Understanding Your Different Choices For Google PPC Ads
When most marketers think about pay-per-click (PPC) ads, they think of Google first. In turn, marketers are likely to mention Google Adwords, the largest and one of the oldest advertising platforms on the Internet.
What Is Google Adwords?
With Adwords, marketers bid for keyword placement on search pages. Placement depends upon bid competition and the Quality Score (QS) that has been assigned to the advertiser and the page. For example, an advertiser might bid on “women’s winter coats” in order to display ads when searchers look for that type of product.
This method of advertising is still very popular, but it isn’t the only solution that Google offers marketers these days. In some niches, search bids are very expensive and different solutions may be cheaper. Also, some products and services may be better suited to different advertising platforms.
Non-AdWords Google PPC Alternatives
The Google Display Network
In addition to having ads show up in search, Google also lets advertisers place their ads on a vast selection of other websites. These include blogs, news sites, online magazines, and just about any type of Internet property that runs these ads. Of course, some properties will be more expensive than others. So marketers have to decide upon a budget and balance that between the number of clicks and the cost of those clicks.
That ads can also be placed on sites that are relevant to the product or service, so it’s likely that the audience that visits that site will be interested in the marketing message. For example, a home handyman site might be a good place to try to put ads on for a plumbing supply store.
Besides choosing between different websites to display ads upon, marketers can also select from many different kinds of ad formats. These include different ad sizes, mobile advertisements, text ads, graphic ads, and even video ads.
For some marketers, the Google Display Network provides them with quality traffic at a fair price. As with any PPC advertising, successful advertisers are usually willing to spend time testing out different websites and advertising formats.
The Google Merchant Center PPC Ads
For merchants who carry inventory, the Google Merchant Center might be the best solution. The system allows merchants to edit their inventory to keep ads updated and relevant. These ads have a couple of nice features for merchants:
The system allows dynamic retargeting of ads – Very often, consumers don’t buy something the first time they see an advertising message. If a customer doesn’t buy right away, he or she can see the product on another advertisement that might help jog his or her memory.
The system allows local targeting – If a consumer is near your store and shopping online, he or she is more likely to be ready to make a purchase. Local targeting of these shopping ads can be a very powerful tool and has been proven to produce better and quicker conversions to sales than non-local ads.
By getting listed in the Google Merchant Center, it may also help give businesses more credibility with consumers who already use Google to search. This may help increase clicks and conversions, and in the end, this can also help reduce advertising costs.
Which Kind Of Google PPC Advertising Is Better?
Successful marketers usually test different PPC strategies, and they keep testing. While a local store may profit the most from Google’s Merchant Center, a national company might prefer traditional search or the Display Network. The company offers lots of support, but it still takes some time to maximize ROI when bidding on keywords or site placement in most industries.
Jonathan Leger has been a successful Internet Marketer for over 11 years. He owns an SEO Tools suite at KeywordCanine.com.