How Much Do Google Ads Cost?
If you’re considering using Google Ads or hiring a Google Ad agency for your business, one of the first things you’ll want to know is how much they cost.
Google Ads provide an easy way for businesses to grow online and increase sales by leveraging Google’s vast search network.
However, not all Google Ads are created in the same way. If they target the wrong keywords, they can cost businesses thousands or even millions in wasted resources.
As the founder of Warren Digital, I have over 15 years of experience in SEO, social media marketing, and online ads, and we’ve run 1000s of Google Ads for our clients.
Let’s explore how much PPC campaigns cost and how much you could expect to pay.
What are Google ads?
Google Ads are paid-for advertisements you often see hovering at the top of Google searches. These ads also appear on YouTube, as YouTube is owned by Google, and on websites that have agreed to on their page, usually as part of their digital marketing strategy.
There are a variety of ad formats that we’ll go over later, from simple text to video and audio. Each has a different cost and different types of ad placement on Google.
Different types of Google Ads might be more beneficial or appropriate for your business depending on your business model and your products or services.
Why are Google ads important?
Google ads are an essential part of any online business strategy. If you’re a brand new website looking for immediate results, Google Ads is a great way to instantly start seeing traffic by paying for the keywords you want with minimal investment.
Even for an established business, Google Ads can provide many opportunities. One client we’ve worked with spends over $30,000 on Google ads and makes back an average monthly profit of over $50,000.
More importantly, the keywords coming in through Google Ads help to identify the areas of their website that can be focused on for other online marketing strategies such as SEO or social media.
The ability of Google Ads to provide a highly accurate return on investment (ROI) allows for quick adjustments to increase overall business revenue.
How much do Google Ads cost?
The advertising cost of Google Ads can vary greatly and is only correctly effective when combined with a fantastic quality score in Google’s ad assessment.
Based on our experience running 1000s of Google Ads for our clients in many different industries, the average cost for your Ad campaigns can range between $300 to $5000 a month. As your website grows, the investment can be increased for even higher returns.
As you can see, the cost varies significantly by industry and how competitive the industry is for a specific set of keywords within a search term.
What are the different types of Google Ads?
Google has several ad formats to suit the diverse advertising needs of businesses, including:
Text-based Ads: These are the most common type of ads on Google. They primarily consist of text accompanied by an image and a clickable URL link. Typically, these ads are displayed at the top of Google search results.
Shopping Ads: Unlike regular pay-per-click ads that target specific keywords, Google Shopping Ads require a detailed product line. Google uses this data to promote your ad under the Shopping tab or on the regular search engine page.
YouTube Ads: These ads are ideal for products that can be showcased through video content. Though they might require a higher advertising budget due to production costs, YouTube Ads can reach a wider audience, especially those without ad-blocking software on their browsers.
Display Ads: You know that moment you go to a website, and it’s got a bunch of banner ads showing around it that Google powers? These display ads are being offered to you based on your search history and the targeting set up by a business.
Performance Max: These are the culmination of all of the above ads. When you create a Performance Max campaign, you set it up to be able to target all 4 of the previously mentioned ad types. Google’s internal AI then experiments and shifts your ads between the different options to maximise your return.
Google Ads scoring system
By understanding these different types of Google Ads and their scoring system, you can better align your choice of ad format with your business goals and budget. Google uses a two-step system to score their ads:
1. Quality score
This score, ranging from 1 to 10, is partially responsible for winning Google’s ad auctions. Effectively, this measures the relevancy of your ads’ content against the keywords selected and the end user’s search term.
This score also considers the landing page that the ad is being sent to as an additional measure of quality and relevancy.
2. Ad spending
After assessing the quality score, Google examines the bid and maximum bid for the ad account. This maximum bid amount is another factor that helps determine your ad ranking.
If you’re willing to spend more on specific advertising and your keywords accurately match the user’s search terms, your ad rank could be ranked higher than your competitors.
How does Google decide which ads to show?
Google determines which ads to display based on a bidding process and a system known as the Quality Score. Advertisers bid for ad placement on Google search pages using specific keywords, then ranked by Google on a scale of 1 to 10.
This Quality Score is based on three major factors:
- Expected clickthrough rate: The likelihood that your ad will be clicked by an end user when shown.
- Ad relevance: The relevance of your keywords to the user’s intent in their search query.
- Landing page experience: How relevant is your landing page to the users who click your ad?
To achieve a high score, the keywords on your landing page or other website pages must align with the product or service you’re promoting and comply with Google’s user experience and keyword relevance algorithms.
Winning Google’s Ad auction doesn’t just depend on the highest bid and the quality and relevance of your keywords. Google’s Keyword Planner can help identify keywords for your ads, improve your Quality Score, and boost your ranking in Google Ad Auction.
It’s also important to note that bidding on a term that is too niche and has no search volume can cause Google not to show your ads.
At Warren Digital, we understand that mastering this advertising cost and bidding strategy is essential to your content marketing strategy. As your marketing agency, we manage these pay-per-click solutions for your Google Ads campaigns, ensuring your business consistently ranks high in the ad auction.
How long does it take to start seeing results from Google ads?
Seeing results from Google Ads doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that requires strategic planning and consistent effort over a considerable period.
Based on our experience running Google Ads, it can take 2-3 months of optimisation to start seeing returns.
A fully fleshed Google Ads campaign can take up to 6 months to fully mature and reach its maximum visibility on Google’s display network.
However, remember that an ad campaign’s success can sometimes be influenced by unpredictable factors such as market trends, seasonality in the industry or current events. This unpredictability underscores the importance of having a proficient Google Ads management team at your side.
Google Ads best practices
There are a few best practices you should abide by when creating your Google Ad campaign.
1. Use Google’s ad strength assessor
When you create an ad, Google has its assessor to help Google Adwords users test the strength of their advertisement based on the assessment mentioned above criteria. You want to ensure your ad strength is Excellent for optimal ad performance.
2. Keep ads fresh and current with products
No matter what products or services you’re selling, ensure your advertising is current to those products and services. You shouldn’t be advertising a product you no longer sell or a service you no longer offer.
3. Use Performance Max
Google has a product called Performance Max that increases an ad’s performance on Google. This paid-for product utilises every available Google ad type, allowing you to access multiple Google Ad placements from one convenient portal.
Performance Max uses a goal-based system and artificial intelligence to create advertising based on specific goals you set and disperses those ads throughout its products.
What can you do if your Google ad campaign isn’t working?
Don’t be discouraged if your Google Ad campaign isn’t performing as expected. You can use several strategies to troubleshoot and improve your campaign’s effectiveness.
It’s important to remember that digital marketing often involves trial and error. Achieving optimal results may require some adjustments along the way.
1. Check that it’s still running
Sometimes, Google removes advertisements for one reason or another, or the ad campaign is paused and not re-enabled. Look at your Change History on your Google Adwords page to see if the ad is still running.
2. Change your bid amount
Your Google Ad campaign might not perform well because your pay-per-click maximum bid might be too high or too low. If this is the case, Google won’t register your ad for their advertising auction. Ensure your bid falls within their range for that specific type of ad.
3. Increase the keyword search volume
Another reason your ads might be underperforming or unsuccessful because the keyword volume is insufficient.
I.e., there aren’t enough keywords in your advertisement to succeed based on Google’s assessment or the keywords you’ve chosen have a shallow search volume. If you put 100 keywords in a campaign with 0 search volume, the ad still won’t show.
4. Turn it off and on again
Google isn’t 100% infallible. Sometimes, we’ve turned a campaign on, and it’s done absolutely nothing for days. After spending hours trying to troubleshoot it, I turned it off and, after a while, turned it back on. This caused it to start processing pretty much immediately — the fickle nature of AI.
Consider increasing the keywords and ensure they’re correct for the type of advertisement and product or service you’re advertising.
Summing up
Understanding the costs associated with Google Ads can seem complex, but it doesn’t have to be. If your existing Google Ads campaign hasn’t been delivering the expected returns, or you are handling the ad campaign yourself and seeking expert guidance, we can help.
Let our Google Ad agency help you. At Warren Digital, we specialise in managing Google Ads campaigns and understand that every penny counts. We’re committed to helping businesses grow their businesses online.
Ready to get started? Contact Warren Digital today and let our digital marketing professionals help your business grow through Google Ads.
