If you’ve never used Google Ads for your business—or you feel your only attempt was poorly executed—you may be missing out on some of the best advertising out there. However, it’s important to go into the process with your eyes open for your best chances at success, so here are three reasons to try Google Ads and three reasons why it might not be the advertising platform for your brand.
Three Reasons to Try Google Ads
Google Ads is a great way of turning searches for your products and services (or the problems they solve) into website visits. Let’s talk about how. Note that these aren’t all the reasons Google Ads may be a good fit for your business, but if you have one or more of these situations, prospects are good.
Your Website Isn’t Getting Traffic
Your website (should) be a place to turn traffic into leads, but what happens when you can’t get traffic to your website naturally (what we call “organic” traffic)? Here’s where Google Ads can help: generating paid website traffic that’s better targeted than any other marketing initiative.
It’s Hard to Market Your Service Directly
If your business sells in a niche market, it can be hard to generate interest outside of your established customer base because people don’t know how to find you. By using the right search terms (keywords), you can guide people with the problems your business solves with Google Ads.
Low Local Google Ads Competition
If you log into Google Ads and find that the costs are low for the keywords you’re interested in, this can dramatically lower the bar to entry, making even a few dozen dollars go a long way in terms of CPC (cost per click), though that isn’t the only important metric to look at before starting ads.
Three Reasons Google Ads May Be Challenging
On the flipside, there may be circumstances that make Google Ads prohibitive. Competition, costs, and a failure to stick the landing in the sales cycle may make other advertising platforms more appealing or require significant work before you can get started with Google Ads.
High Google Ads Competition in Your Area
Ads cost money, and if you’re getting priced out of the search terms people need to use to find your products, you might have a competition problem. This is especially true if you have to compete against larger companies or even national/multi-national brands that also operate in your area or market.
Your Website Isn’t Ready for Google Ads
Of course, Google Ads are only part of the equation. You also need to have the right website to send users to. If you’ve got any of these issues, you’ve got a problem to solve before you can run ads:
- Poor Loading Times: If your website performs poorly, Google has started penalizing it. Make sure your website’s user experience is a good one.
- No SSL Certificate: Likewise, if your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate (https vs just http), that’s another red flag for Google. Learn why it’s important to have more than the bare minimum for website security.
- Bad Landing Pages: If your ads are going to dump users on pages where they can’t understand your services or take action, your ads will fail. Learn more about landing pages in our blog, Do Better Landing Pages Make for More Effective Google Ads?
You Have Trouble Converting Leads to Sales
Of course, getting users to your website won’t do you any good if there’s a disconnect between your marketing and sales process. If ads are leading people to your website, but the phone they call goes to voicemail, or the form they fill out ends up in an inbox no one checks, then your ads will do you no good. Make sure your sales team is on the same page and that all lead generators (forms, phone calls, etc.) point to the right people.
Getting started on Google Ads or other platforms is hard, especially if you don’t have the expertise or a plan going into them. Thankfully, you don’t have to go it alone. Vision has been helping businesses combine advertising and other marketing to make powerful strategies to drive leads and close sales. Contact us today. Want to learn more? Check out the rest of our Vision blogs, our enVisioning Success podcast, and our downloadable Marketing Strategies Playbook.
