When you need answers to life’s most burning question, you likely don’t think to Ask Jeeves or turn to Bing. Instead, we Google it. In fact, the search engine is so monolithic that it’s estimated Google processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second. That translates to 5.6 billion daily searches and approximately 2 trillion global searches per year.
And people aren’t just Googling obscure 80s pop culture references. They’re also using Google to discover products and services, shop online, and learn more about the world. This is why ranking higher on Google is (or should be) a primary marketing objective for any and every modern business owner. Unfortunately, organic (AKA unpaid) visibility won’t always cut it. Brands trying to rank for highly competitive keywords or brands just starting out in a saturated market may struggle to get their foot in the door.
We think it’s safe to say that anybody who wants to perform well on Google should invest in some form of Google advertising. But there are a few surefire signs that your business should get in touch with a Google Ads specialist sooner rather than later.
What is a Google Ads specialist?
A Google Ads specialist is trained to plan, set up, and manage advertising campaigns in Google’s interface. They work with brands and businesses to outline an advertising strategy, create campaigns, and optimize them for performance. Most importantly, they track results and update campaigns based on how key metrics perform.
A few key benefits come from working with a Google Ads specialist. First and foremost, they know how Google advertising works. They have a deep understanding of how different bidding strategies and campaign setups will impact your results and can advise you on how to advertise more efficiently.
But more than understanding how Google functions, a Google Ads specialist will get to know your brand, target audiences, and what makes your business tick. They can also help you identify areas of your business that could use some improvements and deliver solutions to improve ROI.
Benefits of Google Ads and PPC advertising
To show the benefits of Google Ads (also called pay-per-click/PPC advertising), let’s look at how things worked before Google. In the lost era of “traditional advertising,” brands relied on media placements to raise brand awareness. Think of magazine and newspaper ads, radio and television commercials, and direct mailers.
Traditional advertisers could do some targeting based on ad placement (for example, Men’s Health subscribers probably differ significantly from Home & Garden readers). But they still couldn’t guarantee their ads would connect with the right audience. Regional placements like radio and tv ads were even broader. Plus, they came with one extreme downside: they interrupted the program that viewers or listeners had actually tuned into. Let’s get real. How often do you use commercial breaks to run to the bathroom or grab a snack?
The result was more expensive ad placements with less predictable (and less traceable) ROI.
Enter one of the main benefits of PPC advertising. Google only shows your ads to people already searching for a keyword related to your product or service. Plus, targeting allows advertisers to show their ads to people with specific interests. That way, you don’t waste your time selling grass-fed steaks to vegans or advertising college tutoring to a doctorate-holder.
Google’s ad suite also offers comprehensive reporting, which can be tailored to your business’s unique goals and performance metrics. A Google Ads specialist can make sure your ad dollars perform better over time by monitoring the performance of specific ads, keywords, and campaigns.
Finally, no matter the size of your business or your available resources, you can tailor your ads to suit your budget. The Google Ads tool allows you to stay within your monthly cap and pause or stop your ad spending at any time.
Signs your business could benefit from a Google Ads specialist
While Savy is a full-service creative agency, we know Google Ads is the unsung hero behind some of our most successful campaigns. PPC advertising is a versatile workhorse that quietly supports all of our other marketing efforts and provides the data needed to drive more effective organic campaigns.
Savy is a top 3% Google Partner backed by eight certifications, three Google specializations, and over 14 years in business. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that we recommend Google Ads as the backbone of most advertising efforts. But there are a few specific circumstances in which working with a Google Ads specialist goes from a “nice to have” into an absolute necessity.
#1: Your website isn’t showing up on the first page of Google
You’re missing the mark if your brand isn’t on the first page or above the fold. There’s a reason people joke that the best place to hide a body is on the second page of Google (hint: because it’ll never be found). While organic content, like blogs, can boost your brand’s organic visibility, this tends to be a labor-intensive, long-term strategy.
For example, imagine you’re the owner of a local taco shop. You want to rank for a high-value keyword like “best taco shop near me.” According to a quick analysis by SEMRush, you’d need 27 quality backlinks and 44+ pieces of content dedicated to that search term to rank in the top 10 positions on Google.
If you don’t have time to write 44 articles about why your taco shop is the best in town, you might want to consider working with a Google Ads specialist. With PPC campaigns that dovetail with your organic content, you can begin to see results faster and with less effort than you’d invest in a strictly organic strategy.
#2: Your website has plenty of traffic, but few conversions
You’ve built your website, optimized your content, and you’re starting to see more traffic. But none of those visitors seem to be buying or filling out your contact form. What gives? If this sounds familiar, your keywords might be the culprit.
Search engines like Google try to predict the intent behind a user’s search and show results that will be relevant to their needs. And they’re becoming increasingly good at figuring out what we actually want when we search things like My cat is sneezing or Do I need a hair transplant?
If you’re seeing a lot of incoming website traffic but not many conversions, a few things might be happening:
- You could be using broad match type keywords that pique interest, but once the audience lands on your page, they realize you’re not what they’re looking for
- Your target audience may be too broad, resulting in plenty of clicks, but no conversions
- Your keyword strategy might prioritize informational keywords over transactional or commercial, so readers are coming to your site to learn, not buy
- You might be targeting content to people at the wrong point in the sales funnel or neglecting the sales funnel altogether
- Or any combination of the above (and more!)
If conversions are your ultimate goal, a Google Ads specialist can perform an audit of your existing keywords. Next, they’ll identify any sales funnel gaps and build ad campaigns that support sales. The best Google Ads experts can consistently send a steady stream of highly motivated customers to your business.
#3: You’re running Google Ads but don’t know if they’re working
With Google’s relatively user-friendly interface and plenty of free how-to guides available online, many business owners feel empowered to take on Google Ads themselves. Just set up a campaign using Google’s default settings, write some ad copy, and start spending, right? Well, it might not be quite that easy.
There’s a lot of variability when it comes to best advertising practices. For example, an online bottle shop with 80+ wine varietals will need a different campaign strategy than a Life Coach who wants to book a small pool of local clients. If you’re relying on Google’s default settings to get results, you could be leaving money (or customers) on the table.
Whether you’re building brand new campaigns or want to improve your existing campaign’s performance, a Google Ads specialist can turn a critical eye to your setup. By identifying ways to improve your bid strategy, budget, targeting, or ad creative, an ads expert can often reduce cost-per-results (CPR) and improve ROI. Plus, they can help set performance goals, so you never have to guess whether or not your ads are performing. Instead, you can just rely on the data to tell the story.
Does your business need a Google Ads specialist?
Whether you’re trying to break through the noise in a crowded industry or just want to improve the ROI of your existing ad campaigns, a certified Google Ads expert can help. And once your ads are performing well, they can manage them to improve ROI over time. If you’re interested in learning more about how Google Ads can support your business goals, Savy is here to help. Our in-house team of ad specialists has over 14 years of experience designing effective campaigns. Get in touch to learn more.