Is Google Ads right for your particular business and industry? For some businesses, Google’s advertising platform— Google Ads—is 100% of their marketing strategy. For others, they don’t use it at all and for most, it represents a spoke in the wheel of their overall marketing strategy.
So where should it land in your marketing plan?
For most, it’s going to depend on what kind of business you have and in what industry. For some businesses, it’s a match made in heaven. For others, it’s hardly worth the time, effort, and money.
I call this the Google Ads Spectrum.
This is a sliding scale of compatibility between the services and/or products you sell and how economically viable the Google Ads platform is for you.
Google Ads Spectrum Examples
Let’s start with a couple of examples of the extreme ends of the spectrum using a ranking scale of 1 to 10 and their chances of an economically viable and successful campaign.
Example of Ranking 10 Out of 10 on the Google Ads Spectrum:
- Moving companies
- Carpet cleaners
- Home goods online retailer
Each of these business types has the right stuff when it comes to allocating resources to Google Ads, namely:
#1 They have average order sizes large enough to support an ad budget.
#2 People are actively searching for what they sell or provide, meaning there is traffic volume.
In many cases, Google Ads is their primary marketing initiative.
Those ranking 10 out of 10 can also be a lead gen style business or an ecommerce business—or a combination of both.
Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that it’s a slam dunk and all of their campaigns will be wildly successful. It just means these business types have the right ingredients to be a good fit for a search-style Google Ads campaign.
Think of it this way: the average consumer knows about the types of products or services available, and now it’s just a matter of finding those businesses, products, or services.
From the business perspective, they know there are consumers out there searching for what they sell, and it’s a matter of being there when that search takes place to make that connection.
Sure, there are a million other considerations as to whether an individual campaign will be profitable, but this is a bird’s-eye view that their business plus Google Ads is a good fit for them.
Now let’s take a look at the other end of the Google Ads Spectrum and discuss that.
Businesses That Are Bad Fit for Google Ads
First things first, I don’t mean that there is no opportunity with Google Ads for these types of businesses. There could very well be, such as creating search campaigns for branded keywords or Display Ads, or re-targeting campaigns to their website visitors for example.
That being said, here’s a look at some business types I’ve seen struggle with the Google Ads platform and, in particular, search marketing.
#1 Specialty equipment/parts businesses
#2 Newly introduced products or inventions
#3 Specialty consulting businesses
#4 Businesses with a low average order value
#5 Businesses that have a product or services with duplicate meanings (see link for more explanation)
#6 B2B businesses that don’t sell direct to consumer (D2C)
An example of some of these businesses are:
- Produce businesses
- Aircraft parts manufacturers
- FDA consulting companies
- B2B specialty equipment companies
- Companies that sell the government agencies
These are business types that would rank 1, 2, or 3 on the Google Ads Spectrum.
They are better served by having a marketing channel that’s more diversified or using other marketing altogether, such as an inside/outside sales force, trade shows, direct mail, account-based marketing (ABM), and more.
There are several other variables that don’t relate to low search volume that still plague some business types, such as low average order values—since shipping and advertising costs eat into margins.
The Middle Ground
Most other businesses fall somewhere between the extremes on the Google Ads Spectrum and may not be a perfect match or dead in the water, but rather somewhere in between.
Examples of these—ranking in the 4, 5, or 6 range—include:
- Sign companies
- Software companies
- Ecommerce
- Seasonal businesses
- B2B companies
- . . . and many more
For these businesses, Google Ads is still very much worth doing and chances are their competitors are doing it.
But by and large, it should represent just one spoke in the wheel of your overall marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Sometimes we don’t know what to expect or where we will ultimately fall on the spectrum until we’ve tried and started our Google Ads journey.
Consider this as “paying” for the information you need to determine where you fall on the spectrum. In the end, the market will speak for itself and you’ll be able to make educated decisions to find where your marketing dollars are best spent.