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On the 27th of March, Google announced that it would be contributing $340 million in Google Ad credits to all SMB’s with active accounts over the last year. This was in the hope of allowing these businesses to remain in contact with vital consumers, at a point of great uncertainty.

Well, Google has been busy allocating these credits, finishing the allocation process on the 1st of July. Since getting the email, you’ve likely been wondering how best to spend this finite resource?

In today’s blog, we’ll be looking at just that - the best ways to spend your Google Ads credits, to maximise return on investment.

I would say that you have nothing to lose, but you should really make the most of this opportunity, as you might come to realise that advertising with Google is actually a great investment for your business, and a brilliant channel to reach prospective clients. For this reason, burning through this money without considering a proper strategy would be a waste.

Google Ads can definitely be a bit intimidating at first. There are a lot of options to advertise with Google, whether it be their search network, their display network, YouTube, or Google Shopping. Hopefully, in this blog, we’ll be able to simplify a few popular Google Ads strategies. So where to begin?

Remarketing

If your website has been live for a while, be it an e-commerce store or a professional services site, then you’ve probably had a few customers and even more visitors who didn’t buy anything. In our opinion, running a remarketing campaign is one of the best options to begin your Google Ads campaigns.

Remarketing campaigns can be an amazing tool for businesses’ websites. If you spend any amount of time online, chances are that you’ve been exposed to a remarketing campaign.

So, what is a remarketing campaign exactly?

In essence, a remarketing campaign contains ads that are shown to people who have already visited your website in the past. Most likely they are shown an ad for a specific product or service that they had already spent time looking at.

Though there isn’t much creativity involved here, the genius of these kinds of campaigns really comes down to the fact that you’re targeting customers that are more or less ready to convert from your website.

With remarketing campaigns, you can choose to target a few different kinds of shoppers. For example, you could target people who have already bought something from your shop.

You could also target people who have visited your website.

Taking it a step further, you can also focus on customers who have been too specific product pages on your site.

You can even target customers who have placed a product in their shopping cart, but for one reason or another did not complete their purchase.

Basically all of the customer-types mentioned above have a much higher probability to convert into sales than any other group you can target.

By targeting these specific groups, you’re ensuring that you’re allocating this finite ad spend efficiently.

Display Advertising

Depending on the marketing objectives surrounding your website, you may want to enhance brand awareness instead of focusing on conversions. In order to build this awareness, you’ll want to increase impressions, and drive traffic to your website.

After gathering enough traffic to your site, you’ll want to try out the remarketing campaign mentioned above to drive them back to your site and complete their purchases.

Display ads are visual ads, so you’ll have two options. Create your own graphics or use the available options on the Google Ads platform.

Audience Testing

If you have a relatively new shop and are having trouble with conversions, you might be targeting the wrong audience with your advertising. You might want to identify and test a new audience.

The longer your website has been established, the more insights you can utilise to identify who your target audience is, what problems they have, their pain points, etc. It’s always a good idea to test your ads on a few segmented groups. This process will help you identify your most engaged audience, and therefore the audience to market to.

Advertise a new product or service

Chances are, throughout Coronavirus, your business has developed a new product or service. In this case, your Ad credits can be spent advertising your new offerings.

If you’re an e-commerce store and wish to advertise a new product on Google, Google Shopping is the answer. By implementing a Google Shopping campaign, you’re able to promote your product to consumers actively searching for it - increasing your chances of conversion.

Conclusion

Google has offered this service in order to help small businesses recover from the impact of Coronavirus. It’s a powerful service when used correctly. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to establish your companies own paid media strategy, and find out if Google can help you increase traffic and, more importantly, generate sales.

It’s also worth noting that you have until the end of 2020 to spend these credits. Make sure you use them.

If you’re struggling with the optimum allocation of your Google Ad credits, reach out to us at BarkWeb. We’d be happy to help.  

Want to make the most of your free Google Ad credits?

BarkWeb can ensure you get the most out of your free Google Ad credits with our professional PPC management service. To find out more, call our experts on  01323 735800, or email enq@barkweb.co.uk. Alternatively, you can fill in our contact form and our experts will get back to you.

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