Advertising on the internet (Google ads etc)

[Tribs]

I have some friends who have decided that advertising on Facebook is not for them as their target market ignore posts there and all they get are likes - no actual business.

They would like to use Google but have found the entire process confusing and longwinded and difficult. Is there anyone where (@biometrics ) who can give them some things they should do - consider - when placing these ads? Anyone else is welcome to give their opinion (@Johnatan56 etc)

 

[biometrics]

I'll post screen shots tonight when I'm at a PC.

Google Ads work for me but it's a confusing interface and some important options are not obvious.

 

[biometrics]

I only have one campaign and ad so can only show that. I've also already set mine up so your initial experience will be a bit different, but once set up it will work as follows.

This is my landing page. At the top right I've set the date range that the stats should show. I've made it from 11 March since that's when I finally got it to work well.



What isn't obvious is that there is a difference when you click on the campaign title vs click on View campaign. Often when you click on the campaign title or keywords the page load won't complete, e.g.:



Press F5 to reload the page:



You would have been able to set your spend limit when you created the ad but finding that setting again isn't obvious, it's that Edit campaign option above that only displays when you click the campaign title and the page actually loads:

I'm on a limited budget of R1,000 a month. But Google will happily spend 40% more. So I've set my daily to R25/day so that it maxes out to R1,000.

Since my average click cost is R6 trying to include too many countries spreads you exposure to thin. So I've only included South Africa.

I've also excluded the Search Network and Display Network. Then your ad displays on other Google sites or other non Google sites. Once again with a limited budget I feel it is better to only have it displayed on Google searches.

You can set the language but as I'm only focused on SA I've left that out.

You can target "audiences" but I haven't used that.

Below the daily budget is Bidding, I set mine to Maximize clicks. I've also set a maximum of R5/click. Google will spend a bit more anyway.







On the next page you can bulk paste your keywords. You can also do it in another section I'll show shortly. You will want to go to that other section to change the match type, more on that later. You'll notice I don't have single keywords but 2-3 word combos. I think it works better, especially when you set the match type later.



Once done there you'll be back at the All compaigns page, as stated at the top left. If you get lost, and you will, just click the Google Ads link top left:

 

[biometrics]

Now on the All compaigns page click View campaign.



In Summary, you can add keywords by clicking Add keyword.



It's important to change the Match type from the default Broad match to Phrase match or even Exact match. I use Phrase match. Note Google leaves it default at Broad Match, it will deplete you budget very quickly and has poor results. For example see the explanation:



In Summary click the word Keyword. Often it won't load, refresh the page if it looks like this:



Now it loads. Here you can see the performance of your keywords and ad. You can pause or delete a keyword using the checkbox on the left which will show an Edit option to the left below the graph.



Back in the campaign view you can edit you ad, hold your mouse over it and Edit ad option will pop up:



You get two 30 character headlines that google with split with a "|" character. I split my sentence over two lines, looks slightly odd but it works. You can have two description lines of 90 characters. You enter a URL to where the click will go. There are more advanced options I don't use.



If you want to know anything feel free to ask. I'm certainly not an Google Ads expert, but it is working for me now.