Is Google Adwords Worth It? 5 Reasons Small Business Definitely Benefit from It

As a small business owner, you must ask yourself, “is Google AdWords worth it?” AdWords allows you to advertise your business across a network of websites on the internet, as well as in Google search results.

Understanding the features associated with AdWords that differentiate it from other advertising platforms – both digital and non-digital – as well as the ways it can benefit your business can help you determine if you should dedicate part of your marketing budget towards AdWords.

1. Is Google AdWords Worth It?

The cost of advertising your business through AdWords is hard to estimate, in part because each industry charges a different rate and because of the auction system.

The auction system means that you set a range that you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. There’s always a suggested range, depending on what other people in your industry are paying, but you can choose to undercut that range to stay within budget or pay more to ensure your ad shows up before competitors.

There is also a difference between showing up in Google search results and within the network of websites that show Google ads. Search results tend to be more expensive but convert at higher rates, whereas with display ads on websites you tend to get more traffic and clicks at a lower cost, but fewer conversions into customers and sales.

Of course, you can always advertise on both as well, but doing so carries a cost 15 percent higher, on average, in daily spending.

You can also budget the amount of money that you spend on AdWords each day, ensuring that you have a steady stream of ads promoting your business on the internet without breaking the bank.

2. Scalability and Flexibility

AdWords is a type of marketing technique that you should consider because of its ability to scale up to larger or smaller sizes rapidly and without much more effort. Changing the size of an AdWords campaign is as simple as increasing the budget – a high-performing ad will continue to perform well but will be shown much more, increasing how many people it drives to your business.

Alternatively, if your budget suddenly shrinks and you need to make cuts, you can easily pause it for a few days or alter your daily limits to trim your daily spending to acceptable limits.

This scalability allows you to test several types of ads at once, putting a small budget behind each and seeing which has the best results, and then putting the full weight of your budget behind the successful ad (or ads, if you’ve gotten lucky).

3. Targeting

One of the most significant features of Google AdWords over traditional forms of advertising and promotion is that it can target specific people not only based on their demographic factors like location, gender, and age, but also their search history, the device or browser that they’re using, or who have interacted with your ads before.

This is especially important for small businesses, as you have no interest in traffic or leads coming from the United Kingdom if you’re concerned with selling pet food in California.

You can also target related interests. For example, if someone is interested in tech products, including smartphones, computer accessories, and software, they are also likely interested in gaming products, science fiction entertainment, and board games. By exposing your business to these similar audiences, you can tap into a source of new revenue and sales.

You can also filter down which related keywords and topics your ad is related to. If you are a mechanic who only works with a specific type of car, you may want to specify that your keywords are an exact match – so that you are only targeting Ford buyers, for example, instead of Acura or BMW.

4. Accurate Metrics

AdWords gives you a direct overview of how your campaign is performing. You can see down at a micro level how many impressions, clicks, and interactions your ad received, on which sites, at what times, and so on. As already mentioned, the wealth of information available to you based on your ads allows you to test different versions.

Changing the text, changing the landing page, or otherwise altering the ad can change its performance. You may find that some ads simply don’t work, or that they only work with a certain demographic – which means that you can begin to run separate ads targeting different groups, increasing the conversions among each.

This makes it easier for you to adjust future campaigns, as you are able to figure out what works and what doesn’t (and who is more receptive).

5. Fast Results

Unlike most types of advertising, AdWords can be set up and running within a day, and as soon as Google has processed your payment, AdWords will begin showing your ad to people across the internet.

This is beneficial because you don’t have to wait around for a few days before you know that your investment was worth it. The speed at which you can update Adwords also means that you won’t have to waste money on an ineffective campaign: you can see when things are not performing and adjust or cancel them before they represent a financial burden.

Starting Your Google AdWords Campaign

If you asked yourself “is Google AdWords Worth it” and determined from the above list of benefits that it fits in with your small business’ advertising needs, you should get in touch with us today. Our full service SEO team can not only help you get your AdWords account and campaign set up, but provide other services that can drive more traffic and sales to your small business.