Google Ads for Marketing Industrial Products

We all want to find any and all potential customers to buy our products. But our products aren’t like everyone else’s. So can a Google Ad work for marketing industrial products (e.g. photonics and lasers) as well as it does for skincare and zero-calorie soda? Of course there are other ways to market your products like banner ads, trade shows, and through FindLight’s microsite. But hey, let’s see if Google Ads are something you want to incorporate into your marketing budget. 

Google Ad Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

What are Google Ads?

We can start by figuring out what Google Ads even are. Google Ads incorporate keywords, which we discussed in our past article Five Ways to Elevate your Website Copy, that are relevant to your products and have a corresponding advertisement with the search results. They are marked as an “Ad” but they still will be at the top of many search results. 

The hard thing about these keywords and ads is that you are in competition with other advertisers who are using the same or similar keywords. The higher up you want your ad to be, the higher your bid to get the ad needs to be. This is why a keyword strategy is very important to a successful Google Ad campaign and especially to marketing industrial products. 

Things to look into before you choose your keywords

Before diving into a bid, make sure to do your research. If you are able to see how many impressions each word gets, then you will be able to make a better decision. Take this example highlighted by RP Photonics: “Google estimated about 20,000 impressions for “femtosecond lasers” in October 2018, if you bid 2 USD. You could then expect roughly 700 clicks costing of the order of 700 USD. With a lower bid, you could reduce the average cost per click, but also get less traffic.”

Make sure to grab your marketing team and financial team and see how much should be allocated for your first round of Google Ads. If you have a popular keyword but do not have the budget for it you might need to restrategize. This means sometimes you have to decide between cost and larger amounts of traffic. We found some basic tips on building a keyword list that might come in handy if you are starting from the ground zero. 

The truth is for marketing industrial products, we already are working with a limited range of keywords. Try mixing some general keywords with ones specific to your product to reach wider ranges of potential customers. 

The financial cost of advertising

You’ll always be able to fit the cost into the parameter of your campaign budget. But just because it is in your budget does not mean the investment will generate the right returns. If you want to figure out ways to truly optimize your Google Ad, learning the details will be extremely important.

Sometimes if you are new to Google Ads or find that they are not returning your investment in them, you could seek professional advice. For expensive items like industrial equipment lasers and photonics, it helps to have a tech guru who can help find the keywords that will expand your network and clicks. There are Google Ad experts out there that can be hired to consult or create the ads directly for you. Depending on your goals and budget, this might be the most painless way to go about using Google Ads.

What is the quality of web traffic generated by Google Ads?

The quality of your traffic is incredibly important for marketing industrial products. You do not want the wrong audience costing you more money when they cannot bring you in any sales. There sometimes is a high bounce rate in Google Ads, when people click but never buy, which makes the Ad game tricky. 

If you want to check the quality of web traffic, try looking into your page views per visit. You can also look at the average number of page views caused by visitors from Google Ads. If they are spending more time on the website and not clicking and leaving, it could be a good sign. 

Working in high tech such as photonics makes targeting your audience on Google Ads even more difficult than in other industries. You have a very specific lingo and product line that is not necessarily on top of normal consumers’ wish lists. General search engines might not be where you want to advertise. Some of us lean more into being a part of buyer’s guides or creating storefronts at places like FindLight to try and broaden our audiences. 

If you want to look into how to see if your money is well spent with Google Ads, use the equation of cost per click in combination with the quality of your traffic to see if the lead generation is worth the Google Ad bid price. 

Why branding is important for Google Ads

Branding is always very important when it comes to paid ads. These ads should help spread brand awareness, which you can measure through the impressions made on the ad. In order for any of the goals to be made with your paid Google Ad, your branding for the ad has to be stellar. It has to be well designed and thought out so it can be your goal by attracting consumers. 

When thinking about the cost of these Google Ads, you should also be thinking about how your team will spend its efforts to create the branding for the Ad. It will help make your cost more effective. 

Your brand is how you separate yourself from others. The marketing you are doing is outreach. Google Ads has a great piece on how to combine your marketing tactics with your branding. 

Overall, marketing your products will take some trial and error. It might take a bid or two to see traction from a Google Ad. You might bite the budget bullet and pay for an expert to help you out. Either way, before you start making your Google Ad, check in with your goals. Do you want customers, brand awareness, or website clicks as a primary focal point? Either way, Google Ads has the potential to help meet those goals. With a strong keyword list and a great branding effect, anything is possible.