In 2018, Google AdWords became “Google Ads.” But it’s still an online advertising platform developed by Google.

If you’ve ever used the backend of Facebook ads, a platform that looks and feels much more accessible to “beginner” online advertisers, the basic functionality and premise of Google Ads will be very familiar to you.

Advertisers run ad campaigns on behalf of businesses (or businesses run these ads themselves, using in-house experts) using the Google Ads platform.

It’s pay-for-play on Google ads, so your dollars go towards displaying brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, video content, and generating mobile application installs within the Google ad network to web users.

Since Google is also the number one search engine in the world, right now, you can pretty much rely on the fact that this “network” of web users is almost everyone.

The platform is very powerful because it’s quite granular. If you know what you’re doing, you can get some stellar results for your campaigns. The whole idea behind Google Ads is to get super-targeted with your keywords so that you can spend less money for more qualified leads.

Your cost-per-click and click-through rates matter. Every time a user sees your ad and clicks-through (takes action), they’re responding to the offer you’ve advertised — and, so, you’re paying for it.

That’s regardless of whether or not they finally “convert” and become a customer. You’re also paying for the number of “impressions” that your ads get — which means the number of views, based on the keywords your campaign is focusing on.

You can set the basics of the campaign, such as ad spend per day and how much time the campaign runs for. Now, the Google Ads platform also includes some of its own behind-the-scenes tinkering.

If one ad is doing better than another, it will privilege the better-performing ad for your ad spend. It also adjusts your campaign’s keywords as the ad runs along, so, in your Search Term reports you may see keywords creep in that weren’t what you intended to spend money on.

Any business, whether it’s primarily an online or an offline, brick-and-mortar store, should be using Google AdWords in some way. If you’re new to your local area, for example, and want to get the word out about your business, Google AdWords is a great way to pull in new customers and make your brand more visible.

Google Ads is a very reliable and powerful source of paid advertising online. However, most businesses shy away from the Google AdWords platform when they’re first getting started for one of three reasons:

• They “hear it’s complicated”
• Other businesses tell them it costs too much and there’s too much competition already
• They think their target customers only live on social media platforms (so they’ll use those platforms’ ad tools to gain paid traffic)

Let’s address each of these claims on their own.

Yes, Google AdWords has a complex backend system, but even a beginner advertiser or business owner can walk through an ad setup in minutes. There are a variety of tutorials and best practices you can follow for a “practice” campaign, learning more as you go along.

Secondly, competition on ad platforms will always be fierce — especially one that has been around for as long as Google Ads. Which is why you don’t make the mistake of using single keywords anymore.

As ad platforms evolve, advertisers need to evolve their ad strategy with it.

These days, you can (and must) use tools like Keyword Wrappers and Keyword Mixers to target longer phrases and keywords.

And, lastly, customers search almost everywhere. They use a variety of channels to learn more about what they’re looking for (and receive ad offers).

This includes social media like Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube but doesn’t only focus on these platforms.

Plus, prospects will usually receive ad offers that are consistent (using retargeting tools) across platforms. For example, if someone searches for a piece of software on Google, they’ll later be presented with offers for this same software on YouTube!

But that’s only if they had Google Ads hooked up. So the fact is that, if you’re not advertising, at some point, using Google Ads, you’re missing out on a big chunk of potential customers.