With its unrivaled reach and sophisticated targeting capabilities, Google Ads has been since its earliest days an essential tool for brands looking to fortify their digital footprint and grow their business.
However, given the competition, success across Google Ads comes with a hefty price tag. For brands wondering if advertising on Google is worth the cost and, if so, how to maximize efficiency and profitability, read on.
Here, we explain some contributing factors to the cost of advertising on Google, the benefits of working with a Google Premier Partner like MuteSix, and the reasons why Google Ads is essential to any digital-first brand.
Google Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform that launched in 2000, and has since evolved into one of the most sophisticated and indispensable platforms for digital advertisers
It allows brands to generate and display ads to large, targeted audiences through Google’s network of websites and mobile apps. These include Search and Display advertising.
Using Google Ads, brands can target specific keywords and demographics, and pay only when the desired user clicks on their ad. This makes Google Ads a cost-effective way to reach high-intent consumers and drive traffic to a brand’s website.
Google Advertising has two platforms. The first is their Search Engine Results Page (SERP) platform. Those are the ads displayed at the top of search results.
The second is the Google Display Network, where Google distributes display ads for brands on various websites. Google’s Display Network is especially extensive, reaching highly sought-after placements across sites from top publishers to niche markets.
Both platforms operate on an auction-based bidding system. When a user searches on Google or visits a website that displays Google Ads, the platform runs an auction to determine which ads will be shown.
Brands bid on specific keywords. The winning bid is determined by a combination of the bid amount and the ad’s Quality Score, which is a measure of the relevance and usefulness of the ad to the user.
The bidding system is designed to provide users with relevant and useful ads while enabling advertisers to reach their desired audience at a comfortable cost.
Cost per click (CPC) measures the amount of money you pay when a consumer clicks on your ads. The average CPC of Google Ads varies significantly across industries. While we can’t provide a single answer regarding the CPC of any given Google Ads campaign, we can explain the factors contributing to these advertising costs.
The customer journey, from upper-funnel brand awareness down to post-purchase loyalty, can vary in length. Brands targeting consumers in the early stages of the journey, such as the awareness stage, may need to display multiple ads to drive consideration. This is especially true if the product is expensive or exists in a competitive market.
However, consumers closer to making a purchase may require fewer ad touchpoints This is especially true of quick-and-easy purchases.
Your brand’s industry dramatically influences the cost of your ad auction price. Some industries, such as legal services or finance, tend to have high competition. Therefore, these brands have higher costs for ad space.
Advertisers in these industries may need to bid higher for popular keywords and target audiences, driving up the cost of their campaigns.
More niche consumer markets have less competition and enjoy lower prices. For example, e-commerce is a relatively efficient industry in the Google Ads space, but even with that, it depends on the competition within a shopping vertical.
Competition can have a direct impact on the price of your Google Ads. This can be influenced by the time of year, your industry, the hour of day, and your cultural context.
For example, during hours of the day when more shoppers are likely to be purchasing online, the price of ads can spike as brands compete for placements and attention.
You can control how much you spend on a Google Ad campaign by setting a cap, adjusting based on performance, and pausing or starting your ads at any time. While understanding the science behind ad performance can be complex, maneuvering the system around your maximum bid and daily budget is not.
It’s always smart to work with a Google Premier Partner like MuteSix, who is well-versed in Google best practices, especially during heavy promotional periods so that brands can optimize budget and/or bidding strategies for maximum profit.
Trends in consumer behavior and technology can influence the cost of advertising on Google Ads. The recent uptick in consumer interest in eco-friendly products, for example, led to increased competition and higher average CPC costs for related keywords and target audiences.
There are many benefits to using Google Ads, including the ability to scale efficiently, profitably, and quickly.
There’s no limit to scaling your Google Ads. Brands can adjust their bids and campaigns based on changes in search volume and campaign performance, allowing them to reach more or fewer potential customers as needed.
Because brands pay only when someone clicks on their ad — instead of paying for impressions or viewings — Google Ads is a more budget-friendly Paid Search option than other forms of online advertising. In other words, PPC ads are ultra-efficient.
Simply put, Google is popular. It has a massive audience. Within the Paid Search space, Google dominates upwards of 90% of the market.
Google Ads provides precise analytics, allowing brands and agencies to improve their campaign strategies and make data-driven decisions to maximize their advertising results.
Many advertising strategies involve long wait times to see results, but this is not the case with Google Ads. Brands are able to see the impact of their campaigns in real-time and make adjustments accordingly to maximize conversion rates.
The Google search network isn’t the only valuable item the company offers. Google’s synergy with YouTube, Discovery, and Display advertising make it the central hub for so many ad placements.
What’s more, when you partner with MuteSix, our team leverages a full product adoption strategy to increase our clients’ coverage throughout the Google ecosystem. This includes, but is not limited to, our Search campaign blueprint allowing us to optimize budget and/or bidding strategies for maximum profit, as well as a fully segmented YouTube / Discovery / Display approach to ensure budget and creative is curated to meet customers.
By allowing brands to display their ads to users based on specific search queries, Google Ads can help brands reach new customers with highly relevant, targeted messaging.
Success on Google Ads can take many shapes, but there are some recommended practices.
It’s important to conduct thorough keyword research via Google Adwords and to understand the target audience to ensure that the campaign reaches the right shoppers with relevant messaging.
The ad copy should be clear, concise, and compelling, while ad placement and targeting should be designed to maximize visibility and impact.
Continuous monitoring and adjustment of the campaigns are key, with data-driven decisions being made to improve performance and reach desired results. By working with an experienced and celebrated Google Premier Partner like MuteSix, brands can create and run effective campaigns that drive not just short-term revenue, but long-term growth for businesses.
At the end of the day, Google Ads boils down to an algorithm that requires a complex formula to solve it and beat it.
An agency respected by Google has the knowledge, experience, and prowess to improve ad rank and effectively manage a brand’s Google Ads budget while maximizing campaign success. To do this, we start by conducting extensive keyword research, then creating and A/B testing compelling messaging to maximize ad position and visibility.
An agency like MuteSix can handle the time-consuming tasks of monitoring and adjusting campaigns, in addition to introducing brands to the latest best practices and capabilities within the Google ecosystem.
We also ensure that not only is your creative reaching the highest-intent audiences, but that that creative is compelling enough to convert them into shoppers. We do this by leveraging real-time data, then optimizing media buying and creative strategy accordingly.
There are a few contributing factors regarding cost.
Your brand’s size and budget play a significant role in determining the cost of working with an agency.
Larger brands typically command a higher monthly spend, requiring more team members and analysts. Meanwhile, smaller business owners may have lower advertising budgets and less complex campaigns.
Generally, the more intricate and multi-faceted campaigns are, the more strategy and management efforts they’ll require. More complexity typically incurs higher costs.
Some Google Ads agencies will only offer campaign management, while others offer more hands-on strategic work, including analytics and real-time optimizations. The latter will offer their comprehensive services at higher rates than the former.
Choosing the right Google Ads agency can make all the difference in the success of a brand’s advertising campaigns.
Unlike other agencies, MuteSix goes beyond campaign management. Our Google buyers are full-funnel marketers who scrutinize the full picture to accelerate growth, including CRO, landing pages, and shopping feed strategy so as to maximize success across the entire Google ecosystem.
What’s more: Our Paid Search team collaborates with all Paid Media channels, fueling a feedback loop of important insights about audiences, creative, products, and keywords so as to maximize profitability across the board.
Looking to reach, convert, and retain more customers using Google Ads? Reach out to our team of industry-leading Paid Search experts today.
Sources:
Benefits of online advertising and Google Ads | Google