SEA campaigns with Google Ads: How search engine advertising works

Search Engine Advertising (SEA), search engine advertising, keyword advertising. No matter what you call them, ads on Google & Co. are an important building block for your online marketing. But for many, SEA is a closed book. Sascha Humpel from our agency partner ^Potential2 tells you more about how to get started successfully.

Google Ads: Tracking and budget

Sascha, SEA can be a great lever, especially in combination with the promotion of high-quality content. Why do many companies and freelancers still shy away from the topic?

The "fear" of companies to invest in Google Ads often occurs more in the area of services. The biggest problem here is the lack of measurability of conversion (inquiry) to sales. This is because it is often the case that an inquiry comes in today and can only lead to an order in several weeks or months. This order may then lead to even larger orders. When this point is reached, it is often no longer possible to trace back that this order originally came from Google Ads. Customers then often say: "Google Ads doesn't work for my company, we tried it".

However, companies from the e-commerce sector or companies with a simple online store also make a similar statement from time to time. On average, we can also attribute the reluctance here to poor or even missing tracking. In these cases, it cannot be attributed to Google Ads being responsible for the conversion.

Another point is that companies invest hundreds and thousands of euros in Google Ads. Companies that have done little online to date or that generally do not have large advertising budgets often lack patience. Google requires a certain period of three to four weeks. You also need a higher budget to make the most of the learning phase.

In the end, it helps to encourage customers above all that advertising measures in the online sector very often lead to success. And that they only need to be measurable and, above all, planned. Of course, some campaigns also flop. Particularly in markets that are not yet established and for products and services that require a lot of explanation, you have to take a step-by-step approach. However, the two points of tracking and evaluation are always important!

SEO vs SEA

An objection you often hear: "If I have good organic rankings on Google, I don't need SEA". When is this true and when is it not?

Basically, the approach of relying heavily on organic rankings is a very good one. Because this approach is sustainable and not dependent on a permanent budget. It also makes the entire website stronger and more powerful. This also results in further advantages and increases the market value of the website.

However, in our opinion, the combination of SEO and SEA is one of the most successful advertising methods. This is because good SEO optimization not only helps with the points mentioned above, but also supports Google's reading of the website. As a result, the probability of a good quality score is significantly higher, which has a strong influence on the click prices of your own account, among other things.

The "perfect way" would be good SEO optimization, a good content strategy plan and then targeted advertising measures in the form of action-based campaigns and retargeting on organically well-placed posts.

How do you manage not to become too dependent on the search engine despite using Google Ads?

In the best case scenario, you offer website visitors the opportunity to register on the website. Or you can offer free "goodies" in exchange for contact details. This allows you to build up a base of interested people independently of Google.

However, by using Google Ads, you are always in a certain dependency. Because if you no longer pay for it, you no longer receive any traffic. You should always be aware of this. In the long term, a well-performing Google Ads campaign should open up additional sales channels.

Good content for SEA

Doesn't a company need to build a good content strategy before spending money on advertising? After all, there is no point in spending a lot of money on poor landing pages.

Content is king... You've probably heard this many times before. From our point of view, there is nothing more important than good content. From a pure advertising perspective, however, there are much more important things to pay attention to. Firstly, there is the most important point: trust. Visitors need to trust the website, the product or service and the company behind it. Videos and reviews work extremely well for this.

Another important point is the structure of the page. The goal of the action, also known as the call to action, must be unambiguously clear. Visitors need to know what they should do - and what they will get in return.

Neither the visual design nor the content on the website is the decisive criterion here. A clear structure can work wonders here. In summary, however, it can be said that a good content strategy always wins in the end. Because this is again about sustainability and SEO. However, this point should not be used as an "excuse" not to start advertising.

The right network

Many people say "Ads on Facebook or Twitter don't work", while others have the exact opposite experience. How does everyone find the right networks for SEA and other ads?

Basically, the only thing that helps here is to test, evaluate, change and test again. Facebook can be an incredible sales engine if it suits the industry and the campaign has been implemented well. However, we recommend starting with Google Ads. The reason is relatively simple: people who have a high level of interest in a product or service search on Google.

With social media ads, on the other hand, you can address the target groups precisely, but the ads are always shown to people who are not actually looking for anything. So you address them cold. This is much more difficult. In other words: For your first attempts at online marketing, we would always recommend Google Ads first. You should first participate and optimize for a few months until the first successes can be celebrated.

How can the outsourcing of SEA measures work, especially in industries with products and services that require explanation, keyword knowledge transfer?

This can only work in close consultation with the customer. Even before the first advertisements are designed, clear agreements should be made and objectives defined, as well as the creation of a company profile. The agency or freelancer does not have to be an expert in their client's service or product. However, there must be more than a simple basic understanding. Otherwise it is easy to work at cross purposes. Therefore, always involve the customer directly.

And one thing is particularly important for both (client and contractor): define clear goals! In this way, unnecessary and uncomfortable discussions can be avoided and we can work together towards a result. Important KPIs (key performance indicators) here would be:

• What value does a conversion have for me
• How many clicks would I like to have
• What is my maximum spend per click
• How much budget do I have for the next 3 months...

Performance measurement and conversion

What tools do you need to be able to measure the success of SEA consistently, right through to conversion? In other words, beyond the dashboards of the networks?

The providers usually already provide everything you need. You should start with these first before investing your time in many different tools, which would be better spent on writing good ad texts and creating good campaigns. However, there is one tool that should almost be standard alongside Google Analytics, namely Hotjar.

Here, particular attention must be paid to data protection-compliant use. This is because website visitors are basically recorded anonymously (text entries or numbers are also hidden, for example). However, this data helps immensely to see how deep users scroll, which elements are frequently viewed or clicked on and, most importantly, why users bounce. With the help of the analysis, the website can be adapted much better to the average user.

For example, do you have an online store and see that users always leave after reading the reviews or discovering the shipping costs? Then you should start here if necessary to satisfy the visitor.

Your three best tips: What else should you look out for when approaching SEA for the first time?

Just get started. There are great videos on YouTube on the subject, which can eliminate common mistakes right from the start. However, my three tips for getting started are as follows:

1. Define clear goals for yourself.
2. Lower your expectations for the first campaign. Because especially when you do SEA yourself, you learn a lot and improve your skills bit by bit.
3. The daily budget should not be too high, but above all not too low. People are often a little "scared" here, as it quickly becomes expensive. With 5 to 10 euros a day, however, it is difficult to expect results. Neither the algorithm nor you yourself can learn from the small amount of data.

For example, if you have a budget of 300 euros, it would be better to run the campaign with 30 euros per day for 10 days - instead of 10 euros per day for 30 days. This is because, especially at the beginning of a campaign, it should have enough budget available to generate more clicks and learn from them.

A few words about you and your agency?

At ^Potential2, we have set ourselves the goal of simplifying the digital world and presenting it in the customer's language. We support our customers in the implementation of a website, the development or expansion of search engine optimization and Google Ads. We see ourselves as a visibility agency. Because the most important thing to be successful online is visibility. What good is the best product, the highest quality service and the most beautiful website if it can't be found in the end?