Google Adwords

Google AdWords now rebranded to Google Ads – allows businesses to reach people when they search on Google and/or are actively engaged with a product or service.

The simplest form of Ads appear at the top of Google’s search results.  For example, if you were to search for “Google AdWords Management Brisbane”, you would likely see Google ads in the top 4 positions with a small ‘Ad’ logo next to the listing.  These ads have been written to appear for searchers when this specific phrase or ‘keyword’ was typed into the Google search bar.  Advertisers only pay for these ads when someone actually clicks on them – which is why this form of advertising is also known as ‘Pay Per Click’ (PPC) Advertising.

The order or ‘rank’ in which these ads appear is determined by the ‘ad auction’, which is influenced by several factors being calculated during every single search.  These can be narrowed down to:

A)  The price you are willing to pay per click; and

B)  How relevant your ad and website are to the searched keyword.

Other factors such as page load speed, and how often your ad has been clicked on previously, also affect this calculation.

The ads can appear in many variations – some may be several lines long, include phone numbers, a street address, prices, specials, and even images of the specific products.  These variations are determined by a range of Ad Extensions and Ad Types advertisers can use to grab the attention of searchers.

When an agency like Bonfire manages your Google Ads campaign, there are two separate costs to consider:

Media Costs

Also known as your Click Budget, media costs are what Google charge you each time your ad is clicked on.  As the advertiser, you control the amount you wish to spend on Google.  There are tools which allow an advertiser to calculate the average Cost Per Click (CPC) for the keywords they wish to target, and how much search volume exists for these keywords in the targeted locations in a given month.

This information allows advertisers to determine how much media spend they would need to reach all or part of their target audience.  For example, if the keyword phrase “Google AdWords Management Brisbane” costs an average of $10.00 per click, and there are 100 searches per month in Brisbane, then the advertiser could spend up to $1,000 per month to reach these searchers. The figures provided are averages and would also require additional testing and revision to ensure the desired reach is achieved.

Management Costs

The costs associated with a Google AdWords agency or partner managing an advertisers Google AdWords activity can vary greatly.  The size of the agency – whether a one-man-band or international agency – can alter the overheads and costs associated with management but may not be reflective of the quality and communications required for effective account management.

The true success of a Google AdWords campaign is the Return on Investment generated. With Google Ads this is often easily calculated as the media spend is tied to tangible Clicks and Conversions.

There are few different ways that Brisbane digital agencies charge fees for managing advertiser’s Google AdWords campaigns, the most common being:

A)  Tiered Structure

B)  Proportion of Media Spend

Bonfire’s main goal is to go beyond generating arbitrary clicks and website traffic and, achieve an actual Return on Investment for our clients. At Bonfire, we operate on a tiered structure, which allows a variety of solutions and options without locking advertisers into excessive media spend.

Ultimately, Google have provided a product that allows business operators to run their own Google AdWords accounts.  It may not be easy or expedient to run your own advertising account, but it is possible.  This means that many companies who offer Google AdWords management are not the most qualified to manage an advertiser’s marketing investment.

An analogy would be if Accountants did not require mandatory accreditation to operate but could obtain qualifications optionally.  Would you trust your money to someone without qualifications?

As a Google Premier Partner, Bonfire must uphold certifications and qualifications that are refreshed annually.  Google also constantly supports and vets our Google Ads accounts to ensure best-practice is being maintained.

In addition, Premier Partners gain access to Australian support from Google, along with frequent training and early-access to beta features, which gives their advertisers an advantage over their competitors.

Google employs various processes to prevent fraudulent ad clicks, including altering search results for users based on their previous search history and behaviour.  Even with these preventative measures in place, it’s easy for a malicious agent to circumvent these barriers which can cost advertisers a considerable amount in fraudulent clicks.

To prevent fraudulent clicks impacting your bottom-line, Bonfire also employs a third-party software which enable us to personalise the protection for each of our client’s accounts.  This software allows us to prevent users from seeing ads depending on their behaviour and location. Since implementing this software, we have had proven savings of hundreds of thousands in wasted clicks each year.