While social media often provides disruptive targeting, meaning the adverts are shown to people when they may not want to see them, Google Ads uses search ads to deliver your advertising to people when they’re actively looking for a service similar to the one you provide. By definition, these leads are already warm.

We teach Range of Motion Business Mentoring clients how to take advantage of this unique marketing avenue.

When people do a Google search, they’ll be able to see organic search results which match their search but aren’t paid ads. If you’ve created an effective website, you should already be appearing here. Above the organic ads are the paid search ads.

The aim is to answer the question, or solve the problem the searcher is looking to solve.

First, you’ll need a Google Ads account at ads.google.com. From here, create a new campaign, and select the ‘search network’ option. This will allow you to show your advert within the Google search function. You’ll also have the option of running the ads in the display network – other websites outside Google’s direct interface. We suggest the search network – it’s the best way to position your service in front of a customer who’s actively looking for it.

From here you can select the goal of your advert, generating sales, leads, or website traffic. If you’re using a landing page on your website as the target of your funnel, website traffic is the preferred option. Give your campaign a descriptive name, as you may be running multiple campaigns at the same time.

Next, you’ll select the locations where you want your ads to show. For a brick and mortar business, like a fitness facility, you’ll want to stay close to your location. Your customer avatar will be able to provide you with the suburbs to target.

When it comes to the bids strategy, it’s sometimes just best to keep it simple. Select ‘maximise clicks’ as the bid strategy to drive people to your website. Your average daily budget is next – decide how much you want to spend per day. Start with a low amount, maybe $5 a day. Once the ad has been running for a while, you’ll be able to check it’s progress and make sure you’re getting a return on this spend.

Now we get to add in site links and call extensions – important extras in your ad that will give your potential clients more information, and make it easy for them to take action from your ad. Extensions allow you to include things like links, phone numbers, or promotions. If you offer multiple services, it can be useful to use the ‘site links’ extensions so people can click direct to the part of your site that’s most valuable to them. Use as many ad extensions as are relevant for your business – you can choose up to four. Don’t say anything in your text that is repeated in the extensions, or your advert may not show.

If you want to go deeper into the functionality of Google Ads, try ad customisers. This feature allows you to build features like countdown timers or location customisers to make the text dynamic. For example, if you have a facility in a certain suburb, you can use the location customiser to insert the name of the suburb the user is searching for in to your text. For example, using a location customiser, if they search ‘gym osborne park’ your text will read ‘a family friendly gym near Osborne Park’, if they search ‘gym scarborough’ your text will read ‘a family friendly gym near Scarborough’.

You’ve now created your campaign – it’s time to set up an ad group (or a series of ad groups) within the campaign. An ad group is a collection of keywords a person might search for, and their ads. When a potential client types a search into Google, the keywords you choose allow you to show your ad as one of the results of this search – words triggering your ads to appear.

The best place to start when deciding on the keywords is to look at your unique selling point – the thing you do better than everyone else. From here, you can use the keyword planner tool in Google Ads to decide on the keywords that will be represent your business and the value you provide to people.

We cover the best way to write your ads in the Writing Marketing Material part of this series, but there is one extra points to remember when writing your Google Ad copy. You should try to include the main keywords (which we selected in the previous step) in the text of the ad. It will help with the search.

Inside your ad group you should have multiple ads. While these ads can all sell the same thing, vary the message for different people. The more ads you have, the more likely you are to reach your avatar.

When it comes to writing the advert, insert the site you want people to visit when they click the ad. Next, write the headline, using the tips we cover in the Writing Marketing Material part of this series. There are two places for headlines, with the second headline following the first after a dash. Finally, write the text for the ad itself. Stick with a single message or idea, if you want to cover other messages, create a new ad within that ad group.

At this point, the advert is live. But the process doesn’t end there. You should analyse the performance of the ad to make sure it’s earning more money that it’s costing.

The key to analysing ad performance is in conversion tracking, which is available in the ‘tools’ section of your Google Ads dashboard. Using this tool you can create a conversion action you want to track. Again, as we’re looking at sending people to a landing page on the website, a ‘website conversion’ is a good place to start. You can also look at tracking the conversions based on people who have called you from the advert, and can link with Google Analytics (if you use it) to learn more about how your potential client interact with your website.

The conversion tracking tool will give you some code for on the website. If you manage your own site, follow the instructions provided by Google, otherwise it’s time to call your web developer!

Once the conversion tracking is set up, you can go in to Google Ads and view your ‘overview’ page. The line chart at the top of the page allows you to track your progress in different metrics, like the number of clicks, the number of conversions (if you have them set up), the cost per conversion (which tells you how much each conversion is costing you), and the conversion rate (which tells you the average number of conversions per click).

The big advantage of advertising through the Google Ads platform is the ability to place your information in front of clients who are actively looking for this service. This makes the Google Ads platform a valuable part of your larger marketing strategy.