Getting started with Google Ads: Tips for small businesses

The article focuses on how small and medium-sized businesses can use Google Ads to achieve their advertising goals, expand their reach, and attract new customers. The first step is to define your goal: what do you want your customers to do? Once you have a clear objective, you can choose from three Google Ads campaign types: search campaigns, local services ads, and performance max. Search campaigns show ads in text form on Google Search results pages, while local services ads are designed for local businesses like plumbers and dentists. Performance max allows advertisers to drive better results across all of Google’s advertising channels from a single campaign.

The second consideration is your budget. You should determine how much money you can afford to spend on digital ads, and then choose the campaign type that’s best for you and your goals. For example, small business Anthony’s Plumbing achieved an over 85% booking rate and 500% return on investment from their Local Services Ads campaign by setting their budget and choosing the “maximize leads” bidding strategy. Google Ads offers free solutions like Business Profiles to help businesses stand out and reach new customers if they are not ready to invest in digital ads yet.

The third consideration is tracking the effectiveness of your ads. Google Ads provides conversion tracking, which is free for you to use on your website. Conversion tracking helps you track the actions that you want customers to take on your website, significantly improving your ability to assess the effectiveness of your ads, your reach, and overall campaigns. Indigenous woman-owned beauty company Prados Beauty attributes 68% of their web traffic and more than 40% of their revenue to Google Ads. From understanding these conversions, they’ve realized the importance of having Google Ads run daily.

In summary, Google Ads is an effective tool for small and medium-sized businesses to reach their target customers efficiently, expand their reach globally, and monitor the effectiveness of their ads. By defining your goal, setting your budget, and tracking your conversions, you can leverage the power of Google Ads to grow your business and succeed in the digital age.