Should You Use Google Ads For Marketing in 2022?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Should you use Google Ads or rely on organic traffic? The truth is a well-rounded business uses a mix of both. SEO is a long waiting game that’s worth it in the end, but can take a long time to get the ball rolling. The advantage of using Google Ads is that it begins working almost immediately, so you can get begin to receive traffic while you wait for your organic SEO efforts to pay off. Before you get started with ads, you should have a basic understanding of SEO and how these advertisements work. That way you’ll be able to see successful results from your campaigns and understand how to adjust accordingly. Google Ads has been around for nearly 20 years and they’re the best in the business for a reason. The reach potential is insane and it can pay off for you with a solid strategy in place. If you have any questions about your SEO strategy or want us to handle it for you, reach out to us at Prebuilt Sites or The BBS Agency. We’d love to help you out!

Choosing just the right marketing tools to promote your products and services is never easy, especially in an ever-changing digital landscape. Google Ads has been a marketing mainstay for many years now, but is it still effective? Find out what you need to know here.

Making a success of a business isn’t easy these days, and coming up with a product or service with the potential to set a new gold standard is really only the beginning of your journey. 

Plus, making sure the people you developed it for actually know about it in the first place can be equally as challenging, so the right digital marketing solutions are crucial.

For many years, Google Ads was considered an absolute staple without which your marketing campaign couldn’t be regarded as complete. 

But what about now? After all, a lot has changed about the digital landscape since Google first launched Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) way back in 2000.

As you move forward into 2022, it’s only natural to be wondering whether a service that’s been around over 20 years is still worthwhile, regardless of how widely used it might still be. 

So here’s a look at everything you need to know.

How Does Google Ads Work?

Google Ads remains one of the most popular, widely used pay-per-click advertising options worldwide, and it still works essentially the same way it always has. 

Google Ads users select keywords or keyphrases they’d like to rank for in relevant Google searches. 

They then bid on them according to how much they’re willing to spend each time one of their associated ads gets a click.

Once a particular Google ad is live, it now has a chance to appear at the very top of relevant searches in Google’s ad bank. 

The ad bank is always displayed above the list of Google’s organic search results, giving the links included a terrific chance at generating traffic and converting sales.

Google ads can also appear across many other Google features and apps. These include Google Maps, Google Play, Google Images, and Google Shopping. 

It’s even possible to expand the potential reach of your ads so that they show up when your target audience watches videos on YouTube, checks their Gmail, or spends time on many of their favorite websites.

When a user clicks one of your ads, regardless of where it was displayed across the Google display network, you’re charged the amount you bid on the associated keyword or keyphrase.

You never have to pay for ads that are displayed but not clicked, but you do have to pay regardless of whether that click converts into a sale.

How Do You Get Started with Google Ads?

Like all of the products and interfaces within the Google network, it’s really easy to get set up on Google Ads if you haven’t done so already. 

You’ll naturally want to start by developing a basic understanding of SEO and choosing your keywords carefully. Breaking your products up into neat categories and subcategories is a great way to make sure you cover all your bases.

Then once you’re ready to begin your campaign, you set your budget, select your desired keywords, and place bids according to the funds you’ve allotted to your project. 

Next, refine the way you’d like your ads to show up across the Google network by selecting match type (broad, exact, etc.). 

Then create your ads, activate your campaign, and check back often to see how things are going. That’s it!

Are Google Ads Worth It Nowadays?

With over 3.5 billion daily users and over 1.2 trillion search queries per year, Google is far and away the most popular, widely used search network in the world. 

Every single second sees an additional 40,000 searches performed on Google, each one attached to a person who could well be looking for precisely the products or service you sell.

So, are Google ads worth it? 

Yes, they are, even in 2022, and that will not change anytime soon. So you’d do well to include them in your marketing campaign, as well. 

Here are some of the most critical benefits Google Ads brings to the table.

1. The potential is unlimited

A well-crafted Google Ads campaign is about as scalable as it gets, as many millions of fresh keywords are put up for bidding every day. 

So whether you’re looking to tap into a new market or form more robust connections to a particular demographic, all you need to do to make it happen with Google Ads is add some new keywords to your campaign.

If you’ve got it in your budget, you can increase your chances of attracting clicks even further by raising your bids on your most important keywords. 

And since you always have total control over your campaign, you can pause and reenable your campaign whenever you like — no penalties attached.

2. The results are fast

Those who dislike the general idea of pay-per-click advertising often say it isn’t worth it because you can drive traffic just as effectively with SEO. 

And, yes, SEO is undoubtedly important and should be a significant part of any well-rounded marketing campaign. But pay-per-click options like Google Ads yield results much faster.

In fact, you’ll start seeing serious results pretty much instantly, while SEO takes a while to yield a good return on your original investment — often months. 

A savvy marketer would use both for that reason. Think of PPC as a way to get the ball rolling while you continue to play the long game with SEO.

3. You connect with consumers at the best possible time

Think about the last time you were in the market for a particular product or service. 

By the time you made it to the point where you were Googling the possibilities, you were already primed and ready to buy. 

Your future customers will be in the same state of mind, guaranteed.

The fact that your Google ads appear ahead of even the best organic search results means you’ll reach your target audience right when it’s most important to do so: when they’re ready to pull the trigger on a purchase. 

In other words, Google ads ensure your product is always in front of the right people at exactly the right time.

4. You can access highly specific markets

Every business owner has broader plans for their marketing campaign and particular goals for who they’d like to reach.

For instance, a local business might be interested in building authority in their industry at large but also in getting more local customers through the front door.

Google Ads makes it easy to aim your advertising at whomever you’re looking to reach in just about any context you can imagine. 

Want to set geographical range limits on your ad to attract local customers better? No problem. 

Looking to corner a particular niche market? You can easily do that, too, as well as anything else you can think of.

5. There’s so much variety to choose from

If you’re familiar with the early days of Google ads, you no doubt remember what they were like — effective but relatively basic text ads that didn’t bring much flare to the table. 

But today, although the general idea of the ads themselves is similar, savvy marketers have many formats to choose from.

Browse options designed with specific industries in mind, including hospitality, food service, and auto maintenance. 

Add beautiful visuals like interactive maps and professional photos to your ads to draw the eye and appeal to specific customers. 

If you can imagine a specific ad, Google Ads likely gives you a way to create it.

6. It’s easy to keep track of your campaign

Creating an effective campaign and putting it into action is only part of making a marketing strategy successful. 

Keeping careful track of the data and analyzing it thoroughly is what the rest is all about.

Google Ads comes complete with one of the most thorough, user-friendly analytics options you can find built right in. 

All you need to do to see how a particular campaign is going is check out your stats, and you’ll gain instant access to anything you want to know. 

Examples include:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Keyword search volume
• Cost-per-conversion (CPC)
• Ad quality score
• Ad position ranking

You also have the option of linking your Google Analytics account to your Google Ads account and comparing your organic search data to your PPC data in a convenient side-by-side manner. 

In other words, so much of what you need to market smarter on an ongoing basis comes with the package when you use Google Ads.

7. There’s more than one way to level the playing field

Of course, simply raising your bids on important keywords is one way to potentially boost your ad ranking, but it’s not the only one. 

Quality and relevancy are critically important to Google, so a savvy marketer who’s a whiz at writing ads and planning campaigns has a real edge over their competitors.

Do a good enough job of creating quality ads and optimizing them to perfection, and you could easily beat out less relevant advertisements that may be attached to higher bids. 

Your quality score comes from the combination of relevancy and positive user experience in your ads. 

Your ad rank is determined by combining your quality score with your maximum bid per click.

8. You can seamlessly reconnect with former website visitors

When you’re in the process of finding the right solution to your problems, you might visit many different websites before settling on the right choice for you. 

Your customers are the same way, and unless they’re unusually diligent about bookmarking options they want to remember, it’s easy to forget where they saw they saw something promising.

Google Ads has several features that make it easy to remind people of your best offerings if they’ve been to your site before. 

If a lead leaves before finalizing a purchase, a remarketing campaign can potentially show your products via advertising interfaces on other websites, as well as across the Google display network. 

A lead that’s already been to your site is far more likely to eventually convert if shown your products again in the future.

Google Ads vs. SEO: Is SEO Still Important?

Google Ads and good, old-fashioned SEO have lots in common regarding the ultimate end goal. 

Both are about driving the right traffic to your website — traffic that will hopefully convert into completed sales and loyal customers at some point down the line.

Both leverage the unparalleled potential audience Google brings to the table. Both can connect you with a target audience that’s interested in your catalog. 

But there are key differences between the two that marketers need to be aware of.

• Successful SEO campaigns yield slower results, while PPC starts driving traffic almost immediately.
• PPC lets you customize campaigns on the fly as needed, while SEO campaigns typically evolve gradually over time.

In other words, PPC advertising solutions like Google Ads are incredibly effective when it comes to helping you reach many of your marketing goals.

They’ll get you sales, drive traffic, and help you raise awareness when it comes to your brand, especially if your ads are well-written and well-optimized. 

However, they’re not a substitute for SEO.

SEO is a traditional part of digital marketing for an excellent reason — it gives businesses the very best chance to be discovered by precisely the audience you’re looking to reach. 

It may take a while to get the logistics just right, but the results are undeniable once that happens.

That said, both Google Ads and traditional SEO have a place in modern marketing campaigns, even in 2022. 

Both will help you meet your goals going forward, but SEO is still king when building lasting authority and attracting an audience.

Wrap Up: Thorough Marketing Campaigns Are Your Best Bet

Traditionally speaking, the most successful marketing campaigns are the well-rounded ones that make innovative use of several practical solutions. 

Of course, SEO has always been a big part of a business’s overall success, and that will continue to be the case in 2022. 

But Google Ads very much still has a place in a good marketer’s campaign plans.

Consulting the help of the right experts is yet another reliable way to guarantee your 2022 marketing campaign is everything that it should be. 

At Rock Content, we specialize in providing innovative, high-caliber experiences that drive revenue, get results, and propel your brand to the top of the heap. 

So get in touch today, and take your digital marketing strategy to the next level!

Originally posted on Rock Content by Shannon Hilson.