Do Google Ads work? It’s a question I get a lot of the time, and I’m going to show you some examples of when it does work, when it doesn’t work, and give you some examples as far as what types of businesses that I believe that it works best in.
I am a Google Ads agency owner. I am a consultant, and I’m a trainer, and I’ve worked with Google Ads or AdWords for about 15 years now. And the biggest question I still get from people is, “Do Google Ads work?”
Now, the easiest way to answer that is yes, they do work.
However, there are instances where it probably is better to put your marketing dollars in other places, and there are types of businesses where I feel they work better than others.
Look At Google’s Revenue On Ads
So, when somebody asks me, “Do Google Ads work?” One thing you need to really look at is the revenue of Google. In 2018, it was $136 billion that they made, and $116 of that was from their advertising revenue.
Now they don’t make $116 billion because they have a system that fails everybody that tries it.
Now, I know a lot of people who have tried the … they got a Google coupon for $100 of free advertising spend, and they didn’t get a single thing from it, and that’s a way that Google gets people into the system.
The problem is, is that they’re not showing people how to set it up accurately, and when people get started that $100 is wasted very quickly, and usually some of their money as well.
But one thing that people don’t realize is Google wants you to succeed with Google Ads, and the reason is if it doesn’t work, Google is not going to get any more advertising revenue from you.
Also, they want people to find what they’re looking for, because if you go to Google all the time to find an answer for something and you stop finding the right answers, you are not going to go to Google anymore, and they realize that.
And in fact they reward you for doing a good job with your advertising, and they do that by giving you better positions.
They do it by giving you cheaper cost per click, and other factors inside your campaigns that a lot of people don’t realize.
So Google Ads do work, but let’s start off with looking at a few instances where maybe they don’t work as well.
I got started in the tee shirt industry where I had an online T-Shirt company, and we sold T-Shirts all around the world, and I got started with Google Ads very early on.
Now, it was a very profitable venture for me, because I could get clicks for 5, 10 cents, 20. I think in some instances on really competitive items, I was paying up to 50 cents a click.
That was back in the day. You can’t get clicks for that cheap really anymore. Now with those clicks, I was also selling a product that might … I might sell anywhere between $10 and $20.
So, basically if I was paying $2 or $3 a click, that would really eat into my margins very, very quickly.
And in fact, we tried to do some marketing for a T-Shirt company here about two years ago, and the clicks had just gotten so expensive that it wasn’t really that profitable for them.
In fact, it was extremely hard to really even break even with low ticket items.
Another instance was we had a company call us, and they were selling costume jewelry.
It All Depends On What You Are Selling
Now these were $5, $10, $15 pieces. The problem with that is there’s a lot of competition out there for that, and you’re going to be paying maybe $1, $2 a click, and it’s really hard to keep your margins there, or even make a profit when you’re selling small ticket items like that.
So when somebody asks me, “Do Google Ads work,” my first response is usually, “What are you selling?” If you’re selling very small ticket items, chances are you probably have a better bet going somewhere else with your advertising dollars.
95% Of Our Clients Are Service Businesses
So what are some instances where Google Ads work extremely well? 95% of our clients are service businesses.
We are talking everything from dentists, plumbers, floor refinishing, pest control, you name it, electricians, different service businesses like that where the average ticket item might be a $100, to $200, to $300.
For floor refinishing, sometimes it’s $6,000, $8,000, several thousand dollars. And for a lot of those clients, what we’re doing is we’re putting it out there.
They might be paying $2, $3, even $4 a click in some instances, but they are literally, as soon as they get somebody on the phone, there’s better than a 50/50% chance that these guys are closing those deals.
So the return on investment is extremely high, and that’s where we found the best success in our own agency.
However, there are also other instances that we have worked with clients where they’ve been extremely profitable.
Some are in the manufacturing industry, we’ve had clients where they’re big ticket items, and it might be $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 that they could make a on a deal, and we’ve had some great success with those.
Another instance where PPC can be very profitable is for eCommerce.
And one of the reasons is is because with eCommerce, it’s very easy to determine your return on investment because you know basically how much those clicks are costing you, you know how much you’re making every for every sale, and you can really compare those and see if it works out.
So to help you figure that out down below in the description, there is a link for our PPC ROI calculator, return on investment calculator.
It will help you figure out how much you should be spending, and other variables to help you see if PPC campaigns could be profitable for you. So go ahead and check that out.
Why Some People Fail With Google Ads
But the biggest places where people fail with Google Ads are in two things.
One is if they have a lower ticket item, it can be difficult. Number two is in the setups.
If your campaigns aren’t set up correctly, they are not going to work like they should. And also in the description below, there is also a link for Google Ads mistakes checklist.
There is a checklist on there as well as a video that will walk you through on the biggest Google Ads mistakes that we see, that can really derail a campaign quickly.
So I hope that helped answer your question of, if Google Ads work or not. If you are interested, and you want to learn more about Google Ads on how to set up, how to optimize it, we have a training course called Google Ads Unlocked, where it shows you step by step exactly what to do to make your Google Ads campaigns, to get them set up quickly, and how to make them profitable.
Thanks so much for watching. If you liked this video, do us a favor, hit the like button below ,and if you like other Google Ads videos, you’ll see some other ones to the right on Google set up, as well as optimization.
Thank you for checking our post on: Do Google Ads Work for Small Business
Check Out Some Of Our Other Great Posts:
5 Ways Your Google Ads Are Wasting Money