8 Problems with Google Advertising

Google advertising is often touted as the easiest way to advertise your business and get instant leads and sales. There are some problems with the concept though.

It is easy

Yes – the appearance of ease of use is actually a problem. Google advertising looks really easy to use. All you have to do is choose some keywords, write some ads and you get instant leads, right? Wrong! If you choose the wrong keywords you could end up spending a lot of money and not see a single lead or sale as a result. If your ads are not worded effectively (and being effective in such a limited space is complex) you are not going to get the sales that your business needs.

Difficult to master

Setting up a campaign that can run is easy. Setting up a campaign that is effective is another matter altogether. There is a lot of finesse and strategy in selecting the keywords, writing the ads, choosing the time of day and day of the week to run the ads and all the other little bits and bobs that go into a Google advertising campaign.

You need money to get started

The simple fact is that Google advertising needs money to earn you money. You have to have something to at least start the process. Unless you are an established agency with a good payment history, Google will not allow you to pay in arrears. True, you can deposit a small amount and run the ads piecemeal, but this is not the ideal way to do it. In order to get good results you need to be running your ads continuously.

Writing is not for everyone

Writing an effective advert can be tricky. Google advertising only allows you a certain number of characters per line and a limited number of lines. Getting your message across in less than a Tweet is not something everyone can do. You have to stand out from the crowd and offer an enticement to get users to notice and click on your ad.

Image ads are important

Aside from the text ads, Google advertising lets you create graphic ads as well. These ads appear on websites in the Google display network. They need to be eye-catching and enticing but you have even less space for text than in the text ads.

Aside from the obvious need for graphic design skills, copywriting is extremely important with graphic ads. Again, these are not skills that everyone possesses.

Requires constant monitoring

Google advertising is not a set and forget type of advertising campaign. You need to keep an eye on your campaign and keep fiddling and adjusting your bids and keywords and ads to get the best results that you can. This means logging on at least once a day to make sure that your ads are still running and getting those all-important clicks. This is a lot of time that you don’t necessarily have if you are trying to do it all yourself.

Competition

Since Google advertising is a great way to advertise your business, it seems that everyone is doing it. This means that there is likely to be a lot of competition to work with. Your ads and campaigns have to be better than what everyone else in your industry has put together. If it is not up to scratch then your ads will simply not show and you won’t get any leads.

Targeting

Targeting can be complex. If you make your net too small, you are not going to get the attention that you need. If you cast your net too wide you are going to miss the fish entirely because you are not in the right geographic or demographic area. Making your geographic target or your topic targets too narrow or wide can be catastrophic.

Google advertising is definitely a good way to go, but how can you overcome all these inherent problems? Simple – hire someone who knows what they are doing.

There are plenty of Google partners around who have the skills, experience and time to help you get the best bang for your buck out of Google advertising.