Google AdWords is arguably the most targeted form of advertising out there. It’s so targeted because when people search on Google, they’re essentially telling you exactly what they’re looking for. And that’s where your ad can show up – right alongside those search results!

What’s more, it’s also one of the most trackable forms of advertising available – as long as you set up conversion tracking on your website. When you compare this to other forms of advertising like radio and print, it’s easy to see why. With radio and print, it can be tough to determine just how well they’re working for you. Sure, if your store gets busier after running a radio or print ad, you might assume it’s working.

But can you accurately calculate the cost per lead or figure out the best time to run your ad? And what if you decide to run both radio and print ads at the same time? It’s pretty much impossible to know which one worked better.

No, Google AdWords is much more than just a single type of ad! It’s actually an advertising platform that gives you access to a wide range of advertising locations and campaign types. The most commonly talked about type of ad is the Search ad, but there are many other options available as well. For example, there are Display ads, which are the banners you see on websites. There’s also Remarketing, which lets you show ads to people who have already visited your website. And don’t forget about YouTube – you can advertise there too, with both banners and video ads.

On top of that, there are many different ad formats to choose from. You can use text display ads, static banners, animated banners, videos, and even lightboxes. With so many options available, you can find the ad format that works best for your specific needs and goals.

SEO is a long-term game that involves setting up your website and online presence in the right way to attract more organic search and referral traffic. This type of traffic doesn’t cost anything, but you’ll need to invest time and money to get it right.

Despite its importance, SEO is often overlooked and underestimated by both businesses and web developers. It should always be a crucial element of your digital marketing mix.

On the other hand, Google AdWords is a quick way to bring in targeted traffic to your website. It’s easy to set up and generally faster than SEO when it comes to generating traffic. Both options require ongoing investment, but with AdWords, you’ll only pay for clicks from interested users.

With SEO, you need to invest before you can start to see traffic coming in. With Google AdWords, you usually pay only when people click through to your website.

Both SEO and AdWords are important. In fact, certain SEO elements can help improve the quality of your AdWords campaigns.

It’s worth noting that running paid advertising with Google won’t affect your organic search rankings. However, it may boost the clickthrough rate of your organic listings, as searchers may see your brand in an ad before scrolling down to your organic listing.

Running a Google AdWords campaign without knowing how to use the platform can quickly turn into a money pit. I once ran a campaign for a client and within minutes, I was able to save almost 50% of their ad spend. They were serving ads for completely irrelevant search terms!

Another client was using a generic Google helpline to run their campaigns, and I was able to cut their cost per click in half – from $2 to $1. They had been spending twice as much as they needed to! It’s not unusual for me to take over an internally managed AdWords account and improve the average clickthrough rate from 1-2% to over 10% (and sometimes even higher). With those results, the returns on ad spend can be many times greater than the initial investment.

All of those metrics are great, but I can also help you set up conversion tracking so you can track monetary values. After all, that’s the ultimate metric to measure – how much money your ads are actually generating for your business.

AdWords is a powerful tool that changes often. However, it can be dangerous if you focus on the wrong metrics. While Google says Click Through Rate is important, return on investment is the ultimate metric, though it takes a bit more effort to set up. This involves getting Google Analytics set up correctly and integrating different platforms for more data.

If you’re not familiar with all of AdWords’ features, your campaigns may suffer, and you could end up spending more than necessary. A well-structured campaign can mean the difference between a $5 cost per click and $1.

I’ve seen messy situations with internal campaigns targeting vague keywords and multiple AdWords versions running simultaneously. Running successful AdWords campaigns requires investing time and effort. You may be better off focusing on your business instead.

To make your campaigns work better over time and expand them, you need to manage and optimize them regularly. This involves creating new ad groups and keywords, pausing ads or keywords that aren’t performing, making suggestions for new campaigns, checking and adjusting your budget, and ensuring your ads aren’t shown for irrelevant keywords.

The advertising space is constantly changing, with millions of real-time auction calculations happening every time an ad is displayed. By optimizing your campaigns, you can keep improving and expanding them. Even if you don’t make any changes, your results could be different week to week or month to month due to other advertisers launching new campaigns.