Hannah Zora Strong, an Expert in Residence at BIPC North East and a specialist in Google and LinkedIn ads management, spoke to us about how strategic digital marketing can help North East businesses build their brand, generate new business, and better understand their customers.
What are Google Ads, and how do they differ from other forms of paid social media marketing?
When you search for something on Google there is intent, versus when you’re served an ad on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or other platforms, the user isn’t actively looking for what you see right in that moment.
Google searchers are usually served a series of shopping ads at the top of the results, and underneath these you’ll find a set of text ads.
Google Ads are great for capturing demand that exists in the market for the products and services you’re looking for. Advertisers can bid and pay to appear within the search results when potential customers are looking for a particular product or service.
Google Ads differ from other forms of social media advertising in that it’s all about prospecting – you’re creating demand rather than capturing it. For example, you might know that the target audience for your product is women, over 40, that live in the Midlands, and own a dog! You can provide most social media platforms with that information and they will find more people like that to promote your product to. Google Ads is about capturing the demand that already exists from the people searching for your product or service online.
Why should SMEs be including digital marketing within their communications strategies?
My advice to businesses, and particularly SMEs, is if you’ve been running your business for a while, you’ll have benefitted from organic traffic to your site and Google will know who you are and what you do. It’s likely you’ll rank in search results when people are looking for your product/service.
For those brand new to the market, people who have never had a customer but know they’ve got a good product and a functional website, Google Ads can be a very effective tool. To run Google Ads you don’t need any history, backlinks, or online credibility – you could start right away.
Personally, I don’t always advise that. It’s often best to run a website for a few months first and make sure it's doing its job by converting leads and generating sales before putting any ad spend behind it.
If you know your website has a good conversion rate and you can see sales being tracked, that’s where Google Ads and PPC really comes into its own. It's a great way to get more people to see your products.
What platforms do businesses need to run a successful Google Ads or paid social campaign?
It’s all about going where your audience is. My expertise is in Google Ads, which is great for B2B and B2C marketing. Google Ads is generally better for B2C brands because if you sell a product, Google can showcase your product via Shopping ads - which feature the product image, price and delivery options. It can also offer more advanced targeting options too.
Whereas if you’re a corporate business selling a service, LinkedIn can be a great platform as you can target people by job title and the industry they work in. For example, if your business is to deliver development programmes for women, it’s possible to target that very specific audience using just the data within the LinkedIn platform.
Another platform to consider for PPC is Microsoft. Whilst its search platform, Bing, only represents 10-15% of all search traffic, it’s worth trialing after you’ve run Google Ads for around six months. Many people might be locked in to using a Microsoft browser either at home or work so it’s definitely worth considering.
But the main message here is about understanding who your audience is and advertise where they’re spending their time.
What can a successful Google Ads and paid social campaign help businesses achieve?
A successful campaign can generate more revenue and more leads. If you’re a company with a well performing website but you need more eyes on it, Google Ads are a great way to scale up your business quickly.
It’s important to know your margins first. You don’t want to spend lots of money promoting a product when a low average order value, low margin and poor conversion rate eats into your profits. What’s important to remember with Google Ads is that Google sets the cost-per-click based on competition in the market. If the cost-per-click is high, you need a good conversation rate to make that spend worthwhile.
How can digital marketing be used to provide a more tailored and targeted message to customers?
A lot of people think Google Ads is a great tool to acquire new customers, and that’s certainly true in that people who haven’t heard of your brand can search for an item and find your product/service.
But there are more advanced strategies out there, for example, tailoring ad copy based on previous customer activity.
If you’re a company that wants to keep its current customers engaged and get its lapsed customers to rebuy, it’s possible to serve these ads to these previous customers that are more likely to inspire action - such as ‘welcome back, check your bonuses or loyalty tier.’
Someone that’s never visited the website before may be served a 25% off discount code instead. You can also offer discounts and incentives to potential customers that have reached a product page but not made a purchase. Messaging can be tailored depending on where people are in the customer journey.
Can Google Ads and paid social be a cost effective marketing approach for SMEs?
As long as you know your margins and have a high converting website, then yes, it can be a very cost effective option. The times I’ve seen it go wrong is when people don’t know their margins and they eat into their profit through the ads.
Google Ads is very intuitive and you can tell it exactly what it is you want to achieve – for example, we want to drive sales at a 200% return on investment, or we want to generate sales at a £5 cost per sale. It can take a few months for Google to understand what looks good for your individual business, but you can use that knowledge to really optimise your campaigns.
If a company wants to see if Google Ads are viable, they can use free tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner to see how many people are searching for a particular product. Google will then tell you the average cost-per-click and you can work out projected revenue based on current AOVs and conversion rates.
It can be a bit more challenging for service businesses as there’s another layer of monitoring to assess whether the leads that have been generated through Google Ads are good or bad.
How can businesses measure their return on investment using digital marketing techniques like Google Ads and paid social?
The most common method is conversion tracking and this is straightforward to do if your business uses Google Analytics to track its website performance, or use the Google Ads tag.
The monitoring and tracking landscape has become a bit more challenging because of new rules around GDPR and cookies. But overall, tracking is fundamental to the success of any campaign.
How can Google Ads and paid social help businesses better understand their customers?
My advice is to take the data you already have. If you are a B2B business with a CRM that has information on customer job titles, industries, company size etc, you can use that data to target potential customers that look the same on LinkedIn.
Google is a bit more challenging but there are things you can do. You can securely upload email databases to Google Ads and it will analyse the data and make some assumptions about your customers. For example, it might tell you most of your customers are parents, they have an interest in football, and they’re looking to book a holiday this year. This can be used to inform future marketing - both on and offline!
GA4 can also provide insight on who is visiting your website; including their interests based on their search history and browsing behaviour. I used this technique with an optician client and we found people that booked an eye test also had an interest in theatre. We then approached local theatre companies and offered their customers a 10% discount on an eye test when they booked a theatre ticket.
Can you provide an example of a North East company you’ve supported in your role as an Expert in Residence that’s used PPC and paid social to grow their business?
I recently worked with a market stall trader that sells North East-themed hoodies, t-shirts and tea towels. The market stalls do amazingly well, but the owner wanted to do more online – specifically through Google shopping. I supported them with Google Ads to ensure people searching for North East-themed items and gifts would find their business. We also optimised the website to make sure they could generate more sales organically.
I’ve also just finished a project with a locksmith. Tradespeople can actually use a different kind of ad format on Google, one that helps people find a tradesperson near them - called Local Service Ads. We uploaded their insurance documentation, linked reviews from their Google Business Profile, and specified a catchment area to make their online presence more impactful by being Google guaranteed.
What I really enjoy about my work with the BIPC is that I get to work with smaller community businesses. These people don’t have big teams working under them, so it’s nice to be able to make a difference. I really value being involved in my local community.
Where can businesses go to find more support and guidance on Google Ads, paid social, and other forms of digital marketing?
All the social media platforms have great free-to-use guides. You can also enroll in a free course and achieve certifications through platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Google Skillshop, and Meta Blueprint. I’d definitely recommend businesses explore Google Ads Keyword Planner too.
Through my role as an Expert in Residence at BIPC North East, I’m able to provide up to 12 hours of fully-funded support to eligible businesses in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Gateshead, Sunderland, and now, North Tyneside.
And of course, there’s the North East Growth Hub, which has lots of free information available via the website, as well as the opportunity to book an appointment with a Business Support Adviser for more tailored, independent guidance.
If you'd like to access free guidance and support with any area of your business growth journey, book an appointment with one of our experienced Business Support Advisers.