What is Google Search Ads and Why You Should Care
What is Google Search Ads and Why you Should Care?
Google Search Ads have become one of the most reliable ways for businesses to appear in front of people who are actively looking for what they sell. Rather than waiting for organic rankings to climb over months, search ads place a business directly in front of a searcher at the exact moment they are typing in a query, ready to buy or enquire. For any company trying to generate leads quickly, that immediacy is hard to ignore.
At their core, Google Search Ads are paid listings that appear on the search engine results page, commonly shortened to SERP. They work on a pay per click model, meaning a business only pays when someone actually clicks through to their website. This makes the format particularly attractive for smaller and mid sized companies, since budgets can be controlled tightly and spend can be scaled up or down depending on performance. Unlike traditional advertising, where a fixed fee buys a fixed amount of exposure regardless of results, search ads tie cost directly to engagement.
The targeting options available through Google Ads are a major part of their appeal. Businesses can choose to show their adverts based on the specific keywords a person searches for, but also based on location, language, time of day, and device type. A plumber based in Surrey, for example, can ensure their adverts only appear to people searching within a set radius of their service area, avoiding wasted spend on clicks from outside their working region. This level of precision means marketing budgets are spent on the audience most likely to convert, rather than being spread thinly across an unfiltered pool of viewers.
The main benefit of Google PPC Search Ads
Anyone who has been managing a website for more than a few years will remember when ranking first organically was the ultimate goal. That top organic spot used to capture the overwhelming majority of clicks on a search results page. While organic listings still attract strong traffic and remain a vital part of any digital marketing strategy, the page itself has changed considerably, and paid listings now occupy a much larger share of the visible space above the fold.
Part of the reason is simply how crowded the top of the page has become. It often takes no more than four paid adverts, complete with sitelinks and callout extensions, to push the first organic result well down the page. Add in the search bar itself and, for many local searches, a local business map pack, and even a business ranking first organically might find itself roughly halfway down the visible screen on a typical device. Searchers have adapted to this shift too. Where once there was hesitation around clicking a sponsored result, growing familiarity with the format means people increasingly trust that paid listings will be relevant and useful, particularly when the advert speaks directly to their search intent.
This shift in layout and searcher behaviour means that a strategy relying purely on organic visibility may no longer be enough to capture the volume of attention many businesses need. Search ads have moved from being a supplementary tactic to a central pillar of an effective online presence, especially for businesses operating in competitive or local markets.
The ads that you see in the search engine results page.
Not so many years ago the only place you wanted your website to appear was an organically listing at the top of the first page in a Google Search. That was the listing that got most traffic. While it is still true that the organic listing is the most clicked page link in a search result. Ads are getting significantly more hits and traffic that before. Searchers are becoming more comfortable clicking them, knowing they will be what they are looking for.
One of the reasons for this is that there is less and less space on the first page of a search. It only takes 4 ads and some call out extensions and site links to make sure the first organic listing is below the fold. When you include the search bar and the local business stack, even being the first organic result means you’re halfway down the page. It’s no surprise then that Google Search ads are the ones getting the clicks.
What are Google Ads and What are the Ad Extensions?
Google Search Ads are the ads that you will see on a search engine results page. They are paid listings that appear on a search engine results page, also known as SERP. There are many different types of Google search ads, and they can be sorted by category or keyword.
Ad Extensions
Ad extensions allow advertisers to include additional information about their business with their ad copy to provide more information about their product or service to searchers. Also ad extensions can be added at any time during an account’s active campaign and will not affect performance metrics like Quality Score or Cost-Per-Click (CPC).
So if you are serious about being found on the first page of a Google search and be seen above the fold, perhaps it’s time to talk to us about running a search ad. It might be more cost effective than you think.
If you enjoyed this article, we have more here
So, If you want to get found online with Intertecs Google search ads PPC Services call us today for a free consultation. Tel: 01276 691199
Read about our services here
