{"id":19860,"date":"2018-09-13T21:19:18","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T02:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/?p=19860"},"modified":"2018-10-03T14:27:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T19:27:24","slug":"beginners-guide-to-google-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/beginners-guide-to-google-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginner’s Guide to Google Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

The web is crowded and getting people to visit <\/span>your<\/span><\/i> website out of all the other options available to them is an ongoing challenge that all website owners are familiar with. <\/span><\/p>\n

One useful tool for getting your website in front of more people is Google Ads (formerly called Google AdWords).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why to Use Google Ads<\/h2>\n

You only have so much money to spend promoting your website, so what makes Google Ads worth the investment? Google\u2019s advertising platform provides a few main benefits that make it worth considering:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Your ad can reach a huge audience. <\/b><\/p>\n

Google Ads doesn\u2019t just control the ads that show up on the search engine (which billions of people use each day), it\u2019s also behind the ads on all Google properties (including YouTube and Gmail) and a huge number of other websites included in the Google Display Network. All told, the Google Ads platform reaches over 90% of all internet users, making it the best tool for reaching a large audience online.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Google offers targeting options. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

For a lot of businesses, reaching a lot of people is less important than reaching the right<\/em> people. Google Ads allows you to target which search terms and keywords your ads show up for, what people see your ads based on demographic information, and the types of sites they show up on in the display network. All of that helps you to more efficiently reach the people most likely to care about your website.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. You only pay when people visit your website. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

With a lot of advertising, you pay for the exposure the ads bring you. Google Ads uses a pay-per-click advertising model, so you only pay for the times people actually click on an ad and visit your website.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. It\u2019s faster than most<\/b> online marketing tactics<\/b><\/a>. <\/b><\/p>\n

While tactics like SEO and content marketing are valuable, they\u2019re slow. Google Ads gets your website in front of more people faster.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your online marketing efforts could use an extra boost, PPC marketing with Google Ads can provide it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Set Up Your Google Ads Account<\/h2>\n

Setting up an account in Google Ads is pretty easy. When you\u2019re on the<\/span> Google Ads website<\/span><\/a>. You\u2019ll see a big green button that says Start Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"google<\/p>\n

After you click, you\u2019ll encounter a form that asks you to provide your email address and the website you\u2019ll be promoting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"welcome<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need to use an email here that\u2019s already associated with a Google account, so if you already use Gmail and<\/span> Google Analytics<\/span><\/a>, use the same account you use there. If not, you can <\/span>set up a new account here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be asked to log into your Google account, then you\u2019ll be in.<\/span><\/p>\n

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6 Best Practices for Google Ads<\/h2>\n

While you could theoretically dive right in and start creating ads today, in order to get the most out of the money you spend on Google Ads, you need to take some time to learn the ropes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google has a<\/span> series of videos<\/span><\/a> that can offer a good start to understanding the platform and how to use it. Going through them all can take some time, but for most website owners it\u2019s worth it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Until then, here\u2019s a shorter summary of best practices to keep in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1. Determine your goals.<\/h3>\n

What is it you want from your Google Ads? Are you at the point with your website where the most important thing is getting those initial leads to learn you exist, or do you want visitors to convert to customers right away? Your Google Ads campaigns should be designed around the main goals you want to achieve.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. Do keyword research.<\/h3>\n

This is one of the most important steps in PPC marketing. Your keyword lists<\/a> will be a big part of the campaigns you set up for search. You want your ads to show up specifically when people are looking for what you have to say or sell. The way to learn what terms people are using (and how competitive different terms are) is to take time to do the research. Try using long-tail keywords to keep bidding costs low.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. Prioritize relevance.<\/h3>\n

One of the best things about online marketing is that you can more effectively reach the specific people most likely to be interested in your website or business in the context where they’re looking for or thinking about what you have to sell. Your ads will perform much better if you can make them relevant to the person at the moment they see them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Good keyword research is a big part of this, but you should also do ad targeting based on demographic information and user interests to better get your ads in front of the right people.<\/span><\/p>\n

And relevance has to go beyond what shows up on the ad: your ad content should always match what people will see when they click through.<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. Test out your ads.<\/h3>\n

It will probably take you a few tries to figure out what gets people to respond to your ads. Try out different ads with different wording, different images, and different targeting to collect data on which ones work best. If you just do one thing, you won\u2019t ever know if it could be working better.<\/span><\/p>\n

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5. Use retargeting.<\/h3>\n

Getting a visitor to your website once is nice, but getting them to come back again is much more valuable. Google Ads provides retargeting so you can target your ads to the people who have already viewed your website and even use it to show them ads for the items they viewed while they were there.<\/span><\/p>\n

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6. Refine as you go.<\/h3>\n

Google Ads provides useful analytics that will help you gain a greater understanding of what your audience responds to based on your ad performance over time. And the platform even factors your ad success into how much you pay for each click through the Quality Score. You Quality Score is determined based on how well your ads perform, and can affect your pricing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For best results, Google Ads requires a time commitment.<\/h3>\n

If you don\u2019t have a lot of time to spend on running your Google Ads campaigns, you may benefit from hiring a PPC specialist or agency<\/a> who can bring their expertise to your campaigns and help get you better results while saving you time. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you stick with doing it yourself, actively monitor your pay-per-click campaigns. Pay attention to the data they provide and use it to improve your campaigns over time. If you manage your ads well, you can expect to see better results the longer you use the platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Create a Campaign in 6 Steps<\/h2>\n

Google Ads makes it pretty easy to get started by walking you through the steps to create a campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

A note here: Google Ads just recently rolled out an all new interface, so if you have any past experience with it or have done research into it from resources created before this summer (2018), then you\u2019ll notice that the platform looks different that you probably expected. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To get started in the new interface, look for Campaigns in the menu on the left side of the page. Then click either the plus sign in the big blue dot on the left side of the page, or where it says New Campaign toward the bottom. Select New Campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"google<\/p>\n

1. Choose Your Campaign Type<\/h3>\n

You\u2019ll see a page that includes the five main types ads you can create in Google Ads:<\/span><\/p>\n