Google Ads is among the top online marketing offerings for businesses. From the mom-and-pop shop to the local gym, just about any business can benefit significantly from Google Ads — provided they use it right.

While the platform is helpful for organizations of all sizes, Google Ads can be particularly beneficial for small companies. However, as with all types of marketing, you will need to know how to leverage Google Ads to maximize your boost in revenue and visibility.

In the digital world we live today, being present online is crucial for the success of a small business. Small businesses that continuously invest in marketing—especially digital marketing— experience an increase in revenues. For a small business, the marketing journey in the online world starts with a website, while social media continues to be a big player in driving revenues for small businesses. However, 28% of small businesses don’t have a website.

More than reaching new markets, investing in technology helps small enterprises enhance communication with customers and increase efficiency.

Google Ads for small businesses in 2022: The benefits, drawbacks, and potential

If you’re a small business owner looking to take your online presence to the next level, keep reading. Here, we’ll talk about everything small business owners should know about Google Ads.

The benefits

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) can benefit from Google Ads in numerous ways.

One of the greatest benefits is that it’s an affordable way to send good-quality traffic to your landing page. Each click will usually cost a few cents, and you pay nothing unless somebody clicks on one of your ads.

Another benefit of Google Ads is that it allows you to target your ads toward the right people. By ensuring that you only show your ads to people who use the appropriate search intent on Google, anything you spend will be very cost-effective if you do it right.

With many forms of marketing, such as managed link building, it can take weeks or even months before you begin to see the results. However, with Google Ads, you can begin to see results as soon as your ads are activated. Quick results help make Google Ads ideal for small businesses that need to start earning revenue quickly.

The drawbacks

Although Google Ads clearly has plenty to offer, it’s not without its drawbacks. Your ads and campaigns need to be well-crafted to get the desired outcomes. Otherwise, your investment might come to little.

Most people can learn the basics that will help get them some degree of success, but this can be time-consuming, and not everybody will be technically minded enough to understand what’s necessary. Some companies will hire professionals to manage their Google Ads account, but this can be out of the financial reach for many small businesses.

Another potential drawback is that competition can be high for certain keywords, and when there’s competition, the price per click increases. This increase will mean some smaller businesses must choose less competitive keywords that might not bring the required quality or volume of traffic.

The potential

Regardless of the pros and cons, Google Ads does have the potential for scalability.

Google Ads offers a great chance for visibility and traffic to snowball beyond your expectations. The platform helps make your business visible to a vast potential audience, with approximately 3.5 billion people performing searches on Google every day.

Capturing just a tiny fraction of that audience can drastically improve your company’s fortunes.

There is no limit to how many new customers you can attract using Google Ads. If your ads are working for you then you can keep them going for as long as you like. You can also increase your budget to target more keywords, helping you take advantage and maximize your revenue and profits.

4 things small businesses should know

Because the platform offers so many rewards with limited risk, any small business should consider starting their online marketing with a Google Ads campaign.

That said, here’s what you need to know before you do so.

1. Your competitors are using it too

This one goes without saying. Google Ads is a popular paid marketing platform easily accessible to everybody. The potential upsides of using Google Ads are unlimited, so you can be sure that many of your competitors will be using the platform even if you’re not.

If your competitors are using Google Ads and you’re not, they have a distinct advantage. They will be taking customers that would otherwise have been yours, so it pays to get involved with Google Ads as soon as possible if you’re not already.

2. Costs can get out of control

Once you start seeing results, you might be tempted to spend more than you initially planned. And although Google Ads can be extremely effective at driving good quality traffic to your website, it offers no guarantees, meaning you could end up losing out financially.

Before you get started, you should work out how much you can afford to spend on your Google Ads campaigns. You can set daily budgets, making it easy for you to control how much you spend, and you can also stop a campaign at any time.

3. Your reach may be too narrow

An essential factor is how broad or narrow your reach is on Google Ads. For example, ads can sometimes be too targeted toward a specific demographic. If you target your ads too specifically, it can mean you don’t get the traffic volume you need to make enough sales.

On the flip side, your reach may be too broad, in which case you may get a lot of visitors but insufficient sales because the traffic is poor quality. For the best results, you need to find the right balance and use the match types that get you the best results.

4. You need the right keywords

Keyword research is one of the most essential elements of any Google Ads campaign. You will need to use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to see which search terms people use. Then, choose those that are relevant to your business and have a high search volume and low competition. Also, make sure to add negative keywords as your campaign progresses, which will help ensure Google shows your ads to the right people.

5. Build a holistic strategy

Google Ads is a potent stand-alone marketing tool. However, any campaign should also include other marketing channels.

For example, creating and maintaining a Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business (GMB), will help you maintain a strong online presence. 

You can also look to other PPC advertising channels such as Facebook ads. Email marketing campaigns are another marketing tool that should be considered, and follow-up email software is available that will automate many of the processes for you. Even outdoor or indoor digital signage can be part of a holistic marketing strategy.

You should also optimize for SEO to help increase your presence on search engines further. While it can take a long time until you start seeing benefits from an SEO campaign, the potential long-term rewards make it something that you should not overlook. When you develop a holistic marketing strategy, you can benefit from good volumes of high-quality traffic in the long term.