To get your site to appear high on search engine results, there are a variety of different levers you can activate. A few examples include keyword choice, optimized content, high-quality incoming links, and more.
But to rapidly build your reputation on Google, you can also buy keywords via Google Ads, Google’s right-hand advertising agency. Here’s how to do it
1. How do Google Ads work?
To launch your first Google Ad, you must first create a free Google Ads account. Once you’ve created your campaign, specify your location, set your maximum bid for keywords related to your business activity and establish your daily budget. Next, all you have to do is write a little text, choose the right keyword and you’re ready to publish your ad. If you’re not sure what to write, a title followed by a quick description of your offer will do the trick.
2. Which keywords should I choose?
As you may already know, a keyword refers to a word or group of words that an Internet user will type during an online search. For example, if you’re selling costume jewelry, purchasing the term, “costume jewelry” should help you appear prominently in the search results. As long as they outperform other ads whose keywords also correspond to the Internet user’s search. Because while your ranking definitely depends on your bid (Google Ads is based on a bidding system), the quality of your ad, known as its Quality Score, is also very important. This means that even if you set a lower bidding price than one of your competitors, you can end up with a higher ranking if the relevance of the keywords on your (Landing page) and the ad content is of higher quality.
To give you an idea, this competition reoccurs with each web search, meaning that your ad’s position, or even whether or not it is displayed, is likely to vary.
Handy Tips
- Put yourself in the shoes of one of your clients and consider what words they would type on their keyboard or Smartphone screen to describe your business and services.
- It is generally recommended that you buy between 5 and 20 keywords per ad group.
- Choosing keywords consisting of several words will increase the likelihood that they will « match » with as many searches as possible.
- A keyword that is too obvious (such as « shoes » if you run a shoe shop) will cost you a great deal of money and is unlikely to turn visitors into buyers. Instead, choose a more targeted keyword (« shoe retailer ») and link it to your location (« Strasbourg »).
3. How much does it cost?
Besides its ephemeral nature (as soon as your campaign is over, you’ll disappear on search engines), the biggest downside of paid referencing is its cost. To make sure your Ads campaign yields fruits, most SEO and SEM professionals estimate that you need to spend a minimum of €5 per day. As for keywords, you should know that the most frequently searched keywords can have a CPC (cost per click) that is higher than €10. Traditionally, « insurance », « mutual » and « credit » are among the most expensive keywords on Google Ads. For “emergency” services in certain industries (e.g., plumbers and locksmiths), the purchase costs of keywords such as « plumber Paris » can exceed €200.
Handy Tips
If you want to take advantage of both the lasting (but time-consuming) effects of natural search engine optimization (SEO) and the instant (but ephemeral) impact of paid search engine optimization (SEA), the best thing to do is combine them! To make an athletic analogy, this alliance would be like bringing together the strengths of a sprinter and a marathon runner.
Key Points to Remember
- Buying keywords on Google Ads lets you rapidly gain qualified visitors for your website.
- The higher the quality of your ad, the better the return on investment for your budget.
- Your keywords need to be chosen with great care.
- A “generic” keyword will generate traffic, but not qualified traffic. On the other hand, a “specific” keyword will benefit from a higher conversion rate.
- Since keywords are purchased through an auction, the steeper the competition, the higher the prices, and vice versa
If you doubt your capacity to implement relative keywords, there are a number of specialized companies in the field who can help you through the process..
