The Ultimate Google Ads Guide
Chapter 2
How Does Google Ads Work?
You’ve no doubt heard about Google Ads before. It’s why you are here, after all. But you might still be confused on how Google Ads results in customers for your business.
Google Ads is tough to explain. Some oversimplify it, and some overcomplicate it.
In this section, we’ll tell you exactly (1) How Google Ads works, and (2) what you can expect by advertising on Google Ads.
We will break down the different advertising networks, options and how you can rank your ads against competitors.
Here is everything you need to know about how Google Ads actually works.
Google Networks: What They Are and What They Mean
If you aren’t familiar with Google Ads, it’s currently divided into two different Google networks, each one containing varied advertising options to fit your goals:- Search Network
- Display Network
The search network contains advertising locations like the actual search results on Google, other Google properties like Google Maps and Google Shopping, as well as partner sites on Google that show text ads.
Similarly, you might see direct products shown on a given Google search, like this specific search for 4k LED TVs:
That’s Google Shopping, another entity of the search network.
If you are searching for local businesses on Google or even directly within Google Maps, you might also see ads:
On the other hand, the display network focuses on platforms and advertising methods that aren’t text-based like the search network. We mean platforms like YouTube, Gmail and thousands of partner sites on Google.
If you ever browse YouTube and notice ads, that’s the display network. If you navigate Gmail and see inbox ads, that’s the display network.
Have you ever noticed image ads on the sidebar or headers of a website you have browsed? Those are ads on Google partner sites on the display network!
To give you an example of how Google Ads works in action, let’s head directly to Google to conduct a basic search:
I’m in the market for a new camping tent for the summer. So I search for it:
In the search results, I see Google Shopping ads promoting sites that sell tents:
And when I scroll down, I also see a map of other locations selling tents:
Being interested, I click on the Ad that captures my attention to see what they have to offer:
After clicking, the advertiser (Scheels, in this case) pays a few dollars for my click in hopes that I will convert.
Hitting their landing page (shown above), I explore the products and buy one.
That’s Google Ads in a nutshell. It simply involves running ads based on keywords or audiences
and then using compelling ads and landing pages to get someone to buy from you.
So, what if someone doesn’t buy from you? You use remarketing!
What is Google Ads Retargeting?
Remarketing (otherwise known as retargeting) is the act of sending another marketing message, ads in this case, back to users who already interacted with your previous ads but didn’t convert.
You are bringing them back for a second chance at driving the sale.
Thankfully, Google packs excellent remarketing software and custom audience options to do just that.
For the display network, advertisers can target audiences or keywords, showing their ads on sites that potential customers are browsing.
From there, it works just like the search network: click on the ad and buy.
Now that you’ve got the network under your belt, it’s time to learn how your ads show up and how you rank on the paid network.
How Do You Rank on Google Ads?
When you search on Google, you will likely notice that ads are displayed in order, just like organic search results:
Depending on what position you hold, it can have significant impacts on the amount of traffic you get.
Being at the top four positions is obviously better than the bottom of the page.
Ad Rank, a value created by Google, is used to determine what position your ads are shown.
But how do you do it? What factors go into ad ranking?
The top factors of ad rank are:
- Bid amount: bidding higher means higher rankings. But only bidding high isn’t enough.
- Auction-time ad quality: quality score (more below)
- Context of search: location, device, time, etc. relating to your ads. Is your ad the best choice, logically based on the context of each person and your current offering?
- Ad extension impact: how much of an improvement do your ad extensions make? More = better. Higher CTRs will provide bigger impacts.
Google says,
even if your competition has higher bids than yours, you can still win a higher position at a lower price by using highly relevant keywords and ads.”
Essentially, bidding isn’t everything. Sure, higher bids are going to rank you higher than most. But if you want the first or second spot, you need to nail all of those factors listed above.
Your ads need to have high-quality scores, matching contextual information and higher CTRs than average.
What Exactly is the Google Ads Quality Score?
If you hover over the quality score metric in your Google Ads account, you should see something like this:
The quality score is a rank from 1-10 (with ten being the best) of how each ad or keyword is performing. It’s a general score to give you an idea of how well you are doing.
Currently, the quality score is made up of three distinctive portions:
- Expected clickthrough rate: What’s the average CTR for your space? If you are higher than average, you can expect a better quality score than most.
- Ad relevance: How specific are your ads? Does the offer and call to action make sense for what you are advertising? If your ads say, “visit store now,” but you are selling online products only, your ad relevance will be low.
- Landing page experience: Does your landing page communicate the same information as your ads? Same offer? Same keyword? If not, your quality score is likely low.
These three factors are all critical to nailing a higher quality score and in turn, converting more users.
Why is Quality Score Important?
Well, the higher your quality score, the cheaper your conversions:
Combined in ad rank, your quality score is a function of your ranking. You can’t just bid high. You have to have a good quality score too.
Quality scores are simple, straightforward measures that tell you if you are doing the right or wrong thing when optimizing your campaigns.
The higher your quality score, the cheaper your clicks and final acquisition costs will be.
In Chapter Five, we will show you exactly how you can go about raising your quality scores using some insider secrets from industry experts.
But before then…