There is lots of material online that explains how Google Search Ads work. Yet we could not find much content that explains why Google Search Ads work. Hence this post.
Think of every time you search for something on Google. You are curious to find out more about something. To us this is the holy grail of marketing and sales because your mind has started on the customer journey. Other forms of push advertising (Display ads, Video Ads, TV Ads, Direct Mail, Billboards) keep trying to ignite your interest.
But when you search online, your interest is already ignited. That is why you are searching online!
The brilliance of the paid Google Search Ad model is that it is based on data from the free Google Searches that we do so many times a day. Here are some thoughts on why paid Google Search works so well for advertisers:
- Google Search Data: Google is searched about 5.6 Billion times a day according to Hubspot. The Google system knows what exactly you typed on your search bar. Beyond that, depending on your privacy settings, Google also factors in what exactly you were were looking for. For example, when we search for our popular post “Why are impressions free in Google AdWords” we find it near the top of the organic results but you might find it lower on the page because you might have a different search intent despite using the same words. If you have been searching for party supplies when you search for “glasses” Google can guess that you are not looking for eyeglasses. You should see results that speak to what you have in mind.This perpetual quest of individual search intent, is what gives Google a pretty good idea of what you,individually, are looking for.
- Google Organic Results driven by SEO or simply good content?: Some years ago Wikipedia used to be the first result for many queries. No one who writes for Wikipedia was trying to do SEO. They were just explaining stuff that they know a lot about. By simply providing the best answer to a searcher’s search intent Google leads the search engines. It takes years to get on the first page of Google (we know with 16 years experience in blogging!) and no amount of technical SEO can help. You have to be the best answer to the searcher’s query. Years is the key idea here because search ads can appear at the top of the organic results the same or next day!
- Google Search Ads appear on the same day: The search ads can appear on the same day even for a brand new website. Search Ads appear just like top organic results pages because Google feels that the search ads address the search intent of the searcher. The best Google search ads are those that give value to the searcher that’s comparable to the great value in top organic results. Here is where the big (huge!) data of Google kicks in. They already have the data to show the best organic results as soon as you type your query. The Google Search Ad platform is set up so that you can choose the queries you are looking for (keywords) and Google starts showing your ads (Impressions) for free. Free impressions seem great except that if people don’t click Google lowers the Quality Score of your keyword and your AdRank keeps going down. You find that search ads become very expensive to run. If there are competitors who are also advertising against those keywords , you ads may not run at all because your quality of ad and landing page is poor. You can’t compete in the ad auction.Because your competitors ads do a better job in addressing the searcher’s intent.If your ads do run , they might be at the bottom of the page. You can see how competing advertisers are doing in the Auction Insights report.
If you have a very clear idea about your target market. And the value your brand provides to the searcher. Then search marketing is an affordable way of reaching a buyer who is advanced in the customer journey. If you don’t have years to build SEO traffic and can can spend some money- Google search ads may be for your brand.