Google AdWords Through The Years

A long time ago, in a land far away called the early 2000s, the Google AdWords Program launched with a measly 350 advertisers. Today, there are over one million advertisers and a revenue of over 60 million dollars.

Next year, Google AdWords turns 20. Can you believe how long it has been? Two decades of innovation and advertising.

October 2000

Google launched its “self-service advertising program” as an extension to the premium sponsorship program. It featured 350 businesses, AdWords took off immediately when advertisers saw the offering for ‘instant ads,’ which at the time only appeared on the right-hand side.  Also, they were the first to offer advanced keyword targeting and web-based reporting.

“Google has carefully built and scaled the AdWords program to address the needs of any business by providing a one-stop resource that is affordable and easy to use,” said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, and CEO. “AdWords offers the most technologically advanced features available, enabling any advertiser to quickly design a flexible program that best fits its online marketing goals and budget.”

November 2005

Google Analytics launched in November 2005 as a result of acquiring a company called Urchin Software. It was an important launch for two reasons:

1. For the first time in the history of the internet, there was access to free analytics software
2. There was finally a way to monitor the progress of advertisements release on Google AdWords without relying on a third-party source to do so

Google Analytics shows you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your website. It will track all of your online ventures, from emails campaigns to SEO keywords, regardless of the search engine or referral source.

June 2010

On this day almost a decade ago, Seller Rating Extensions were released. Have you ever noticed the one to a five-star rating under a search? Its been around for over a decade.  How high or low your ratings are will directly impact your SEO efforts as Googles search engine filters out lower-rated businesses and presents its viewers the best possible option.

For your website to show up on the first page of the search engine, you will need an aggregate rating for at least four out of five stars.

September 2015

Just when you thought Google AdWords couldn’t get any more convenient, they launch an email campaign advertisement option.

 The advertisement has two primary components:

• The collapsed ad that users initially see that matches the look and feel of the Gmail inbox.
• The expanded ad unit requires the user to click on the collapsed ad. The ad then turns into a simulated landing page for users to get a full view of the ad.

May 2019

Online shopping just got a whole lot easier. A few years back, you’d have to open an online shopping website to look at the product you’d like to purchase. But now, you get full details and purchasing power all from the initial search.

You can do just about anything from an initial search! Clicking on a website seems archaic with this advancement.

Whether a business was one of the first 350 to advertise on Google or part of the million to join in, Google AdWords has its perks because it’s continually evolving.

What do you think they have in store for their 20th anniversary next year?

How to Make Efficient Google Ad Campaigns

Google Adwords can be incredibly useful for your business when you are trying to getch fresh leads or looking to increase your conversation rate. However, being successful with Adwords doesn’t mean just signing up and paying; crafting an effective campaign involves deliberate planning and studying of the tool and your target audience. Especially for a beginner, it can be quite confusing. Luckily, these helpful tips can keep your ad campaigns on track:

Use Proper Targeting

The goal of your ad is not to sell to the general, broad-ranged audience, but to reel in customers that will most likely purchase your product or service. With Google Adwords, you can choose the audience to whom your ads will appear to.

To use this effectively, you have to first identify your target market’s demographic factors such as age, location, gender, income, interests, etc. Not only will it help boost effectiveness, it’s going to help you narrow down your spending as well since you’re targeting a specific audience.

Now that you’ve identified your target audience, you have to know what materials appeal to them. The best way to achieve that is to put yourself in their shoes. Do they talk in a particular language? What would make you buy that product or service? Think of an irresistible offer or an interesting benefit.

Include a Call to Action

A piece of ad copy is not complete without a call to action. There’s no use being figurative with your ads. Be direct and tell your audience what to do. A good call to action may be just what the audience needs to encourage them to buy or avail of a service.

Optimized Landing Page

After compelling your customers to click your ad, your task now is to get them to go through with a transaction. An attractive ad will be rendered useless with an unoptimized landing page. You have to make it easy for your customers to find what they’re looking for. If the ad campaign is about shoes on sale, then there must be a landing page dedicated for it.

An ideal website should be navigable without trouble and the layout must look professional and in line with your brand. If you do not have optimized web design and development, you can hire a professional web designer to do the job for you.

Test Your Campaigns

Google Analytics will give you access to valuable ad data such as the performance of each campaign. Realistically, no ad campaign will be perfect on the first try. The key is constant testing and analysis of your data. The data not making any sense to you? You can ask assistance from a Google or SEO expert.

Make it Mobile Friendly

The number of mobile users is more vast than you think. Remember that mobile devices are more convenient, and people use such devices when they’re on commute, trying to get rid of boredom, or lulling their selves to sleep. You have to take advantage of that window of opportunity to target them with your ads.

Be prepared before launching your first Google Ad campaign by following these tips. Were you able to follow them all? Ad efficiency is not limited by what’s mentioned above, maybe you’ve discovered useful tips of your own. Don’t hesitate to share them with us!

The Future of your Google Ads

It has been almost 20 years since Google was launched, and 18 years since AdWords was launched. During those years, Google launched popular tools like AdSense and Maps. It made magnate Sundar Pichai the highest paid CEO in the US. It became one of the internet’s advertising giants. A Google AdWords service company can tell you that your ads are more advanced now than they’ve ever been in the last twenty years, and it’s about to become more innovative in the next five years.

The future moves fast, so every day you think you’re prepared is another day to ask yourself what you’re lacking. We saw how quickly mobile users took over desktop users in 2016. More trends are forecasted to evolve faster this year. Here’s a list of the possible things that can happen to your Google ads campaign:

1. Mobile-first Ads

Google has a policy that penalizes your PPC’s quality score if you fail to follow their mobile-first rule. This means if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you could end up paying more for your PPC campaign, and your rank could descend. This is due to the fact that a lot of mobile searches are on Google, especially after Android and Apple made Google their default search engine.

2. Personalized Ads

Targeting is more specific now, and that enables marketers to create tailored ads for audiences. This concept already exists, but it can even go as far as targeting ads for a user’s significant life events like graduation.

3. Automation

You can’t deny the growing contributions of AI to modern online marketing. Google is said to be closely developing its AI and machine learning capabilities. With AI, ads become dependent on machine learning—a technique allowing computers to foresee future events by using previous data.

Of course, this isn’t entirely fresh for AdWords, especially because Google has been using AI to rank ads for years.

4. Certain Ads to be Blocked

Ads run by PPC networks outside of Facebook and Google may be blocked when Google releases their new adblocker. Included in the list of blocked ads are those that defy industry standards, like the ones that autoplay, and full page ads.

Don’t worry about your ads on Google, though. Google’s advertising policy follows strict guidelines, so your PPC campaigns are safe on there.

5. Search Becomes a Unified Platform

Dan Golden, the President and Chief Search Artist at Chicago agency BFO, says AdWords will evolve into a “unified platform for buying and measuring digital media across search, social, mobile, display and video”. This means most of Google’s current tools will offer advertisers multiple channel attributions run by machine-produced algorithms.
Golden says he expects this 15 to 20 years from now, but we’re already seeing some work around that.

Your Google AdWords program campaign is ever-evolving, and every day you have to find ways to improve your strategies. It sounds like a lot of work, which is why a Google AdWords service company can offer assistance with your next PPC campaign.

Link Building Facts You Need to Know

Trust is an important factor in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In fact, link building is one area of SEO that you can efficiently and more effectively perform when you know how to earn the trust of search engines. Contrary to what one might initially imagine, the best link building strategies are actually those that that don’t seem to have been created for search engines.

Are you more confused or curious? Both? Okay. Let’s start from the basics.

Link building, according to everyone’s favourite Wikipedia, pertains to the “actions aimed at increasing the number and quality of inbound links to a webpage with the goal of increasing the search engine rankings of that page or website”.

But the thing is, getting quality inbound links is just one tactic that can help you to rank better. There are other link building facts and strategies that SEO folks need to keep in mind if they want to get good results. Here are some of them:

Quantity is Important

Of course, numbers are essential in reaching virtually any marketing goal. Having a lot of websites that link back to your site helps you rank better. It establishes you as a trust-worthy source of information, especially if the number is quite substantial.

Quality Over Quantity

Despite the importance of numbers, however, one must always remember to keep things quality. It has become an common understanding that most well-established websites only link back to other websites that are also trust-worthy— this is the logic behind why citing trust-worthy sources will help you rank better. The more trust-worthy websites link from you, the bigger your chances at getting to the highly coveted first page of Google.

Ensure Editorial Placing of Links

Placing links in the footnote of your article will not help you reach your marketing goals. In order for those links to count, they must be placed in the body of the article. It is advised that links are placed in the relevant keywords located in the beginning, middle and end part of your article.

Relevance is Essential

Of course, you cannot link to a website about bicycles if your article is talking about flower arrangements. Your links must sound as natural and relevant as possible in order for them to have any value to search engines, and most importantly, to your potential customers.

If there’s anything these facts or strategies are telling us, it is that the best way to do link building is to make every link sound as natural as possible. Your link will work best if they look and sound like their presence in the article is necessary to prove a point.

Does link building sound far too complicated and technical for you to even begin considering going DIY? Just hand the task over to professionals or advertise on Google instead to make things easier and less time consuming for you.

Whichever path you choose for your link building campaign, whether you opt for Do-It-Yourself, SEO professionals, or Google Advertisements, remember that the best way to rank better in Google is not to just consider ranking better; in the game of SEO, relevance, truth and trust are the most important values to follow.

Tips for a Better Click Through Rate and Lower Cost Per Click

Like the human body, ads require a bit of checking up regularly in order to ensure that it’s working at its best. Similarly, you cannot set up an ad and just leave it to do its thing. Well, technically you can, but doing so will only leave you with far from the desired results.

Given that, with regular follow-ups on your ad, it would only make sense to do what you can to optimize it (and lower unnecessary costs) as well. But how can you do so, exactly?

Track Conversions

Since the main goal of the ad in the first place is to get people to avail of the goods/services, it would only make sense to make it a priority to make sure that your ad is working.

By checking if people are actually buying, you not only hit that goal but also get rid of any unnecessary spending as you progress since you already know what works and what doesn’t.

Check Your Website’s Landing Pages

 

Where does your ad lead to? Most likely, your website. This is why making sure your website is also working at its best is essential too.

Broken links, unresponsive buttons, or maybe unconvincing copy could be enough to make your customer go the opposite way, losing a potential sale and making your ad virtually pointless.

Expand Your Horizons

There’s no use in maintaining a Google AdWords program if you’re not looking to explore as you go along. Know that marketing trends come and go, and if you stick solely to a single technique, you’ll be left in the dust of your competitors.

You shouldn’t limit yourself to what you’ve found to be comfortable; marketing takes a lot of testing in order to get right, and you won’t be able to explore further what could help your campaign if you don’t try new things.

Go on the road to a stronger campaign with new keywords; Google provides tools that can help you gauge what new keywords are best for you to try, like the Opportunities tab and the Keyword Planner.

Don’t be afraid to explore when it comes to your actual ads, as well. Explore what more could be done with your images and your copy, as well as with how you target these ads.
Indeed, setting up a Google AdWords campaign is a lot more than just posting an ad; it requires a lot of tracking and updating as well (if you want it to work, that is).

It all admittedly may sound like too much work for someone with a start-up to take care of. Fortunately, however, outsourcing your Google ad needs to a good digital marketing agency means you won’t have to worry about that anymore.

From setting up the ad to managing and monitoring it, they’ll do the work. You just have to tell them what you want to achieve and how much your budget is. With that, you can be sure to have an effective ad optimized to reach your target market that won’t break the bank.

Generating Leads Through Google Adwords

Let’s be real. Promoting businesses on the Internet isn’t as rosy as they make it out to be. Sure, all the apps and tools you need are at your fingertips, but so are they to everyone else’s. Advertising on Google or Facebook sounds like a great plan until you realize that thousands–if not millions–of other marketers out there have the same brilliant idea as yours.

What you need is to gain an edge over your competitors. You need to generate more leads.

For the uninitiated, allow me to briefly explain what lead generation is: In a nutshell, it’s the process of catching the interest of potential customers.

There are many who dislike using Google Adwords because it’s quite difficult to make online business leads with it. One of the reasons it’s harder than usual is due to its stringent rules with ad quality. Even your landing pages are not safe; what’s acceptable with Facebook may not be so with good old Google.

That doesn’t mean you can’t make leads with it, however. It just takes a little bit more work than usual. Here a few ways to make the job easier for you:

Use Geotargeting

Does your business target the locals, or are you aiming for a global audience? Either way, targeting only certain areas can actually you generate more leads. Even better, you can edit your ads to include the names of cities and/or countries. Nothing catches the eye more than the name of the place they live in. Not only can you target more specific people, but you’ll also save more money on clicks.

Make Your Landing Page A Google-friendly One

Google is terribly strict when it comes to quality. In fact, hundreds of millions of ads are disabled yearly because they violate page policies.

If you want to make a landing page that meets Google’s standards, make sure that it follows their ad policy. “Simple” as that. Oh, and make sure the page is user-friendly too (although an unfriendly experience isn’t up to Google standards as well).

Consider Making One Ad Per Keyword

A common practice among advertisers is to assign several keywords to a single ad group. This actually makes it difficult to make keyword-relevant ads. Less relevant ads mean less people clicking on them, which means less leads. You might actually want to make one ad group for each keyword, as this allows you more room to make adverts more specific.

Again, doing all of these takes a lot of work, but know that they can yield better results. Some people have opted to hire a pro marketing agency to do the job for them, while others have gone for the inhouse DIY route. Which path will you take?

Why PPC Advertising is Practical For Your Business

Search rankings are a battlefield. Many businesses compete for visibility, and this can be brutal especially for new ones who haven’t ranked up the search results. This is why it’s great to have Google adwords for business and pay per click (PPC) advertising—you can compete with established brands. It’s an equalizer of the playing field. But what is PPC exactly?

Those are the links you see on the top of the search results labeled “Ad”. Those webpages didn’t rank up organically but were paid so they would appear in search queries or keywords related to their business.

But don’t get intimidated by the word “paid”. I know as an entrepreneur you are trying to maximize your resources. That’s why PPC is the best tool for you. Here’s why PPC is practical:

You Literally Only Pay Per Click

You’re only charged for the qualified leads that click your webpage. It’s an automatic filter. You won’t have to spend money for advertising to people who just see your ad but aren’t interested to know more–unlike most ads, like in print and TV (which are so damn expensive).

You Are in Control of Your Budget

In business development, budget is everything. Every cent counts. As much as possible, you want to maximize your resources. PPC allows you to do that. You can set a limit to the amount of money you spend for a campaign, such that if you reach the target number of clicks you want for your website, you can stop spending for it.

You Are in Control of Your Campaign

Unlike most ads, PPC can be specified according to your preference. You have the choice to only advertise on a specific location, time, and even language. That makes it way more likely for your webpage to be seen by potential customers. It’s very helpful if you’re a small business in a local area.

You don’t have to spend a lot just to reach your target audience just because you’re new or small in the playing field.

But you do need the right PPC management agency to help you create the right strategy. Their expertise on Google adwords combined with your expertise on your business will work wonders for your business.