Advertisers and marketers flock to Google to find their target audience. Google gives you access to a massive audience looking for the products and services you offer. It also gives you the ability to target these customers specifically with your advertising. You can use Google Ads to reach the right customers for your small business. Whether you need to reach local and regional customers or want to improve the quality of your website visitors, Google Ads can help you achieve your marketing objectives. This article will cover everything you need to know about using Google Ads to reach the right customers for your small business.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is the primary way that Google monetizes its search engine. They are the options you’ll see when you search for products or services related to your business; for example, if someone searches for “kids gymnastics near me,” the ads for local kids’ gymnastics gyms will be at the top. Google Ads are an efficient way to promote products and services to a large audience searching specifically for your business’s services.

How to Use Google Ads

The best way to reach your target audience through Google Ads is to think like a customer. What types of products and services are your target audience looking for? What phrases and search terms are they using when searching for these services? These are all vital pieces of information to help you create high-quality ads.

Research Your Audience – First, you’ll need to create your ideal customer(s) profiles. Are they male or female? Parents? Homeowners? You can’t create ads that speak directly to the needs/wants of your ideal customer if you don’t know what that customer looks like. For example, suppose you sell kids’ toys. You are most likely looking to target parents with children in a specific age group.

Create Relevant Ads – Relevance is key to hitting your target audience with ads. You want your ads to speak to your ideal customer and to be relevant to the search terms you are bidding on. Your ads need to be keyword-relevant; they need to include the keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for in the headlines and descriptions.

Research Keywords – One of the most crucial steps in Google Adwords is making sure you are bidding on relevant search terms for your business. For example, if you are a gymnastics club, you will most likely target search terms like “gymnastics near me” and “gymnastics classes.” You can access keyword data from Google’s keyword planner located in ‘Tools and Settings’ to help you find which keywords to bid on. You can see data such as search volume (how popular each keyword is), the low and high range bid costs of each keyword (each keyword costs a certain amount to bid on, based on when someone clicks on your ad), and how competitive that keyword is. This data will help you determine what budget you will need to achieve your desired results.

Key Google Ads Features for Small Businesses

You’ll find that many of the key features of Google Ads are helpful for both small business owners and big corporations.

Google Ads is a pay-per-click service. Only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Google Ads offers multiple ways to target your audience. It includes user interests, select demographics (such as male/female, ages, income, parental status, homeowners, etc.), devices, user behavior, geographic locations (as dialed in as zip codes), and more.

Google Ads has a wide range of ad formats. Google Ads has dozens of ad formats, including the most commonly used formats: search ads and display ads.

Google Ads offers an “extensions” feature that you can add to the bottom of your ads for added value. These include site link shortcuts to different pages on your website. For example, an ecommerce business may want to highlight a shop now link or a shop bestsellers link. You can also add call-now extensions giving a link to your business number, location extensions with a link to directions to your business, promotional extensions, image extensions, structured snippets, callouts, and more! It is a great way to add value to your ad by highlighting different parts of your business to stand out from your competitors.

Google Ads has a wide range of ad scheduling options. You can choose to have ads shown on specific dates and times or display them on all days of the week. You can also choose to have ads shown at particular times or run continuously. For example, a restaurant owner may not want to run ads in the middle of the night when people are most likely not searching for restaurants.

Google Ads has a wide range of creative options. With thousands of ad creatives to choose from and more being added every year, it’s easy to find the right creative for your ads.

Google Ads has a wide range of placement options. Your Google Ads can be shown on various platforms and devices, from website placements to app install prompts and retargeting ads.

Google Ads has a wide range of language options. With more than 100 supported languages, you can choose the most appropriate language for your audience.

Google Ads has a wide range of tracking options. You can use Google Adwords, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, or integrate your tracking code with third-party services.

Google Ads: The Basics

Once you understand Google Ads, the next step is to figure out how you want to target customers. A Google Ads campaign is how you use Google Ads to reach your ideal customers, and you’ll create a new campaign for each type of audience you want to target.

Create a Campaign

The first step in creating a Google Ads campaign is to sign up for an AdWords account. Once you’ve logged into your AdWords account, you can create a new campaign by clicking the “+” sign at the top of your account. As you develop your campaign, AdWords will walk you through the first few steps of creating your campaign. You’ll set your budget, select a bidding strategy, location(s) you would like to target, paste your target keywords, and start creating your ads. There are advanced settings you can access during the setup of each campaign which Google will guide you through.

Target your Ideal Customers

The next step in creating a Google Ads campaign is to target your ideal customers. Targeting your ads will allow Google to show your ads to the right people. To narrow your targeting, you need to understand your audience. Who are the customers you’re trying to reach? What are their ages? Gender? What are their interests? By understanding your audience, you can identify the types of ads you want to target. Google Ads allows you to target people based on a variety of factors. You can target people based on the following:

Demographics
Interests
Preferences
Device
Device groups
Device types
Device attributes
IP address
People closely related to your ideal customers

Google Ads for the Win

Google Ads are a great way to reach the right customers for your small business. With various targeting options, ad formats, and scheduling options, it’s easy to find the right way to implement Google Ads. Google Ads are an efficient way to promote your products and services while targeting your ideal customers.

To learn more about how Google Ads can grow your business, visit www.creativelydisruptive.com/contact-the-team/ and send us your questions.