Google Ads comes up a lot when we talk about Digital Marketing, but what is it? What does it mean, and why is it important?
Let’s first define Google Ads. The technical definition of Google Ads is best summed up by saying:
“Google’s self-serving advertising tool (platform) that lets marketers serve ads across Google and partner networks.” – The Internet
Ok, that is a good place to start but if you really need to understand this term and use it to your advantage when you encounter it in the “wild” we are going to need to do a deeper dive. Digital Marketing has a lot of jargon to navigate, and it can mean different things depending on where it is being used and what your goals are. For example, Google Ads may mean different things to an SEO (search engine optimizer) than it does to an SMM (Social Media Manager) and something else entirely to a website developer, app developer, or a traditional marketer. For our purposes in this article page, we are going to take the 10,000-foot view and focus on the general digital media perspective. If this leaves you with any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! We love to respond with more specific follow-up content that may be helpful to you.
Ok, so back to “Google Ads” What is it? Why is it important, and how can I use it to best serve my digital marketing or website management needs?
Why do we talk about Google Ads and use it in Digital Marketing?
Google Ads is Google’s online advertising program. AdSense is a free program that gives you a fast and easy way to display relevant Google ads on your result pages. Google Ads allow you to advertise and promote your products and services when users search-relevant keywords. Advertising on Google is great for small businesses that need to reach targeted audiences and want to be able to track their ROI.
Target your ads. Targeting gives you the ability to show your ads to reach people with specific interests, so you can serve your message to people who are interested in your products and services or to show them relevant ads
Control your costs
Measure your success
Manage your campaigns
Types of Google Ads you can run. These ads will show up in specific locations and reach a specific audience.
- Search campaign. These ads show up in the ad section above search results.
- Display campaign. Display ads are ads that are shown on the articles, videos, or websites that consumers browse.
- Shopping campaign. Merchant Center ads will show up in product line-ups.
- Video campaign. These ads may show up on websites that offer video or on websites like YouTube.
- App campaign. These ads will be served inside apps or in the search results when searching for apps.
We keep mentioning AdSense in relation to Google Ads, so what is that? Why do we need to know what AdSense is? Well, it’s the other side of Google Ads Services. For anyone paying to place ads, the other side is all the people creating websites to be paid for allowing these ads.
What is AdSense?
“Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google.” – Wikipedia
Want to implement your new knowledge about Google Ads in your next project or digital marketing campaign? Consult our in-house Google Ads expert and maximize your digital marketing skills and ROI today!
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