If you’ve been toying with the idea of utilizing Google Ads to advertise your business but you aren’t sure how it works, you’re in the right place. Below, you can learn the ins and outs of Google Ads in a way that will allow you to explain it to your grandparents with confidence. 

Understanding Google

Google is a company just like any other, and its main goal involves generating revenue. To do this as a search engine, they must be able to provide their users with the most relevant search results as often as possible. If someone searches for a red bicycle, for example, and they see photos of a red panda instead, they may feel frustrated and move on to another search engine. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, Google has created numerous guidelines and algorithms to ensure that only the best content – including advertisements – shows up among the first page of search results. 

The Premise of Google Ads

To put it as simply as possible, Google Ads is essentially an auction in which companies who are interested in the same keywords bid against each other for optimal ad placement. The goal is to outbid other companies who are interested in your keywords and create quality, relevant, professional ads attached to those keywords so that your ads will show up in an ideal location on the first page of results. 

As an example, assume you’re a baker and you want to place Google ads using the keyword “chocolate cupcake.” There’s a good chance that other bakers will also want to place ads with that keyword, but you can’t all be on the first page of ads. To determine whose ads go first, you and all the other bakers who want ads associated with the keyword will place a bid on that keyword and present the ads you want to run. Whoever bids the most – and whoever has the best ad – wins the best spot. Because these ads are PPC, or pay-per-click, you only pay when someone clicks your ad. 

Money vs. Quality

Even though your ad placement is based on your bid, it’s safe to say that ad quality is even more important than the amount you bid. As stated above, it is Google’s ultimate goal to provide their users with an accurate, high-quality service, and if your ad is not professionally written, it will likely receive an undesirable placement even if your bid was the highest bid of all. Google even scans the landing page – or the page where your ad link will take the person who clicks it – for accuracy, relevance, grammar, and spelling. Whichever option fits the keyword best will receive the best ad placement. 

Google Ads is essentially one big auction that requires companies like yours to bid for good ad placement. Unlike eBay auctions, though, you’re bidding with quality ads and landing pages just as much as you’re bidding with your money. Though it can take some time to truly learn the ins and outs of Google Ads, it’s a powerful tool that can benefit any marketer.