Google Adwords has been at the forefront of the pay-per-click (PPC) and online advertising for roughly fifteen years.
Is it time for new platforms to take the leading role or is Google Adwords still the best platform for you to use? Creating an Adwords ad can be frustrating, so you’ve probably looked at other alternatives.
The thing is, Adwords is still one of your best bets when it comes to online marketing. We’ll explain why.
Why a Google Adwords Ad is Still the Way to Go
It seems like everything needs to be updated all of the time in today’s age. This might not be true for your ad platform.
It depends on your demographic and your goals, but, generally speaking, Google Adwords is still a great way of getting results. Google is still making four times the profit of its closest ad competitor. They have a thumb on the search engine market and efficiently target audiences with ease.
That being said, there are some things about Google Adwords that you should look out for because it’s not all great.
Google Isn’t Perfect
You may have signed up for Adwords, gained a little traffic, then noticed that the results kind of halted and you’re left wondering what happened. This may be due to the fact that Google doesn’t always start things off in your favor.
Watch Out for the Defaults
You imagine that the site you’re using, or the company you’re paying would make things easy for you by creating a set of defaults that will objectively work to your advantage. You don’t fully understand a program right when you start using it. Therefore, you assume that the default settings will be the ones you ought to choose.
This is not necessarily the case with Adwords. Selecting the defaults could have your ads being placed in a lot of random places that have no relevance to your site or niche. The default settings are those that make Google the most profit.
Your ads will be placed on sites that are most profitable to place ads on, but that doesn’t mean that your ad will be relevant to that page.
If you use default settings, make sure to comb them over to make sure your placements are all in line.
Sometimes Its Not the Best Fit
Some businesses just aren’t in the right position to work with Google Adwords. If you’re getting no results from the platform, consider the following things.
Are your keywords too specific? You may be using keywords that sound right to you, but perhaps nobody is searching for your specific topic and Google can’t reach your audience. If this is the case, take a look at a keyword ranking tool to identify your words or words that could replace them.
If you’re advertising a low margin product or service, Google ads may be too expensive for you. This depends on your conversion rate, customer lifetime value and margins. Take a close look ahead of time to make sure the dollars and cents make sense.
There are other, cheaper platforms to get impressions and clicks. So if your goal is just about driving awareness, you may want to invest less in search ads which are further down the buying funnel. Instead, you can consider using Google Display network, Facebook ads, YouTube or other channels.
Another thing to consider is that you have poor site-architecture. By this, we mean that your site is difficult to navigate, particularly where people are supposed to make purchases. This can be a reason why your conversion rate is low.
There’s no way for Adwords to work for you if your users can’t find their way around your page.
Finally, consider your product. Do you have an extremely small niche? Rare products are difficult to find a large audiences for.
If this is the case, try and figure out where your audience is using the internet. Maybe, for some reason, they’re using Bing or Instagram more than they’re searching on Google. Figure out where the customers are and move your business toward them.
Big Results are Possible
In the face of difficulties, there’s still a vast market for Google Adwords. No other platform can help you reach the masses like Google does. Additionally, you get a lot of help when you’re using their site.
Because Adwords has been the industry standard for such a long time, people have adapted and communicated about how they use the platform. There are thousands of online keyword tools, advertising strategies, and discussion about what works and what doesn’t.
No other platform has that kind of support in the same volume. You have the ability to gather specific information on keyword search volume, demographic search habits, and geographical search habits.
There are even professionals who are trained in optimizing your Adwords campaigns.
Barring a big shift in the online power-structure, Google will be the top-dog for a while.
Explore Demographics
While Google gives you an opportunity to reach hordes of people, other platforms give you the access to those who may be more specifically interested in your product.
Facebook has an excellent ad platform as well, and their site has access to more specific demographic information than Google does. This allows them to target audiences directly and in groups. You may be better off working with Facebook if you have a very specific niche.
Your audience may also be geographically centered, and groups who live near each other tend to have similar habits. This may mean that your target audience in Hibbing, Minnesota still uses Yahoo religiously, and you need to switch to Yahoo’s ad platform.
Whatever your issue is, there’s going to be a way to figure it out. It all boils down to understanding the demographic and going where they go.
Need Help?
Navigating the search engine optimization and marketing world can be difficult at times. You don’t have to go through it all alone, though, because there are professionals out there to get you the best results they can.
Whether it’s figuring out an Adwords ad or optimizing an entire site, we’re here to help.
If you’re interested in working with the pros to optimize your site, we have all the information you need.