What Is Google Adwords / Google Ads

When I started Digital Marketing 6 Years back, I was working as a client servicing executive with an agency and I was asked to run Google Adwords campaign, I was new to adwords and I thought it’s difficult and complicated but then I understood the fundamentals and I realised that it’s simple and an effective channel for Digital Marketing.

Adwords was launched on 23rd October 2000. Salar Kamangar was the one who introduced the concept of Google Adwords, he was the first business executive who saw the opportunity and created Adwords. Scott Banister then came up with an idea of advertising on search results with keyword based targeting.

Today, Adwords is used by most by more than 1 million advertisers across globe to market their products, to reach out to the target audience, create awareness, increase leads and sales through online media.

Google Adwords is now known as Google Ads!

This article will help you to understand what is Google Adwords / Ads and also understand few fundamentals of Google Adwords.

So What is Google Adwords?

Google Adwords is an advertising platform by Google to advertise on Google Search and Google Partner Websites (Google Display Network). Google’s maximum revenue comes from Google Adwords as advertisers need to pay to Google to advertise through Google AdWords.

Advanced Google Adwords Course by Rahul Gadekar – Access Now

Different Types of Google Ads in Google Adwords:

  1. Search Ads
  2. Display Ads
  3. Video Ads
  4. Shopping Ads
  5. Universal App Ads

1. Google Search Ads

Google Search Ads are ads that trigger when someone searches on Google Search. Advertisers can select on which keywords they want to trigger the ads and on which keywords they don’t.

On Google Search there are total 7 Ads on a single page, 4 Ads on the top and 3 ads at the bottom of Search Results. For Eg: When an user searches for “Resorts in Kabini” on Google search, the search results will look something like this.

Google Search Ads(Image Source: Google)

So How Does Google Adwords Work?

Google Adwords work on a Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Model. Real-Time Bidding refers to buying and selling of online ads through real-time auctions that occur in the time it takes a webpage to load.

Advantages of Search Ads:

Pull Marketing: Search Ads are pull based ads where the users are searching for products or services on Google, so they are actively looking for products or services. Businesses get an opportunity to showcase their ads to them, be visible to their target audience, generate traffic and increase conversions.

Keyword Based Targeting: Search Ads are purely targeted basis the keywords, advertisers can select on which keywords then want to advertise and which they don’t. Therefore search ads become an highly targeting channel for Digital Marketing.

High Conversion Rate: Search Ads always have high conversion rate because users are actively looking for products and services, so the users who are searching will always have a higher chance of conversion over push base marketing.

Less Wastage of Budgets: As Search Ads give an opportunity to target basis the keywords, the percentage of budget wasted is very less. So advertisers can effectively use their budgets on search ads to drive higher ROI will low Cost Per Acquisition.

Direct Calls to Business: Through Search Ads on Mobile devices, advertisers can directly setup mobile no’s to an ad, this helps users to directly call to the business once they click the ad. Direct calls are very useful for local business including Restaurants, Spas, Saloon’s etc.

2. Google Display Ads

You must have noticed display ads when you browse websites. They appear on right, top, bottom and in between the content of the page. Display ads are also called as banner ads or image ads. Below is an example of Display Ad.

Display Ad which has “i” on the right hand side is an ad which is triggered through Google Ads. Ads which don’t have an “i” on the right hand side of an ad is not triggered through Google.

Google Display Ads

(Image Source: NDTV)

Display Ads are triggered basis different targeting options including Keywords, Websites, Interests, Topics etc. Display ads only appear on those websites which are supported with advertising. 

If a publisher wants to monetize their website through Google Ads, in that case they should be have a Google Adsense code enabled on their website.

Advantages of Google Display Ads

Push Marketing: Google Display ads are push based ads where advertisers can target their audience basis their interest, topic, websites, keywords etc. By pushing these ads in the content pieces of the target audience, advertisers can reach out to a wider audience, create awareness about the brand/product/service, leading it to conversions.

Build Brand: If a business is new in the market, the business needs to be visible to the target audience and communicate the brand message. Display ads are powerful format of ads which helps brands to build brand by pushing the brand aggressively on digital media. Many advertisers also buy home page inventory directly from the publishers when they are launching their products.

Brand Recall: Display Ads help to target users multiple times when they are browsing online, this helps to increase brand recall. Advertisers can target same users on cross devices and also target them on YouTube building an engagement with the brand.

Remarket Users: Display Ads helps advertisers to remarket their audience who have visited their website. Remarketing ads can also be termed as reminder ads to the users who were interested in the products which they visited online. Remarketing ads helps to increase conversion rates online and are considered as an effective way of marketing products online.

3. Google Video Ads

Google Video Ads are Video ads which run on YouTube and Google Partner Sites. Video ads are push marketing ads which are targeted with audience interest, topics, youtube channels etc.

Video Ads are a good way to showcase product demo videos, brand video, customer testimonials, how to do videos, case studies etc. Videos are about telling a story to your audience, videos ads have high impact in brand recall and product consideration as they connect with the users in a story telling format.

(Image Source: YouTube)

Advantages of Video Ads

More Reach: YouTube is 3rd Most visited website and has more than 1.9 billion active users every month, which means that the audience is wider and you can reach you audience basis demographics and interests on YouTube

Create Awareness: If a brand wants to create awareness about a product, video is an impactful format to use through digital media. Many advertisers focus on creating impactful videos so that they reach out the audience, connect with the audience and make an impact on the users mind.

High Brand Recall: Video Ads have high brand recall as they communicate the audience in a story telling format. Video should be crafted in such a way that audience remember the key message of the brand through video.

4. Google Shopping Ads

Google Shopping Ads are also called as Product Listing Ads. Google shopping ads are ads which appear on Google search results with an image. Below is an example of Google Shopping Ads .

(Image Source: Google)

Minimum Requirement To Run Shopping Ads:

Merchant Center Account: Advertisers should have a Merchant Center Account (Merchant Centre Account is where you can add all your product details including price, color, size, brand etc). Without Merchant center you won’t be able to run Shopping Ads.

Product Based Website: The website should have products listed on the website with payment method integrated to purchase products. According to Google products are something which can be delivered at doorstep Eg: Tshirt, Jeans, Mobile Phones, Camera etc. A training institute which offers home tutions won’t be able to advertise on shopping ads, as training will be considered as service and not as a product.

Linking Adwords with Merchant Center: Once the details of products are added on Merchant Center Account, the account should be linked to Google Adwords/Ads Account.

Advantages of Shopping Ads

Cost Effective: Shopping Ads are costing effective ads as they usually have lower cost per click compared to regular search ads, thus they help to reduce down the overall cost per sale.

Higher ROI: Shoppings Ads attract more buyers as when they trigger they appear with an image on the search result itself which attracts the audience hence improving the conversion rates on the ads.

Advertising Websites with Large Inventory of Products: Through Shopping ads it becomes easy to advertise large inventory of products on a website because advertisers can easily upload product data in bulk for various category of products available on their website thus helping in reducing time and making it simple to advertise.

5. Universal App Ads

Universal App ads are ads which are for advertisers who have mobile application. If a business has a mobile application, the primary objective of the business is get the app installed from it’s customers and then drive in app purchases.

Unviersal App Ads allow advertisers to promote their app through Google Search Ads, Google Play Store Ads, Google Display Ads and YouTube Video Ads. Google Adwords itself defines different formats of ads for Universal App campaigns and display’s the one which is performing the best

Below is an example of Google Universal App Ads  

Universal App Campaign Ads(Image Source: Google)

Conclusion:

So by now you must have understood what is Google Adwords / Google Ads and the advantages of it, let’s move towards understanding these different formats in of ads in detail, how to create them and also understand how to improve ROI from Google Ads.

Let’s have a look!