Do Google Ads Work for Small Businesses?
How does a 1,312% increase in lead volume sound?
We’re not going to sit on the fence here. If you’re a small business, you need an advertising platform that can deliver plenty of leads, whilst remaining cost effective.
With the right approach, Google Ads absolutely fits the bill. It’s low risk, highly optimizable and offers plenty of features designed to generate high-intent, purchase ready leads – all whilst avoiding the lag associated with organic SEO.
Read on for everything you need to know about what Google Ads is, how it works and why it’s natural pick for small businesses.
Google Ads in a nutshell: everything you need to know
What it is: Google Ads is Google’s bid-based online advertising platform. Advertisers use it to buy space on a wide range of digital ad space, including:
- Google search ads
- YouTube video ads (yes – Google owns YouTube too)
- Google shopping ads
- Google display ads
How it works: Google ads display when a user has searched for something. You create ads and bid on the keyword searches you’d like your ads to be displayed on. When those keywords are searched, Google’s algorithm chooses which ads to display based on:
- The amount you’re willing to pay for a customer to click your ad
- Search context and relevance, including how well your ad matches search intent
- Ad extensions – any extra features of your ads that could be beneficial to the user
- Quality Score – Google’s own metric used to evaluate the quality of your ads
If your ad is displayed, you’ll pay the amount you bid for every user that clicks onto your ad. So, if you bid $2.00 for your keyword and your ad got 10 click throughs, you’d pay $20. This is known as pay per click (PPC) pricing.
The advantages, in brief: With the right know-how, it generates leads quickly, is super cost effective, and allows businesses to target specific, purchase ready audiences.
What to bear in mind: Google Ads has many advantages, but need to invest time and strategic thought to maximize its potential.
You can manage your Google Ads campaigns yourself, make an in-house hire or onboard a PPC agency to run your campaigns for you.
Why Google Ads is a surefire pick for small businesses?
Google Ads is the largest digital ad publisher in the United States, accounting for over a quarter (28.4%) of all ad revenue generated digitally. This means that for smaller businesses whose time and budget constraints limit them in more traditional areas of advertising, it’s the perfect playing field.
Here’s why:
Huge amount of local search traffic
46% of Google searches are looking for local information. They’re not looking for big corporations. They’re looking for where to eat in the evening, someone to fix their car or limo hire for their kid’s prom. And that’s where small businesses really shine – bidding for local search keywords is a surefire way to get noticed by people in your proximity.
More leads, fast
Two things that small businesses are short on: time and personnel. It makes sense to use the resources you do have to prioritize the methods that generate the most leads in the shortest time. For most small businesses, this is Google Ads because:
- It’s highly targeted – you bid on the keywords most relevant to your business, which puts your ads in front of highly interested audiences
- It’s quick – when you bid successfully, your ads jump to the top of the page even if you created them seconds ago. Unlike organic SEO, you don’t need to build in any lead time
Low risk, high return
The financial burden of unsuccessful campaigns is minimal. If your ad doesn’t display, there’s nothing to pay. And, if your ad does display, you’ll get prime position right under a search that your ad is super relevant for. Win win.
Easy to track and optimize
Not winning as many bids as you’d like? Take a look at your ad’s analytics, edit your ad to address any potential weak spots, and track whether that improves things.
Google Ads is the most flexible way of advertising – there’s no upfront spend, and you’re free to change tack whenever you like. This is ideal for small businesses who need to think fast and act quickly if a strategy isn’t delivering results.
4 useful Google Ads features for small businesses
Local Services Ads
Google’s Local Services Ads are a great option for small, service-based businesses.
These ads are designed to connect customers in a particular area with local service providers, and offers one huge advantage for small businesses: Google makes searchers confirm their location and the service they are looking for – so you know that you’re advertising to a local audience that’s ready to buy.
Geotargeting
Adapting your keywords and ad copy to your specific markets is important – but using Google’s geotargeting features allows you to take things up a notch.
Geotargeting lets you specify where, geographically, your ads display. If you’re a New York business that only serves customers in New York, for example, you can choose to have your ads only display on searches originating from users in New York.
Not only will targeting your location increase your ad’s relevance and click through rate – it will also help you stretch your ad budget further.
Dynamic keyword insertion
Use Google’s AI-based dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) tool to update your ad in real-time with terms that match the searcher’s query.
For example, you’re running an ad for an HVAC company in New York. Using DKI, you could make sure your ad text contained the words ‘HVAC company in Brooklyn’ or ‘HVAC company in Manhattan’ depending on the terms of the search your ad is displayed on.
This is a particularly useful tip for small businesses who’d like to advertise to multiple locations within a larger area.
Search ad assets
Looking to boost your ad’s visibility and make your search ads even more enticing for potential leads?
Search ad assets (previously called ‘search ad extensions’) let you adjust how your ads behave and appear when they are displayed, to catch the most attention possible. For example:
- Location assets: allow you to display extra info about your business, including opening hours, contact details, and location on a map.
- Sitelink assets: allow you to offer a basic navigation bar on your ad, so users can find the most relevant information on your website quicker.
- Lead form assets: allow users to jump to a contact form from the ad itself, eliminating the need to click through to the landing page.
- Image assets: allow you to add images to your ads to help them stand on the page more
- Promotion assets: allow you to highlight special offers to increase click through rate – you’ll be able to direct them straight to the offer to encourage speedy checkout.
Case study: Double Black Transportation
Don’t just take our word for it – to get a feel for what it can do, take a look at how small businesses just like yours have used Google Ads successfully
Take Double Black Transportation. A provider of luxury party buses and limousines originally based in Jackson Hole and Miami, their team were keen to establish their South Carolina and start generating high-intent leads as quickly as possible.
Working with Velocity’s in-house team, Double Black and optimized Google Ads campaigns using PPC optimization sprints, testing ad copy, keyword and bid strategies to scale at the highest efficiency.
Their ongoing campaigns have resulted in staggering return on ad spend (ROAS) in excess of 1,221% and an increase in lead volume of 1,312%.
Want to know how they did it? Read full case study here.
Is a Google Ads agency worth it for small businesses?
We get it. As a small business you need to carefully scrutinize every dollar that comes out of your budget.
But did you know that you could hire a specialist Google Ads agency for as little as $750 per month?
That gets you access to a team of experienced professionals with millions of dollars of ad spend and successful campaigns behind them – and it’s one less thing for your team to do. Not to mention that you’d have to increase that sum many times over to hire a PPC specialist in house.
Why not drop us a message – a conversation is free, after all.