How Does Google Ads Work?

Online marketing is closely related to Google Ads. After all, most people, when looking for goods, services, restaurants or anything else, turn to the Google search engine, that’s when Google Adsense starts working. A potential client receives a relevant ad for the product or service he needs in the search results.

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising service. Using it, your ads will be placed on the Google search results page. Ads look almost identical to regular search results, with the only difference being the small word “Ad” in green. Google ads generally appear at the top or bottom of the search results page.

Google Ads or formerly known as Google AdWords is a paid online advertising or pay-per-click (PPC) platform that allows businesses to gain visibility in front of its users. 

Learn more about how Google Ads work for businesses, its common types, and the options of bidding strategy Google Ads offer as a platform to promote your brand.

How Does it Works?

Google Ads platform is a pay-per-click model. It works in a way that marketers utilize a target keyword on Google and make bids on that specific keyword since many others are competing for that target keyword.   

When a potential client enters a query into the Google search bar, the system shows ads that are relevant to his requirement, taking into account the keywords entered in the search bar. Advertisers who want to showcase their ads on the SERPs set prices per link click.

The bid/s or the offer/s you make is/are called “maximum bids.” These maximum bids are the maximum amount you are willing to spend for an ad. It is possible for a marketer to allot a maximum daily budget for an ad. This way spending will be limited within the budget. 

5 Common Types of Google Ads

There are five common types of Google Ads:

Search Campaign 

Search ads or search campaigns are the most common type of Google Ads. It appears as a text ad on the SERP or search engine results page when a user searches for a keyword relevant to a business’ products and services. They are the ads that show the black text “Ad” next to the URL of a website. 

Display Campaign 

Google display ads or display campaigns can be in a form of image, text, video, or rich media format and they can appear on Google Display Network and on 3rd-party websites or apps that agreed to display Google ads. What’s good about utilizing the Display Network is its reach. With the multitude of websites Google has partnered with, Google ensures that your ad reaches the most number of audiences as possible since they have already reached 90 percent of Internet users.   

Shopping Campaign 

Google shopping ads or shopping campaigns allow you to visually promote your products. The ads appear as images in search results and Google shopping tab. They differ from search ads because with this ad, you cannot target keywords. Google matches your catalog of products to searches and you can decide if you want your shopping ads to appear for specific keywords.  

Video Campaign 

Video ads campaign is ads that show upfront or during pre-rolls of YouTube videos. With video campaigns, you can choose the video ads specifically. Some video ads are skippable while some are not. 

App Campaign 

App ads are included on the Display Network. They can be utilized for targeted campaigns. You don’t need to design your app ad, Google will do it for you.

Types of Google Ads Bidding Strategies

If you have already set up your campaigns and you’ve got tools for tracking ad performance, then it is time to start bidding. There are three strategies when bidding for keywords: manual, automated, and smart bidding. 

  1. Manual bidding. With manual bidding, you can specify and adjust the price you are willing to spend for a specific keyword. This bidding strategy allows the marketers to adjust or reduce spending on ads that are not performing well.
  2. .Automated bidding. With the use of automation and machine learning, Google Ads automatically adjusts the amount of bids to achieve your desired amount of conversions, clicks, views, or impressions. A maximum budget can still be set and Google will do the rest of the work: winning the bid using the digital campaign budget.
  3. Smart bidding. Similar to automated bidding, it optimizes your bids through auction-time bidding. It utilizes enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) and Maximize conversion value (MCV). To distinguish from automated bidding, smart bidding is commonly used by SMEs or small and medium enterprises, businesses that need the tool to track the performance of ad campaigns, companies that need access to simulators that can forecast the success of ad campaigns, or those businesses whose key values in their campaigns include contextual signals. 

Advertising on partner sites of the Google Display Network

Display Network is a group of partner sites that display Google Ads ads. Display Networks include YouTube, Blogger, and Gmail, etc.

With the help of the Display Network, you can attract new customers, reach out to your audience at several stages of the purchase cycle. For example, if a person wants to learn how to take pictures and reads various articles on how to do it, your camera ad may catch their eye and interest them. Perhaps he will opt for your proposal.

On the Display Network, you can select specific sites, site pages, and the audience you want to show ads to.

You can use various ad formats: text, graphics (photos, drawings and other images), multimedia (ads containing animation), video format and many others.

If you show ads on partner pages, it will help to expand the reach of the audience, make a stronger impression on potential customers and will increase sales and brand awareness.

Outro

Google Ads is a platform that allows businesses to advertise or promote their products and services using relevant keywords to their brand. When done right, it results in an increase in leads, growth in conversions, and gain more sales. 

Now that you know the different types of Google Ads and how it works, select the best campaign that will help you reach your business goal. Running campaigns are effective ways of reaching your target audience and achieving visibility and brand awareness for more users.