Good Afternoon, this is Thomas Green with Ethical Marketing Service. Today I’m going to answer some frequently asked questions regarding Google Ads, and the first question is:
How do I know what to spend on Google Ads?
This is one that we get regularly and I think it’s a similar question to… What should I spend or how much should I spend on marketing? Now, there are some people who have the opinion that you should put 10% of your turnover into your advertising.
The way I like to help answer the question is by saying… If for every time you gave someone a pound they gave you two pounds back and there were no catches… And you knew that that was going to be the case. Then how much money would you give them? Would you give them as much money as you possibly could do? Or would you give them only 10% of the company’s turnover?
Now, it can be slightly more complex than that. But the principle is that you wouldn’t want to limit the amount you spend on advertising. If it were the case that you knew that for every time you spent a pound someone would give you two in return. Ideally, you would want to spend as much as you possibly could. Until they weren’t willing to give you those two pounds anymore. So, the answer to the question is… If you have that level of probability that every time that you spend a certain amount of money. You will get some in exchange. Or you’ll get a certain return for that in exchange. You don’t want to limit the amount that you spend on it.
You want to spend as much money on advertising as possible providing that return will continue. If it’s the case that you’re first starting and you don’t have that knowledge of what you’re going to get in return. Then because you don’t know what the return will be in sales it’s about what your affordability is. And I’ve said it many times, marketing, regardless of whether it’s Google or any other platform, is testing. So, you will test the platform of Google Ads to see what sort of return you will get. You’ll make sure that you do as much as possible to ensure that that return is good. But at the end of the day, it is just about testing the platform to see the best possible return that you can get. And so, if you don’t know, then it’s about affordability.
How much can you afford to spend. An advertising budget, where if you got nothing back because you’re just testing it then that would be okay. Some mistakes, I think, are that it goes extremes one way or the other. So, on the extreme. Someone might say well I’m going to spend a load of money. And maybe they can’t actually afford to lose that money.
If it’s very new then they end up having to stop too early. And they haven’t made the most of the fact that Google is one of the best ways that you can actually get clients online. And the reverse of that is that they don’t put enough into it. So because it’s about affordability people get very cautious. Because it’s an incredibly low budget relative to what is required. They will spend as little as possible. And it means that it takes an extremely long time to get results on that platform.
When you’re doing advertising on Google Ads. As I said, it’s testing and therefore when you. Let’s say, promote a particular product or service, then you are testing certain keywords. Perhaps different landing pages, you are tweaking things to get the best possible performance and that takes time. In order to know what the results will be you have to test it. And if you’ve got a very small budget then it means that that testing takes a lot longer than if you have a larger budget.
But the answer is, you spend on Google Ads in relationship to what your goals are. And what the return is because if you can get a profitable return. You would want to spend as much as you possibly can. So, because it’s not a cost it’s revenue stream for you. It’s income, but that’s providing all the costs are factored in. Cash flow is another thing that needs to be considered.
Using my analogy. If it’s the case that someone is willing to give you two pounds for every one pound you give them. Then you want to give them as much as possible. But you need to factor in that if it takes them. Let’s say, four weeks to give you that two pounds back for every one pound you give them. Then you do need to be able to continue your business in the timeframe that it takes to get the money back.
A practical example of that might be. If you’re in a service-based business and your advertising is profitable. But it just takes some time for someone to become a customer of yours. Then you need to not overspend on the advertising. If it’s the case that you can’t service other areas of your business in that timeframe. Whereas if you’re running an e-commerce store. And for every purchase that’s made the money is yours immediately. Then really there isn’t any cash flow problem and you want to spend as much money as you can do providing that return continues.
That’s the first part.
The second part is.
if you’re just starting then it’s about affordability. But know that if you do have an extremely small budget. Then it takes a long time to test things. And it may be the case that Google Ads can work for you. But you just haven’t given it enough time. And if you spend too much then it just means that you’re unable to continue. And in both instances, Google Ads can be a profitable way to get clients for you. But it needs to be sustainable.
So, a lot of the time when we’re first starting with a client. The ones that don’t work are the ones that stop too soon. If it’s one month, if you give someone one month to get the results for you. Then it is possible that that can happen but these things take time. And it can be the case that Google Ads can work. But if you stop after a very small time period then you actually don’t really learn very much at all.
What’s better, Google ads or Facebook Ads?
And the answer is… They can both work and they can both work very well. Regardless of the business that you’re in. But if you use standard advertising, let’s say, you just put out an ad. And you send it to a standard templated website. There can be differences in performance between those two. And it depends which industry you’re in, which business that you operate in.
To give you a concrete example. If you are targeting, let’s say, individuals who their profession is that they’re dentists. For example, now if you were targeting consumers. Then Google Ads would work great for you if you were a dentist. And you were looking to get consumers for your dental practice, then that’s a great way for you to advertise.
If you are targeting people who are dentists in that profession. Then Facebook has good targeting for that but Google Ads doesn’t necessarily have great targeting for that particular category. But in both instances. If you’re skilled at the platforms. Then you can make either platform work, but you just need to know that you can’t just do standard advertising. Google and Facebook, I think. Can work for any business but there’s a higher probability that it will work for you based on the targeting.
The answer is, in summary to the question:
It depends what business you’re in and it depends how good you are at getting clients through that platform. If you spent a lot of time and you have a lot of knowledge using these platforms. Then I think that you can get results from them regardless. But if you don’t spend a lot of time on it. And you have a standard website, then it depends what business you’re in. It also depends on how good your marketing knowledge is.
I’ve made a distinction in the past. Which is the difference between push and pull marketing, and push would be, in this example, Facebook. So, using my targeting dentists or individuals who are dentists. If you were targeting them on Facebook it’s push marketing because they’re not searching for anything. All they’ve done is they’re using Facebook and they’ve stated that their profession is that they are a dentist. And you’re pushing your ad out to them.
And when you compare that to Google where an individual is searching for a particular service. Like I want to go and get my teeth done. Or I need a dentist into Google search engine. Then that’s more like pull marketing because they’re specifically asking for a service and you’re getting in front of them and you’re saying we do that service.
The difference in your approach between push marketing and pull marketing. It needs to be very different. And if you’re unaware of those distinctions. Or if you don’t change your strategy or your tactics around that particular approach. Then it is again less likely that you’re going to be able to get success from the various different platforms. If you don’t recognise that there is a nuance between the two approaches. It depends what business you’re in. And it depends on how good you are. And your knowledge level of those platforms and also the marketing strategy that goes alongside it.
Can you record calls in Google Ads?
As of right now, you can track calls in Google Ads. I’m in the UK. And currently, you can track calls from Google Ads via call extensions. Then also on-site. But in beta, at the moment in the US you can record calls. And you can play those calls from within the Google Ads interface. Now, when Google Ads rolls out a feature like this. Often it’s the case that they start it in the US. And then they roll it out to other countries that use Google Ads like the UK and other countries.
So, as of right now it’s just in the US. It’s a feature in the US, but most likely it’s going to be rolled out. If it’s successful in the beta it will be rolled out to other countries. And I think maybe some core recording companies will be quite unhappy with this. But the good thing about Google Ads adding this particular feature is that it’s free.
So, you basically get to record calls. And you see the standard and quality of those calls from within the interface. And it’s another way of providing evidence that Google Ads is. Or isn’t a very good platform for you to market on. Although it’s the case that you can track conversions. And you can track calls, it’s less frequent now. But it is still occasionally the case that clients are unaware whether. Or not Google Ads is a beneficial platform for them to be spending money on.
And if it’s the case that you can actually log in. And listen to the calls that were regenerated by Google Ads. It makes it that much more convincing whether it is or it isn’t working for you. Now, there are a couple of caveats. And that is that in order to listen to the calls you do need to be an admin on the account. And you can’t download the calls and send them to someone else.
So, you need to be an admin and you can’t download them, but other than that at the moment they’re testing it out in the US and I fully expect that if it goes well that it will be rolled out to other countries because I think it is a very beneficial feature.
What’s more important in Google Ads, ad position or number of conversions or both?
It is the case that ad position can influence the number of conversions, but it’s almost always the case that number of conversions, or the quality of those conversions, is more important to a business than ad position. Previously, it’s the case that where I’ve worked with companies where they’re particularly keen on ad position, meaning they want to see their ad in a prominent position on Google search engine but they also want the number of conversions and the quality of conversions, they view that as more important but often tie them together. And it may be the case that the higher up the page that you go, meaning the closer you are to the absolute top of Google search engine, the more conversions, or the quality of conversions go up.
But often it’s the case that depending on which keyword you’re ranking for or which search term, you don’t want to be top for every single different keyword. In some instances, you want to pay less for those keywords or search terms and in others, you want to pay more. And so, the ad position is very much dependent on the advertising performance, and so you want to recognise that just because you are top of the page doesn’t mean that that’s always going to be a good thing. You want to set your goals, meaning I either want a certain return on ad spend, so for every one pound I spend I want two back after costs, or you want to set your cost per conversion.
So that might be I want to spend £25 on a lead and that should determine where you want to come up on the page. An example might be in first position on Google for this keyword it costs me £30 to get a lead, whereas in second position it cost me £25 and so I always want to be second position. Now, there are a lot of variables and that’s a simplistic answer.
So, the variables are device, time of day, day of week, etc, and obviously, the keywords that I mentioned. What should be driving your decision making within Google Ads is based on your goals and whether you’re achieving those goals, not necessarily where you are on the page. I would say what’s most important is your conversion data providing it’s accurate, not where you come up on the page.
What’s the difference between all conversions and conversions in Google Ads?
You can set lots of different types of conversions, so an example might be one conversion might be a sale for you or an enquiry and another conversion might be a PDF download or playing a video.
Now, you may not want to have PDF downloads come up as conversions within your account, but you still want to track them to see how many clicks are producing PDF downloads and which keywords are producing them and how many of those PDF downloads turn into clients, for example.
There’s a setting within conversions where you can say, include these conversions in your conversion data. So, the difference between conversions and all conversions is whether or not you have that setting on. Using my example, you might have 100 PDF downloads and you might have 25 enquiries, but the total number of conversions is only going to show us 25 because you’ve got the PDF download switched off.
But all conversions would be 125 because it’s looking at all of the conversions in the conversion section of Google Ads and totalling them all up. It’s not going to show as conversions in the data because you’ve opted to only show certain conversions in your total number of conversions.
Theoretically, you could have hundreds and thousands of conversions on a daily basis depending on the number of conversions you set up, but you might only have a certain number showing, like a smaller number showing, because you’re only opting to show certain conversions in the total data. There are also automatically generated conversions called hosted conversions through Google and they also count as all conversions, but they don’t show up automatically as conversions.
In summary to that question, I would say that you can track an awful lot of things in Google using the conversion section of Google, but not everything is going to show in the reporting section of conversions. It’s up to you what you include in there, and I would say perhaps relabelling those terms all conversions might be lots of different things that are being tracked in the account, and conversions are what you’ve opted to measure to influence your performance.
What’s the best bidding strategy in Google Ads?
The best one is going to be based on what type of business you have and then also what your goals are. An example of that might be, if you have an e-commerce store then it is likely that you’re going to get better performance through a bidding strategy which factors in the revenue that’s coming into the account. Whereas if you’ve got a service-based business, you’re not going to have revenue as such coming into the account.
It’s going to be an enquiry that you’re looking for and therefore it would be a cost per conversion bidding strategy for you. So, the first thing is to recognise that there isn’t a best bidding strategy in every instance, it’s based on what business you’re in. And then once you understand that the bidding strategy which is most likely to work for your business, you need to ensure that the tracking is correct if you’re going to go with a conversion-based bidding strategy, that’s really important.
And secondly, you need to test various different bidding strategies to see which one works best for you. So, there is no way that I can say what the best bidding strategy is for everyone. It’s based on your particular business, it’s based on the performance that’s going on in your account, and then it’s verifying that with testing. And we test bidding strategies with draft campaigns and experiments, so if you need any help with testing a bidding strategy, feel free to visit us at ethicalmarketingservice.com.
How does remarketing work?
First of all, I’ll say what remarketing is. My interpretation, or my definition, of remarketing is just follow-up. So, in the way that someone might email you and then you respond to them but you don’t get a response back. You might send them another email a few days after and maybe call them a week after that. That’s follow up.
Now, that’s an analogy for remarketing because if someone comes to your website, let’s say, they click your ad and then they go to your website but they don’t convert, they go on a list because you’ve got code on your website and the code tracks them as a user. And then based on the fact that they’re on that list, they then get shown ads which you can choose within your account, and they follow up by showing ads to that user.
There’s a minimum list size so you need a minimum number of people on your list. You don’t get to see any information about them, so it’s just a campaign that you set up for all the people that have gone to your website and then they don’t convert so you get to follow up with them by showing them ads that you determine.
And it can be based on previous behaviour, so you can say I want to show ads to people who have reached a particular page or for e-commerce the lists which are generated are particularly good because they’re based on viewers of a particular page, they’re based on products that people looked at, and whether they abandoned the basket and also converters.
Remarketing works by people going on your website and then they get followed up with using ads that you determine within your account. And often it’s the case that if you haven’t used remarketing if you haven’t tested it, that there are additional conversions that you can get by introducing remarketing.
One thing to watch out for is often it’s the case with display and perhaps – well all types of remarketing campaigns really – automation is added by default, and remarketing performs differently than campaigns that have automation on. If you want to find additional people who are like your website visitors, that’s fine, you can have that in a particular campaign, but I would separate it from normal remarketing campaigns.
Why don’t you get clicks for 1p on Google Ads even though no one else is bidding?
This is something called the ad rank threshold, and Google looks at particular terms and notes that they are similar to other terms. We do PPC management and let’s say a keyword, which is PPC management, let’s say that’s £20 per click, which is not too far away from what it actually is, and let’s say no one is bidding on the term Facebook PPC management, you would expect that if no one else is bidding on that term that you could get a click for 1p through Google Ads.
But because Facebook PPC management is similar to the term PPC management, they will look at that term, notice that it’s similar to the other one, and they will basically say well this keyword is similar to that one, and so this keyword should also be somewhere around the region of £20. In summary to the question, it’s based on something called ad rank threshold, and if a keyword is similar to another one, that’s where they get the data from in order to determine what businesses should be paying for particular keywords.
Where has average position gone in Google Ads?
Average position was an issue when mobiles were introduced because you need to be either first or potentially second in order to show properly on a mobile device. If you’re, say, third on a mobile device, then really, you’re basically below the fold. You have to scroll down, you’re at the bottom of the page for a mobile device.
Whereas if you’re third position on a desktop that can be okay, you can do quite well from that. So, instead of using average position – also shopping campaigns really didn’t work with average position at all. Google Ads did away with average position and instead, it’s a percentage. So, what percentage of the time are you at number one position, which is absolute top impression share, and then top impression share?
What percentage of the time are you first and what percentage of the time are you top of the page. Instead of thinking about whether you’re 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, think about it as what percentage of the time are you top of the page and what percentage of the time are you first? Average position has gone, it’s no longer a relevant metric. Now you need to start thinking of it as a percentage.
What are Google Ads smart campaigns?
Google Ads used to have something called AdWords Express, and it was a simplified version of Google AdWords, and you would basically punch in your domain and what you did as a business and your budget and Google AdWords Express would do most of the work for you basically. It was a simplified version, you didn’t have to go to many settings or basically look at any keywords, it was done for you.
Google did away with Google AdWords and Google AdWords Express and made the new version Google Ads, but within Google Ads, there are smart campaigns where you’re essentially doing the same thing. You’re plugging in what your budget is, who your customer is and what your URL is, and smart campaigns do a lot of the work for you. Smart campaigns can work well but it depends on what business you’re in.
A lot of the automation within Google is very hit and miss, and if you find that you’re in a business which works really well with Smart Campaigns that can be good for you because you don’t have to do a lot and the enquiries and the sales can come in without much work.
But if you’re in a business which is maybe a little bit more complex or you want a little bit more control, smart campaigns can either be something which you put a small amount of budget towards, or it’s something that you need to stay away from because really you need a bit more control and they’re not going to be sufficient for your business.
As with most marketing things. I would say to test smart campaigns, see if they’re good for you. And if they work really well you can put more of a budget towards it. And if they don’t work then it may be the case that you need a bit more control and you need someone to work on it because of the performance that you’re getting from smart campaigns.
Google Ads has spent more than my daily budget. Why?
It’s not often that I do this but I’m going to read you Google’s explanation. This is a quote:
“Google Ads help you maximise your return on investment by showing your ads more often on days when search traffic is higher. When your ads are shown more often, your total daily cost might be up to two times your average daily budget unless you’re paying for conversions.
If you pay for conversions your daily costs may be more than two times your average daily budget. However, with all Google Ads campaigns you won’t be charged more than your average daily budget multiplied by the average number of days in a month which is 30.4.”
So, although people are setting a daily budget. Really what it is, is an average daily budget because it’s averaged over the whole month. That is why you can spend more than your daily budget.
I hope that the frequently asked Google Ads questions have been helpful to you. If you have any questions or you’d like Google Ads management, you can visit us at ethicalmarketingservice.com. I’ll speak to you soon.