Guide to Google Ads for D2C Brands

If you ask people to research something on the internet, most will go to Google as a starting point. If nothing else, this shows the power of the tool from a marketing perspective. Google receives billions of search queries, and many happen to be in your niche as a D2C brand.

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If you’ve never advertised on Google, allow us to introduce you to this new world. Not only do lots of people see your ads when on Google, but you only pay for the ones that click through (it doesn’t get better than this!). In this guide, you’ll learn all about Google ads, the benefits of using this system for D2C brands, and how you can get started.

What’s Google Ads?

First, let’s address a basic question. What’s Google Ads? While most people think about ads on search results, Google offers lots of advertising opportunities in many different styles. For example, you’ll find both search and non-search advertising opportunities as well as mobile apps, videos, and other forms of ads.

After a pandemic, marketing budgets are tight, and the fact that Google works on a PPC basis is essential. Short for pay-per-click, you’ll bid for specific keywords but won’t get charged a cent unless the user clicks on your ad. If you’re unsure of how Google ads work, open a new tab after reading this guide and type anything into Google. Above the organic search results, you’ll see sponsored links, which companies have paid for in order to appear at the top via an ad campaign. You can achieve the same thing with a campaign of your own.

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Benefits of Google Ads for D2C Brands

We mentioned the pandemic and the tight budget, so why should you consider spending on Google Ads?

Flexibility with Goals

When advertising on Google, much of the work revolves around keywords. Therefore, you’ll need to choose keywords that best represent the brand and help to find your audience. As you focus on different keywords, you’ll notice that customer intent changes and you can target different stages of the consumer funnel. Taking this one step further, you can adjust your approach depending on what you want to achieve.

For some, the goal will be brand awareness. By targeting the earlier stages of the funnel, you expose new leads to your brand and the possible solutions in your niche. For others, the goal is to generate customers and sales. Consequently, you’ll target keywords that suggest leads are close to purchasing. Especially as a D2C brand, you need to expand the business by exposing as many customers as possible to your brand.

Depending on the campaign itself, Google Ads will encourage people to click through to your website (or even contact the business directly). The advanced targeting systems allow you to target specific audiences rather than trying the blanket approach (akin to handing out leaflets in the middle of the street!).

Google Ads have general flexibility, which means they work for D2C brands of all sizes and budgets. It doesn’t matter what you sell, Google Ads will get your products in front of the right people.

Read More: Using Google Ads: The Beginner’s Guide

Performance Measurement

Over the years, one of the biggest issues with certain marketing techniques has been the inability to monitor performance. Don’t worry, this has never been a concern with Google Ads. With Google Analytics, it’s easy to stay on top of the best- and worst-performing campaigns.

Rival Competition

We can almost guarantee that your competitors are advertising on platforms like Google. Therefore, prospective leads are seeing their brand when searching online rather than yours. Even if you rank on the first page of organic results, their name is still appearing above yours in the sponsored links.

By creating Google Ads campaigns, you stop competitors from steamrolling your digital efforts. Not only do you make additional sales, but you also keep an eye on the competition and how they resonate with the target market (especially useful if you have the same target market!).

Read More: How to Optimize Google Ads in 2021

Strong Results and Positive ROI

Just in case these benefits weren’t enough, the Google advertising platform also has a reputation for strong results and a positive ROI. You harness the intent of your audience and seek the people who need your services the most. Since you only pay for the people who click on your ads, the performance of campaigns is completely up to the way that your ads resonate with the audience.

Of course, performance only comes if you’re willing to optimize ad campaigns. Thankfully, this task is no longer a manual one. Tools like Trapica optimize targeting, bidding, budgeting, and other components using machine learning and artificial intelligence. With the right tool and the inherent nature of Google Ads, most companies can achieve a positive ROI while advertising on the platform.

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Types of Google Ads

Here are some of the main ad types available on Google in 2021:

Display Network

We mentioned that not all ads appear on the search engine, and the Display Network is a strong example of this. Instead, your ads will appear on the apps and websites on which your audience spends time. Typically, you’ll reach out with image ads, but they can also appear on Gmail, YouTube, and other areas of the Google family of services.

Search Network

On the other hand, this one is all about the search engine and the one that most people think of when they consider Google Ads. The aim is to place your Ads in front of users who are searching for something related to your niche. If you sell beach towels, your ads need to appear for those searching for beach towels. Naturally, there’s lots more detail attached to this process, but this is the foundation.

When creating a Search Network campaign, you’ll need to select a goal (based on what you want to achieve). For instance, you may want to send traffic to your website or boost sales.

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Video Campaigns

If you want to advertise to your audience through the medium of video, there are opportunities on Google thanks to YouTube. Typically, you’ll create videos that are either six or 15 seconds in length. Once again, D2C brands can use them to gain exposure and capture the attention of the target market differently.

App Campaigns

We now move into the more advanced forms of Google advertising, which has value for D2C brands (if you can master them!). As you’ve probably guessed, these ads will appear on Google Play, YouTube, Google Search, and any other locations that offer app ads. Whether your app is for iOS, Android, or both, you can reach out to your audience and push for downloads.

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Shopping Campaigns

With this type of campaign, you’ll move away from keywords and instead use the product data from your online store to place. Over time, your target market will see a showcase of your products. Hopefully, this will compel them to click or tap through and purchase a product. If you want to use shopping campaigns, be aware that you’ll need a Google Merchant Center account.

Tips to Manage Google Ads Campaigns

At this stage, you know about Google Ads, the benefits of advertising on the search platform, and the different types of campaigns. To finish, we want to offer some advice to get the most from the platform.

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Utilize Google’s Tools

Too often, advertisers seek secret techniques when the best solution is right in front of their eyes. Google has always been a leader in this market, and the company understands what advertisers want and need to know from ad campaigns. Therefore, here are some good starting points:

• Google Analytics
• Google Ads Editor
• Google Ads Performance Rater

Implement AI Tools

Next, you no longer need to optimize your ad campaigns manually. Many D2C brands avoid Google Ads because they don’t want to add to their already overbearing workload. If this is the case, it’s time to start using artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically optimize all campaigns.

An exemplar of this type of tool is Trapica — it optimizes targeting, bidding, budgeting, and A/B testing across Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and more. We’re sensing that your excitement is building, and you’re right to celebrate. Trapica and similar AI tools automate the optimization process across one, three, or even five social and search platforms.

Read More: Google Ads Optimization Using AI

Never Give Up

Finally, nobody ever started with Google Ads and immediately mastered the art. Therefore, we recommend making several ads, utilizing AI, continually updating your audience, and improving your craft. As a D2C brand, create campaigns that raise awareness as well as generating leads and sales.

Read More: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on AdWords

With this, you’re now in a stronger position to handle Google Ads as a D2C brand. Play around with the many ad types and watch as Google placements help to grow your business.