When you’re trying to allocate your advertising spend, quite often you’ll hear that Google ads are not worth spending money on or that no one clicks on Google ads. Let’s put it this way instead though… If you were a business as successful as Google is, how likely would it be that you build an entire product that doesn’t work?

There are plenty of myths surrounding Google ads and many of them began years ago when it was a strategy that simply fell outside of the expertise of many marketers. It was also a time when Google’s algorithm wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now, but some of these myths still remain today, so let’s break down the 5 most common myths about Google ads.

Myth #1 - No one clicks on Google ads.

Google’s financial records bust this myth wide open… Google generates an eye-watering $100 million PER DAY from Google ads from approximately 50 million clicks. And with an even more sophisticated algorithm for showing ads, and a desire to only show ads that will get clicked on, Google ads are more and more relevant than ever when searching online.

Myth #2 - Google ads have a low ROI.

According to Google’s own research into the performance of their ads for investors, they found the average return on investment was around 800%! This of course is subject to a number of important factors - you can’t just trigger the ad and put your feet up. You should keep a well structured Google ads account, review and optimise it often, perform regular audits on the performance of your campaigns and maintain a relevant keyword list, amongst other things. Use Wordstreams Free Google Ads Performance Grader to assess the performance of your ads.

Myth #3 - I can waste my entire budget just by having competitors click on my ad

Google has technology in place to prevent fraudulent clicks on your ads that goes well beyond IP tracking. Aside from this technology, Google ad campaign reports are thorough and can quickly expose suspicious activity and should you suspect you’ve been targeted, you can request that Google launch an investigation. Fraudulent clicks will then be reimbursed.

Myth #4 - How can I even compete with my biggest competitor?

Google has really levelled the playing field here for smaller businesses and being shown doesn’t mean you’re actually paying more per click than your competitor. In fact, considering Google ads are an inbound marketing strategy, it should be no surprise to hear that the quality of your content and your ad plays a significant role - more than your budget does. To simplify it, when someone enters a search query, Google first checks to see if there is an auction on those keywords. If there is, the auction is triggered and all the relevant ads are entered. Each ad is then assigned a Quality Score based on the ad copy, relevance of the website landing page, expected click-through rate (based on historical data) and landing page experience. Google then assigns a rank to each ad competitor which is your quality score multiplied by your maximum bid. The ads with the highest rank get shown. 

To make this even better, you might not even pay the maximum you have set per click! Google calculates their cost per click formula as Ad Rank of the ad below yours divided by your Quality Score, plus one cent. This means that you can be shown higher in the search engine results page (SERP) and pay less than the ad below you because your ad, landing page content and structure is more relevant. There are other factors that come into play such as alternative ads, location and device of the users search but the quality score and ad rank are the two most important.

Myth #5 - I can’t control who will see my ad

You can exercise a great amount of control over how your Google Ads budget is spent by using tactics like geo-targeting (targeting based on location), ad scheduling (only showing your ad at certain days or times), device targeting (giving greater weight to what device will show your ad), well crafted ad copy and through the use of appropriate and relevant keywords.

Are Google ads right for you?

Now that we’ve debunked some of these age old myths, you may be thinking it’s time to get into advertising with Google and now you’re unsure about how to even start. As with any form of advertising, it’s not as straightforward as we’d like things to be and the truth is, it might not even be the right strategy for your business. If you’d like help developing a marketing management plan for your business, you can book a marketing review here.

During the review, we’ll consider your business growth goals and current challenges limiting that growth. We’ll then create a marketing strategy in response that considers which marketing activities to prioritise, and when. Finally, with a clear marketing plan, we partner with you as your marketing agency to execute the activities and provide monthly reports on progress.

Don’t leave your marketing up to chance - book a marketing review with The Brand Shop, and get clear about how you continue to grow your business.