What Is Google Ads and Why Should You Use It?

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is a platform where you pay to display business ads potential customers will see when they search for relevant terms on Google platforms. Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) can be a vital part of a business’s digital marketing strategy, helping it place relevant advertisements in front of its target audience.

“Due to great reach and effective targeting, every business entity should grow with Google Ads,” advised Tom Jauncey, head nerd at Nautilus Marketing. “Having over a couple of billion searches a day, Google presents unparalleled access to customers.”

Almost every time you see an ad for a company’s landing page rank as the first (or second or third) search result on a Google search, it’s not just the result of a well-implemented SEO strategy. The company likely has a Google Ads campaign underway. Typically, you’ll see “Sponsored” above pages ranking highly due to Google Ads campaigns.

Through Google Ads, you pay only for actual, measurable results, such as website clicks and business calls. This structure is known as a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. You can set a monthly Google Ads campaign ad-spend cap that Google will automatically follow and you can choose to make your target audience global or local.

Why should you use Google Ads?

Here are some top benefits of using Google Ads in your digital marketing strategy.

1. Google Ads increases leads and customers.

Google Ads is one of the best tools around for generating sales leads. If your campaigns are set up properly, they can send highly targeted leads to your website, opt-in form or other online properties.

Google Ads allows you to focus on the people who are searching for what your business offers. This means you can continually refine your targeting so that only people who want to buy your products or services are sent to your websites through this platform. 

“Businesses should use Google Ads because it helps them quickly reach people who are looking for what they offer,” noted Ross Kernez, founder of SEO Meetup. “It boosts visibility, brings in potential customers and can increase sales, all while letting businesses control their budget.”

2. Google Ads is a flexible marketing platform.

Anyone who regularly uses Google Ads will tell you it’s an extremely flexible marketing tool suitable for organizations of all types and sizes. This platform can essentially turn internet traffic on and off. It’s also compatible with a wide range of other marketing platforms and software systems.

You can easily customize campaigns to focus on specific types of online users. For example, you can target people by location, device type and the Google-owned website they’re accessing, such as Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube.

You can also set your own budget for specific campaign areas, such as setting daily budgets and limits on the amount you’re willing to spend on clicks for specific keywords.

“Google Ads offers plenty of options for small businesses to compete with larger companies without overspending,” explained Rob Sanders, founder of the digital marketing agency Socially Found. “With tools like local targeting and customizable budgets, [businesses] can ensure their ads are only seen by the people who are more likely to become customers.”

3. Google Ads gives you a high return on investment (ROI).

Unlike other marketing strategies, Google Ads makes you pay only for ads people click on. Once you optimize Google Ads campaigns, you can get a high digital marketing ROI that other marketing strategies can’t provide. 

However, determining which marketing approaches best suit you and your business can take time. You must continually test and track your campaigns to get a clearer picture of what will give you the best results. Google Ads is ideal for this because the platform is very transparent and key performance data is readily accessible.

“Google Ads provides a wealth of data to track and measure your campaign performance,” said Max Shak, founder and CEO of the digital marketing agency Nerdigital. “You can see exactly what’s working and make real-time adjustments to optimize your spend.”

When you find areas of your campaign that provide a good ROI, focus your efforts and budget there. If a campaign or parts of a campaign cost money without producing results, discard those elements and reinvest the savings into successful campaigns or future efforts. 

4. Google Ads provides fast, transparent results.

Google Ads is a transparent and intuitive platform known for delivering quick, straightforward results and campaign reports. Analyzing campaign progress is easy because the dashboard provides all campaign-related data, including the keywords website visitors used and the cost of clicks.

“One of the biggest advantages of Google Ads is the access to valuable data,” Sanders said. “This allows businesses to understand customer behavior and fine-tune their ads to reach the right people. With tools to help optimize their Google Ads account, they can adjust bids in real-time to get the best results based on a customer’s interests and intent.”

5. Google Ads taps into massive, high-quality traffic sources.

Because of Google’s market dominance and massive customer base, the search giant can send businesses significant daily traffic, depending on their budget. Google prides itself on displaying relevant content and ads and continuously evolves its search engine algorithms to produce the most relevant search results and ads.

Google’s constant algorithm improvements positively impact businesses that advertise through Google Ads. These ads send high-quality leads and visitors to your business’s website, e-commerce store, opt-in form or other online assets. The people Google directs to you are more likely than those from other sources to become customers, opt into your email marketing list, request information or take whatever action you want them to take.

6. Google Ads helps you learn more about your market.

Understanding your ideal customers is crucial to ensure you can provide what they want. However, traditional market research methods, such as questionnaires and interviews, produce limited results on this front. 

In contrast, Google Ads yields valuable information about customer habits and requirements that business owners of previous generations could have only dreamed about. For example, you’ll learn:

• The keywords they used to find your website
• Their location
• The devices they use
• The times and days they search

This information can help you fine-tune and improve your products and services. It can also refine your marketing efforts, so you don’t waste money advertising to uninterested people.

How does Google Ads work?

When you start working with Google Ads, you’ll enter your business information and choose a campaign objective. Next, you’ll create and preview your ads. Google then uses machine learning to predict your Google Ads campaign’s success.

From there, you’ll set your budget and audience and Google will take your ad live. Depending on your settings, your target audience will see your ad rank high and appear as a top search result. You can also deliver ads through Gmail, YouTube, Maps and other Google properties. As more people click on your PPC campaign ads, your business will come closer to fulfilling its preset budget.

The seven types of Google Ads

While no two campaigns are exactly alike, there are seven distinct types of Google Ads.

1. Search ads

With Search ads, your ad appears on Google Search, Google Maps and across Google’s search partners, including Google Shopping. On these sites, when users search for terms related to keywords in your campaign, they’ll see your ad.

“The power of search ads lies in their intent-based targeting,” Shak explained. “Users are actively searching for something specific and your ad appears right at that critical moment. … The ability to bid on keywords that align with user intent is incredibly valuable for both lead generation and sales.”

2. Display ads

Through Display ads, you can get visual ads in front of people using products in the Google Display Network, including Gmail, YouTube and various websites partnered with Google.

“Display ads help in brand awareness since they show up on different websites across the Google Display Network,” Jauncey noted. “Display ads tend to be more effective, especially in the case of retargeting previous visitors to a website.”

3. Shopping ads

Through a Shopping campaign, Google uses product data from your online store, rather than user keywords, to determine how and where to display your ad within Google Shopping results.

Shak emphasized that e-commerce businesses, in particular, benefit from these ads. “For businesses looking to boost product visibility, especially in competitive markets, Shopping ads are invaluable,” Shak advised. “[NerDigital has] helped clients set up Shopping campaigns and the visibility they get with potential buyers is immediate and impactful.”

4. Demand Gen

This type of Google Ad targets people through Gmail, YouTube and Google Discover. Viewers may see these ads while watching YouTube Shorts or on YouTube’s In-Stream, Home and Watch Next pages. Discover ads appear as users scroll through the Discover feed, while Gmail ads are image-based and located in the Social and Promotions tabs.

“For upper-funnel marketing, [Demand Gen Ads] generate more demand compared to capturing the existing demand,” Jauncey explained. “For further increasing the efficiency of your Demand Gen campaigns, high-quality and visually attractive images are recommended to amplify their engagement rate.”

5. YouTube ads

Through a YouTube campaign, your company is promoted via a video ad displayed on YouTube. Shak noted that YouTube, as the second-largest search engine, offers numerous advantages as an advertising platform.

“With video ads on YouTube, you can capture attention in a visually engaging format … and video content is increasingly becoming the preferred way for people to consume information,” Shak said. “For businesses with strong storytelling elements, YouTube ads can make a huge impact. We’ve used video ads to share client success stories and educational content and the engagement levels have been exceptional.”

6. App ads

If your business has a mobile app, Google Ads is here to help. App ads can put your mobile app in front of potential users on Google Play, Google Search and YouTube. This ad format is especially useful for mobile-first businesses.

Notably, App ads replace a previous Google Ads format, App campaigns, through which ads appeared on AdMob and Google’s third-party partners. At the moment, no such Google Ads format exists. However, given the vast user base across the platforms on which App ads appear, these ads may be more valuable than their predecessor.

7. Performance Max

Google’s newest ad format is nearly entirely AI-driven. With Performance Max, you set goals, upload assets and define your audience details. From there, Google’s AI puts you in front of customers exactly where they’re using Google, whether Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Discovery or Display. Performance Max is an exceptionally well-automated solution that reaches your most promising leads at exactly the right time.

“Performance Max … can be very powerful for businesses that do not care exactly where their ads serve; instead, they simply want to drive sales,” Jauncey explained. “For better results from Performance Max, make sure you provide high-quality assets and detailed audience signals.”

Reach your customers where they’re at

With Google Ads, you do more than get your brand in front of potential customers. You do so on the exact platforms that you’re using and the customers you’re reaching are of exceptional quality. Plus, you won’t spend a penny more than you can afford. Whether you’re on a budget or spending spree, Google Ads are affordable and convenient — and when it comes to highly targeted campaigns, there’s nothing quite like it.

Sean Peek and Tommy Wyher contributed to this article.