Why You Need to Learn Google Ads

By: Anna Cave

​Because why wouldn't you want to advertise directly on the world's most popular search engine?

First of all, what even is Google Ads? Google Ads has gone through a few names in its lifetime, including Google AdWords and Google AdWords Express. Google Ads is an advertising solution that you can use to promote your products and services so they appear on Google Search results, YouTube, and other sites. Google Ads lets the advertiser set specific goals for their ads, such as generating website visits or forwarding calls. Google Ads is completely customizable in terms of budget and the audiences they target, and they make it easy to start and stop ads at any time. 

To create a Google Ad that lands in front up (hopefully) future customers, the advertiser has to select a business goal and target a geographic area before crafting the ad and setting a monthly budget. The ad needs to get approved by Google, but once it does, it will start appearing in related searches from users in the target area.

The nice thing about Google Ads is that you only pay after there has been engagement with your ad, which helps you know your budget is being used to its full potential. This type of advertising is called CPC (cost per click) or PPC (pay per click). This differs from more traditional forms of digital advertising, such as cost per impression (paying for each time your ad is shown, but not necessarily clicked) and cost per engagement (paying after the user completes an action that has been predefined, such as watching an entire video ad).

Google offers three different types of campaigns. The first is search campaigns, which are usually text-based content that comes up in Google Search results when a similar product or service is Googled. The second type is display campaigns, which are images that appear on different apps and websites. The last is video campaigns, which are 6 or 15 second video ads before or during YouTube videos. There are a few other types of advanced advertising campaigns, which you can learn more about here.

Google Ads is fairly simple to get set up. Login to your account, and you'll then be taken through a very simple process to gather information about your business. You'll need to define your marketing goal, and then give Google Ads your business name and website. Google makes it easy to write your ad, and once you're done, it will help you generate keyword themes that will make your ad pop up when searched. Define your geographical boundaries, set a budget, review the ad, and you're good to go.

So why is this important to media analytics?

Google has a very wide reach, as they're the top search engine in the world. Advertising on a search engine gives you a huge advantage because users will be more receptive to ads when they are actively seeking solutions to whatever they are Googling. This generally gives you better ad conversion rates than platforms like social media, where people are usually coming to consume free content, not to buy. Google Ads also has a user-friendly interface for their analytics, so it's easy to see the success of an ad campaign without needing a second platform for analysis. That being said, one of the great features about Google Ads is the way it can seamlessly integrate with Google Analytics, a platform that tracks and reports web traffic, though it is not necessary for analysis. Google Ads is a great tool to have under your belt as an analytics major as it continues to grow in popularity as a form of advertising. ​