![\"Google](\"https:\/\/ppcexpo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/google-ads-too-expensive.jpg\")
<\/div>\nThat sounds quite expensive. While the studies did not specify the platform they were referring to, they could point to something that you have probably thought about – that advertising on Google<\/a> is expensive.<\/p>\n Maybe you have even been wondering whether it is worth the time, effort, and financial investment. Let us explore this next.<\/p>\n There are several benefits of advertising on Google:<\/p>\n Google Ads allow you to define your audiences and customize them as much as you would like. Did you know that you can even specify competitor websites as you create your custom audiences<\/a>? You also get to exclude particular audiences or locations.<\/p>\n Google Ads also lets you choose the keywords<\/a> that are most relevant to your brand and even suggests more. You can exclude keywords that you deem irrelevant to your campaign, too. For example, if your brand is a luxury brand, then keywords like \u2018cheap\u2019 and \u2018affordable\u2019 will only waste your campaign budget.<\/p>\n Better still, once your campaign starts getting traffic, you begin to get invaluable insights that you can use to further optimize it. For example, you can see the exact YouTube<\/a> channels where your ad showed. This helps you see whether the channel is relevant to your brand and whether you are reaching your ideal customer.<\/p>\n From your Google Ads account, you can click on the specific channel link and you will be redirected to the specific YouTube channel.<\/p>\n If you find channels that do not help your campaigns, you need to refine your targeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Google Ads Keyword Planner<\/a> is nifty when it comes to managing your advertising costs. You can see suggested bids based on what competitors in your location(s) are paying for keywords. The tool also helps you estimate the kind of results you might get with your budget and CPC<\/a> (cost-per-click). This allows you to establish whether your budget is sufficient.<\/p>\n When it comes to Google, a one-size-fits-all approach won\u2019t cut it, several factors may make Google Ads too expensive. Let\u2019s explore the essential ones:<\/p>\n Your competition<\/a> can influence your ad costs. Highly competitive keywords, where a lot of advertisers are bidding for the same keyword, tend to have a higher CPC.<\/p>\n Using the Google Ads Keyword Tool, you get to see what your competition is paying for. Even when a keyword is not categorized as \u2018highly competitive\u2019, if your competitors are bidding high for it, you will need to match up. Otherwise, you risk ranking lower in your bid, resulting in your ad not reaching enough people.<\/p>\n Google Ads has a First Page Bid Estimate Tool, which can help you see how much you will need to pay if you want your ad to rank on Google\u2019s first result page. The CPC here is highly influenced by your keywords\u2019 quality score<\/a> and again, what your competition is paying for the keywords.<\/p>\n In a recent study, there was a significant difference in CPC across various industries. For example, in the Legal industry, it was around $6.7 in Home Improvement, $3 in Technology, $3.8 in Marketing, $1.5 in the travel field, and $2.37 in Real Estate.<\/p>\n The same study also found the most expensive keyword in each industry, Insurance is $54, Loans is $44.2, Mortgage is $47, Gas\/Electricity is $54.<\/p>\n While this is not often discussed in marketing circles, the campaign goal<\/a> that you choose also influences your advertising costs. For example, if you choose your goal as \u2018product and brand consideration\u2019, your CPC could be as low as $0.02 per click, while a \u2018sales\u2019 goal could cost you even $5.02 per click.<\/p>\n Now that we have looked at what can make Google Ads too expensive, let\u2019s look at ways to control your ad budget.<\/p>\n Location-based targeting<\/a> seems to be a no-brainer. Think about it. You need to share your location when scheduling an Uber ride. Or using Google Maps. Think with Google<\/em> reports have repeatedly shown the extensive usage and growth of the \u2018near me\u2019 keyword in search queries – a clear indication of intent<\/a>. And intent is all we aim for, right?<\/p>\n Location-based targeting works especially if you have a physical store, your product can be found in physical stores in specific areas, or are in a location that is renowned for specific activities, for example, fishing and outdoor activities.<\/p>\n While this is undoubtedly a feature you should be taking advantage of, did you know that it may not always be a good idea?<\/p>\n One instance where you should not dare use location-based targeting is if your mobile site is not optimized. This is because at least a third of \u2018near me\u2019 searches come from mobile. If your site is not mobile-optimized, you will just be wasting your ad budget. Other option is that you should remove mobile device from your list while targeting your campaign, this will save your budget.<\/p>\n We are going to go through how to set up your campaigns while optimizing them based on location. Before we start, it is advisable to set up a new campaign to use location-based targeting, rather than add it to an already existing campaign. This allows you to craft your campaign copy around the location you choose.<\/p>\n Do you remember when we were setting up the campaign in the preceding section and said that the campaign should run on both the Search<\/a> and Display Networks? We also mentioned that the boxes are automatically checked.<\/p>\n Well, let\u2019s begin by stating that that is a bad idea. Google ensures that both options are checked because they want you to spend more advertising dollars.<\/p>\n To understand why the above combo is erroneous, we need to understand how each of the two campaign types works, and when it is appropriate to use each.<\/p>\n These come in handy to help rank on Google search results, especially if you are not able to do so organically, and you are in an industry with stiff competition.<\/p>\n Search Campaigns are ideal for customers who are already looking for a specific product or service. They show based on the search terms that users key in. For example, \u2018Valentine\u2019s Day Flowers\u2019. If you had bid for this keyword, then your ad should show as part of the paid results on Google.<\/p>\n If the user finds your ad relevant, then they will be compelled to click on it and be redirected to your site. They will hopefully place an order.<\/p>\n In terms of intent, Search Campaigns appeal to a user whose intent is to buy. They are a great source to use for lead generation.<\/p>\n These campaigns are ideal for specific services or products, for example, plumbing or legal services, or shoes for specific occasions, for instance, an upcoming wedding, that have a sense of immediacy to them.<\/p>\n One amazing thing about Search Campaigns is that they can fit even the smallest marketing budget.<\/p>\n These campaigns are shown on different websites, apps, and Gmail, rather than as part of Google\u2019s search results. Display Campaigns<\/a> are ideal for brand awareness, where the user is not actively looking to purchase a particular product.<\/p>\n They have text, banner, or rich media formats (video or audio, and any other features that encourage users to engage with a piece of content).<\/p>\n You can choose specific sites on which to show your ads (managed placements) or groups of websites, which are based on particular audience characteristics.<\/p>\n An example of a display ad is when you look up \u2018Valentine\u2019s Day Flowers\u2019 and then you realize that the ads have become ubiquitous. This is because the brands want you to keep their products top of mind.<\/p>\n Display Campaigns are ideal for products with visual appeal, as in our flower example.<\/p>\n So, as you can see, running the same campaign on both the Search and Display networks may not work for your brand. While Search Campaigns appeal to buyers with a buying intent, Display Campaigns are more useful for brand awareness.<\/p>\n Is it possible to have similar messaging that achieves brand awareness while simultaneously serving user intent? Well, highly unlikely.<\/p>\n You could argue that you have a choice of 3 ads per campaign. How then will you instruct Google to show one and not the other on the two networks?<\/p>\n Worse still, analyzing campaign data becomes harder when you are running both campaign types. You might find that CTRs are lower<\/a> for display ads (remember that users may not be at a point of making a purchase yet).<\/p>\n Combining both networks also makes it challenging to optimize your campaigns. For example, if the display ads have a low CTR which affects the entire campaign, how would you fix that?<\/p>\n The best way forward is to run your Search and Display campaigns separately.<\/p>\n This means that we need to go back to our campaign above and make the necessary changes – uncheck the Display Network box and then craft our campaign to achieve buying intent.<\/p>\n Sending traffic to your home page is a sure-fire way to make Google Ads too expensive. This is because your home page is not specifically crafted to the target audience that you specify in your campaign.<\/p>\n The home page is supposed to serve different audiences with different intents. In our Valentine\u2019s flowers example, one user may land on your home page with an intent of information – to know the best Valentine flowers to buy for their significant other, while another user who already knows the kind of flowers to buy wants to make a purchase.<\/p>\n You need to have different campaigns to target these two types of users, and each should have its landing page. For the user with a buying intent, your landing page should lead them directly to the product page where they get to add to cart. Shopping ads<\/a> would be ideal in this case.<\/p>\n Like we have mentioned, a Shopping Campaign is ideal for users with a buying intent. Do you remember our Sales campaign where we were using location-based targeting?<\/p>\n To set up a Shopping Campaign would be similar. You still get to choose the \u2018sales\u2019 goal. The campaign type however, this time will be \u2018shopping\u2019.<\/p>\n You then need to link an associated Merchant Center account and a country of sale (where the product is sold). Ensure that you have admin access in the Merchant Center. Note that you can only link one Merchant Center account to your campaign. To do this:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s now go back to how you can add the conversions generated from your shopping cart data when running a shopping campaign to your reporting.<\/p>\n To do this, you need to set up conversion tracking.<\/p>\n The global site tag helps you send your shopping cart data to Google Analytics and Google Ads Conversion Tracking.<\/p>\n To add it to your website:<\/p>\n In addition to including shopping cart data in your reporting, you can also track the gross profit that you got from your shopping campaigns.<\/p>\n To do this, you need to add an attribute called \u2018cost_of_goods_sold\u2019 in your Merchant Center product feed.<\/p>\n In the previous section, we have looked at how you can track conversions in your Google Ads shopping campaigns. We cannot overemphasize the importance of tracking. There is no way to know where your advertising dollars are being wasted if you do not track.<\/p>\n The truth is that most of us marketers jump to the conclusion that Google Ads are expensive based on only one metric – CPC. By all means, we do not want to dismiss the fact that you should keep a hawk-eye on your CPC. Some CPCs (like we saw in some industries) are simply exorbitant.<\/p>\n However, if you track your campaign performance, the question you begin to ask yourself is whether the high costs are worth it.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say that the CPC in our shopping campaign was $50, and that each purchase had similar value.<\/p>\n We then tracked our conversions and found that items worth $1,000 were added to our shopping cart. If we divide the total value of the items added to cart by the CPC, $1,000 divided by $50, we get $20<\/p>\n Each click therefore resulted in a $20 sale.<\/p>\n However, on the other hand, it helps to always remember that you need to analyze your particular situation, as there are no global approaches to help you take control of your costs.<\/p>\n In the above example, where the CPC is $50, it will also depend on what product you are selling. If your flowers go for $30, then a CPC of $50 would not make any sense. However, if your product costs $500, then $50 is by no means expensive.<\/p>\n We cannot leave you without showing you a way to find the ideal ad budget for your campaigns. You need two basic tools: The Google Keyword Planner and Google Sheets (this is a good idea as you can access it on a mobile device even when you do not have your computer, allowing you to make changes even on the fly).<\/p>\n What you need to do here is enter the keyword that you have in mind into your Keyword Planner and get the CPC. If the keyword has a CPC of $2.5 and the forecast shows that you can get a CTR of 1.6%, and a conversion rate of 2%.<\/p>\n A 2% conversion rate means that you will get 1 conversion for every 50 clicks (2% x 50 = 1).<\/p>\n A CTR of 1.6% means that you get 1.6 clicks for every 100 impressions. In order to receive 50 clicks you will need 3,125 impressions (see math below):<\/p>\n 50 \/ 1.6 * 100 = 3,125<\/p>\n The cost of 1 conversion will be $2.5 CPC * 50 clicks = $125<\/p>\n The Google Keyword Planner is predicting your cost of conversion will be $125 per conversion. If you are selling a product that costs $1,000, then you have hit a home run.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re selling a product for less than $125, then you will lose money and you will have a negative ROI.<\/p>\n In this article, we have explored factors that contribute to making Google Ads too expensive, and what you can do to ensure that you stay in control of your costs. The emphasis on tracking your campaigns not only helps you determine whether your marketing campaigns are paying off but also helps you refine your costs.<\/p>\n Now you know how to win in a competitive Google Ads environment. The best thing that you can do is implement what you have learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Should You Advertise on Google?<\/h2>\n
a)\u00a0 Relevance<\/h3>\n
b)\u00a0 Campaign Optimization<\/h3>\n
![\"Tips\"](\"https:\/\/www.ppcexpo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/google-ads-too-expensive-tip-1.jpg\")
<\/div>\nc)\u00a0 Cost Management<\/h3>\n
What Makes Google Ads Expensive?<\/h2>\n
a)\u00a0 Your Competition<\/h3>\n
b)\u00a0 Whether You Want to Rank on the First Page of Google<\/h3>\n
c)\u00a0 Industry<\/h3>\n
d)\u00a0 Campaign Type<\/h3>\n
How to Win in a Competitive and Costly PPC Environment<\/h2>\n
a)\u00a0 Properly Use Location-based Targeting<\/h3>\n
![\"Tips\"](\"https:\/\/www.ppcexpo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/google-ads-too-expensive-tip-2.jpg\")
<\/div>\nHow To Optimize Your Campaigns Based on Location<\/h2>\n
\n
b)\u00a0 Don\u2019t Run the Same Campaign on Both the Search and Display Networks<\/h3>\n
Search Campaigns<\/h2>\n
Display Campaigns<\/h2>\n
Why the Combo Could Be Catastrophic<\/h2>\n
c)\u00a0 Do Not Send Your Campaign Traffic To Your Home Page<\/h3>\n
How To Include Cart Data in Your Campaign Reporting<\/h2>\n
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How To Set up Conversion Tracking<\/h2>\n
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How To Set up a Global Site Tag<\/h2>\n
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How To Report on Gross Profit<\/h2>\n
![\"Tips\"](\"https:\/\/www.ppcexpo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/google-ads-too-expensive-tip-3.jpg\")
<\/div>\nA Perspective on Google Ads Being Too Expensive<\/h2>\n
How To Find the Sweet Spot in Your Google Ads Campaigns<\/h2>\n
Wrap Up<\/h2>\n