Conquering the digital landscape in Singapore requires a multi-pronged approach. While SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) remains crucial for long-term organic visibility, businesses often crave a faster way to reach their target audience to generate leads or sales more immediately. This is where Google Ads PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising comes in.
What Are PPC and Google Ads?
Defining PPC
Simply put, PPC is a digital marketing model where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. Unlike organic traffic through SEO, PPC advertising offers the ability to deliver highly targeted ads to the right audience and generate measurable results faster, making it a popular option for businesses looking to generate an immediate surge in traffic, purchases, or leads.
What Is Google Ads?
Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is the largest and most popular PPC platform. It allows you to display ads on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), YouTube, to its Display Network, which involves a vast network of websites, apps, and video channels. Due to Google’s immense global reach, advertisers are able to gain access to millions of potential customers globally.
Besides Google Ads, the following are other popular platforms offering valuable PPC advertising opportunities:
- Microsoft Bing
- Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
- TikTok
As Google Ads dominate the PPC landscape, we will focus on it for the remainder of this article.
Why Use Google’s PPC Ads?
1. Challenges with SEO
While SEO can generate traffic without paying for ads and is an excellent long-term marketing strategy, it comes with its challenges.
• Time-Consuming
SEO efforts can take months, or even years, to yield significant results. Building authority, gaining backlinks, and optimising content all require a long-term commitment, which may not be suitable for businesses needing quick wins.
• Competitive Keywords
Ranking for high-value keywords organically can be difficult, especially in competitive industries like finance, law, or e-commerce. With many businesses targeting the same keywords, achieving top rankings without a significant investment can be challenging.
2. Guaranteed Visibility for Target Audience
In contrast, Google PPC guarantees visibility at the top of the search results. Your ad appears based on the relevance of your keyword and the amount you bid. With the right setup, your business can appear on the first page of Google as soon as your campaign goes live.
3. Effectiveness in Lead & Sales Generation
PPC campaigns via Google Adwords are effective at driving leads and sales. Whether your goal is to collect email signups, increase product purchases, or generate inquiries, these campaigns usually generate results shortly after your campaign goes live and allow detailed optimisations to maximise returns on investment (ROI).
Different Types of Google Ads PPC Campaigns
Google Adwords offers various PPC campaign types to suit different advertising goals.
1. Search Ads
The most common type of Google ads, Search ads are text-based and appear on SERPs when users search for related keywords.
Pros
- One of the most widely used, versatile Google Ads campaign types suitable for a wide range of businesses.
- Reach audience with high purchase intent
- Highly detailed performance analytics and optimisation options, allowing more control
Cons
- Competitive and costly for popular keywords
- Requires deep technical expertise to set up and manage effectively to generate positive results.
2. Display Ads
Display ads are image-based, usually banners or images, and appear on a network of websites and apps partnered with Google. This allows you to reach a broader audience beyond search queries.
Pros
- Broad reach across websites and apps
- Cost-effective for brand awareness, with cheaper cost-per-clicks (CPCs)
- Visually engaging ad formats
- Offers detailed targeting options to show ads to users based on precise criteria (E.g. interests, demographics, etc.)
Cons
- Lower buying intent compared to search ads
- Less effective for direct conversions, more ideal for awareness campaigns
3. Video Ads (YouTube)
YouTube also provides various ad format options.
Pros
- Highly engaging video content, great for brand storytelling or product demonstrations.
- As YouTube is part of Google, it also offers Google’s detailed audience targeting options.
Cons
- Producing quality videos requires significant time, costs, and expertise.
- Can be skipped by viewers.
4. Shopping Ads
Google Shopping ads are product-based and ideal for e-commerce businesses. They integrate with your Google Merchant Centre to showcase your products directly on SERPs with detailed information, images, and pricing.
Pros
- Ideal for e-commerce retailers
- High visibility and ability to reach an audience with purchase intent
- Enticing layouts directly showcasing product image, info, and price.
Cons
- Limited to physical products
- Requires detailed product feed management, including setting up a Google Merchant Centre.
5. Demand Gen Ads
Demand Gen Ads are designed to capture the interest of potential customers across Google’s platforms, including YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. They are tailored to drive brand consideration and engage users through personalised, visually compelling content.
Pros
- Focused on creating awareness and interest
- Reaches potential buyers at various stages of the channel
Cons
- Less focus on direct conversion
- Limited visibility and control into early performance
6. Performance Max (PMax)
Google’s Performance Max is a relatively newer type of campaign that runs across all the Google Ads networks (Search, Display, YouTube, Discovery, Gmail, etc.), using AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities to optimise ad performance. This involves automatically creating ad assets and adjusting bids and targeting, which helps businesses maximise performance while simplifying their advertising efforts.
Pros
- Simplified setup and management
- Allows exposure across all Google Ads networks in one campaign. Ideal for “filling in the gaps” of audiences not reached in other campaigns.
Cons
- Limited control on ad placements
- Lack of data and transparency for optimisation
- Can quickly exhaust budget with minimal ROI if not configured optimally
Steps to Creating a Google Ads PPC Campaign
Ready to capitalise on the power of PPC? Here’s a basic overview of how to create a Google Ads campaign. Keep in mind that building a successful Google Ads campaign requires expertise, in-depth research, and complex consideration of the setup options beyond what’s covered here.
1. Set Up a Google Ads Account
First, create a Google Ads account. Simply go to the Google Ads website, click “Start Now,” and follow the instructions.
2. Define Your Campaign Objective
What do you want to achieve with your advertising campaign? Do you want to generate leads, increase website traffic, or drive online sales? Defining your campaign objective will help Google tailor your ads to meet your specific goals.
Choose an objective from the options provided. Once selected, Google Ads adjusts the goals and settings accordingly, simplifying the process and allowing you to craft more effective PPC campaigns.
3. Select Campaign Type
Choose the campaign type that best aligns with your objective. For example, a Shopping Ads campaign might be the best option for e-commerce retailers, whereas a Display Ads campaign may be more effective for increasing brand awareness.
4. Determine Budget and Bidding Strategy
Set a daily or monthly budget for your campaign and decide on your bidding strategy. Google offers several bidding options, including manual Cost-Per-Click (CPC) and automated bidding strategies like Target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA).
- Manual CPC: Allows you to set the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each click manually, giving you greater control over your budget and bidding process.
- Automated CPA: Google optimises your bids to get as many conversions as possible at a set target cost. This is useful for advertisers focusing their budget on driving sales and leads.
Weigh your options and choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your campaign goals.
5. Link to Products from Google Merchant Store (Shopping Ads only)
If you’re running a Google Shopping Ads campaign, there are additional steps involved. Upload your product information—including titles, descriptions, images, and pricing—to Google Merchant Centre and ensure that it is linked to your Google Ads accounts.
6. Define Campaign and Ad Group Structure
Organise your campaign into different ad groups, each focusing on a specific product, service, or audience. Structuring your campaign this way allows you to optimise management and create more relevant and targeted ads.
7. Define Targeting Options
Optimal keywords targeting ensures that your Google Search campaign reaches the right audience. To do so, it’s crucial to choose the right keywords and match types.
- Exact match: Offers the most control by showing your ad only when users search for your exact keyword,
- Phrase match: Allows your ads to appear for searches containing your keyword in a specific order.
- Broad match: These keywords trigger your ads for searches that include variations, synonyms, or related phrases of your keyword. This provides the widest reach out of all the match types.
Other campaign types (E.g. Display, PMax) leverages other targeting options, from audience demographics, interests, and online behaviours to ad placements.
8. Create Ads
Ads are the face of your Google Ads PPC campaign, the direct point of contact between you and your potential customers. To ensure effectiveness, focus on these three key types:
- Ads Copy
Write clear, compelling headlines that highlight your unique value proposition, and craft descriptions that convey the benefits of your product or service. Strong calls-to-action (CTAs) will also encourage users to take the next step and complete desired actions.
- Banner Creatives
Visually appealing banner creatives are essential for display campaigns, as they capture users’ attention while they browse online. Use high-quality images, bold colours, and eye-catching typography to make your ads stand out. Additionally, ensure that your design aligns with your brand identity and includes a clear message and CTA.
- Extensions
Ad extensions provide additional information and options directly within your ads, enhancing their visibility and engagement. Utilise sitelinks to guide users to specific pages on your website, callouts to highlight special offers or features, and structured snippets to provide context about your products or services. With these extensions, your ads will become more informative and appealing, leading to improved performance.
9. Review & Optimise Your Campaign
Once your campaign is live, make sure to monitor its performance using Google Ads’ built-in analytics tools. This involves tracking key metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost-per-click (CPC). Finally, regularly optimise your campaign by tweaking your bids, ad copy, and targeting to improve results.
Takeaways
Overall, Google Adwords and PPC campaigns are powerful tools for businesses looking to achieve immediate results and drive traffic to their websites. With its wide range of formats, robust targeting options, and sophisticated bidding strategies, Google Ads remains the top platform for PPC advertising in 2024.
While the Google Ads platform allows for self-setup, our experience with clients has often shown that those who attempted to set up and manage their own campaigns without sufficient knowledge often see their advertising budgets quickly depleted with minimal results. Successfully setting up a profitable Google Ads campaign that delivers a positive ROI requires extensive research, expertise, and complex planning of campaign structure as well as a well-considered selection of various targeting options and ad configurations.
At OOm, we have a team of experts to take care of your advertising campaigns to bring you peak returns. As one of the top performance marketing agencies in Singapore, OOm has won numerous awards in performance and search marketing. Due to our track records, we also have been selected by Google as their Premier Partner, which is reserved for the top 3% agency partners in Singapore, as well as Facebook as their Meta Business Partner.
If you are an SME in Singapore, you may qualify to receive up to 50% subsidy under the PSG Digital Marketing Grant.
Schedule your free consultation with us or learn more about our Google Ads management service.
About OOm
OOm has been a leading digital marketing agency in Singapore since 2006, with expertise in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing to website design and development. Our clientele comprises small and medium businesses (SMEs) to enterprises.
OOm has won over 30+ marketing awards for the results we have delivered to clients over the years, including ‘Agency of the Year’, ‘Lead Generation Agency of the Year’, ‘Independent Agency of the Year’, ‘E-Commerce Marketing Agency of the Year’, ‘Excellence in Search Marketing, ‘Excellence in Performance Marketing’ to ‘Excellence in Data-driven Marketing’ among others. OOm is also a Google Premier Partner (reserved for the top 3% agency partners in Singapore), as well as an official Meta Business Partner.
