Common AdWords Questions

Updated January 11, 2023

Dispelling PPC Misconceptions

If you’re considering Search Engine Marketing, you may have some concerns before plunking down your marketing dollars. We thought we’d answer some of the most common AdWords questions. While it may be too late to start in time for the Holiday eCommerce season, it’s not too late to begin planning your 2018 campaigns.

Top 5 AdWords Questions & Answers

Do People Really Click on Ads?

Yup. According to Search Engine Land, Google earned 80% of $36.7 billion online PPC ad revenue in 2016.  On Google’s Investor Relations site, they reported $90 billion in total revenues for 2016, so PPC accounted for almost a third of their revenue. So yes, someone (or lots of someones) are clicking on the ads. The point here is that AdWords is big business, your customers are most likely clicking on your competitor’s ads.

Does it cost more to have an ad in the top spot?

The simple answer is: not necessarily. If your Google AdWords Account, or that ad group, has a good quality score, you have a good chance at snagging the top spot without paying more. Plus, if you hire an agency, we can optimize your account so that your ads place high and you pay less than your competition.

How will I know my ads are working?

There are many ways to track your AdWords campaigns. We use special call tracking services (like CallRail), targeted landing pages, heat mapping tools like Hotjar, and forms to collect performance data. We integrate AdWords with Google Analytics so you can drill down into form completions and phone calls received (assuming you have call tracking software that feeds GA). Integrating with Analytics is a bare minimum.

How much does it cost?

This is one of the most common AdWords questions. The good news is that you set the budget.  AdWords tracks to a daily budget. Let’s say you have a $500 a day spend. If you get a bunch of clicks and blow through your budget by 11 am… your ads won’t be shown for the rest of the day.

The cost you pay-per-click (CPC) depends upon your competition. At its core, Google AdWords is an auction… whoever bids the highest wins (most of the time). You can reduce your CPC by making sure that you control ad quality, bounce rates, and time spent on a landing page as all of these things indicate a good visitor experience. Google rewards advertisers who follow quality guidelines. Your cost depends on how much of your marketing budget you are willing to allocate to PPC. We have clients with budgets as low as $10 a day, and others with over a $1000 a day!

What if my competition clicks on my ad, do I pay for that?!

Google, in their quest to attract more advertisers, have set up filters to pick up on invalid clicks and will refund your account. This was a bigger issue in the past but now isn’t a major concern. So you don’t need to worry about your competition repetitively clicking on your ads in an attempt to bankrupt you.

Did we answer your AdWords questions? If we missed one, leave a comment and we’ll answer it for you.