Who Clicks on the Ads Anyway?
The title of this article is a recurring theme. When I run courses on AdWords or talk to new clients about getting new traffic sources I’m surprised at how many people still have a mistrust of Google Ads, or believe that because they skip the untrustworthy Ads everyone else is also ignoring them and as a result, the ads aren’t worth running.
So here’s some stats that’ll hopefully answer why Google Ads are definitely worth considering for your business.
According to online statistics company, Statista, in 2015 Googles advertising revenue was almost $67 Billion and a huge 96% of Googles overall revenue comes from advertising, 10% of which comes from the UK alone (read more; http://www.statista.com/statistics/266249/advertising-revenue-of-google/ and http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/020515/business-google.asp). Not only that but Google is the main contender in the UK search market with over 80% of search advertising revenues (read more; http://ppcpromotion.co.uk/whyadwords). According to Craig Smith of DMR in February 2016, Google owns approximately 31% of the global digital advertising market and as of 2014, the search giant has over 1 million businesses advertising on it (Digital Marketing website, Read More; http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/google-advertising-statistics/ ). What these figures show us is that paid advertising is becoming increasingly more popular with not just businesses but also the consumers they are trying to attract.
The Importance of Search
With 25% of the entire advertising market in 2015 being Internet Advertising (Social Fresh, read more;https://www.socialfresh.com/marketing-statistics-every-cmo-should-know-in-2014/?utm_medium=Webbiquity.com), it is not difficult to see how utilizing the right medium i.e. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Payment Per Click is a vital part of driving traffic towards your website. Search is actually the number one tool which drives consumers to sites and it triumphs over social media by 300% (imFORZA 2015, Read More;https://www.imforza.com/blog/8-seo-stats-that-are-hard-to-ignore/).
SEO Vs. PPC
Whilst both methods, SEO and PPC are both extremely effective in producing results, the majority of businesses will opt to implement only one of them and they are often seen as direct competitors (maybe not as much these days) when in fact there’s a big overlap and benefit running both (Fathom Marketing 2011, read more; https://moz.com/ugc/8-ways-ppc-and-seo-are-better-when-used-together). Combining both methods also ensures that websites receive alot more data which then allows the company to analyze important information such as; what keywords give the highest conversion rate and allows them to incorporate this into their overall digital marketing strategy (Adhesion 2016, read more; http://www.adhesion.co.nz/blog/does-google-adwords-help-seo/). To show an example of how important the keyword data is Jason Tabeling (2013) wrote about how his agency saw a conversion increase of 200% when they used both organic and paid keywords on a SERP. You can find Tabeling’s article at https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2275515/ppc-and-seo-higher-conversion-rates-fuel-the-need-for-better-integration.
SEO results take longer to establish in search, and therefore, it takes longer for the company to determine if their marketing is actually working or not. However, with PPC, results are almost immediate which means that businesses are in a good position to act straight away when changes or adjustments need to be made in terms of marketing strategies or implementation. With Google being the largest search engine on the internet, AdWords is an extremely dominant position that most if not all online businesses should be utilizing (Nahid Saleem 2012, Read More; http://www.instantshift.com/2012/05/30/10-reasons-why-you-should-be-using-google-adwords/).
AdWords can begin immediately by using pennies or pounds, in other words, it can be used on the smallest of budgets to the largest. Research into using AdWords in digital marketing found that for every $1 a business spends on AdWords they made $2 profit (Wish Pond 2014, Read More; http://www.slideshare.net/WishpondTechnologiesLtd/21-random-stats-and-facts-about-google-ad-words). So the argument amongst many online advertisers/companies is whether or not it is safe to assume if a business doesn’t use ads will this cause the traffic to decrease and, in turn, miss out on potential revenue?
The ‘Search Ads Pause Studies’
To test this, Google, in 2010-2011, carried out research on the idea that if the paid Ads were halted would the clicks of Organic Search Results be enough to help recover the lost traffic? The researchers paused the ads of over 400 advertisers and the findings of this particular study told researchers that 89% of traffic which was generated by paid ads was in fact not substituted by that of clicks on organic results and that up to 90% of traffic from Google AdWords was incremental and, therefore, gives credibility to the argument that not using paid ads will cause businesses to miss out on valuable consumer traffic if Ads are not implemented as an important part of their strategy. Read more about the study discussed here; http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/studies-show-search-ads-drive-89.html or watch this short video by Google; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGVMdtRxZH4.
Many business that I manage get more traffic from AdWords than organic traffic. With SEO becoming increasingly difficult, and Google giving more real estate to Ads, anyone ignoring Google Ads is missing a trick. Should you run Ads? It’s hard to put an argument up for why you shouldn’t alteast test Google Ads and see if it works for your business.
