The simple answer is yes and we see great returns across a range of Google Ads accounts. As all pay-per-click advertising solutions offer an array of benefits, from ease of measurement, relevance, through to control over budgets, we turn the – Is ppc advertising on Google profitable? – question into an under 3-minute read post that lays out a number of contributing factors.
How much does PPC cost?
What Google Says:
It is entirely up to you how much you spend on Google Ads. You set your budget at campaign level. You can pause or restart your campaigns at any time. You can also increase or decrease your daily budget allowance at campaign level.
What’s more, as ppc advertising on Google is auction based, you have the option to set your own bids for the keywords you want to target.
PPC DAILY:
Google makes it clear that they want to provide a digital advertising solution based on total transparency as far as cost is concerned.
Whereas flexibility and control over how much advertisers spend on their ppc campaigns is correct, the reality is, there are factors that will impact your ppc ads’ cost that are out of control for most advertisers. They are:
– Your industry’s average cost per click for the keywords you want to target
– Your competitors’ ppc advertising strategy & their budget
– Specific advertising guidelines for each network (search, display or shopping)
– Market shifts or changes in terms of demand & supply
– The levels of your audiences’ digital behaviour unpredictability (although this can be turned into a controllable factor) – Ask us how today.
To answer the question of ppc advertising cost with a single figure is not an easy task and requires a unique approach to every advertiser’s situation.
This brings us to a conclusion that – How much will ppc ads on Google cost me? – question is not the right one to ask. Instead, it will make sense to take every effort to analyse and, given the factors above, establish if ppc campaigns on Google can be profitable for a business.
Interested to Learn about keywords' bidding cost for your Business?
How to Make pPC Ads on Google Profitable?
What Google Says:
- know you lifetime value of your customer from Google Ads
- test your bids manually at account level
- evaluate results form manual bid testing
- learn and adjust bidding using automated strategies
The hidden profits are there to be had in your campaigns. Consider this to be your trusty treasure map. It’s now up to you to find the gold!In other words: Good luck with that folks, here’s the shovel, use it however you please and don’t hold us responsible once things don’t work out for you.
PPC DAILY:
The above 4-step approach can work very well but, one formula won’t fit all, especially for many accounts out there that have yet to feed their conversion value directly into Google Ads.
There are alternative strategies that we use regularly to drive Google Ads profitability for partners we work with. Every business is unique and it goes without saying that, to make Google Ads a success, understanding its audience is a single most important task all ppc managers should be investing their time in.
As for profit driven ppc strategies, we like to use a combination of manual and automated, and never take the focus away from campaign goals.
Google Ads Strategies Examples
full Funnel Spectrum
A good example of a profit driven Google Ads strategy is a FSF Strategy. FSF Strategy refers to a ‘full spectrum funnel’ setup. The key is a specific account structure with campaigns segmented to target audiences at different stages of their buying journey.
How to set this up in practice? First, make sure you identify different objectives for each purchasing stage you want to target. Then, match your objective with a campaign goal.
Campaign goal will define how you will be achieving your objective. Lastly, make sure you know exactly what metrics you will be focusing on when measuring a campaign’s results. In a simplified form, a FSF structure will look like this
Top of The Funnel
TOP OF THE FUNNEL
MID FUNNEL
MID FUNNEL
BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL
BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL
There are a few things to consider before deploying FSF strategy:
– remarketing audiences
– tracking setup for all valuable actions
– minimum 3-6 month of continuous advertising
Maximised Network Strategy
Another approach that can make Google Ads profitable is the ‘Maximised Network Strategy’. It is an in house developed system, that works for both ecommerce as well as service based businesses.
Rather than creating multiple sets of the same campaigns for each network, we go through a very selective process and decide on one hero product or offer that we want to push via each network.
For enterprise level business, we work with categories in ecommerce and categorised sub-sectors for service based business. This will mean that we may drive a hero product with a few campaigns on the same network.
How do we decide on a hero product or service?
– we analyse historical performance of each candidate
– we look at market size and demand growth indicators
– we check direct competitors’ past & current directions
– we search for, identify and name the VALUE / DIFFERENTIATOR a candidate can deliver
The ‘Maximised Network Strategy’ makes sense considering the fact that each advertising network on Google has its own strengths as well as weaknesses. Based on that knowledge, we maximise results for our clients by applying a cap on what we advertise on which network.
In practice, you can consider the following account structure:
SEARCH NETWORK:
SHOPPING NETWORK:
DISPLAY NETWORK:
STRENGTHS:
Connect with users who search for products you offer.
Find users with high purchase intent
Drive direct product sales
CAMPAIGN TYPE
Standard Text Ad Campaigns for Top Value Products /Category with unique Offer
Standard Text Ad Campaigns for Rising Demand Products
STRENGTHS:
Push product discovery
Improve traffic value from self-qualifying users
Gain Insights into your pricing strategy
CAMPAIGN TYPE
Enhanced CPC Shopping Campaigns for New Categories
tROAS Shopping Campaigns for Mid Value Categories
STRENGTHS:
Get access to Contextual targeting
Expand reach to new groups of audiences
Ensure continued brand discoverability
CAMPAIGN TYPE
In-Stream Video Campaign on YouTube for new product releases or Service Explainer Campaign
Display Campaign with Contextual Placements Targeting
Final Thoughts
Yes, Google Ads are an effective way of marketing your services and products. Whether they become profitable, it will largely depend on the right strategy supported by a consistent amount of refining of ads and landing pages, bidding adjustments etc. There are also other things to put in place before your ads can go live. Unique offers, competitive pricing, and, most importantly, conversion tracking are the factors that will determine a Google Ads campaign success.
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