Google ads, for beginners at least, are incredibly confusing. But that doesn’t mean that Google ads should be avoided. If anything, if now is the season to invest in advertising, Google ads could be a very strategic way to spend your money.
But how do you know when the right time is to invest in ads? And once you are certain your ready, where do you even begin? In this episode of the Talk Copy to Me podcast, I ask Google ads specialist Ameet Khabra how to demystify Google ads for beginners so that you can make the decision whether this is a smart advertising avenue for you in the near (or far) future.
Google ads for beginners: Here’s what Ameet and Erin discussed
The difference between social media ads and Google ads (and whether or not they should be used together)
Why knowing your numbers (financial and analytics) is vital to advertising success
How to know if you’re ready to invest in Google ads at this time in your business
How knowing the numbers will help you make decisions easier when it comes to Google ads
The importance of testing and knowing the business-specific factors that influence Google ads
How location factors influence ad campaigns and why copying campaigns from one business to another is a bad idea
The words and characters that are a big no-no when creating Google ads campaigns
How understanding search intent influences copywriting decisions when crafting Google ad campaigns
Whether or not you should be bidding on your brand names
How an advertising agency can help small businesses and solopreneurs with their Google ads, and how to determine when it’s time to DIY or hire it out
Other podcast episodes and resources mentioned in this episode:
Quotes about Google ads for beginners from Ameet and Erin
“There’s only so many people you can actually get in front of organically, especially if you’re a smaller business. So [ads] really help you find people who are looking for you that may not know that you exist.” – Ameet Khabra
“The way that I like to describe Facebook and Google is that they really should be used together. Facebook, I feel like, is a really great platform to make people aware of your brand…Google is kind of like the closer…Google is really great for finding people that are actually really quite basically ready to purchase…Facebook’s more of a direct to consumer type of platform…Google is much better tamed for urgency, if that’s what you’re looking for.”
“What I usually find to be a pretty bad sign for ads is if you’re using it for your sole driver of business. It’s very much like any other platform or digital platform out there; they can be turned off pretty quickly and overnight.” – Ameet Khabra
“If you’re not making money, what’s the point of doing this at this point, right?” – Ameet Khabra
“The great thing about Google is that it can fit almost any business model or any campaign goal. It’s just a matter of making sure that you actually know what that looks like and what your benchmarks are before you get started on that journey.” – Ameet Khabra
Ameet’s homework assignment for you is to review the data
“I would say, look at your numbers really very, very closely. Actually assign a dollar amount to your time and actually track that time…I think having those numbers and sitting there saying, ‘Hey, this is how much I charge, but this is how much it cost me to operate,’ is gonna be great, especially if you’re considering Google ads, but also I feel like it’s just going to make you a better business owner too.”
Look up the definition of “obsessed” and you’ll find a picture of Ameet Khabra.
Ameet has spent the last decade figuring out why people do what they do online, what prompts them to take action, and how to use this insight to make marketing work better. Today she uses that experience to design dazzling campaign strategies for our clients and teach future generations of PPC pros at the university level.
Her obsession doesn’t stop at marketing, however. Ameet’s knowledge of and passion for American football has been called “excessively enthusiastic”. Her love for the Dallas Cowboys is second only to her love of her dogs, Luke and Leia.
Ameet is known for her transparency, her impressive ability to pivot her clients’ PPC campaigns at just the right moment to achieve maximum results, and her extensive collection of Celine Dion songs.
Connect with Ameet on Instagram or visit her website to learn more.
Ameet would love to meet:
Frederick Vallaeys, former Google Adwords Evangelist and Founder of Optmyzr
Learn more about your host, Erin Ollila
Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform – and even transform – its intended audience. She graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and went on to co-found Spry, an award-winning online literary journal.
When Erin’s not helping her clients understand their website data or improve their website copy, you can catch her hosting the Talk Copy to Me podcast and guesting on shows such as Profit is a Choice, The Driven Woman Entrepreneur, Go Pitch Yourself, and Counsel Cast.
Learn more about Erin’s VIP Day options if you’d like to learn more about how you can hire her to write emails for you or audit your overall marketing
Here’s the transcript for episode 040 on Google ads for beginners with guest expert, Ameet Khabra
NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.
Erin Ollila 00:04
Hey friends. Welcome to the Talk Copy to Me podcast. Here we empower small business owners to step into the spotlight with their marketing and messaging. I’m your host, Erin Ollila. Let’s get started and talk coffee. Hello, friends today we are back on the podcast to talk all things ads. We are here today with a meet Kabra to talk about Google ads. Yes, Google ads, the one that gets so often overlooked when people on social media focus all of their attention on Facebook. But there’s a lot of reason why small businesses and obviously larger businesses may want to use Google ads for their business. And while Ameet has all of the information that we need to know about advertising, there is one thing you may not have known about her. And that is, she started her very first business at 19. For the sole reason, because someone told her that they didn’t think she could do it. So let me welcome to the show and tell me all about this. What happened? Who told you you couldn’t start a business? And why did you go about proving them wrong?
Ameet Khabra 01:13
So I was just newly like graduating from high school in a sense. And I was just trying to figure out what the heck I wanted to even do with my life. So I started volunteering for an organization. And about two years in, I kind of started getting this crazy idea that maybe I should just try to do one by myself. And I remember it was a whole, like a whole debacle. I remember like trying to leave the organization. And they were just like, calling me up the wall just trying to be like, What the heck are you even doing? And then I remember, I was on the call with, I guess, the chair of the board or whatever. And I remember him saying something along the lines of like, it’s virtually impossible for you to do it. And I was like, okay, that’s fine. And then I hung up the phone and like literally the next day I got started now you I basically did that entire event by myself, and then had volunteers on the day of to help me execute. They actually credited me for the reason why they actually stopped running their largest event a year later, it really was kind of the best feeling on the planet where I’m like, yeah, like you told me I couldn’t I like basically knocked you out like, there. I don’t know, I don’t think there is any better kind of validation in the world.
Erin Ollila 02:19
No, no, it’s just well, it’s when you know that you can do something on your own. And then you kind of prove it to the people who didn’t believe in you. It’s just like saying, Not only should you have listened to me, but like look at the skill that I have. So I think it’s just so fun that you got to do that. And at such a young age, too, right? Like I think the older we all get, we forget how big of a risk and a jump it is to be a teenager because yeah, you think you’re an adult, but you’re still a teenager and 18 to start a business and do it in the face of people not believing you so high five to that.
02:54
Thank you. I think the the added benefit of being that young is that you don’t realize what you’re doing as in Yeah, intimidating. And as scary as it is. I don’t think you realize that it is as huge until like years later where you’re like, holy, like I did that. Like that was a thing that I did. So even for me, it took me years before I actually really acknowledged the fact that I did something I was young and stupid, really?
Erin Ollila 03:17
Oh, to be young and stupid again. All right, let’s jump right into the ad part of this conversation. Why? Why do you think ads are important for businesses?
03:28
I think ads are important for businesses simply because it helps amplify your reach really, at this point, there’s only so many people you can actually like get in front of organically, especially if you’re a smaller business. So really helps you find people who are looking for you that may not know that you exist.
Erin Ollila 03:46
And what about Google, specifically? So the last episode, we talked about Facebook ads, and you know, even when I started this episode, I mentioned that a lot of the times people are saying oh, I need to go and get on Facebook ads or whatever type of social media platform ads that they’re using. But doesn’t mean you have to forget that. But like put that to the side for a second and consider using Google ads for their business. The way
04:08
that I like to describe Facebook and Google is that they really should be used like, together Facebook, I feel like it’s a really great platform to make people aware of your brand. So very top of funnel is the way that I like to describe it. And then Google is kind of like the closer where this person already is aware of your brand. Or they’re aware of what your services are to a certain degree and they’re looking for that specifically. So really, at this point, like Google is really great for finding people that are actually really quick, like basically ready to purchase whereas Facebook is more of a direct to consumer type of platform, where if you’re selling a product, they want to see it they want people to touch it. They want to be able to look at that fabric of that dress or whatever. Where as in Google, if I’m already looking for a plumber, I’m looking for a plumber like Facebook’s not going to be able to get in front of me when my pipe bursts. But Google will be able to get in front of me when my pipe bursts. So that’s really kind of the difference. I feel like Google is much better tamed for for urgency, if that’s what you’re looking for, but then also to find high quality leads, because people are sitting around looking,
Erin Ollila 05:18
I love that you gave those very concrete examples, because I think it’s easy as a consumer ourselves to think, oh, gosh, like, what am I going to do if my furnace breaks or something like that we go on the internet, we get that ad right away. And it’s one of the first things that we’ll look into to just make our lives easier. So I think it’s a really good, even though we’re jumping in a little, I think it’s a really good thing to think of as the business owner, how can I present myself at the right time for when people need me when we talk about like, going about getting those ads started, but let’s stay here for beginning like pretending that people don’t have them yet. A lot of the times with my clients, I will work with them to get their website either set up for the first time or most often actually rebranded once their business has really started to thrive or adjust and change if they are changing anything about their niche, let’s say. And when we’re done, and the website’s kind of like packaged up with a pretty bow, I hear a lot of like, what’s next? Like, that’s their big concern? And, yes, I can help them make those decisions. But they come to me with ideas. And the ideas that they come are usually just from what they’ve seen in this like, online marketing slash course world, right? So a lot of the times, I’m like, oh, let’s send ads to my website. And I’ll say, cool, like, what are you sending those ads to? Like? Why are you spending money? So I know that, you know, explanation, I gave us a little long. But is there a way for businesses to know when they should start doing ads for their business or any type of like a signal that would alert them that they should be ready,
06:58
what I usually find to be a pretty bad sign for ads is if you’re using it for your sole driver of business. And it’s very much like any other platform or digital platform out there, they can be turned off pretty quickly and overnight. So we saw that with Instagram, I think it was like a year ago, where it was down for six hours or something like that. And businesses that heavily use Instagram, were kind of just out of luck. All of those influencers on Instagram had no way of reaching their audiences. And the same could potentially happen to Google ads or Facebook ads or any kind of ad platform. So for me, it’s always a little it’s a little worrisome when I come across businesses that are so heavily invested in ads for their day to day. So for me, I will usually suggest that businesses be somewhat in the they have like some kind of solid foundation in terms of revenue or reoccurring revenue, before they actually turn on the Ads tab. Because if if ads were to disappear tomorrow, I guess the question is, would you still have a business? And if the answer is no, then you probably still have a bit of work to do.
Erin Ollila 08:12
All right. So people should think about ads if they especially if it’s new to them as something that could like accentuate their business, but they should make sure they don’t fall in love, like the tunnel of using it solely to drive business to their business. But I think that maybe a misconception I hear is people think they should jump into ads when they have a course or an offer or some other product on their website. But yet they haven’t done anything to prepare for the ads. So I don’t know if this is a Google specific question or just advertising in general. But what do you suggest people do in order to prepare before they actually start running the ads?
08:54
I think the biggest thing is knowing your numbers really at this point. So if you’re working with an agency, or even just doing these ads on your own, knowing what your numbers look like, is going to be a great asset. So how much did it cost to create that course? Including your your hours as well? And how much are you valuing? valuing your hours? Do you already somewhat know how many people need to come to the landing page before you actually convert that one person? Also with that course? Do you have an idea of how much they’re willing to spend? Like, are they going to buy that one course and walk away? Are they going to buy that one course? And then the three others that you have? Are they going to tack on your your one to one services, like those kinds of numbers are really, really great. It’s a little bit harder, obviously, for course creators and, and coaches in that sense, because like, especially if you’ve never done ads before, you’ll likely not know. So you have to really go into Google Analytics and kind of try to pull as much information as you possibly can from that. But once you have those numbers, then you can really find out where your breakeven point is and where you actually start making money and where you actually start losing money and I think that’s the biggest flaw with Google ads. And we’ve had this happen with a couple clients ourselves where we kept on running ads, and then suddenly, we realized you’re not charging enough. So like these ads, although seemingly are making you money, we’re not accounting for your, your hours, we’re not accounting for the software that you’re spending money on, we’re not accounting for a couple of other things. So once we actually put in those numbers, chances are we’re gonna lose money on these ads. So we’ve actually had to like basically fire clients because of that, because it’s just one of those things where it’s just like, if you’re not making money, what’s the point of doing this at this point, right. But yeah, I think really just knowing your numbers and how much everything actually truly costs will give you a better idea of what your cost per acquisition needs to look like. So if you’re selling a course for, let’s say, $1,000, or something, and you we already know that your, your markup is $500, on top of it. So $500 was cost. And at least we know that anything under 400, in terms of cost per acquisition is profit. Obviously, we want to get as low as we possibly can, so you can make the most money off of it. But if we know those numbers, and it’s easier for us to be able to make decisions, to get to a place where we’re actually making you money versus you losing it.
Erin Ollila 11:14
Part of the reason I wanted to have these two episodes is, is mainly because I just see a lot of people making ad investments when they aren’t ready to make the ad investments. I actually love ads. I come from the SEO world. So truly my my first love is SEO and that’s what I care about. But there’s always that second step behind for me obviously for you, you might actually be opposite of this. But for me, there’s that second step behind the SEO. So things are working well. Like we’ve gotten everything how we want it to be we’re continuing investing in our SEO, well, what’s next, for me, that would be ads, right? Because it’s like, everything set up. But I see people just jump right from the like, Okay, I have my messaging, I have my copy, I have a pretty good understanding of who my brand is and what that brand messaging is, and let’s just spend money on it. Where I don’t think that should be the case at all, I think we should really analyze where we’re spending money. I think the beauty of the social media ads, you know, especially like we heard in the last episode is there’s a lot of different campaigns that we can run, right. So we can read run some, like lead only campaigns, some direct conversion campaigns. And that will get us a little bit more visible to a lot more people, which is kind of you know, again, a lot of how you describe the differences between like social media versus Google ads. So it’s, it seems like this easy thing that we can jump from understanding our brand to all of a sudden in putting money behind our brand. But in Google, I think specifically, like you said, if you know your numbers really well, you know what the actual conversion spend could be based on the numbers you’re trying to make, what you’re selling things for, I think that’s a great indicator that it might be time to jump in, and start testing the waters when it comes to like ad spend when it comes to the messaging that you have. Because, you know, I mean, correct me if I’m wrong here, because it could very well be wrong. But I think a lot of it is literally that we need to test things right before we start understanding how to make the Google ad world work for us as business owners.
13:20
Yeah, no, that’s completely correct. I, it’s, I think a lot of people almost think that Google ads are like kind of magic, in a sense. And I mean, in its own right, it kind of is, or at least I find it magical, really at this point. It’s something that you have to really try and test quite a bit because we don’t know what your competitors are doing. We don’t know what your market landscape looks like. We don’t know, geographically if things are going to change. So a lot of agencies out there have chosen verticals that they just primarily work on. So there are some agencies that literally just work with plumbers and only plumbers. And where I find that to be a little bit of a slippery slope is that what they’ll typically do is take the original account and just copy it right through, or at least that was a common practice back in the day. And what ends up happening is that we’re running assumptions that a plumbing company in Vancouver might be operating the same way as a plumbing company in Portland. And that’s not correct. Competition is completely different. The audience’s completely different. Are these people homebuyers? Are they mainly renters? We don’t know. So we don’t really know who we’re targeting really at that point. So I think really looking at it. And testing everything is incredibly important, just because like, we don’t know until we actually get into that field and actually figure that out. And I think a lot of businesses are just like no, if it worked for my friend in in Texas, then it should work for my friend in New York. But population density is completely different.
Erin Ollila 14:51
All right, that was so helpful. What we’re going to do right now is take a quick pause because something I have been meaning to do and I just keep forgetting every single Episode is giving a shout out to some of the podcast hosts that have had me on their podcast. I love being a podcast guest. I’m always so appreciative to meet new people and talk about the things that I’m so passionate about, you know, because I could rant on and on about them on this platform, but it’s just nice to kind of do it in someone else’s platform, meet new people and grow my network. So three of those shows that I have actually had recent episodes on our the capture crew, gratitude geek. And what’s funny about gratitude geek is we talked so long and had such a good conversation that she actually broke it down into two different episodes, and the gems podcast, those all came out this month, and I will link to them in the show notes. And I would love it if after you listen to this episode with me and I that you head on over to those podcasts in your podcast player and give them a lesson. So me thank you for your patience with me as I shouted out some of those other podcasts. Oh, of course, let’s get back to talk about ads. Okay, so we’ve talked about why ads are important when people should even consider having ads in their business. And maybe like what some of those things are that they should be factoring in before they get started, for example, like, what their conversion factors are, what type of budgets that they have. So I guess my next question for you is, are there different types of Google ads out there? You heard me ask mentioned before, actually about how in Facebook, there are lead campaigns, their conversion campaigns? If so, and I’m going to just say, I do not know here, because I am absolutely not an ad specialist. What type of campaigns are there? And are there any that businesses should be focusing on?
16:44
I think it depends on the goals that you have for your business. So if your E commerce, then running a shopping campaign would make a lot of sense. If your lead generation, then going strictly search makes a lot of sense. If you’re a bigger brand that simply just wants awareness, then something like YouTube or even a display campaign would make sense. It really does boil down to what the goals of your campaign are. But the great thing about Google is that it can fit almost any business model or any campaign goal. It’s just a matter of making sure that you actually know what that looks like and what your benchmarks are, before you get started on that journey, I guess is the way to say it.
Erin Ollila 17:27
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. So all right, you’ve convinced everyone that Google ads are probably a good idea for them if they know their their budget well enough and what type of campaign that is best for them in their current business. So let’s talk copy for a second, I think this can be very overwhelming, especially for the DIY buyers who had into the Google ads platform to do on their own. There’s how you title the ads, there’s what you say in the ads, all the mixing and matching, can you give us a little one on one overview on what people will see when they start writing the copy for their ads and what’s important. Yeah, so
18:03
within Google, we have limit character character limitations. So our headlines can only be 30 characters, our description lines are 90. And then other areas, if we want to get a bit more technical, and like add extensions and stuff like that have their own limitations as well. So that’s where we kind of have to really get creative with what we’re trying to say with a lot of stuff. The big no no’s with Google ads, in terms of copywriting is not using excessive capitalization. If your brand name requires it, then they’ll usually approve that. But if you’re trying to emphasize, I don’t know, let’s say free, like you’re doing something for free, they will automatically just disapprove that ad because they simply just don’t want people to be, I think it’s more of like a scam type of filter for them, where they want to make sure that people are actually thinking about what they’re writing versus just emphasizing like a small feature. And then also the use of characters. So like exclamation points, the dollar sign that kind of stuff. Again, if it’s an excessive use, then they won’t allow it dollar sign is usually okay, as long as I mean, it makes sense. And you’re using it the one time to say I don’t know, you, you’re selling your guide for $49. But using like exclamation points and other stuff like that, they won’t allow that. It’s interesting to get into ad writing, and then sit there and be like, Okay, I have all of these restrictions, how do I move forward? And I think the best way to do it is basically just looking at what keywords you’re bidding on. So what kind of phrases are you bidding on? So to go back to like the plumber example that I used earlier today, it could be somebody might be putting in, oh, my pipe burst, I’m looking for an emergency plumber. So you could get a little creative with your ad copy in the sense of being like did your pipe just burst question mark, and then really get that person that like gravitate towards that because like, what they put into Google is exactly what you’re answering that question or that that query. So that’s usually how we like to try to write ad copy is by almost answering the question that the user is using. And that tends to actually speak to them much more, much more significantly than, than just simply writing that you’re this X, Y, Zed total plumbing company or something along those lines, like a lot of people, I think, go a bit generic. But if you just add a little more fun into everything, I think that really is what helps brands stand out a bit more, especially in Google ads.
Erin Ollila 20:32
Yeah, no, that’s, that was a lot. That was helpful. Thank you. Okay, so our ads are starting to get set up. Were testing things out in there. Before we actually talk about like adjustments that we could make. Can we talk quickly about how it factor in things like locations, because we have some people who listen to our show who locations are going to be a huge factor in how they set up their Google ads. But then we have others who, like me, for example, work globally with my clients, and locations, from my non Google Ad assumption won’t be that helpful in my business. So do you have any suggestions for the people listening on when they should go all in on locations and what to do if they don’t have work specific location in their business,
21:24
even with like service based businesses like ourselves like online, if we go into Google Analytics, we can actually pretty much figure out where most of our traffic is coming from, like, chances of our traffic being equally split across Canada is slim. But like, I already know that Alberta is probably the largest factor for us, just because I spent so many years there. And that most of my network is out there. So I understand that Alberta has much more name recognition than British Columbia, Ontario anywhere else. So I think it’s because really at this point where if we’re, if we look at it from a, I don’t service, a specific location standpoint, then you’re likely going to need hundreds of 1000s upon probably millions of dollars to be advertising across the globe, really at that point, right. So for me, my suggestion is always to pick the best cities that work the best for you grow there, and then start adding different cities, just because I think that’s probably the most cost effective way to do it, especially if people already know about your brand. One of my favorites tactics is basically bidding on your brand name and a lot of people and it’s been something that’s been coming like commonly argued in the industry on whether or not you should be bidding on your your brand name. And I’m on the camp of I fully believe that you should, because study after study has suggested that organic traffic drops about 32% of the leads that you would be getting from Google ads. So really, at this point, for me, I would rather pay the money and get the three that are gonna get dropped out of the 10 leads that I get every single month, then to possibly lose those three. And that really kind of boils down to your own philosophy, really, at this point for our clients, I try to put it in every single campaign because I think it actually makes sense to do so. But if you disagree, that’s totally fine. It’s just a you don’t create a branded campaign. By choosing locations, you’re still creating some brand awareness. So eventually, I think having that branded campaign will help you swoop up all those people, especially if you don’t rank very well, for your name.
Erin Ollila 23:27
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I’m glad you mentioned this, because I think so far in the podcast I what do we have now? Like maybe this is episode 40? I think. I think I’ve said the these two words in every episode. So far, although I know that one that I in the future episode I forgot, forgot to bring this up. But my favorite thing to say is it depends, right? So we want to when we hear these, these, you know, advice from God and advice from me about doing ads in our business, we we have to look at what works best for our business. So again, if you are a local service provider, like the plumber, we’ve been talking about, yes, ads in the location, like specifically are great. And if you are you hearing me just exactly said right there as we have to think like are you going to do your brand name? Maybe? Maybe not. And I think this is really why and we’ll get to this in a second. It’s really why working with a specialist is vital. When we’re throwing our money behind advertising. Pre internet days, when people were investing in advertising. They were not doing it on their own, right. Like they didn’t just like wallpaper, a billboard. And it was their own paper in their printing, right? No, they hired companies to do that for them. When they advertised in a newspaper. The newspaper had an advertising department that could help them set up their ad before it got published. And then here we are on the wild wild west of the online business world. And there’s so many people trying to DIY. So I know I said we’ll talk about it later, but I kind of just gave my rant right there. So maybe that’s something you want to jump on? Do you think that there is a time when people should be DIY ing and a time when they should be doing like hiring out? Or is this also another? It depends scenario?
25:19
Ah, it’s an it depends scenario. And I think that’s like the digital marketers out favorite phrase, really, at this point? Because it really does depend, do you have time to learn Google ads is the biggest one, it’s not a set it and forget it type of platform, you really do need to be in it pretty consistently to make sure things are are being updated and things that you’re not wasting money. So if you’re spending potentially 1000s of dollars on advertising, it really kind of boils down to do you have that time and if you do fantastic, if you don’t, then you should be hiring somebody to do that, if you’re a little bit smaller, and spending maybe a couple $100 a month, the the account is probably not moving so fast that you could potentially lose a ton of money. But then at the same time, it kind of depends on what a ton of money is to you. For me, it’s dumping 1000s of dollars down the drain a couple of 100 here and there is I mean, still hurts, but it doesn’t hurt as much. So it really kind of boils down to are you willing to potentially lose that money and get nothing in return? And if you are, is your business still gonna survive? Or relatively well still survive? So yeah, yeah, it kind of sucks. It really does. It really does depend. But if once you’re spending 1000s of dollars, I really do believe that you need like an expert. In that account. Just make sure that like, everything’s running smoothly. And also, or they’ll help with like increasing the results that you’ve already achieved.
Erin Ollila 26:47
Yeah, I love that. And I’m totally fine with that answer. Because again, it really does depend. And I think that all of those factors that you mentioned are what’s going to make the decision here, right? Like if you if there’s zero time and zero interest, it’s an easy choice to have someone do it. If you’ve already seen some great results, and you want to improve, have someone hire someone to do this for you. If you’re just testing the waters, maybe it’s something like you take a course maybe you do some studying before you step into that ads manager, but eventually maybe think about using this as an end goal of working with someone who can do it for you. Final question before I do all my connection questions to end the episode. One thing that I’m curious about, and this is going to be an it depends answer. So I’ll preface that for you. But when does someone go about making adjustments in their campaign?
27:36
Whoo, that’s a vague answer. But mine is the one it statistically significant. So I’ll look into my account. And if it hasn’t even reached, like at the bare minimum, it should reach about 100 impressions, which means that 100 People looked at the ad, or searched for that query before I actually really touch anything. And that’s only because it gives me a better idea of what exactly is happening. What I prefer to have more impressions before I start making changes, yes. But sometimes some accounts just won’t get there, especially if we’re talking about ad spend and stuff like that. So I say when it seems like significant in the account, but the minimum I would say is 100 100 impressions. And then I would take a look at how many people clicked in. And how many of those 100 Maybe even converted, and then go on from there. So really, at this point, if we’re looking at statistics, your click through rate, so how many people click your ad versus how many people saw them should be about two to 3%. So out of every 100 people, you should have about two to three people who are actually clicking on the ads. And then further, the average conversion rate of a website, I believe is sitting at 2.3%. So then let’s say, if you have like 100 people coming onto your website, then two to three of them should be converting. So if you’re not hitting those numbers, that’s when I would start looking at everything be like what needs to tweak before I start freaking out? If
Erin Ollila 29:05
Yeah, no, that’s perfectly. And again, really, this is the case where you don’t want to touch things too soon, you know, you really want to kind of you want to set it up correctly. So that way, you can see how it plays out before you mess around too much, I’d say because without enough data, you can’t make informed decisions. So you really need to let the data drive the decisions here.
29:25
Yeah, I think that’s why people get a little scared and kind of leave the Google ads platform is because they’ll sit there and be like, Oh 10 people collected, nobody converted. Without actually really realizing that the the website conversion rates are relatively low. Their website might be lower, and they aren’t actually aware of it. So I think really just having enough data to sit there and be like, Okay, this doesn’t. This isn’t in line with what my industry is doing or what the averages is a really great way to kind of gauge whether or not you’re doing whether or not you need to be making optimizations in the account right away or if you can kind of hold off and let it just right Get out.
Erin Ollila 30:00
Yeah. Okay, which is, one thing I want to point out when it comes to data is we actually have an episode coming next week on making sure your Google Analytics are set up. And the big deal between the Google Universal Analytics change into the new Google universal Google Analytics for so if you are not sure about how your data is performing, before you start making these decisions, you definitely want to listen in next week, and you 100% want to make sure your new g4 account is set up correctly, you know, I don’t force a lot of things on you guys when it comes to opinions. But if you are, unless you’re using a different form of analytics for your website, you need to make sure you switch on over to that new GA for so everything is there, and you can start collecting data before the big change over next year. Okay, so let’s just jump right into those connection questions, you have been so helpful. And I think this is a great starting place for people who are beginning to consider using Google ads as a part of their business and marketing strategy. If you could give any small homework assignment to our listeners, based on the conversation that we had here today, what would your homework assignment be,
31:16
I would say, look at your numbers, really like very, very closely and actually assign $1 amount to your time and actually track that time. Especially if you’re like a course creator, or some kind of coach or something along those lines. I think having those numbers and sitting there saying, Hey, this is how much I charge, but this is how much it cost me to operate. is gonna be great, especially if you’re considering Google ads, but also I feel like it’s just gonna make you a better business owner to
Erin Ollila 31:44
Great. All right, let’s next question is if you could meet anyone in the online business world be a person of business, a type of individual, who would it be and why?
31:57
Oh, good question. I’ve got a massive crush on Project valets, who is like, Google’s first Google Ads evangelist. He went off and started a tech company and I very much use the platform that they that he created. And there’s just something I think he’s just like, so incredibly smart, that I would love to be able to spend time with him, just to pick his brain a little bit and kind of really get behind his thoughts and his processes.
Erin Ollila 32:28
Super fun. I don’t know that name. So I’m gonna go research him and find out some more myself. And I will put that info on our show notes as well, so other people can learn about him. And final question, come up with this on the spot. What would you be doing if you were not? If you’ve decided no longer to do any type of advertising as you’re going to drive your business driver,
Ameet Khabra 32:50
who I’ve thought about this actually quite a bit, I think I would either end up in math or psychology, which is basically Google ads. But either or, I love math. I love numbers. If we can talk in binary, I totally would. in Psychology has always been really interesting. I’m like that. We are a person who will sit in the back and just watch everybody and somehow figure out your life story based off of like the words that you’re using your body language, things that you’re emphasizing when you’re talking and stuff like that. It’s It’s creepy, but really cool all at the same time.
Erin Ollila 33:28
Thank you friends for listening in on this episode. And B It was so wonderful to have you on here and everyone. I will put all of the ways you can get in touch with her and learn about her business in the show notes. And absolutely go find her on social as well because she is just a great person to be connected with. I appreciate your time with me. Thanks so much for being on the show. Thank you so much for having me, Erin. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Top copy to me. If you enjoyed spending your time with me today. I would be so honored if you could subscribe to the show and leave a review. Want to continue the conversation. Head on over to Instagram and follow me at Erin Ollila. Until next time friends
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