What Are Google Ads and How Do They Operate?

Google receives billions of searches every second, and its advertisements appear on most search results pages. Google AdWords, which companies pay for, are a powerful tool for bringing qualified, relevant traffic to your website at the precise moment when customers are looking for the goods or services that your company provides.

You will discover the definition of Google advertisements, their operation, and the benefits of running your own Google ads in this post.

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Google Ads: What Are They?

Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) platform, known as Google Ads, enables companies to appear on Google’s properties. Businesses can use Google advertisements to run display advertisements, shopping ads, YouTube ads, and more. The most popular kind of Google Ads ad is the search ad, which shows up on the search engine results page (SERP) for searches related to the advertiser’s goods and services.
Google search advertisements

Here’s an illustration of an advertisement-filled Google SERP. Paid results are divided into two sections: one above and one below the organic, or nonpaid, results.
What are sponsored versus organic search engine results on Google Ads?
Display adverts from Google

As previously indicated, you can also manage display campaigns that show up on the Google Display Network, a sizable collection of external websites that have consented to display Google advertisements. Google Display advertising come in several formats, including text, picture, video, and rich media, and can be targeted in various ways, including through audiences and remarketing.
An example of Google Display Advertising – show ad for mailchimp
Google Shopping advertisements

Ads for Google products can be found in the shopping tab as well as on the standard SERP. Since you are unable to specify keywords, these ads function differently than standard search ads. Alternatively, you keep an extensive inventory of your products, and Google will correlate them with queries. On the other hand, you can specify to Google the keywords you do not want to see your adverts for.

An illustration of a Google Shopping advertisement
YouTube commercials

YouTube advertising is done through Google Ads because Google controls the platform. You have the ability to make text, display, and video advertisements that run on the platform before, during, and after videos. Ad targeting on YouTube functions similarly to display targeting.

YouTube ad that may be skipped
Why the SERP displays Google Ads

The main focus of Google Ads is on keywords, or the terms that customers are most likely to use while looking for their goods. An advertiser creates an ad with a specific offer and selects a list of relevant keywords to target when creating a Google Ads search campaign. Google will look to see if any advertisers are bidding on keywords related to the query that someone is typing into the search bar. On that SERP, advertising will show up if there are any.

How does Google choose which advertisements to display? The Google Ads auction is now open.

An infographic explaining the process of how Google Ads work.

Here is a link to the complete auction infographic.

We go into great detail on the Google Ads auction process here, but here’s a condensed version of it. Google will add all relevant keywords?one per account?to the auction if, during a Google search, advertisers are placing bids on terms related to the query.

First, based on many parameters including the keyword’s relevancy to the query, it will provide a Quality Score ranging from 1 to 10 to each one. After that, it will multiply each keyword’s Quality Score by the maximum bid made by the relevant advertiser to determine its Ad Rank score. The advertisements that display are the ones with the highest Ad Rank ratings.

What PPC is and how Google Ads Auction operates

You must maximize your Quality Score and bid amount in order to “win” the Google Ads auctions and have your Google ads show up for pertinent keywords. The better your ad positioning, the greater your Quality Score along with your bid price. Among other things, the following elements influence your Quality Score:

Having a high quality score also has general advantages.

To learn more and gain a better understanding of how the Google Ads auction operates, view this infographic.

? Free tutorial >> Hacking Google AdWords: An Odd Method That May Help You Save Thousands
Costs of Google Ads

The competition of your sector and keywords, where you live, the effectiveness of your advertising efforts, and other variables all affect how much Google AdWords costs.

average price for Google advertisements

All industries combined in the US have an average cost per click for Google search ads of $2.32. The average cost of Google Ads is frequently substantially less in other nations.
The Performance Grader for Google Ads: An evaluation of your Google Ads account that is totally free

That’s it, dear! An explanation of Google Ads.

You must be aware of which Google Ads campaigns are effective for your company and where adjustments can be made in order to optimize their impact. That’s exactly what WordStream’s Free Google Ads Performance Grader can assist you with.

Example of a Wordstream Google Ads Grader Report: Impressions Per Tab

The most extensive free tool of its type is the Google Ads Performance Grader. The Google Ads Performance Grader completes a comprehensive audit of your Google Ads account in less than 60 seconds, highlighting successful aspects of your account and their comparison to industry benchmarks that are competitive.