What if your company could evolve to the next level in 2022?
If you really want to reach as many potential customers as possible, then your digital advertising is more important than ever before. But if you’re not careful, it’s easy to throw your money at many different kinds of digital marketing without seeing any real results.
Fortunately, there is an answer. Google Ads provides the perfect balance between your budget and the results you need. All you need to do is master how to use this advertising tool.
Ready to finally achieve next-level success? Keep reading to discover everything you need to know about successfully using Google Ads in 2022!
What Is Google Ads?
Our guide is going to help you discover everything you need to know about using Google Ads in 2022. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock the past few years, we need to answer a more fundamental question: what, exactly, is Google Ads?
The short answer is that Google Ads lets companies just like your pay for a unique form of digital advertising. Based on the keywords that customers use when using Google, they may see ads for your company.
These ads may appear above the organic search results, which gives you plenty of visibility. They may also appear at the bottom of the organic search results, which is a great way to reach customers who kept scrolling and haven’t yet found what they are looking for.
You can also take out ads via Google’s Display Network, allowing your ads to travel even further. And different factors will affect how much your Google Ads cost.
However, this form of digital marketing is usually considered very cost-effective because you only pay for the actual clicks your Ads receive. That means many more will see it without clicking on it, and this can be useful in moving customers through the sales funnel.
Of course, this is how Google Ads has always worked. Keep going to discover some of the important changes to Google Ads in 2022 and how your business can make the most of these changes.
Why Is Google Ads So Important To Your Digital Advertising? (come back to this if needed)
Transform Your Reporting Strategy
Let’s say that you’ve been using Google Ads already. Hopefully, it’s given you some great results. But if you want to get even more from these ads in 2022, you need to change your approach to certain things.
The biggest example of this may be your reporting strategy for the Ads. A shocking number of businesses only retrieve and analyze reports from Google Ads about once per year. But this greatly cuts down on the effectiveness of using Google Ads!
It’s important to establish a custom reporting strategy for your business. This allows you to check the reports more often (such as every month or even every week), so you can see what is working (and what is not) in something close to real time.
This may sound simple, but in our opinion, the ability to quickly generate and study analytics data to improve your marketing is the best part of Google Ads. When done right, this strategy means you’ll effectively get more from your digital marketing budget each and every month!
Say Goodbye To Expanded Text Ads
Historically, part of the appeal of Google Ads is that you could take out many different ads in many different places. And one of the popular options has been expanded text ads. These ads were a bit bigger, giving companies room to add up to three headlines as well as a company URL.
If expanded text ads have been a major part of your own digital advertising strategy, we’ve got some bad news: Google is phasing them out. And by June 2022, you will no longer be able to use these particular ads.
Now, Google Ads is still one of the best ways to digitally advertise your business in 2022. But if you’ve been relying on expanded text ads so far, then you’ll need to tweak your strategy for the second half of the year.
Pair Google Ads With Your CRM
When you run a business, you quickly discover that certain cliches are very true. And one of them is something you have likely told your employees to do: “work smarter, not harder.” And that’s the kind of energy you need to bring to using Google Ads.
For example, your company likely uses a CRM. Most successful businesses do. However, far too many business owners settle for manually incorporating Google Ads analytics into their CRM.
Nothing is inherently wrong with this, but over months and years, it wastes a lot of time. If you haven’t done so already, now is the best time to directly integrate Google Ads with your CRM. Not only will this save countless hours in the new year, but it will help you stretch your advertising budget that much farther.
Tossing Those Cookies
It seems impossible to go a week or even a day without hearing about some new data breach or major privacy concern. As we place more of our lives online, it becomes easier and easier for others to steal and even manipulate that data.
Over time, this brought increased concern over internet cookies. For many years, third-party cookies have been a major part of how we interact with various online sites. But it has become clear that this use of cookies may actually be putting users’ privacy in danger, especially in the long term.
Because of this, Google is phasing out cookies for Google Chrome. While this is potentially good news for users (more on this in a moment), the transition may present unique challenges for your business.
For example, you are now going to have to collect more data on your own (this is typically known as “first-party data”). But you can actually make this change work for your business in 2022 and beyond.
To gather enough data from your customers, consider amping up your social media presence in the new year. And instead of just focusing on bringing customers to your site, use your site to encourage users to sign up for your email list. This gives you another chance to gather more information about them, perhaps in exchange for something useful (such as a free ebook or a coupon).
Meanwhile, you can actually make this change part of your advertising strategy. By advertising that you are working hard to protect consumer privacy and data, you can win over customers who may be skeptical of your business.
Collecting Data and Your Long-Term Marketing
At first glance, Google’s changes regarding cookies may seem annoying to you and your business. After all, Google Ads run efficiently and effectively in large part due to the data they provide.
However, we like to think of this as less of an obstacle and more of an opportunity. In addition to the marketing strategy we outlined above, it’s important for any successful business to focus more on their own data collection rather than relying on third parties such as Google.
That’s because as great as Google Ads can be, it was never meant to form the entirety of your digital marketing strategy. For instance, even while paying for Google Ads, it’s important to focus on organic SEO simply because the latter is important for the long-term growth and stability of your business.
What does this have to do with the loss of cookies? It forces businesses to creatively collect customer data in other ways, like the social media and email marketing strategies we outlined above.
But let’s be real: a good business should already have a strong social media presence and should already be exploring strategies like email lists and SMS marketing. So while it can be annoying to have to develop new strategies in the wake of changes Google makes, these new strategies are likelier to put you ahead of the competition (especially if they fail to adapt to these major changes).
An Offer Customers Can’t Refuse
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to develop relationships with customers. And the best relationships may culminate in loyal customers becoming brand ambassadors for your business.
However, someone seeing your Google Ads is likely encountering your business for the first time. To win them over, you need to get back to basics. And that means answering the primary customer question for just about any business: “what can you do for me?”
To make your Google Ads more successful in 2022, you need to make sure your ads include compelling offers for customers. And revising your offers may be more difficult than you imagine!
Some customers who have seen the same ad over and over again may just not find the offer compelling. In some cases, the offer may be less effective if it is not unique (for example, a free ebook on saving money may sound great, but it’s less attractive if a dozen similar sites are making similar offers).
And consumer tastes and behavior may change over time. In other words, the offers that worked last year may not work as effectively this year. Don’t forget, too, to change up some of the offers to line up with changing seasons and important holidays.
So, that’s the bad news: you probably have to go back to the drawing board to create truly compelling offers. Here’s the good news: thanks to the analytics of Google Ads, you can quickly study which offers have worked before, compare it with your newest customer data, and make any changes that are necessary. And if you need help, you can always work with a Google Ads expert!
Evolving Keyword Strategies
Speaking of “good news, bad news,” here’s a bit more. The good news is that, for the moment, the right keywords are still the foundation of your Google Ads strategies. The bad news, though, is that how you go about this may be changing very soon!
For instance, think about the rising popularity of talking tech. The average consumer may not type out their search queries anymore. Instead, they may take out their iPhone and ask Siri. This means you should be considering the kinds of questions customers will pose when choosing your keywords.
On a keyboard, a customer may type out something like “plumbers near me.” But when interacting with Siri or other talking tech, a customer may instead verbalize “where can I find a plumber?” If you’re a plumber who wants more local business, you need to take that verbalization into account.
In fact, 2022 is the perfect time to refresh and revise your keywords across the board. To do this, study what customers are asking and talking about on your social media channels, in your online reviews, in emails, and so on.
Remember that at the end of the day, most customers are searching for solutions to their problems. By studying how they ask about those problems, you can better situate your business as the best possible solution to their dilemma.
Embrace Responsive Search Ads
Earlier, we outlined how expanded text ads are going away. What, then, should you replace them with? The best answer is “responsive search ads.”
Responsive search ads are Google’s intuitive solution to a standard business dilemma. Because you have many different customer personalities and customer segments, it can be difficult to tailor your digital advertising. That’s because what works for one person or group may not work well (or at all) for others.
With responsive search ads, your marketing team simply needs to come up with different headline variations. Google will then use its customer data and powerful algorithms to serve the right variation to the right audience.
It’s not perfect, of course. But responsive search ads are possibly your best way to reach the most people in 2022.
Take Control Of Your Digital Advertising Today
Now you know how adapting your Google Ads strategy can supercharge your digital advertising in 2022. But what if you could take things even further?
Here at PayPerClick Authority, we are experts at digital marketing and helping businesses grow. To see how we can help your business reach its full potential, just contact us today!