Google Marketing: How to Increase Your Visibility on Google

With Google marketing, a business can gain valuable visibility in Google's various channels.

The concept is widely used in digital marketing, but its exact meaning is not entirely fixed. In this article, we will go through what Google marketing entails and how to work with it successfully.

What is Google marketing?

Google marketing – which partly corresponds to SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – involves improving a company's visibility on Google. Google marketing can be divided into two main areas: search engine optimization and search advertising.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves improving visibility in search engines' – of which Google is the most important – organic, i.e., unpaid, search results. SEO is a long-term effort whose results are measured over time. AI optimization is one of the sub-areas within search engine optimization.

Search advertising or Google advertising refers to paid digital advertising on Google and other search engines. It refers to ad campaigns created via the Google Ads platform that can be displayed in Google's own services or on partner websites. Search advertising can be targeted very precisely to a specific audience, making it possible to reach the right people at the right time. This way, your company is visible precisely when your customers are searching for your products or services.

Search engine optimization – the long-term game in Google marketing

The world of search engine optimization is constantly changing as Google updates its algorithms. However, the following principles form the basis of Google optimization:

• Create high-quality content that meets user needs.
  

• Ensure your website offers an excellent user experience.
  

• Take care of the website's technical performance.
  

• Strive to increase the website's credibility by acquiring quality links and external brand mentions.
  
  

Search engine optimization may sound technical, but in the end, it's about serving people. The better your website and content respond to users' search intent, the easier it is for people to find you.

Building visibility in search engines is a long-term effort where quick wins are rare. Holistic optimization is traditionally divided into three main areas:

• On-page SEO – optimization on the website itself, such as producing and updating content.
  

• Off-page SEO – optimization outside the website, such as link building.
  

• Technical SEO – ensuring the website's technical functionality, for example, sufficient loading speed.
  
  

"Google advertising gives the company visibility immediately when the ads start to appear."

Google advertising – quick results with various campaign formats

Unlike search engine optimization, Google advertising gives the company visibility immediately when the ads start to appear.

Within Google advertising, campaign is a central concept. Google offers various campaign formats that help companies maximize their visibility in search engines. The campaign formats are:

• Google Search Ads
  

• Google Shopping advertising
  

• Google Demand Gen advertising
  

• Google Sales Performance Max advertising
  

• Google Display advertising
  

• YouTube advertising
  
  

The campaign formats differ, but their common purpose is to create awareness, generate interest in products and services, collect leads, or drive conversions, such as purchases. Below, we will go through the different campaign formats in more detail.

Google search advertising is effective and targeted marketing

Google search advertising, or Search Ads, refers to the paid ads displayed on Google's search results page. They appear when a user performs a specific search in Google's search engine.

A marketer working with Google search advertising can carefully define which search terms should trigger the ads. The strength of search advertising lies precisely in this: you can make potential customers aware of your products exactly when they are actively searching for them.

In search advertising, you only pay for clicks (i.e., when someone clicks on the ad), making it a very cost-effective form of advertising. However, it's important to remember that popular keywords are usually the most expensive.

At Wuohi, paid Google advertising is one of our most popular services.

 

Google Shopping advertising is particularly suitable for e-commerce businesses

Google Shopping advertising is an ad format designed for e-commerce and allows products to be displayed directly on Google's search results pages and in the Google Shopping feed. The ads appear at the top of Google search or in the ad block on the right.

Compared to traditional search advertising, Shopping ads are more visual. Therefore, they are particularly suitable for e-commerce companies where products are central. A customer searching for products on Google immediately sees relevant products linked to their search, which simplifies the purchasing process and facilitates decision-making.

Google Demand Gen is advertising at the beginning of the customer journey

Demand Gen is advertising at the top of the customer journey, with the main goal of creating awareness and generating interest and demand.

Demand Gen campaigns are displayed in Google's and YouTube's visual channels, such as YouTube Shorts, YouTube in-feed, Discover, and Gmail. The tool allows targeting audiences with various ad formats, such as short videos, carousels, and images of different sizes. All layout and placement do not need to be handled manually, as Google's AI can create combinations of customized, effective images, messages, and placements.

In this campaign type, keywords are not the most important, but rather audience segmentation – something that can be enhanced with the help of AI. One way is to create a lookalike audience based on existing data, which AI then enriches by finding more people with similar characteristics. A lookalike audience helps you reach new potential customers who are not yet familiar with your brand.

In this strategy, it is crucial to have a clear picture of who the campaigns should be aimed at, as the ultimate goal is to create visibility that leads to conversions.

Google Sales Performance Max is advertising at the end of the customer journey

Sales Performance Max (PMax) is, as the name suggests, advertising at the end of the customer journey – i.e., conversion-driven advertising with the purpose of generating purchases or other conversions (leads/contact inquiries).

Demand Gen and PMax use similar ad formats, but their goals differ. PMax ads use the entire Google advertising network, including Google Search, Display, YouTube, and Google Maps. This allows advertisers to reach their customers across multiple channels and devices.

PMax uses Google's machine learning and automation to improve campaign results and AI to optimize audience targeting. You need to set clear goals for the advertising, after which the AI starts learning and making data-driven decisions.

When you provide the brand's images, videos, and texts, PMax automatically combines the content according to what the AI deems most effective. However, there are certain risks with AI-driven decisions, making it important to follow up and monitor campaigns carefully.

Google Display advertising reaches over 90% of internet users

Google Display advertising is banner advertising displayed on Google's Display Network – i.e., on websites that cooperate with Google. The network comprises over two million websites and reaches more than 90% of internet users.

Banner advertising is an effective way to create awareness and drive traffic to a website. With attractive and well-targeted ads, you can increase brand awareness and drive more sales. We work with banner advertising via Google Display.

In the Display Network, advertisers can target their ads based on various criteria, such as demographics, interests, and behavior. It is also possible to use different ad formats, including images, videos, and animations.

YouTube advertising can be targeted very precisely

YouTube advertising is video-based and includes several different ad formats, such as pre-roll ads and in-stream ads. Visibility can be precisely targeted, for example, based on specific YouTube channels or search terms, which can generate significant numbers of views.

Video campaigns can be shown not only on YouTube but also on Google's video partner websites and in apps.

Measuring Google advertising is crucial

Measuring Google advertising – just like all other digital marketing – is crucial. However, it is not always straightforward or unambiguous.

Today, the effectiveness and results of Google campaigns are measured using Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager, among other tools. With these analysis and tracking tools, you can follow in real-time which campaigns, ad formats, and search terms drive traffic and sales – as well as how users behave on the website.

It is not meaningful to work with Google advertising if you are not interested in following up, measuring, and optimizing the results. The advertising budget risks being wasted if campaigns are not planned, analyzed, and continuously improved.

Conversely, when a company clearly knows what works in advertising, resources can be allocated cost-effectively between different efforts. This, in turn, creates better conditions for profitable growth.

Google advertising is an important part of a multichannel strategy

At Wuohi, we specialize in holistic Google advertising based on a clear funnel approach. In practice, this means we consider the entire customer journey and select campaign types and ad formats based on where the target audience is in the funnel.

This way, we ensure that the marketing budget is used effectively – always with the customer's business goals in focus.

Keyword advertising is seamlessly integrated into the company's marketing strategy by using our G.O.A.T. funnel.

In the G-phase of the funnel, we use Display, Discovery, YouTube, and PMax advertising to create awareness and generate interest in the customer's products and services. To get the user to click on the ad, we must offer clear added value. Here, content production plays a crucial role. Added value is built through top-of-funnel advertising, where we use the same ad formats as in the G-phase.

Once we have managed to engrave ourselves into the potential customer's consciousness, we need to activate the person. In Google, this is most effectively done through Search and Shopping ads (including PMax), as the customer then already has a clear need and is actively looking for a solution.

Once we have captured the potential customer, we can focus on facilitating the purchasing decision and reducing uncertainty in the selection process. For this purpose, Google's most effective ad formats are Search, Shopping, and PMax, which help drive conversions and close the deal.

Google's world is constantly changing

Keeping up with developments in digital marketing and Google's constant updates requires continuous learning and curiosity. Six months is already a very long time in the rapidly changing digital world.

As cookie tracking has been phased out, the follow-up of Google advertising results, audience targeting, and advertising strategies have changed radically. Today, you cannot blindly rely on Google's AI to automatically show ads to the right audience. Advertisers must actively ensure that the website and ad account are updated and correctly configured.

Good examples of this are Google Consent Mode V2, Enhanced Conversions, and server-side tracking (server-side tagging). Without Consent Mode V2, it has no longer been possible to collect Google's marketing data in Europe since March 2024. This change is based on Google's interpretation of European legislation.

Wuohi Digital helps you stay at the forefront of Google marketing

Your competitors are constantly ready to take your place in Google's ad spaces if you don't stay updated and at the forefront of development. Therefore, it is often simpler and more effective to hire a knowledgeable digital agency as a partner.

By choosing Wuohi as your Google partner, you can be sure that your company is visible to the right people, in the right place, and at the right time. Order a free audit and find out how visible your company is in Google's advertising channels.