How to use Google Ads: strategies and tips for professionals

 

How to use Google Ads when not selling products, but skills and services? Let's see what are the

features of this platform that can help freelancers to intercept customers and be found.

Leveraging the Google search engine and its networks is a crucial step in any digital marketing strategy. But what if your business isn't based on e-commerce or product sales? Find out how to use Google Ads if you are a professional and want to enhance the professionalism of your services.

·         Google Ads: what is it and how does it work?

·         Google Ads structure: what is there to know?

·         Google Ads for professionals: focus on keywords and locations

·         How to use Google Ads for professionals: take advantage of 'extensions'

·         Google Ads costs: what are they based on?

Google Ads: what is it and how does it work?

Google Ads, called Google Adwords until 2018, is the leading online advertising platform. The numbers show that the search engine of the Mountain View Colossus and its Display Network are able to reach over 90% of Internet users around the world.

The advertiser who activates an advertising campaign on Google Ads has full control over the objectives and the expenditure incurred to achieve them, being able to set the maximum budget threshold that is willing to invest based on the clicks received or the impressions generated. With his bid, the advertiser enters an auction system that puts him in competition with direct competitors.

The frequency and order of paid ads are determined in Google Ads based on the following factors:

Economic offer

Overall budget for the promotion

Ad quality and relevance

Landing page quality

User view / search context

The combination of these factors, in particular quality and relevance , determines the success of the promotional campaign and the satisfaction of advertisers and users in using this service.

NB An unlimited budget is not enough to win on Google Ads, but it is necessary to optimize it with an in-depth study of the needs and behaviors of the target audience.

Google Ads structure: what is there to know?

Whether the advertiser is a doctor, or rather the marketing manager of a large company chasing leads, the campaign architecture remains unchanged. It is a set of Chinese boxes : the largest and most external is your Google Ads account , within which one or more campaigns can be active; the campaign is in turn made up of one or more ad groups ; an ad group contains one or several ads. Here are the salient features of the different components:

Campaign level : we set the type of promotional campaign (eg "video", or "search", or even "display") and choose the options relating to the daily budget, the destination location of the ads etc.

Ad group level : we profile our target audience, managing the individual options available.

Ad level : we finalize the strategy by creating the content (image, copy message, video etc.) that we have planned to intercept the end user, based on the context in which we are going to intercept him.

NB Google Ads offers less experienced advertisers the possibility of creating a modular ad , in which to report more titles and more descriptions that will be composed and declined by the platform in a different way, even in the absence of a website . By studying the performance of each element, it will be possible to test the most effective variants and reduce the margins of error for similar campaigns.

Google Ads for professionals: focus on keywords and locations

Let's now enter the specific topic of this guide and analyze what are the main points for a Google Ads campaign for a professional. The starting point is to understand the needs of your target audience, starting with the keywords they use to express them on the search engine.

The keyword planning on Google Ads shows you how potential customers search for your service , suggesting related and relevant terms and phrases. Furthermore, at this stage you can verify that there is sufficient search volume to justify an investment on certain keywords. Let's see in detail the two possible hypotheses:

There is no significant search volume . It means that there is no conscious demand from the public, or that perhaps your service solves a little-felt and not widespread need. In any case, advertising on keywords that few are looking for doesn't make sense. Better to choose a "display" type campaign that shows the ad to users, through the Google Display Network , while they are watching videos on YouTube, browsing desktop sites or using a mobile app.

There is significant search volume for the identified keywords . It means that your service solves a clearly perceived need, or that users search for it through combinations of defined and definable words. If you are an established professional, the user can even use your surname, or the name of your firm associated with your profession and location in the query . NB One of the keys to reduce the risk of variations in the cost of keywords, which we will talk about in the last chapter, is to identify keywords that are inconspicuous, but are still valid for your purpose.

In the example above we have given the example of the dentist Marco Verdi who has his office in Milan, which allows us to enter into the merits of the target location . For many categories of professionals - doctors, but also craftsmen and technicians - being found live is an important aspect: not all services are available online. For this reason it is important to define the geographical range of action that determines one's own intervention area. On Google Ads you can do this by acting on the option " Actual locations " → level " Presence " which defines the real position of the user who is the recipient of the ad.

 

How to use Google Ads for professionals: take advantage of 'extensions'

The ads on Google Ads are accompanied by extensions that contextualize the message, defining it and making it not only more engaging, but also interactive. And it is precisely on the extensions that a Google Ads campaign for professionals plays its chances of success.

Call Extensions : Show a clickable phone number from the user's mobile device. For professionals, in which the direct relationship with the customer is a fundamental part of their business model, this is a way to shorten the distance between the user's need and the solution of the same. From this point of view, the ads that immediately generate the call when clicked are optimal. NB To make the most of this type of extension you will need to make sure that you can manage the contact, which is why it is convenient to plan it in campaigns that can be scheduled for specific days and times.

Location Extensions : These are those that connect Google Ads and Google My Business and show ads within the range you define.

Sitelink extensions : with additional links, consisting of a title and two lines of description, you can entice the user to click on specific pages of the site such as " Services ", " Reviews " etc.

Structured Snippet Extensions : These are displayed below the text ad in the form of a header and list and offer a preview of the categories of services. You can choose your service from a predefined list, then adding specific details in the " Values " item.

Price extensions : they are more attractive for production companies than for service providers. In fact, they require a specific URL for the product / service in promotion and not always pages of price lists or promotions are present on the professional websites.

Google Ads costs: what are they based on?

Google Ads campaigns, regardless of the budget allocated, have among the primary objectives that of guaranteeing a positive ROI ( Return On Investment ). But what are the items that contribute to the definition of the overall expenditure?

Google Ads campaign planning : the reference sector and the target to be intercepted determine the time to devote to setting up the campaign and consequently its cost. The more articulated and complex the campaign to be programmed, the greater the cost to be incurred.

Google Ads campaign monitoring : the constant monitoring phase on the progress of the promotional campaign is an integral part of it. In fact, it allows the advertiser to make changes and adjustments, based on the analysis of the data collected. But optimizing is very rarely cost-free.

CPC (Cost Per Click) : How much do you pay for each ad click ? This is one of the decisive parameters for the cost of the campaign, characterized at the same time by extreme variability. The CPC in fact depends on the greater or lesser competition in the promotion sector and the quality score assigned by Google. For example, if other competitors run promotional campaigns in your business sector, the competition for the most coveted keywords increases and so does the cost per click. As for the Google Quality Score on the Ads campaign, it is based on the construction of the ad, the effectiveness of the landing page and the relevance of the keywords .

The virtuous circle of Google Ads for cost containment can be summarized as follows: convincing ad → increase in click -through rate (CRT = Click-Through Rate ) → increase in Google quality score → CPC reduction on the chosen keywords .