mention a well-known landmark. This personalization speaks to the customer and makes your business seem right around the corner, even if it’s not.
3. Reach Your Target Audience
Every person that lands on your site will not be your ideal customer. Maybe they don’t need your product. Or maybe your service doesn’t fit their budget.
In marketing, your goal is to bring the right visitors to your site at the right time. If not, you’ll struggle to turn visitors into customers.
Understanding your target audience matters to the success of your advertising. You’ll want to know their interests and behaviors to get a holistic view of your customers. Capturing this insight into a buyer persona will help you navigate the advertising process.
Google Ads lets you target audiences based on a wide range of categories. You can market to fans who like soccer and basketball, people shopping for recreational boats, or remarket to visitors who’ve already come to your site.
By targeting to a particular audience, you save time delivering the right message to the right individuals. If someone expresses interest in handmade potteries, you’re more likely to pique their curiosity with your ad about an upcoming sale for customized ceramics.
You also save money for your small business. Gearing your resources toward ideal customers means you’re driving qualified traffic to your site, in return for more leads and eventually more sales.
4. Work Within Your Budget
Most small businesses operate on a limited budget. As a result, your marketing decisions may boil down to whether it fits into your budget or not.
When it comes to advertising, it’s easy to think you can’t afford it. In some cases, you’re totally right. Advertising can range anywhere from $100 to $1 million. And it’s not like every small business has a few million dollars to spend on ad campaigns.
Google Ads gives you the flexibility to advertise within your budget. So, if you only have a few hundred dollars to spare this month, you can modify your campaign to fit that limitation.
No matter your budget, you’ll want to approach each campaign with a plan. Maggie Aland, a staff writer for Fit Small Business, explains:
'A good starting point is $10 per day, but you can increase or decrease this amount once you have a better idea of what you will have to bid per keyword. It’s not guaranteed that you will pay this amount every day (especially if no one is clicking your ad), but Google will make sure you won’t exceed your budget.'
Give your small business the room to grow with Google Ads. You can start with a small budget and then expand as you earn more revenue.
5. Measure Your Performance
Analytics is growing in the marketing space. Small business owners understand that if you can’t measure your efforts you’re probably wasting your marketing budget.
With this new perspective, advertising strategies must stress the importance of measuring performance. That way, you can adjust your campaigns midway without squandering your ad spend.
Tracking performance also gives you insight on your audience’s behaviors. You may learn that a specific type of copy may resonate, like causal words versus industry jargon. Then, you can use this knowledge to inform other business decisions.
When optimizing your ad campaigns, you’ll want to experiment with different headlines and calls to action. For example, you may prompt consumers to click your ad with 'Learn More' or 'Get More Details Here.' Different versions of your ads help you identify your best-performing campaigns.
It’s also a good practice to optimize your landing pages. When consumers finally click on your ad, you want the page to resemble the copy in your ad. If you advertised a 25% discount on all clothing, the landing page should reflect that deal.
Google Ads gives you the control to monitor your progress throughout every campaign. You can gauge how to bring in the most conversions for your business. This freedom helps you improve your return on investment.
Improve Your Advertising Right Now
Google Ads connects your small business to interested buyers. You can go from no online visitors to thousands of potential shoppers.
The platform offers you different ways to reach your target audience. Your business can pinpoint consumers based on specific locations and buyer interests. Also, you can decide how to advertise within your budget.
Get noticed today. Start with Google Ads.
Shayla Price creates and promotes content. She lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology, and social responsibility. Originally from Louisiana, Shayla champions access to remote work opportunities. Connect with her on Twitter at @shaylaprice.