Advertising is a key component of business growth. This vital aspect of digital marketing, when done efficiently, has the potential to provide a great return on investment while it helps to get your company’s message out to those who are likely to do business with you. Advertising generates leads, which in turn increases sales opportunities. Google Ads is one of the most cost-effective ways of advertising online, yet there are ways to tailor the platform’s services and features to suit your company’s goals. Used properly, Google Ads can be a valuable extension of search engine optimization (SEO). In SEO for insurance agents, Google Ads can spell the difference between brand building and loss of business opportunities.
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What are Google Ads?
Originally launched in 2000 as Google AdWords, Google Ads is a powerful platform designed to allow businesses to place ads directly on Google’s search results pages. It began with only a small handful of business advertisers, but quickly grew to become the premier online ad platform. Today, over a million advertisers leverage the power of this service, generating in excess of $60 billion in ad revenues. Ads placed by the service look almost identical to normal search results, and typically appear at the top and bottom of individual search engine results pages (SERPs). Google Ads uses the pay-per-click (PPC) model, which is well-known as an effective and cost-conscious online advertising tool.
The advertising landscape has changed dramatically since the release of Google Ads; while print and television ads dominated the industry in 2000, online advertising has grown to become the leading means of reaching new customers. Within online ads, search advertising has risen to the forefront, accounting for more than half of all Internet ad spending, or more than $30 billion in revenue annually as late as 2015, according to a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
Keys to Success in Google Ads
Google Ads makes it easy for businesses to advertise online, offering companies a wealth of self-service tools to create powerful ad campaigns. Just like in SEO for insurance agents, however, optimizing this platform is the key to impactful, cost-effective advertising initiatives.
As in any advertising campaign, the better the ad, the more impactful it will be, and the more likely your agency will gain new customers. How does one optimize ads on the Google Ads platform? The answer to that question begins with keywords. SEO for insurance agents is a careful process of identifying targeted keywords – overly-broad keywords generally have too much competition to stand out from business rivals – and using those targeted keywords in ads. Keyword research is critical in developing relevant, insightful, and search-friendly ads.
Next, an agency must understand its customers thoroughly, taking into account demographics as well as personal preferences, before developing ads on the Google Ads platform. Irrelevant ads simply don’t produce the clickthrough rate to make their expense justified. Keywords in ads must be matched to the headlines and ad copy one bids on within Google Ads. More importantly, the ad must provide a solution to the viewer, such as a product or service that can enhance their lives. For insurance purposes, this can mean illustrating the benefits of a given insurance product, or sharing insights into the client care process your agency provides to its customers.
Finally, Google Ads offers a range of tools to ad developers. One of the most important is the Quality Score, which the search engine giant uses to determine how and if a given ad should rank within SERPs. Additional features on the platform help developers tweak ads until they obtain a higher Quality Score and ultimately produce the desired results.
After Google Ads, What Next?
SEO for insurance agents doesn’t stop once the Google Ads start appearing in search results. Too often, agencies overlook what happens next – what a potential customer will do or see when they click through an ad and arrive at your website. SEO professionals know the value of a “landing page”, which is the page a visitor will arrive at when clicking an online ad.
A good landing page includes several key components like:
- A call to action.
- A focus on the benefits of a given product or service, not just the features available.
- Images and non-text content to help illustrate the company and its products.
As a final note, it is imperative that landing pages work on both desktop and mobile computing devices. More and more people rely on mobile search, and a landing page that does not display correctly on smartphones or tablets is a recipe for failure.
Google Ads is a powerful and cost-effective means of helping your company reach out to new customers. When used to its fullest potential, this can dramatically improve website traffic and revenue, making the investment well worth the effort.
About Neilson Marketing Services
Since 1988, Neilson Marketing has been implementing innovative marketing solutions and strategies for our clients in all areas of marketing. Contact us today at (866) 816-1849 to put our talent, expertise, and vast resources to work for you. Let’s make things happen, together!
