Google Search Network Ads: Ad relevance

Did you know that 2.3 million searches take place in Google every second? Most of them include Google Ads, which is one of the reasons why making use of this digital marketing tool can be immensely effective to drive relevant traffic to a website right when the user is searching for specific products or services.

In today’s world we are constantly bombarded across many platforms with the content businesses put forward to attract an audience, but we can all agree that it can be quite annoying to be shown adverts that have absolutely nothing to do with what you are looking to find, therefore relevance is a key aspect in ensuring the prospective client has a positive experience with adverts and it’s one of Google Ads most valuable attributes.

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Like we described in previous publications, there are five different types of Google Ads, in this piece we’ll focus on Google Search Network ads. As the name suggests, this type of ad appears near other results when someone does a search that includes terms related to one of the keywords.

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What are keywords exactly and why are they so important?
Keywords consist of words or phrases that describe what you are offering and they link a potential customer’s search to relevant ads. Google Ads enables marketeers to fine tune how closely aligned searches and keywords need to be in order to show your ad, how? By means of “match types”; match types determine how broad or narrow a user’s search will need to be in order to match the keyword. There are four different kinds of match types:

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• Broad match: reaches the broadest possible audience, whenever a user searches any word in your key phrase, in any order, your ad may show.

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• Phrase match: in this case, the ad will only appear when a user searches for the keywords in the exact order that you specify.

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• Exact match: only when the user types in the exact key phrase by itself, will the ad display.

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• Modified broad: less restrictive than phrase matching while giving more control than broad match, this match type enables you to specify which important words must be included in the search for the ad to appear.

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In addition to the “match types” above, we mustn’t overlook the impact of negative keywords. Although these aren’t exactly a “match type” they are very important and quite often neglected. Negative keywords enable you to exclude irrelevant terms and therefore optimise your keyword strategy and not squander your budget. For example, if you were a sportswear retailer, but don’t work with a particular brand, you would include that brand as a negative keyword so your ad wouldn’t appear when someone is searching for that particular brand.

Another paramount aspect when it comes to understanding Google Search Network Ads, is of course the Network itself. When using this tool ads can appear beside, above, or below search results on Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Images, and Google Maps. They might also appear with search results on websites that are Google search partners, these are sites that partner with Google to show ads, for example; YouTube and even hundreds of non-Google websites.

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There are many ways of optimising Google Ads, but a deep understanding of this tool can make a tremendous difference in the results you achieve, especially when taking into consideration that technological digital marketing tools are constantly being updated. Years of experience in a broad spectrum of businesses is how our team has mastered this one, as well as many other digital marketing techniques and we continue to enrich our knowledge day to day. We’d love to show you what we can do for your business, take a look at our website www.kensho.marketing and get in touch, we are looking forward to hearing from you!

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