Intro: How Google Advertising Works

Google Pay Per Click advertising is different to Facebook advertising in three main ways:

1. People are searching for solutions on Google; on Facebook, they’re generally just trying to be entertained. This means the leads that come via Google are higher quality, so generally you need less leads to convert to a sale
2. This “buyer intent” on Google means competition is much higher, and therefore the cost for a click on an Ad can also be much higher. Bear in mind that not every click on an Ad results in a lead, but unlike most Facebook Ad campaigns that we run, you do pay for each click
3. With Facebook advertising, Ads are targeted to an “audience”, which is just a posh way of saying a bunch of people who have some interests that are related to what you sell. With Google, Ads are targeted via search phrases, which people are typing on their mobiles

How Long to Run a Campaign (3 months minimum)

With these differences in mind, for a Google Ad Campaign, there is some initial research and tweaking (“optimising”) that has to be actioned as we fine-tune the exact search phrases to use that will result in the maximum number of clicks for a certain cost.

The knock-on effect of this is that we will run your Ad for a minimum of 3 months to improve the efficiency of your results vs cost over time. Typically, we can optimise an Ad within 30 days, but be aware that the initial “ramp up” of your Ad will necessarily take time, so you’ll see better results in the second and third months.

After that 3 month phase, we’ll run your Ad on a monthly rolling contract so you can cancel at any point with a month’s notice. 

How Much Does it Cost? (typically £1900+/month)

We charge a management fee of £650 per month to set up your Google Ad account, do initial keyword research, create the initial Ad campaign, and optimise and tweak it over the three months.

Once we’ve set up your Ad account (which typically takes 3 to 5 working days), we’ll send instructions on how to add in your credit card to pay for the actual Ad costs – below you can see how much typical Ad costs are on a per keyword basis.

The actual cost per click on a search phrase varies, depending on the contents of the Ad (“Ad copy”), how many other companies are bidding on that phrase, and other factors – here are some typical costs per click on a well-optimised Ad (NOTE: the cost can be higher – these are just typical values):

There are many more search phrases that are being searched for on any given day – we’re just showing a few to stop this being too long.

Some search phrases have such low monthly search volume (ie, hardly anyone is typing them), that it’s not so certain what the price will be – generally they’ll be cheaper, but you won’t get many leads from them.

We tend to target a few phrases that have both a good monthly search volume, and aren’t too competitive (so they’re not so expensive).

Calculating Ad Cost (Example)

So, in terms of costs, here’s an estimate, for the phrase “solar panel installer” based on a cost per click of £6:

Estimated monthly clicks* = 210   

(*actual number of clicks varies according to the Ad contents, optimisation & is also seasonal)

Estimated monthly Ad cost= 210 x £6 = £1260

Our management fee = £650

So in this example, with one search phrase, the total monthly cost would be around £1260 + £650 = £1910 per month.

If we target several keywords (which we do recommend), then that will increase the Ad cost accordingly, but our management fee remains the same.

How Many Leads Will You Get (typically 20 to 70 per keyword)

Just as in Facebook advertising, with Google Pay Per Click advertising, not all clicks convert to leads.

It’s not unusual for there to be 5 to 10 clicks being required for a single lead, and because the first month is dedicated to getting as much data from Google as possible, it could be more than this – Ad optimisation and then scaling happens in months two & three, once we have enough data from Google to know how best to provide the most cost-effective Ad strategy for your budget.   

With a well-optimised Ad then, a smaller number of clicks will be needed to turn in to a lead. 

During the optimisation phase, we aim to minimise the number of clicks needed to keep your Ad cost as low as possible (3 clicks per lead is considered a very good target).

So for an optimised Ad campaign, if we generate 210 clicks on your Ad in a month, then a typical number of leads can be between 21 to 70. In other words, your Cost Per Lead is typically between £30 to £100.

This is much higher than Facebook, but these Google leads typically convert into sales at a higher rate, simply because of the “buyer intent” factor we mentioned earlier.