A Beginners Guide on how to set up Google Ads for your small business

Google Ads is Google’s online advertising platform which allows you to create online ads to reach audiences that are interested in the products and services that you offer. The Google Ads platform runs on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning you have to pay every time a visitor clicks your ad. Even with the smallest of budgets, if you learn how to use Google Ads correctly, it can be one of the most profitable ways to market your business.

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Protectivity is a specialist in niche commercial, leisure and lifestyle insurance. We cover thousands of individuals and small to medium size businesses across the UK, offering a range of tailored insurance products, such as Hairdressing Insurance, Personal Training Insurance and Pet Business Insurance, that protect our customers against unforeseen events.

Step 1: Sign up process

If you already have a Google Account (in other words, if you use any other Google product, such as Gmail), you can sign up by entering your Google email address and password, then click ‘Sign in’.

If you don’t have an account or want to use a different email address to sign in, just click ‘Create an account’ at the bottom of the screen and follow the instructions to create and confirm your new Google account.

Step 2: What’s your advertising goal?

Shortly after you have provided the basic information to Google, you will be asked ‘What’s your main advertising goal?’. Your answer to this question will depend on the type of business that you run or work for and what its advertising goals are.

Do you want to attract phone calls to your business? Or do you prefer to drive sales to your eCommerce website? Maybe you want to attract more people to a physical location such as a gym? Simply select the option that is best suited to your advertising goals.

Step 3: Write your ad

Google will ask you to confirm your business name and website, plus you’ll need to complete a verification process. Once complete, you’ll then need to create your ad. Here is the place to put your creative hat on and write a captivating advert that will encourage people click on it.

You should consider using keywords in your advert copy that is specific to what people are searching, as well as a clear call-to-action.

Assuming you are just getting started with learning how to create a Google ad in AdWords, we’ll start with the basics. A text ad is made up of these three main parts; headlines, description lines and final URL.

– Headline 1 is the most prominent part of your ad, so it should clearly state what your business is or the product or service you are offering. For example, a personal trainer might use the headline ‘Experienced Personal Trainer’.

– Headline 2 should be used to shout about one of your key USP’s. If you were a gym business owner, for example, you might use ‘Zero Sign-Up Fees’ or ‘Only £X.XX A Month’.

– Headline 3 is optional. We suggest using it for a call-to-action such as ‘Call Us Today’ or ‘Book Online Now’.

– The description lines should provide more detail about what you offer and why the person reading your ad should visit your website.

– The final URL is the landing page of your website that you want people to go to. This should always be the most relevant page on your site.

Once your Google Ads account is set up, we suggest you go into your campaign settings to create Ad Extensions. Ad Extensions expand your ad with additional information such as USPs and/or additional services.

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Step 4: Choose your keywords

Keywords are the search queries that people search for in Google. For example, a professional barber might need public liability insurance and, therefore, search for ‘public liability insurance for barbers’ in Google.

To start with you want to be as specific as you can with your keywords – think about what your ideal customer would be searching for in Google to find your product or service.

You can always use Google’s free Keyword Planner Tool to help you with this area. It will tell you how many people are searching for your keyword(s), plus it will offer estimates on how much it will cost you each time someone clicks on your advert, in turn giving you some idea of how much it will cost you to run the advertising.

Step 5: Location

During the next step, you need to select the geographic location(s) where you would like your ads to show. Your targeting can be as broad as the entire world or as specific as a single post code.

If you have a small business and want to attract people coming to your location, we recommend choosing “advertise near an address”, then you’ll be targeting people in your specific local area.

Step 6: Set a budget

Google will give you a set of budget options that you can consider before you decide on a final figure.

From the image below, you can see that Google offers an estimate on the number of clicks your adverts will get as well as the maximum monthly spend.

Despite Google being kind enough to offer you such insights, we would advise you to enter your own budget. If you want to spend more (or less) in the future, you will have the option to change it.

Put simply, you are saying to Google that you are prepared to spend X a mount on your advertising.

You can also select to run your campaign continuously or until a specific date.

Step 7: Confirm payment info

Your last step is to enter your business and payment details.

And there you have it, your account should be all set up. Once you complete the initial set-up, we advise keeping an eye on the campaign to see how well it is performing (i.e. How many clicks have you attracted? How much is it costing you per click?).

One final thing that we suggest you look into ASAP after launching your campaign is conversion tracking…

Conversion Tracking

Conversion Tracking is vital to monitor how well your advertising is performing. Without it, knowing if your adverts are producing website sales or leads (i.e. form submissions and/or phone calls) for your business is extremely difficult.

You can find out how to set up the correct Google Ads conversion tracking by visiting this page.

Thanks for reading this article, we hope you found it useful. If you did, you might find this relatable read of interest: How to use Instagram to market your small business

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Useful Resources: https://ads.google.com/home/resources/basics-online-marketing/