Google Ads is great if you are looking to drive more traffic, increase your brand awareness and boost your sales. People use Google to search for products and services every single day, and they are more likely to choose you over your competitors if your ad shows up higher on the results page.

It’s important to choose the ad type that best fits your brand – for instance, if you’re looking to advertise your online inventory, then Shopping ads will be the most suitable fit for your business and it will help you to reach your goals. There are five types of ads to choose from:

1. Search Network Campaign
2. Display Network Campaign
3. Shopping Campaign
4. Video Campaign
5. App Campaign

To help you make the most out of Google Ads, I’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to set up your Google Ads account and the three top tips to improve your campaigns. Let’s get started.

Why should you advertise on Google?

Google dominates the search engine market with over 72% of internet users worldwide conducting 3.5 billion searches every single day and, if your ad ranks first, it will get an average click-through-rate of 7%. This is a huge difference compared to the average CTR for all positions which averages around 1.55%.

There are loads of advantages of running ads on Google. A few benefits include:

• It can help increase your ROI
• It will bring you high-quality traffic sources
• You are able to target your ads specifically
• You can easily manage your campaigns in one place

Google Ads can also work for almost any advertising budget. You set your monthly budget cap and never go over it, and you can pause or adjust your spend anytime. Better yet, It’s said that for every $1 spent on Google Ads, the average business generates $2 in revenue.

How to set up your Google Ads account

Setting up Google Ads isn’t as hard as you might think. It’s as simple as this:

1. Head over to Google Ads and click ‘Start now’.

2. Create an account – use your email address to create an account, or sign in with an existing Google account.

3. Choose your main advertising goal.

It’s important to select the right goal at the start of your campaign so Google knows what you are trying to achieve. Whether that be growing your online sales, getting more customers through the door or increasing your phone enquiries.

4. Insert your business name.

5. Tell Google where you want them to send visitors when they click your ad.

This could be your homepage, or to a specific landing page on your website such as to your pricing page, or to a particular product. Learn more about creating landing pages here.

6. Google will then show you what your landing page will look like for customers when they click on your ad from a desktop or mobile device.

7. Write engaging copy for your advert focusing on the benefits of your business.

When you’re writing your ad, a few things to consider include:

• Make the most of your character count – each ad consists of three headlines containing a maximum of 30 characters and two descriptions containing 90 characters.
• Focus on the benefits of your business rather than the features. People want to know how your product or service will help them.
• Always include at least one call to action (CTA) – this could be as simple as ‘Sign up now’ or ‘Call our team’. The best CTA phrases are specific, clear and create urgency. Here’s a few tips to help you along the way.

8. Add keyword themes to group your ads together and ensure they reach the right audience.

There are three keyword match types you can use which allow you to determine which searches you show up for:

• Broad match – When using broad match, your ad may show up on searches that include spelling mistakes, synonyms and close variations. For example, when bidding on ‘dog lead’, you may also appear for ‘dog walker’.
• Phrase match – When using phrase match, your ads will show on searches that match the appropriate phrase – so it could consist of other words before and after. If you were to bid on ‘dog food’ your ad may still appear for ‘cheap dog food’. Phrase match keywords need to be added between quotation marks for example, ‘dog food’.
• Exact match – Exact match types are very specific. Your ad will only appear for close variations with the same meaning or misspellings. Exact match keywords need to be added with brackets, for example: [dog food].

Read our keyword match types article for more information.

9. Choose where to show your ad.

You can choose specific postcodes, cities or regions to show your ad. It is important to only choose locations where your business operates. If your settings are too broad you may end up paying for interactions with people who aren’t potential customers.

10. Set your budget.

Google will give you three daily budget options, or if none of them are suitable for your business, you can determine your own budget. Some advantages include only paying for clicks, changing your budget and pausing your ads at any time.

Some days you might spend less than your average daily budget, but Google will make up for your spend on other days where there’s better potential. However, you will never go over your daily average budget.

If you’re unsure on what your budget should be, start small and then after you’ve collected some data, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions.

11. Review your campaign.

Double check your ads for grammar and spelling mistakes, ensure you’re targeting the right location and that you’re happy with them.

Step 12: Confirm your payment information.

Now that you’ve successfully created your Google account and first campaign, all that’s left to do is to add your payment details.

3 Top tips to improve your campaigns

Here are three techniques to help you achieve the best results.

1. Create Ad Groups

It’s important to create ad groups which break your campaigns into specific categories. For example, if you sell a wide range of clothing products, it would be appropriate to split your campaign into ad groups such as ‘dresses’, ‘trousers’, ‘tops’ etc.

By focusing the ads and keywords within an ad group on one product, you can ensure that the keywords and ad copy are more relevant. This will make your ads more targeted which will increase your chances of getting more clicks.

There is no set amount of how many ad groups you can have in each campaign, however it is important to keep it manageable. For each ad group you create, we recommended that you create at least three ads that closely relate to the theme of your keywords – two text ads and one responsive search ad.

2. Optimise Your Campaigns

When your campaign is up and running, optimisation is the best way to improve its performance. You can do this by updating landing pages, changing your ad copy or by tweaking your keyword bids.

Optimising your campaigns daily can be rather time consuming, however by using Adzooma’s AI-driven opportunities based on your account data; you will save time, reduce wasted spend and boost your campaigns performance.

Opportunities are intelligent recommendations of how to improve your campaigns that you can apply with just one click.

3. Do Keyword Research

Keywords are one of the most important parts of your campaigns. They are what put your product in front of the customer, so it’s vital to ensure that they’re chosen effectively.

Choosing relevant keywords can sometimes be a challenge, but Google’s Keyword Planner will help you choose the right keywords to get your ad in front of potential customers.

It will pull together a list of relevant keywords that match your ads with the terms that people are searching for.

Make sure you build a negative keywords list too. This will help prevent you from getting low quality clicks, fewer leads and wasted spend. It will also ensure that you are maximising the effectiveness of your budget and your ads are only showing for suitable keyword searches.

Getting the most out of Google Ads

Here are a few key points remember when it comes to Google Ads:

• Choose the best ad type that suits your brand. You could use a hundred words to describe your new trainers but using shopping ads with a great image will always convey things a lot better.
• Choosing the right keywords for your campaigns is extremely important. They are what bring together your product with the perfect customer – use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to find the best ones to use.
• Connect your Google Ads account with Adzooma’s free optimisation platform to be able to optimise your campaigns, hassle free.

If you are looking for other articles on Google Ads, here are a couple to start off with:

• A Guide to Google Ads Bidding Strategies
• Importance of Google Ads Structure
• What Is A Good CTR For Google Ads?

Advertising on Google isn’t the easiest thing to get your head around at first, but with practice and a little help from the free Adzooma Platform, it’s easy to get the hang of. You’ll soon see your clicks and conversions flooding in.

While Instagram is pivotal to promoting anything these days, it’s not easy street as soon as you set up your profile; once you get onto Instagram, you will need to work hard to keep up with this popular platform. Instagram is an integral part of our lives which means that for businesses, this could be one of the biggest keys.

When you think about the fact that it is in the hands of your buyers and wherever they go, they are promoting their lives; you need to get in on the ground floor to promote your business. But what are the best tips for businesses looking to promote themselves on Instagram?

1. Get a Business Profile

It’s important to get a business profile, not a personal one. If you set up a business account, it gives you access to features you cannot use with a personal one, such as Instagram Shopping, Instagram Ads, and Instagram Insights.

A business account is crucial, and even if you set up a personal account, you can turn this into a business account to get the most out of the numerous Instagram features.

2. Use Free Tools

From Instagram Insights to tools like Buffer, there are a wide variety of options to grow your following and can help you to ensure your profile is consistent.

After all, the importance of something as simple as scheduling posts on a regular basis will mean the difference between you and another business gaining access to an important customer.

3. Try Sponsored Ads

One of the best ways to drive traffic on conversions is to use sponsored ads. If you need to reach people who do not follow your account, you can set up your ads using targeted advertisements.

A sponsored ad looks exactly the same as a regular Instagram post but apart from the fact that the word “sponsored” is where the location tag would be, and with a CTA button at the bottom.

Sponsored ads are not annoying like pop-ups and blend in with the rest of the content the user is consuming. While it can be costly, it is certainly worth it if you want to set yourself apart from businesses that are using the many free tools.

4. Use Instagram Stories and IGTV

Instagram Stories are a key component of a fantastic Instagram marketing strategy. Many businesses are using them and getting fantastic results. While Instagram Stories disappear after 24-hours, they are a perfect way to connect with followers.

The best strategy to use Instagram stories for your business is to tell a story, be consistent, and use a call to action. IGTV is also another approach to engage your followers, but the difference between Instagram Stories and IGTV is that it’s built for long-form content.

5. Use Hashtags Wisely

Hashtags are a fantastic way to increase your visibility, and while many personal users fill their content with hashtags, it’s important not to over-egg the pudding.

If you put too many hashtags on a post, it looks like you are spamming, but if you also use repetitive or irrelevant ones, this can also turn users away. Choose hashtags that are relevant and specific to your business, and you must be minimal with them. Between 5 and 9 hashtags per post is the magic number.

6. Find the Best Times to Post

There are a wide variety of times to post based on your industry. If you are a retail business, the optimum times are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 12 pm (yes, really). Those that work in education should only post on Thursday at 4 pm or 5 pm. There really is an ideal time to post on Instagram.

Read: Agony Aunt: When Is The Best Time To Post On Social Media?

7. Track Metrics That Matter

To improve your Instagram performance, you need to understand it. Having the right results will give you clarity, but this is where knowing the right metrics will help you get the most out of your campaign.

The three you need to track are CTR (click-through rates), engagement rates, and follower growth rates. By monitoring these metrics, you will market your business far more effectively.

Read: 11 Social Media Metrics To Track in 2020

8. Get to Grips With the Infamous Instagram Algorithm

As Instagram grew in popularity, the chronological feed was replaced with an algorithm in 2016. The purpose was, in theory, for people to see more relevant content, but this can result in difficulties for businesses to optimise their posts.

But Instagram has now revealed how the algorithm works and the key factors that will determine how well a post performs, including interest timeliness, the relationship frequency, following, and usage.

9. Experiment With Captions

Instagram is a predominantly visual medium, but captions are just as important when you are promoting your brand voice. Instagram captions can be up to 2,200 characters which provide a wide variety of options to tell your story.

But only the first two lines of text appear in the news feed, which means you need to make a significant impact in those lines. But that’s not to say you should neglect long-form content. If you can tell a great story and make the caption compelling and relevant, you should go for it.

10. Cross-promote Instagram posts

Cross-promotion is one of the most effective ways to increase your reach. As Instagram is part of the holy trinity of social media, there are so many other platforms that you can take advantage of.

If you have followers on Twitter or LinkedIn, you could invite them to follow you on Instagram, as this will generate more exposure to your Instagram content and improve your brand all for a reduced cost.

Conclusion

If your business hasn’t got into Instagram, now is the time. With over 1 billion active users, it is behind Facebook but ahead of Twitter, making it the middle child of the social media world.

Promoting your business via the holy trinity of social media is essential, and Instagram marketing will increase your audience and benefit your business further.