As a Google AdWords expert who has been Google certified for over 6 years, I often get asked about AdWords for bloggers. Hopefully, after reading this post, you will know what AdWords is and when it is a good fit for your blog or business.
Google AdWords is Google's pay-per-click online marketing method. There are two types of campaigns I am going to talk about in this post – search and display/remarketing. I combine display and remarketing because they both use graphic ads.
Anyone with a gmail account can create an AdWords account (although I don't think just anyone should and I explain more below).
One of the best features of AdWords, it that it provides you with a wealth of information about your account and you have control over where you advertise, when you advertise, how much you spend, and more. There are dozens of options, settings, etc. but I won't go into them here.
When a user goes to www.google.com and types in a search phrase, often the first results are ads. See screenshot below for example.
If you were to click on the top ad in the example, then WordPress pays for that click.
Google search campaigns allow you to be seen by customers at the very moment that they’re searching on Google for the things you offer. Essentially this is a warm lead. And unlike organic results, you don't have to wait months to show up. You can be in the top position as soon as your ads start running (assuming the account is setup correctly).
See the ads in the screenshot below (Xfinity and Royal Caribbean) – those are most likely remarketing ads as I have been on both sites in the past 30 days.
Whereas the search campaign is active advertising (someone is actively searching for your product or service), display/remarketing is more passive and often considered best for branding. Display/remarketing is also significantly cheaper than running a search campaign. I had one client who spent $300 per month and received over 3 million impressions (their ads were shown on a page where a user was) a month. Their clicks were around $0.10 each.
I tell all my clients that we should install the Google remarketing code on their site even if they aren't interested in running ads at the time. This way when they decide to use remarketing, they already have an audience and are ready to go.
For display, you do not need the remarketing code on your site. Display advertises to anyone within your chosen parameters (geographic, interested, keywords, websites, etc.).
If you are a blogger making thousands of dollars in ad revenue on your site, you might consider using display/remarketing to drive even more traffic to your site. I wouldn't spend more than $5.00 per day (at least to start).
If you are a blogger selling a product (virtual or physical), service, or course, I would consider running a search campaign. AdWords is a quick way to appear at the top of a search page (typically it can take 3-9 months to rank for something organically). And again, you will show up when someone is actively searching for the product or service you are selling.
I often hear – “I did adwords years ago, but it didn't seem to help at all.”
When pressed, I find out that they created and managed the AdWords campaign themselves. Then they are puzzled as to why it is not converting and just “spending their money”. This is why Google certifies people such as myself. I am required to take and pass exams every year. I am a Google Partner because I manager a certain amount of spend (over $10,000 per quarter) as well as implement Google's best practices.
I HIGHLY recommend you have a professional setup and manage your AdWords. If you are going to spend the money on advertising, make sure someone with experience manages it for you.
Would you suggest that a tiny business try to use AdWords or wait until there is a lot of growth?
A rule of thumb I use is you need to be able to spend $10 per day on a search campaign and/or $5 per day on a display/remarketing campaign to make it worth the effort and your money. There will also be setup fees and monthly management fees (mine are very reasonable for bloggers/small businesses).
When is the best time to use AdWords? When you first launch your blog/business or should you just use when launching a product or course?
The best time varies business by business. I recommend using AdWords if:
Welcome! My name is Glenneth and I live in beautiful East Tennessee. I wear many hats: CEO of The Visibility Method, SEO & Google Ads Expert, content creator, and more. I love technology, social media, and weight lifting. My favorite place to hang out is the hammock in my backyard. My favorite colors are pink and orange. My favorite team is the Vols. And I LOVE to get email so please drop me a note and say hi!
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Love this post on Google Adwords. I can’t wait to dig deep and start utilizing the things you have given. Keep sharing!!