Lead Generation with Google Ads: Everything You Need to Know

Article overview

Before we start building campaigns or even determine if Google Ads is suitable for your business, we want to make sure you understand the basics of paid advertising. Essentially, when it comes to digital marketing for lead generation, there are plenty of channels to choose from. Social media can increase brand awareness and help build connections, email marketing can keep your community engaged, and PPC, particularly Google Ads, allows for consistent growth and sales. And each of these channels is effective when used correctly.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of marketers' favorites due to its quick results. We remind you that PPC advertising refers to ads that appear on search engine result pages, videos, applications, websites, and social media platforms.

Google collects information about all of us, which enables it to anticipate intent. In other words, Google can place your ad in front of a user who is ready to purchase your product or service. Sometimes, this match is made by Google even before the user is aware of their desire to buy. 

Statistics show that 67% of key commercial intent searches lead to a paid ad. In other words, when someone wants to make a purchase, two out of three Google searches generate a click on an ad. This statistic demonstrates that users in the learning phase of the purchasing process focus on organic results, but when they are ready to buy, they click on ads.

Basic Concepts

To use Google Ads, you need to take into consideration the conversions. The entire machine learning algorithm that Google employs relies on conversions to see what works. Any action you want a user to take represents a conversion. That's why you need to track every possible conversion action on your website. Even smaller, less significant conversions serve as predictive indicators of intent.

In what keywords, Google users use them to search for answers and solutions. They don't think of them as keywords. To a user, keywords are just simple words they type into the search bar. But as advertisers, we use keywords to organize, classify, and create ads. 

Earlier, I mentioned that you need to consider conversions. Well, a conversion is simply the technical implementation (the action) of your offer, whatever it may be. Therefore, the offer is what you provide to your potential customer. Above all, we want to focus on delivering value.

Too often, we see advertisers talking about themselves in the ad text and landing pages instead of informing the user about what they will do for them:

• What should the visitor do? 
• What is the offer? 
• And why is it valuable? 

Prerequisites and Website Setup

Before building a Google Ads campaign, you need to ensure you have the following elements:

• Reasonable monthly expenses
• 90 days to prove the concept
• An eCommerce-optimized website with a product flow
• Sufficient margins to support a traffic campaign
• Unique selling proposition
• Completed customer avatars and assets
• A form with a minimum of 15 questions

Assuming you have these essential elements in place, it's time to optimize your website. Below, you'll find a checklist to go through to ensure your site is ready for Google Ads, including details about:

• On-site optimization (Light)
• CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) best practices for websites 
• Website speed optimization checklist 
• Quality assurance checklist
• Product/service page preparation 
• Media (images and videos)
• Lifestyle images
• Correct titles and descriptions
• Live chat

Google Account Setup

The Google Account setup involves creating a Google Ads account and setting up a Google Tag Manager account.

1. Creating a Google Ads Account
   If you already have any kind of Google account (such as Gmail), Google will automatically link that existing account to your new Google Ads account. During the account setup, Google will ask you about your main marketing goals so that you can build your campaign around them. But here's the issue: if you select any of the objectives provided by Google for easy setup, you'll end up with a poorly scaled, non-personalized version of Google Ads. To learn how to configure your account step by step by accessing the Expert Mode, we invite you to download our comprehensive guide, which details every process in detail. 
   
2. Setting up a Google Tag Manager Account
   Setting up a Google Tag Manager account is essential to connect conversion tracking to your account.
   
   Google Tag Manager is a free Google software that allows you to install a tracking system on your website using a code snippet to track site actions and evaluate campaign success. In other words, instead of paying a web developer to install custom codes on your site, Google Tag Manager acts as your personal developer, making it easier for you to install codes using the GTM interface.

Campaign types

Now that you have set up your Google Ads account, it's time to familiarize yourself with the types of campaigns you can create and manage within it. 

An important note about the budgets listed below:
These would be good starting points for dividing your budget. You will adjust the budgets based on campaign performance over time. These are simply recommendations to begin with, but you should adjust them as needed depending on your objectives or performance.

With these initial campaigns, you are not paying for customers, leads, or acquisitions but for data. And this is the paradigm you need to embrace. You cannot assume immediate success. In fact, most things won't work right away. But these are valuable data points that you can further use to identify what works.

Now let's take a look at the six key campaign types and what you can achieve by implementing them:

Brand: Specific Searches for You or Your Business (10% of the budget)

We strongly recommend starting with a brand campaign (using 10% of the budget) as they are the easiest to set up and help you learn the basics.

Here are a few more reasons why you should set up such a campaign:

• Establishing authority
• Brand protection
• Control over the sales message
• Improvement of data accumulation
• Direct traffic with high commercial intent
• Monitoring conversion paths

General: Searches for Your Offer or Relevant Keywords (25% of the budget)

This type of campaign focuses on searches for your offer or relevant keywords.

General campaigns are the ones that generate revenue (over time). They target search terms that are positive indicators of intent. General campaigns:

• Capture high commercial intent traffic
• Attract customers who are ready to buy
• Identify industry trends
• Position you as an authority

Competitors: People Searching for Alternatives (10% of the budget)

Competitive campaigns are designed to target people who are searching for alternatives to your product. Typically, we allocate 10% of our budget for this type of campaign.

Important: For competitive campaigns, never use Enhanced CPC. Since you are not the most relevant result for these specific searches (your competitor is), your quality score will never be as high. Don't pay more for Google to try to display you as the first result when it is an impossible effort.

Remarketing: Users who have already been on your website (10% of the budget)

Remarketing campaigns bring visitors back to your site. They also contribute to the success of other campaigns. And if they perform well, they can reduce the cost per lead, sometimes by half. Remarketing campaigns:

• Re-engage interested visitors
• Build brand authority 
• Increase visibility
• Improve the sales cycle
• Boost conversions
• Relatively inexpensive

DSA: Fill in the Gaps in Keyword-focused Campaigns (25% of the budget)

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) fill in the gaps in keyword-focused campaigns. With DSA campaigns, your website will appear in search results when someone searches for a term closely related to a frequently used phrase or headline on your site.

Performance Max: Objective-focused Campaign Finding the Best Audiences (20% of the budget)

Performance Max is where things get very interesting but also complicated.

Performance Max is something completely different in the world of Google Ads. There are different features and terms that deviate from the traditional campaigns we have covered so far, and it's essential to understand how PMax works before moving on to this section.

Give Google at least 30-60 days to gather enough data and learn how the Performance Max campaign works before imposing rules. 

The PMax campaign will consume from other types of campaigns. And it doesn't need a budget equal to that of other campaigns to "steal" from them. So, although there is no golden rule, we recommend running a campaign as "open" as possible.

The Negative Keywords List

It is equally important to tell Google where you do not want your ad to appear. To add a list of negative keywords, you need to access the Shared Library section in the settings of your Google Ads dashboard. Provide a name for your list, and then add any keywords that you do not want your ad to be associated with, such as "free". Afterwards, you will be able to add the list to all your campaigns.

The Complete Guide: Lead Generation with Google Ads

The Complete Guide to Lead Generation with Google Ads provides theoretical and practical knowledge in over 100 pages, visually exemplified, to assist you at every step. The information starts from general concepts and setting up a Google account, to a detailed explanation of the six types of campaigns suitable for businesses aiming to generate new leads.

Fill out the form here and you will receive the Complete Guide to Lead Generation with Google Ads via email.

About Optimized

Our team consists of experts in Performance Marketing, especially in eCommerce. Every day, we gather information and strive to learn more about our clients and their needs. We operate on the principle of anticipating results and the growth of a business, for their success and ours. Together.