Google Ads – FAQ
If you’re looking to start advertising through Google Ads, then you may have some questions regarding what it all means and how it works. It’s good to understand what the lingo means and how the pricing system works.
To find out more about Google Ads, contact our Melbourne and Perth based Google Ads experts to find out more. Ask us anything you like!
Google Ads is a Google Advertising program that provides customers with a platform to advertise across the Google Search Network or Google Display Network. It is also known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing), PPC (Pay Per Click) and was previously branded as Google AdWords.
Google Ads is a targeted form of advertising where you can capture audiences who are searching for products and services directly into the Google Search Engine.
The Google Search Network is where users type in keywords or keyphrases into the Google search bar and get results generated from an index of websites related to the user’s query.
The Google Display Network is a broader network of websites affiliated with Google where remarketing and retargeting Display Ads can be shown across the network.
If you’ve set up a Google Ads campaign or you’re having your account monitored by a PPC expert, then you’ll want to know what all the data means.
Clicks are how many times a user clicked on your Ads and went through to your website. Whereas impressions for a PPC campaign mean how many times your Ads appeared in Google Search results or across the Google Display Network.
Many of our clients have previously tried the “set and forget” method for managing their Google Ads campaign and what do you know, it delivered poor results! For Google Ads, it’s important to monitor the search terms and make sure your Ads are appearing for the right keyphrases. But you’ve added your keywords, I hear you say!
Google takes the liberty of showing your Ads for searches like your keywords, so even though you’ve used keywords similar to what you want your potential customers to find you for, that doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll get.
That’s why it is essential to monitor and optimise a Google Ads or PPC account every month to make sure not only that the clicks, impressions, budget pacing and Click Thru Rate remain healthy, but so the traffic to your website remains relevant to your business.
Google Ads or PPC is a great way to track the performance of your advertising as the analytics behind the program are transparent and extensive.
You can track the search terms users are entering to generate your Ads. You can see how many clicks each search term has received. You can see how often your Ads appeared and how much traffic the Ads are generating for your website.
With conversion tracking, you’ll be able to see which conversion actions (phone calls, contact form completions, etc.) users do after clicking on your Google Ads.
With Google Ads, your Ads can appear millions of times without you having to pay a cent. The only time you pay for your Ads is if someone clicks on your ad. That’s where the term Pay Per Click comes from (PPC).
The Average Cost Per Click is how much on average you’re likely to pay for a click on your Ad. This tends to be higher for non-managed campaigns.
One of the major impacts our clients have experienced from working with Blackbox’s Google Ads Specialists is that they see a drastic reduction in the Average Cost Per Click as the campaign is optimised and refined through our expert PPC management.
The Click Thru Rate or CTR for a PPC campaign is the number of times your Ads appeared in Google divided by the number of clicks you received. It gives you a percentage figure of how often your Ads are clicked on relative to how many times they’ve appeared.
The industry average for a Google AdWords campaign is 2% but the Blackbox SEM consultants achieve an average CTR of 6% – 9% for our customers.
