What are Google Search Ads?

Isn't this the first step in any project? Once we have received your payment, our team jumps into action!

Our onboarding document is the foundation of everything that we will need to do for you - it gives us all the info we need to make sure we deliver an outstanding campaign. There are some sections in the document that may result in some confusion, so here are some explanatory terms to make your life easier, as well as ours:

• Website access details - we need to have full administrator access to the backend of your website. In many cases we need to make small changes to allow us to track your advertising properly. If we can do this ourselves, it saves time and headaches.
• Google Analytics access - we have to be added to your Google Analytics account at the Property Level with full permissions. Why? Because we need to configure the settings on the account so that we can properly track contact forms being completed.
• Why do we need so much information on your business? So we can write better ads! If we know that what makes you unique is that you deliver 84 different flavours of ice cream to anyone, anywhere, 24/7, we can write adverts that speak to all of that and more. If you told us that you just sell ice cream, that wouldn't really have the same impact would it? Nobody knows your business the way you do, so its important that we try to get that information conveyed to our ad writers.
• Services you would like to advertise - remember, this is advertising. We want to focus on the things that make you money and that you want to sell. Be as specific as possible!
• Keywords - these are the words that we are going to tell Google that we want our ads to show up for. We aren't only going to use the words that you write down - our job is to use those as a starting to point to build up a much more comprehensive list. But it is important to us to know what you think your customers may be looking for on Google.
• Ads Budget Per Month - this is the amount of money that you want to pay to Google for your ads. Remember, you will only pay when someone clicks on the ads!

For some clients, we find it necessary for our Google Ad Account Manager to come and have a meeting with you to run through everything first. This can often be helpful in ensuring that we target 100% the correct market with the correct message. For some clients, we feel that this is not necessary as the team has a solid handle on the goals and messaging required. We will only take up your valuable time if we feel it is vital to the success of the campaign.

This is the period of time where our team builds the campaign. Generally this process takes up to week - two days for the campaign to be built, and two days for it to be proofed and checked. Once the campaign is ready, we will send you an email with the ads, keywords and extensions attached. You will then need to review and approve these via email.

We have a very strict protocol when it comes to getting your credit card details loaded onto the Google Ads system - you will receive an email or phone call from our office to find out when would be a convenient time to get your credit card details over the phone. At the appointed time, our Account Manager will log into your Google Ads account and create a new Payment Profile for your account. He or she will then call you and enter your card details directly into the account. To find out why we do this, see the FAQ below. Once your details are loaded into the system, we can no longer see your credit card details, apart from the last 4 digits of the card number and the expiry date. When we load budget every month, it will be from the payment profile.

Once the campaign is approved and budget is loaded, we can get your ads live! This is an exciting time, although the first leads can take a while to come through.

On a consistent basis, our team will be monitoring your campaign and making it better based on its performance. Our most common actions are:

• Writing new ads based on best performing keywords
• Adding new keywords based on what people have been searching for
• Adding negative keywords so that people who are looking for irrelevant things don't see your ad
• Increasing or decreasing bids on keywords to make sure we get the best ad position possible

You will receive a report every month that details the previous month's campaign performance. We encourage you to read these reports, as we can sometimes miss something vital that you will notice. We need your feedback to make the campaign better!

Google loves to celebrate new advertisers, and they do this by loading a voucher into your account after you have been advertising for 30 days. This voucher can be anything from R600 to R1200, depending on how much you spent in the previous 30 days. We love free advertising!