How Much Does Google Ads Cost?
The cost of Google Ads, also known as Google AdWords, can vary widely depending on several factors such as your industry, competition, ad format, and targeting options. Answering the question, “how much does Google Ads cost”, can be daunting, but we are here to help you with a step-by-step guide.
Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, which means you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The cost-per-click (CPC) for each ad is determined through a bidding process where advertisers bid for ad placement based on the keywords and ad targeting options they choose.
The amount you’ll pay per click can range from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the competitiveness of the keywords and targeting options you choose. It’s important to note that the cost of Google Ads can add up quickly if you’re not careful with your targeting and bidding strategy.
Overall, there is no set cost for Google Ads, as it depends on many variables specific to your campaign. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to get an estimate of the potential cost per click for your targeted keywords.
Table of Contents
- How much does Google Ads cost?
- When to Hire an agency vs. managing Google Ads yourself
- How much does Google Ads cost – Learn about the tool that can help you control your budget
- Get a free keyword assessment, strategy, and forecasts for your business
Determining how much to spend on Google Ads is an important step in creating an effective advertising campaign. Here are some steps you can take to help you answer “how much does Google Ads cost?”.
- Set clear goals: Before you start spending money on Google Ads, you need to define clear goals for your campaign. What do you want to achieve with your ads? Do you want to drive more traffic to your website, generate more leads, increase sales, or improve brand awareness? Once you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, you can start to estimate the cost of reaching those goals.
- Define your audience and keywords: Once you know your goals, take time to define the keywords and audience you want to target. To do this properly, we recommend performing keyword research so you can understand how people are searching for your products or services, and how often. We like to use the Google Keyword Tool in Google Ads to help us do this. This can help you construct a great plan to get you started.We suggest keeping your keyword and search phrases more specific. Let’s say you are a popcorn shop located in Hudson Ohio, and you have two goals; 1) find people anywhere in the U.S.A. who are looking to purchase popcorn online, and 2) promote your business locally to get people into your popcorn shop.We would not suggest bidding on the term “popcorn” alone. The amount of people searching popcorn is very large, and it’s broad. You may get in front of a lot of people who have no intent of buying popcorn online. We would recommend bidding on terms like “online popcorn stores”, “buy popcorn online”, “popcorn shops near me”, and “popcorn shops Hudson Ohio”.Performing the keyword research will help you uncover new ways people are searching for exactly what you offer.
- Run performance forecast with the Google Keyword Tool: Once you have your keyword list constructed, use the Google Keyword Tool within Google Ads to help understand a handful of important factors. To continue with the popcorn shop example, let’s look at real results given by the Google Keyword Tool.In the scenarios shown below, we did our keyword research, provided keywords to Google, and Google is going to give us information that can help us understand the opportunity and potential budget needed.
- Scenario 1: We crank the budget up as high as we possible can. Google tells us that we could spend up to $22,000 per month and receive 23,000 impressions, 2,100 clicks, and 223 conversions with a click through rate of 9.2% and average cost per click of $10, every month.This helps us understand the total opportunity.Let’s say that $22,000 per month is way too much money to spend, and our budget is much lower. We can then tell Google we want to spend less and see what the forecasts tell us.
- Scenario 2: We lower the budget to $3,600 per month. Google tells us that we could receive 15,000 impressions, 1,400 clicks, and 147 conversions with a click through rate of 9.8% and average cost per click of $2.52, every month.Let’s say this is still more than we are able to spend on a monthly basis, it’s still good to play with the different spend levels to see what type of activity Google is forecasting.
- Scenario 3: We decide that our budget must be below $1,000/ month, so we tell Google we want to spend $940 per month. Google is then forecasting that the program could generate 10,000 impressions, 767 clicks, and 83 conversions with a click through rate of 7.4% and average cost per click of $1.22, every month.Following this process can you help answer “how much does Google Ads cost” with smart, data driven decision making. For example, if you know your average online order is $53, and Google is forecasting 83 conversions at a monthly spend of $940, a Google Ads program could generate $4,399 in sales. We would say investing $940 to make $4,399 is a good investment. You can always start small and scale it up once the results are proven.
- Know your budget and stay within it: Just because Google says that you can spend $22,000 per month, does not mean you have to. You can spend however much you are comfortable with. If the total opportunity would allow you to spend $22,000 per month, if actually end up spending $1,000 per month, you will just capture a small percent of the total opportunity.
- Monitor your performance and optimize the account: Google forecasting is one thing, but once your campaign is up and running, you should monitor your performance closely to make sure you’re getting a good return on investment (ROI). If your ads are not generating enough clicks or conversions, you may need to adjust your targeting or bidding strategy. Setting up the account is critical to ensure success, and measuring results and optimizing the program is a must.
It’s important to remember that Google Ads is a competitive marketplace, and the cost of advertising can vary widely depending on your industry and competition. You may need to adjust your budget and bidding strategy over time to stay competitive and achieve your goals.
Whether or not to hire an agency to manage your Google Ads depends on several factors, including your experience with Google Ads, the complexity of your advertising goals, and your available resources.
Here are some reasons why you may want to consider hiring an agency to manage your Google Ads:
- Expertise: A Google Ads agency has specialized expertise and experience in managing Google Ads campaigns. They can help you optimize your campaigns for maximum performance and ROI. Most agencies who specialize in Google Ads are also certified partners, like Mosaic. This open’s additional resources at Google, and even promotional offers.In addition, an agency can help you answer, “How much does Google Ads cost” specifically for your business, your goals, and your budget.
- Time and Resources: Managing a Google Ads campaign can be time-consuming, especially if you’re not familiar with the platform. An agency can free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
- Customization: An agency can create customized campaigns that are tailored to your business goals and target audience. They can help you develop ad copy, select keywords, and choose targeting options that will help you reach your ideal customer.
- Cost-Effective: Hiring an agency can be cost-effective in the long run. They can help you avoid costly mistakes and optimize your campaigns for maximum efficiency.Even though you are paying an agency to manage the program, often times your account is able to generate more business due to their expertise, which outweighs their cost.
That being said, there are also some reasons why you may not want to hire an agency:
- Budget: If you’re operating on a tight budget, hiring an agency may not be a feasible option.
- In-House Expertise: If you have in-house expertise and experience with Google Ads, you may not need to hire an agency.
- Control: If you want to maintain full control over your Google Ads campaigns, hiring an agency may not be the best option.
Ultimately, the decision to hire an agency should be based on your individual needs and goals. If you’re unsure whether an agency is right for you, you can always start small and test the waters with a smaller campaign to see how it performs.
Google Ads offers several tools that can help you manage your budget and optimize your advertising spend. Here are some of the most useful tools for managing your Google Ads budget:
- Campaign Budgets: Campaign Budgets allow you to set a daily or monthly budget for each campaign. This can help you control your spending and prevent overspending on a particular campaign.
- Bid Strategies: Bid Strategies allow you to automate your bidding based on your advertising goals. For example, if your goal is to maximize conversions, you can use a Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) bid strategy to automatically adjust your bids to get the most conversions for your budget.
- Ad Scheduling: Ad Scheduling allows you to control when your ads are shown based on the time of day, day of the week, or other criteria. This can help you optimize your advertising spend by showing your ads when your target audience is most likely to be online.
- Targeting Options: Google Ads offers several targeting options, including location, language, and device targeting. By targeting specific locations, languages, or devices, you can ensure that your ads are shown to the most relevant audience, which can help you optimize your advertising spend.
- Automated Rules: Automated Rules allow you to set up rules that automatically adjust your bids, budgets, or other campaign settings based on specific criteria. For example, you can set up a rule to increase your bids by 10% when your ad position falls below a certain threshold.
By using these tools, you can manage your Google Ads budget more effectively and optimize your advertising spend for maximum performance and ROI. These tool also can help you control and answer “how much does it cost to advertise on Google”.
Whether you are interested in hiring an digital marketing agency or not, the Mosaic eMarketing team would love to help you navigate the waters with a free, no obligation keyword assessment, strategy, and forecasts for you business. Answering the question “how much does Google Ads cost” can be daunting when you are not familiar with Google Ads, keyword research, and forecasting.