Pros and Cons of using a Google AdWords Campaign

If you’re thinking about maximising the potential of your website via rankings and keywords, you may well have considered various options, including going it alone to improve your website, heightening your SEO, or beginning a Google AdWords campaign. It can be confusing as to which of these options will give you the best return on your investments, but all three strategies are highly likely to increase the onsite visibility of your website, resulting in more traffic and potentially more conversion.

Google AdWords is often an appealing option for the fast road to success at the top of the search results, and with Google bombarding you with the positives of their own products, it can be difficult to see past silver linings.

Pros:

Easy to control your campaign

Google AdWords is one of the easiest ways to take control of your campaign. You can pre-set a budget so that your spending is limited from the outset, and then you can increase it if you so wish, depending on the success so far. This means that you are not spending copious and unknown amounts on your marketing without knowing where your money is going.

Measurable results

Google AdWords allows you to measure the success of your campaign easily. Once the campaign is set up, you can see the amount of impressions compared to clicks, and clicks compared to conversions. This means that you will be able to see how successful your campaign is, allowing you to make sensible, calculated decisions as to your budget and campaign.

Adjust your campaign

On considering the success you are having with you keywords, you can adjust your campaign however you wish in regards to pausing, stopping and starting and swapping keywords. This allows you to analyse which keywords work for you, and at what times of the day, for your Google AdWords campaign to be optimised.

Cons:

Can be confusing

Google AdWords may sound like the fast track to success for high rankings, but using this method is a steep learning curve, and can be tricky to tackle. It involves calculations along with trial and error to ensure that you are getting the most for your money.

The campaign is time limited

Google AdWords is a short-term investment. Whilst the campaign may encourage visits whilst you are paying for the campaign, once the campaign ends, your position at the top of the page is lost instantly. In comparison to paying for SEO, which a long-term investment likely to grow, any investment in Google AdWords campaigns will have no lasting impact once it has been turned off.

Results are not as significant as other methods

Although Google AdWords definitely makes a difference to websites who are not originally ranking, many studies suggest that over 70% of users ignore paid ads and focus on organic search results, suggesting that good SEO is worth more than a Google AdWords campaign.

Having considered the pros and cons of Google AdWords, it is clear to see that this type of campaign is highly beneficial in many ways, however it is by far not the only successful tactic to improve your onsite visibility.

The truth of the matter is that using a Google AdWords campaign is just a minor part in success, and is best used as part of a larger campaign involving a quality website along with an SEO campaign.