The import that Google Ad Words holds in online advertising is faultless, exceeding the limits of debate but the central question of how much it costs to advertise on Google Ad Words requires a thorough answer.
The usage of Google Ads has evolved to a marketing mainstay relied upon by companies hoping to tap into the internet frontier and convert the prospects into customers. Google Ads can be very useful to get your business message to the audience regardless of whether your business is relatively small or a large corporation.
Google Ads is a PPC form of advertising, and this means you will be charged any time that someone clicks your ad. However there remains the question of what essentially defines the cost per click? Google Ads pricing is tiered and depends on a number of factors that will determine how much you end up spending on your ads. This blog aims at analyzing the following ten factors that are likely to affect your cost of Google Adwords.
Top 10 Factors That Influence Google Ads Costs
1. Keyword Competition
Google Ads cost the primary effective bid of your ads and the prices will depend on the level of competition in the location or niche that you are targeting. Keywords are the terms that customers type into search engines in relation to certain products or services and companies bid for the right to feature the likes of. And if many companies are targeting highly popular keywords, then the cost per click (CPC) goes up as well. For instance, insurance, legal and finance are examples of industries that can have very high CPC due to the craze that is found in popular keywords.
If seeking to cut on expenditures one can focus on low volume but targeted keywords referred to as long-tail keywords.
2. Ad Quality Score
Google then gives every ad a Quality Score given the ad’s past performance and relevance. The Quality Score is determined by several factors such as:
Appropriate of the ad to the keywords chosen for the targeted group of advertisements
The adequacy of the materials and the importance of the Internet page.The anticipated click through rate of the advert.The fact is that, when ads are considered more relevant to users, they typically have a higher Quality Score, and therefore, a lower CPC. Alerts with a low Quality Score, nonetheless, will be more costly to the advertiser since Google believes them to be of lower value to searchers. So with reference to Quality Score, always use ad text that will relate well with these keywords and have a good flow between the ad, the landing page and the website.
3. Geographic Location
As pointed out earlier, costs are directly proportional to the targeting options in Google Adwords. To some extent, concentration may be because some places provide more competition than others, and the densely populated or wealthy places are more competitive. For instance, while promoting ones product to users in New York, San Francisco etc will definitely cost more in terms of CPC than when promoting it to users in small towns or the countryside.Expense can be controlled either through a regional advocacy of certain recipients, which marketers presume will deliver the most revenue in return or by black listing pricey zones where the o0ne is unlikely to hire a unit.
4. Ad Rank
If you would like to know where your ad is placed within a Google search then Ad Rank is what you are looking for. PAC is determined from your bid, Quality Score, and the impact of ad extensions also includes extra details such as phone numbers, location and the likes.This means that the more the ad rank the better, the position of your ad in the auction and you may pay even a premium to be ranked even higher. On the other hand a low Ad Rank means either high CPC to stay in good position or low position which means less visibility. To understand how to improve Ad Rank, there is the need to work on the bid, trying to boost the Quality Score, and using the appropriate ad extensions.
5. Bidding Strategy
Google Ads has different bidding options based on what you want to achieve in your campaign, and consequently, your costs will depend on the chosen strategy. Some common bidding options include:
Manual CPC: You had a choice of selecting a maximum cost per click for each keyword and this means you had so much control over your budget.Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition): You specify the cost that you would wish the conversion to cost and Google adjusts bids to ensure it reaches the specified conversion cost.Maximize Conversions: Google uses ad exchanges and places bids for you, to earn you as many conversions as possible within the bid limit.The bidding strategy you choose as your goal could be clicks, impressions, conversions or another metric and it has had a great impact on your ad spend. Deliberate strategies in automated bidding could increase efficiency; however, it can also mean more costs incurred if overseen keenly.
6. Industry and Niche
The nature of the business that the industry of your business belongs to can also determine the cost per click of Google Ads. They attract higher CPCs than others since they offer services that carry relatively higher customer value, including law firms, insurance, real estate and health. For instance, firms or lawyers can be willing to spend a lot of money on leads as a customer or client could be worth thousands of dollars.
On the other hand, it states that businesses operating in less competitive categories may attract a lower CPC. Being aware of the level of competition within your field enables you to create sensible goals and objectives for the Google Ads expenditure.
7. Device Targeting
The other factor that can affect cost is the device type, the users are on whenever they come across your ads. Google Ads enables advertisers to target both desktop and mobile and tablet users although these devices often have different costs per click.Mobile traffic is often cheaper as compared with the desktop traffic but the conversion rates of mobile traffic may differ. If your website or landing page is not mobile responsive, you might be paying for clicks which will not convert. On the other hand, if a majority of the target visitors use their mobile devices to access websites, optimizing a website to mobile use may enhance performance and reduce expenses in due course.
8. Ad Schedule
You also have control over the times and days to advertise, and the CPC may also be affected. Even the options for scheduling are present in Google Ads and often, ads are run during rush hours, which makes the costs much higher because of competitors.
9. Seasonality and Trends
A very important factor affecting the costs of Google Ads is seasonality. Occasionally, holidays, big sales days including Black Friday or Black November, or sector-specific months could indeed trigger more competition. For instance, e-commerce businesses are likely to incur slightly higher CPC during the holiday season since everybody is after the consumer.
10. Landing Page Experience
Most variables that impact on Google Ads costs relate to the ads themselves while the experience that users have on the landing page is as important. Remember that both relevance and experience actually contribute to the Quality Score calculation where Google assesses the relevance, the speed and overall user experience of your landing page.That is the reason why, if your page is slow to load or does not have relevant content at all, your Quality Score decreases, and, therefore, you pay more per click.
Conclusion
Indeed, the cost of the Google Ads depends on quite a few factors, and it is essential to recognize them for getting the most of the ad campaign. As a result, keyword competition, Quality Score, geographic location, Ad Rank and many other factors discussed in this blog should help to adjust campaigns and find the right balance between cost and efficiency.
Nevertheless, Google Ads is not just the system where we pay the most money; it is the system where we create relevant ads, work on the usability and conversion of ads, and, based on data, make the most rational and effective choices based on the projected cost of the ad.
