How to make Google Ads work for you organistion
Why should you consider Google Ads?
Whether you’re a large national organisation or a smaller community based Not For Profit, Google Ads can help you increase website visits, grow supporters, drive donations and show up when people search for your organisation or cause. To put it simply, if people can’t find your organisation they can’t support it.
Appear when people search for your organisation or cause
As a base level, Google Ads can help your organisation appear in searches when it should. It’s fairly easy to determine what search terms people are using that relate to your organisation and how you can target those search terms and show up when people search for these. Once you’ve set up our Ad Words account you can test out different keywords and search terms to work out what people are searching for and how much competition there is for a keyword.
What is the difference between ads and organic search results?
Whenever you search for something in Google you’ll see a combination of organic search results and ads.
Paid search results - Google Ads or paid search results appear at the top and bottom of the search results page with an ‘Ad’ label in the top right corner. An ad’s placement is based on how relevant and useful the content is to the search term and the bid (the price the advertiser is paying for you to see their ad).
Organic search results - Organic search results are unpaid links to websites with content related to what you’ve searched for. The most relevant the website is to the search term, the higher the link will appear in your list.
How do you select Google Keywords?
Google Keywords are words or phrases that are used to match your ads with the terms people are searching for.
Once you set up your Google Ads account you can see how many people are searching for certain keywords or phrases on average, which keywords have high competition for ads meaning other organisations are targeting those keywords, and the range in price it will cost you to bid on those keywords.
You should always select high quality, relevant keywords that relate to the web pages you want to direct people to. Your keywords and landing pages should be closely related in terms of what the customer might be searching for when looking for your products or services. Include terms or phrases that your customers would use to describe your products or services. Keywords with two or three words tend to work most effectively. Generally speaking, you should select between 5 and 20 keywords per ad group.
If you know exactly who you’re targeting, select specific keywords that you know these people will search for and will reach them. If you know exactly who you’re trying to target this can work well, but remember you may not be reaching as many people.
If you select more general keywords you’ll reach more people and can be a good way to build awareness, however these people may not be related to your business. You can easily turn keywords on and off so testing more general keywords can be a good way to work out which keywords work for you.
How much should you spend?
Depending on what keywords your targeting you may not need to spend much at all. If you’re targeting popular keywords you’ll need to spend more than if you’re targeting less popular keywords.
When a customer searches for a term that matches your keyword your ad can enter an auction to determine if it will show. The cost for each keyword will be different depending on the quality of your keywords and the competition in the auction.
Look at the keywords you’d like to target, set a budget depending on the competition of the keywords you’re targeting and what goals you’re aiming for.
You can set a daily limit on your spend and stop your ads at any point if they aren’t working the way you want them to or you’ve reached your budget. As with anything you should monitor the success as you go and readjust if needed.
Grow your business and audience
Advertising online with Google Ads lets you use different targeting methods to reach potential customers when they search for your organisation, related causes or services. By far the biggest opportunity with Google Ads is reaching more people who are interested in your organisation. If you focus on ads and keywords that truly represent your organisation and that match what people are looking for you can reach new customers and grow your organisation.
Find out more about Google Ads or start a new account today.