Guide: Growing Your Business Through Google Ads

One of the most common questions we get when meeting with new clients is ‘Can I Really Grow My Business Through Google Ads’?

Our answer is, absolutely! 

Google Ads is a powerful tool that allows businesses of all sizes to grow by reaching their target audience through highly targeted advertising. Whether you’re a small local business or a large e-commerce site, Google Ads can help you attract more customers, increase sales, and boost brand awareness.

Four key reasons to use Google Ads in your marketing mix

1. Targeted Advertising: Google Ads allows you to target specific keywords, locations, demographics, and even the time of day. This means your ads are shown to the right people at the right time.

2. Scalability: Whether you’re spending a few dollars a day or thousands, you can scale your Google Ads campaigns according to your budget and goals.

3. Measurable Results: Google Ads provides detailed analytics, allowing you to track how well your campaigns are performing, including clicks, conversions, and return on investment (ROI).

4. Flexibility: Google Ads offers various ad formats, including search ads, display ads, video ads, and shopping ads, making it easy to tailor your strategy to your business needs.

By creating well-targeted and optimised campaigns, businesses can see significant growth in traffic, leads, and sales, making Google Ads an essential part of any digital marketing strategy.

Our clients then have the question ‘What is the Cost of Google Ads for a Business’?

Google Ads Investment

The cost of Google Ads varies widely depending on several factors, including the industry, target audience, and the competitiveness of the keywords you choose to target. Here are a few factors to consider.

1. Keyword Competitiveness: Popular keywords with high search volumes often have higher costs per click (CPC). For example, keywords in the legal or finance industries can cost several dollars per click, while less competitive keywords may cost less.

2. Bidding Strategy: Google Ads uses a bidding system where you set a maximum bid for how much you’re willing to pay for a click. The amount you actually pay is determined by the competition and your ad’s quality score.

3. Ad Quality Score: Google rewards ads that are relevant and have a high click-through rate (CTR) with lower cost-per-clicks (CPC bidding means that you pay for each click on your ads). A high-quality score can reduce your costs and improve your ad’s position.

4. Daily Budget: You can set a daily budget for your campaigns so you don’t get a nasty surprise when the ad investment comes off your credit card. Once your budget is exhausted, your ads will stop showing for the day, helping you control costs.

Typical Google Ads cost for businesses

Small Businesses: Small businesses might spend anywhere from $200 to $5,000 per month on Google Ads. This range can vary significantly depending on the specific goals and competitive landscape.

Mid-Sized Businesses: Mid-sized businesses often spend between $5,000 to $30,000 per month, depending on the breadth of their campaigns.

Large Businesses: Large businesses and enterprises might spend tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per month on Google Ads, especially if they are running multiple campaigns across different markets. If a large business is demonstrating a good return on this investment, they’ll increase their budgets for the ads that are working for them and if required reduce their spend on other paid channels.

Because Google Ads success is driven by humans searching for the things they want and need, you must monitor your campaigns closely (not just once a month) and adjust your budget and strategy based on performance to ensure you’re getting the best return from your investment.

What Types of Businesses Should Use Google Ads?

Google Ads can benefit almost any type of business, but some industries tend to see particularly strong results including:

1. E-commerce Stores: Google Ads can drive high-quality traffic to your online store, increasing sales through search ads and Google Shopping campaigns.

2. Service-Based Businesses: Lawyers, dentists, plumbers, and other local service providers can use Google Ads to reach customers actively searching for their services.

3. Local Businesses: Small, location-based businesses can use geo-targeting to ensure their ads are shown to potential customers in their area.

4. Tech and SaaS Companies: Google Ads can be a powerful tool for software companies looking to generate leads and increase subscriptions through targeted ads.

5. Travel and Hospitality: Hotels, travel agencies, and airlines can use Google Ads to attract customers searching for specific travel-related keywords.

But nothing is straightforward in the online advertising realm and there are always key things to keep in mind when investing in Google Ads.

Highly Competitive Markets

If your business operates in a highly competitive market, be prepared for higher costs per click and consider focusing on niche keywords or alternative advertising channels. You don’t want to spend $30 to get someone to purchase a $20 item from you. 

Low Budget Businesses

If you have a very limited budget, you may need to start with a smaller, more targeted campaign and gradually increase your spend as you see positive returns. One ad campaign is a great idea to test the waters – you may experience results slower but you’ll reduce the waste on your limited ad spend budget this way.

Google Ads is an effective platform for growing your business, regardless of size or industry, and most of, if not all, of our clients have an element of this in their ad channel mix. Working with awesome people like our Virtual Marketers means you don’t need to be on top of your campaigns, copy and optimisations – we can do this for you from as little as $750 + your Google Ad investment per month. This means you can get back to the thing you love in business, and we can do what we do well.

With careful planning, budgeting, and optimisation, we can run your Google Ads to reach your target audience, drive traffic, and increase sales. We always regularly monitor and adjust your campaigns as this is crucial to maintaining and improving your ROI.

We hope this guide has helped you assess and understand better what’s involved and how you can make the most of what Google Ads has to offer.