Google Ads does not work in Russia, but it can still be used for promotion. The main thing is to be able to properly optimize advertising and know which audiences it can be launched on.
What is Google Ads
Types of Google Advertising
First launch of the advertising account
How to Optimize Ads
Common Mistakes in Google Ads
How to work with Google Ads in Russia
Expert advice
What is Google Ads
Table of Contents
Google Ads is a contextual advertising service . It shows ads to users who searched for a similar product on Google. For example, if a user enters “buy iPhone 15” in the search bar, he will see an ad for a store that sells this smartphone in the search results. Later, he may encounter it on other sites.
Google Ads is an auction-based advertising model: advertisers set a bid that they are willing to pay for a user to click through to their site. The ad with the highest bid wins. The higher the bid, the higher the search results.
In essence, Google Ads is an analogue of Yandex Direct . The difference is that the first one allows you to promote a product on sites associated with Google, for example, Google search results or advertising on YouTube, and the second one works with users of Yandex services, for example, Yandex Weather or sites that are part of the Yandex Advertising Network.
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Types of Google Advertising
There are three types of Google Ads advertising.
1. Search
Advertisements that a person sees in response to his search query. Such advertisements, in turn, are divided into two types:
● In search results
For example, a user searches for “buy dehydrator” in Google. In the search results, he will first see advertisements for stores that sell dehydrators, and below that, sites from Google’s organic results.
● On partner sites and in Google services
In this case, the user sees an ad in the search results on sites that are linked to Google. For example, when a person searches on YouTube for “how to do a DIY repair,” they may be shown an ad for a company that does turnkey repairs.
2. Google KMS
On the Display Network, ads appear on Google’s partner sites. They appear not in search results, but on site pages, and they take into account the context of the user’s search history. If you type “buy a MacBook” into Google on Monday, it will show an ad for a computer store on an entertainment site on Tuesday.
3. YouTube
Contextual video advertising on YouTube allows you to place a video both before the start of the main video and show it during viewing. There are several types of such advertising:
● Youtube bumper
a six-second video that the user cannot skip or close;
● In-stream
either a 15-second unskippable video, or a video up to three minutes long that can be closed after five seconds;
● In-feed advertising
videos that appear in search results, a listing of interesting videos, or on the main page of the application.
The course “Contextual Advertising Specialist” will help you understand which channels are best to choose for advertising different products. Students are taught to launch and manage advertising campaigns in Google Ads so that they bring orders.
Google Ads has several ad formats, let’s look at the features of each.
Format
Peculiarities
Text ads
● contain only text, such ads are easy to create and launch;
● are shown to the audience in search results.
Responsive Ads
1.● adapt the format to the placement location, can contain text and images of different sizes;
2.● fit natively into the website design;
3.● algorithms test different combinations of text and images – and show the most effective;
4.● can be shown in Google Display Network.
Graphic Ads
● can be static or animated;
● are displayed on resources that are part of the Google Display Network.
App Advertising
● allows you to add multiple links, for example, to different sections of the application;
● can only be shown on smartphones and tablets.
Video advertising
● attracts the audience’s attention;
● can be displayed in Google Display Network.
Product Ads
● immediately provide a lot of information about the product and the store;
● are shown in response to a search for the same or similar product.
First launch of the advertising account
There are two ways to create a Google Ads account: in smart mode and expert mode. Let’s look at each.
1. Smart mode – for beginners
Before you can start advertising in Google Ads, you need to create a new account. To do this, you need to:
1. On the official Google Ads page , click the “Go to manager accounts” button.
2. Specify the account registration data in the new window: name, country, currency, time zone. It is better to choose the currency that the specialist works with, and then the invoices will be issued to clients in the currency that suits them. It is also important to choose the right time zone. It cannot be changed, and the invoicing period depends on the time zone.
3. Choose which advertising campaigns the account will manage – personal or other users. If you plan to promote several clients, it is better to choose the second option.
4. Fill in the captcha and click the “Submit” button – the Google Ads account is created. A “View account” button will appear in a new window, by clicking on which you can get to the advertising account.
5. Create a separate advertising account for each client. To do this, click on the “Account” section, go to the “Efficiency” tab and click on the plus.
In the pop-up list, select “Create a new account”. In the new window, fill in the same fields as when registering a manager account, but you can specify any name here.
The client account is ready. Now you can proceed to setting up advertising in the Google Ads account: just select the appropriate format and channels, prepare creatives, decide on the desired audience and the rate per click.
2. Expert mode – for experienced users
This option for creating an advertising account is suitable for specialists who already have experience in running contextual advertising campaigns.
1. Create a new Google Ads account via Gmail.
2. Switch to expert mode. You can continue setting up your account along with creating a new advertising campaign — or you can skip this step.
3. When creating a new advertising campaign, the system will prompt you to immediately fill in the data for promotion: select the goal and type of advertising, fill in the data on the terms, budget and audience, create an ad. In addition, you will need to select a payment method for the promotion and specify payment information.
In the second case, after skipping the campaign creation step, you need to fill in information about the organization that the advertising account will promote, including the time zone and currency of payments. And click the “Submit” button to create a new expert account.
How to Optimize Ads
There are several ways to improve your advertising campaign performance.
Check keywords
In Google Ads, it is better not to launch several ads at once for all keywords, but to divide them into groups. For example, for a sporting goods store, create one ad group for keywords related to skis, the second for those related to snowboarding, and the third for skates.
It is important to check the inclusion of keywords in the title and text. If the user sees that Google contextual advertising offers exactly what he is looking for, there is a high probability that he will click on the ad.
Experiment with creatives
If an ad is not performing well, don’t turn it off right away. You can try creating several versions with different headlines or images. Perhaps an alternative version will bring more conversions.
Check the landing page
Let’s say the CTR of Google Ads is high, there is traffic, but the conversion into orders is low. In this case, it is worth checking whether users can find what they are looking for by clicking on the link in the ad.
It is important that the site is adapted for smartphones and is generally convenient. So that people do not have to waste time looking for the “Order” button, the store address or delivery conditions.
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Common Mistakes in Google Ads
To make Google Ads promotion effective, it is important to understand how the tool works and gain experience in launching advertising campaigns. Here are the most common mistakes that affect the results of contextual advertising:
❌ No connection between Google Ads and Google Analytics 4
The connection between Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 accounts is needed to track user activity. It also helps the advertising system learn and improve its performance. For example, based on analytical data on site traffic, Google Advertising algorithms can determine that users who came from a specific placement are more likely to place orders. In this case, the advertising system will begin to show them ads more effectively.
❌ Neglect of additional opportunities
It is important not only to add creatives to the ad, but also to fill in all the additional fields. This is especially true for text ads, to which you can add an address, phone number, rating, and links to different sections of the site. This will make the ad in Google Ads more noticeable and tell more about the benefits of the product.
❌ Incorrectly selected audience
For contextual advertising to be effective, you need to understand who it might interest. First of all, this concerns promotion in the Google Display Network and YouTube. Despite the fact that these channels are used to obtain wide coverage, it is important to narrow the audience. For example, there is no point in promoting age-related cosmetics to all women or a restaurant chain from Novosibirsk to the entire country.
How to work with Google Ads in Russia
Since March 2022, Google Ads does not provide the opportunity to promote products in Russia. However, the service can still be useful for advertisers.
Now in Google Ads you can launch advertising for an audience that lives in the CIS countries, for example, in Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan. To set up such advertising, you need to register an advertising account, specify one of the CIS countries and link a bank card of this country to replenish the budget.
Currently the service is suitable for two types of business:
1. Companies that already sell goods or services in the CIS.
2. Companies that can supply products to the CIS countries. For example, in Google Ads you can promote clothing if the brand has established logistics and can deliver it to other countries.
