Eight Great Questions about Digital Advertising

As Google Partners, we often get access to insights from our search engine friends. Recently, Jelly and a select group of partners met with Doug Wegener who is an Agency Account Strategist at Google Adwords. We talked through some basic AdWords concepts and then answered questions. Since you might be wondering some of these same things, here are some answers to commonly asked questions about advertising online.

Q: Why would I pay someone to “run my ads” or manage my digital ads campaigns?

A: When someone like Jelly manages your digital ads, you get four basic services: targeting, creative, control and reporting.

#1. Targeting | There are many different types of targeting, and we love them all. They help us narrow the audience and pinpoint customers. We can identify geographic location, gender, age, interests; even what time of day or device type on which the ad will appear.

#2. Creative | Who actually makes the ad? When it comes to text-based ads (search ads) there’s a brainstorming and selection process in which we generate keywords. Additionally, when it comes to image-based ads (display ads) we have a graphic designer in-house who makes all your ads, adjusting them for a range of different sizes.

#3. Control | There are 11 possible positions where your ad can show up on a Google search: 3 on the top and 8 on the side—occasionally 2 on the bottom as well. Display has 3 areas where ads can be shown. But what happens when ads do not show up? Simply throwing money at it won’t make it appear since there are likely other issues (like a low quality score, for example). It’s good to know someone is tweaking, monitoring and advising… more on that later!

#4. Measurement | Jelly’s reports help make sense of what is happening in the digital world. We can interpret data immediately, but it’s over the course of 2-3 months where the required next steps become very clear. Interpreting the data can be tricky and since information is power and we like to put the power in our client’s hands every single month.

Q: How do I know what keywords I should be advertising and optimizing for?

A: There is a tool in Adwords that anyone can use to define what are the most commonly searched words. It’s called the Keyword Planner Tool. There are many benefits to using this tool. It can tell you: the number of estimated impressions in a given month, estimated clicks based on your daily budget, and it can even determine what an approximate cost per click is (usually accurate to within 10-25%).

Q: Can I advertise for synonyms of my product?

A: Yes, so long as your ad is still relevant to the search term. You can also prevent ads from showing with negative keywords. You can control what search terms will trigger your ad.

Q: What about advertising as a competitor?

A: Google wants people to find what they are searching for, so if your content is misleading or irrelevant, you will receive a low quality score and likely not show up for the keywords you are attempting to utilize.

Q: What is a quality score?

A: A quality score is the standard that Google creates to rank how “good” or “bad” an ad is. While there are a number of factors that go into quality score rankings, the number one factor is relevancy of the content being advertised. Your content must reflect what you are advertising. This not only affects the placement and location of your ad, but also—incredibly—the cost! Google wants to provide a good experience for the searcher, and they reward those who feel similarly. This includes if your landing page has annoying pop-ups, and the ease of navigation.

Q: What are the benefits of working with a Google Partner?

A: Google Partners have training in Adwords best practices and can back up their expertise with a certification that is renewed annually. They know their stuff! They also have access to advice from Google, as they are connected with a strategist at Google Adwords who can help optimize and troubleshoot campaigns.

Q: What kinds of problems do digital advertising face?

A: The main problem is when ads do not show up. Sometimes campaigns burn through budgets too quickly, other times the keywords aren’t being searched and sometimes the content isn’t relevant. Whatever the case, ads not showing up is the primary concern for most people. Another concern is when ads show up at the wrong time of day to the wrong people in the wrong areas.

Q: What’s the turnaround on ad campaign approval?

A: On Google’s end, 24 hours. Our experience is that Google is usually faster than this—a few hours at the most. In this process, Google is checking financials and ad structure to ensure the ad is acceptable. And on Jelly’s end, we can launch and/or make major adjustments to an ad campaign within a few days.

Any more questions about digital advertising opportunities? Let us know by sending as a message at our contact page!

By Natalie Antturi