What’s the easiest way to get an answer to your questions involving Google? Google it!
All jokes aside, we did our own googling and found out the answers to the questions you may be having about ad placement on Google.
Let’s talk about your business. You want it to be on the front page of Google but, to be honest, SEO sounds hard and you’ve always been the kind of person who values time more so than money – you can always make more money but the time you might waste trying to learn SEO sorcery you aren’t ever getting back. No, you’re a Google Ads kind of business person and while there are still things to learn about Google Ads it tells us that you want that top spot and you’re willing to do what it takes to get there.
Here is a link to all the Paid Search terminology: “Ultimate Guide to Paid Search Acronyms & Terminology”. Get familiar because the better you understand the glorious conquest you’re about to embark on, the more successful it will be. In that spirit let’s talk about today’s lesson:
“What Determines Where My Ads are Placed on Google?”
#1: Money isn’t everything, but not having it is.
A sensible question by any metric and the answer begins where you’d imagine it begins. With money. It all begins with a bid. When you set your bid you are telling Google Ads what the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. While it certainly isn’t everything, how much you put into this is extremely important in determining how important Google perceives your ad to be.
#2: The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
Ads on Google have a metric of quality that they measure quite consistently. If your ad isn’t well constructed, leads to a low-quality landing page, or it has some other failing as determined by Google’s Quality Score, which you can view and improve on, then your ad will place lower. Subsequently, if your ad is an ace then it will rise above the others who couldn’t be bothered.
#3: Google isn’t afraid to pull rank.
The Ad Rank Threshold are quality controls that examine the quality of the ad itself through a different lens than the one above before it can even enter the arena in the first place. This is the bare minimum marker. This is the “did you put your name on it” part of the test, so we think you’ll probably be alright.
#4: Context Matters, and Matters of Context
Essentially, what a person is looking for is important for where your ad appears on their search. Google takes great care to make sure that the ads a user is receiving are going to be worthwhile to them, and that means taking everything from location to keywords, to the type of device they searched it on into account when wondering if they should bring your ad to the fore.
#5: Brace. For. Impact.
The more impactful you can make your ad the better it will be ranked. That means more information like emails, phone numbers, more links to specific pages, anything you can tack onto this thing will make it a more desirable ad in Google’s eyes thanks to a concept known as “ad extensions”. More is always more when it comes to Google Ads.
Not sure why your ads aren’t showing up in all the right places? Get in contact, we’d love to review your campaigns with you to help get your ads in front of hungry car shoppers at critical decision-making moments.