What is keyword advertising, or advertising on Google?

Search Engine Advertising (SEA) refers to text-based advertising in search engines. By advertising on Google, you reach customers as they search for your service or product.

Every business should invest in keyword advertising, as it can virtually guarantee 24/7 visibility on Google. This naturally helps to increase brand awareness and boost sales.

In this article, we'll tell you more about why you should do keyword advertising, how you can advertise on Google more effectively, and what it costs to outsource and do it yourself.

How is keyword advertising (advertising on Google) different from SEO?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) consists of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA).

These concepts are sometimes confused with each other and their connection to each other is not always understood. Contrary to what one might think, neither, keyword advertising or Search Engine Optimization It is not worth practicing on your own.

Search term marketing (SEM) includes a set of means and strategies to increase the visibility of a website in search engines, increase brand awareness and increase sales of a product or service. These are the goals of both search engine optimization and advertising on Google, but the ways in which these things are accomplished differ.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to measures taken to a website that improve its organic, that is, natural search engine ranking in the long term and without investing a cent of money in ads. This can cover everything from improving the technical structure to content to building links. Search engine optimization provides excellent results in search engine visibility, especially with lower-volume search terms that are not too competitive.

Search term advertising (SEA) is advertising in which a website is made to appear above organic search results. In keyword advertising, ads are always text ads. The most common place to do keyword advertising is Google, and that is why we talk about keyword advertising and Google advertising as synonyms.

Keyword advertising is the best choice when you target keywords that have high monthly search volumes and are competing against several authoritative websites. In this case, search engine optimization can be too slow to get results and even ineffective.

In practice, if you want the best visibility and high number of clicks for your Google ads, you need to do a successful keyword analysis. If you want customers who clicked on your ad to also buy your product or service, your website should be optimized for conversions before advertising on Google. Once you have reached the point where keyword advertising is effective, the results should be analyzed and developed regularly.

These are the reasons why you should advertise on Google

1. Reach potential customers at the right time

Often the first place to search for information, products and services is Google. With keyword ads, you attract the attention of those users who are looking for information and/or a solution to their problem and are therefore interested in your company providing information and/or a solution.

In addition to advertising on Google, you can reach people in your domain at the right time, i.e. in the information search phase and later ready to buy, with keyword advertising you can increase brand awareness and make your product or service a familiar and safe option for customers.

2. You can target Google advertising effectively

It is possible to target Google text ads to exact groups. This ensures that even the target audience (s) you are targeting can see your ads. With accurate improvement, the funds invested in advertising are not wasted and keyword advertising yields a sure result. Of course, this also precedes the fact that you know how to create attractive ads and that your website is in order (the barriers to buying have been removed).

You can optimize keyword ads based on keywords, location, audience, interests, age, days and times, or search devices. Advertisements can therefore only be shown to locals or those who have already visited websites or online stores.

3. You will be able to control costs

In keyword advertising, the budget is completely decided, modified and controlled by the advertiser, i.e. the company. Expenses can be controlled in detail, or you can set a fixed daily maximum for the campaign.

You can always adjust your budget based on ad performance, and at any time you want to pause or stop campaigns altogether. On the other hand, if you find that one ad works more efficiently, you will be able to invest more in it and others less.

In addition, in keyword advertising, you only pay Google for the results that have been realized, i.e. clicks.

4. It is possible to monitor and develop the results

The biggest advantage of advertising on Google is that the results are 100% measurable. And when you know how to analyze the results accurately, it is possible for you to develop them almost indefinitely.

By tracking and leveraging the data with Google's tools (Google Analytics), you can find out what works in your own keyword advertising, what is worth doing more, and what is not. With the right tools, keyword advertising results can be improved with each new campaign.

In addition, it is possible to see the results and start improving immediately within a few days or weeks after the start of advertising, and not until after a couple of months.

5. Results come quickly and much faster than optimizing

We emphasize that if you want to appear in search engines even without advertising, you should invest in search engine optimization. However, keyword advertising will get your company to the top of search results much faster than optimization. Advertising on Google brings almost instant results, that is, many potential customers to the website.

Which brings more results, advertising on Google or SEO?

Both search engine optimization and keyword advertising They produce (when done correctly) a good result. However, keyword advertising may require search engine optimization in order to work.

Due to the requirements that Google places on websites, the effectiveness of keyword advertising improves and the price of ads decreases when your site is optimized for search engines. Similarly, if a site doesn't meet these criteria, keyword ads won't get the best exposure, even if you put more money into them than your competitors.

Already afraid of these reasons, search engine optimization in addition to advertising is worthwhile. An unoptimized home page or online store also tends to expel most of the potential customers as soon as these land on the site.

Human loss is most commonly caused by an excessively long loading time, poor quality or uninteresting content, a difficult structure, or a web page that is otherwise out of time. Even if the ads get a lot of clicks and bring people to the website, there will be no sales because no one simply has the time or desire to use a poorly functioning site. In this case, customers will turn to your competitors.

That is, SEO of a website and conversion optimization are therefore an essential part of keyword advertising whenever an entrepreneur wants to make advertising a truly productive and cost-effective way to grow.

On the other hand, advertising on Google can effectively bring people to new websites when a new home page or online store has not yet had time to gain visibility through search engine optimization. In this case, it is worth doing keyword advertising on the assumption that the website is technically sound and sellable.

If your site has flaws, Search Engine Optimization It is good to use the help of a professional. Next, let's move on to what it costs to advertise on Google.

What does it cost to outsource keyword advertising

When you outsource the design and implementation of keyword advertising to an expert in the field, the price is influenced by a few different factors. The most common are the hours worked and the number of results (clicks). The difference in price is created by the individual operating methods and pricing models of advertising agencies.

At the beginning of a collaboration, the price of advertising on Google can be determined by how much the company has at the bottom of things ready. If you continue to implement advertising from a working implementation, it will often not cost much to start keyword advertising.

When outsourcing, keyword advertising also includes reporting and customer meetings, which at Digitoimisto Growly are included in the price of keyword advertising every month. For more demanding keyword advertising projects or at the request of the customer, reporting and appointments can be carried out more often.

Even more, the price of keyword advertising is influenced by the number of different ad groups, campaigns and search terms used by the customer company in total. When keyword advertising is implemented on a larger scale and with bigger goals, the working time spent on keyword advertising and the price of advertising also increase.

However, Google advertising can achieve good results even with a smaller investment. For example, with Growly, the price of keyword advertising is usually between 399-1299 €.

If the work starts with the design of advertising, or if you first need to carry out measures such as SEO or conversion optimization to improve the effectiveness of advertising, the costs will naturally increase. When advertising is later maintained and developed monthly, expenses are much more moderate.

However, for fear of cost, SEO should not be ignored, because if you jump straight into keyword advertising, future ads will run inefficiently and your money will be wasted. The best possible results from keyword advertising are obtained when search engine optimization and conversion optimization have been carried out on the basis.

Cost of clicks on Google text ads

In keyword advertising, Google charges for clicks, whereby the entrepreneur pays only for the results that are realized. The price of these results also depends on a couple of things.

Because Google's pricing works by auction, clicks cost the more the tougher the competition for the search word used.

Depending on the competition, the click-through price for different keywords can vary quite rapidly. For example, the average price per click for an ecommerce entrepreneur may be twenty cents, but for an accounting firm, a click may already be closer to ten euros.

In addition to competition, the price paid for clicks is made up of quality points given by Google. Quality scores are the better the higher quality your ads and website are and the higher your ad click-through rate. So you pay more for keyword advertising if your website and ads are poorly executed.

When determining points, the search engine takes into account how high quality the ads are, how relevant they are in relation to the website or landing page, and what kind of condition the website is in (whether it is user-friendly).

If one of these pieces is missing, advertising on Google can become quite expensive, and results are still not guaranteed. When outsourcing advertising, the ideal partner will be able to explain to the customer, if necessary, why effective keyword advertising involves much more than just advertising, for example, making the website user-friendly. This will save the customer time and money.

Summary of keyword advertising/advertising on Google

Keyword advertising is able to target ads to those potential customers who are ready to receive the information you offer and the solution that you offer, that is, to buy your company's products or services either at the time of the search or later when it is relevant.

Advertising on Google is very fast and cost-effective, and therefore it is worth every entrepreneur to take advantage of it in their marketing.

While keyword advertising is a great way to direct potential customers to a website, other factors also need to be faced to make it as productive as possible. The most important thing to take care of is to optimize the website or online store primarily for customers and also for search engines.

Since keyword advertising is technical and quite demanding in some places, it is worth leaving it to a knowledgeable and experienced partner. We implement Google Advertisingthat delivers confident results for our customers. However, nothing prevents you from advertising on Google yourself.