Google Advertising Made Easy For Small Businesses

Google Advertising Made Easy For Small Businesses

With online advertising spend overtaking TV advertising last year for the first time, and the majority spent on Google Adwords, clearly SMEs need to understand how to master Google to survive and grow online.

The benefits of Google Advertising versus offline are clear: low cost commitment, high level of control, high measurability, the ability to perform accurate geo targeting of customers, and the ability to react quickly to improve performance.

The issues SMEs face are considerable: limited time and money (75% of SMEs from a recent survey ran advertising campaigns direct and not via an agency to save money), yet very few feel they understand how to optimise campaigns with 46% of the survey saying they don't understand it enough to make campaigns work effectively and 39% saying they don't have time to manage the campaigns. Fifty-two per cent said their campaigns were not profitable, with 54% saying they get traffic to their site but very little converts to actual business.

There also is the fear factor: the fear from the mountain of questions such as whether to use Google's Search or Network service, an agency or to run campaigns directly, what the optimal levels to spend are, what is a good ROI, how to make banner ads, and how to use the Google tools and reports to optimise campaigns.

In terms of the agency versus direct question, the advantages of using an agency are the experience you tap into and the time saved as campaigns can be live the same day. The disadvantages are cost (with fixed monthly charges, a percentage charge on advertising spend and 6-12 month lock in contracts).

The Search versus Network question on Google depends on the nature of your advertising. If the service is very niche and specific to a limited number of keywords then Search is the better option, otherwise you should pick up businesses from the cheaper network showing banner ads.

Banner ads can be a costly exercise and SMEs should try and use a quality online service.

In terms of optimising campaigns, there are a number of techniques including AB testing of different ad styles, developing specific keyword journeys (from keyword to ad text to content on the landing pages) to build up Quality Scores and lower the cost per click paid, testing board and narrow keyword terms, long versus short tail, optimising between click through rate, impressions and conversion rates on your site, to name a few.

In short optimising on Google Adwords is possible and can deliver real value to your online business but it needs focussed daily management. Alternatives include using an agency specialised in Google Advertising and working specifically with smaller businesses.

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