Google Ads management for photographers
Smart marketing via the world’s No.1 search engine and much more
Formerly known as AdWords, the Google Ads platform offers diverse ways for professional photographers to reach prospective customers, build brand awareness and generate leads within set geographic locations, including cost-per-click search campaigns – targeting relevant keywords to get you in front of those showing purchase intent based on the query they enter into Google – to visual ads shown across the far-reaching Google Display Network and video ads that appear on YouTube among other options. There’s also ecommerce-specific shopping ads available for photographers who sell prints online.
Remarketing via display ads and/or video ads, for both of which you pay based on how many people your ads are shown to, can be a powerful way to build greater brand awareness and stay top of mind. However, Google Ads is far from a set-and-forget solution, requiring regular performance monitoring and ongoing optimisation to deliver the best return on investment for your photography business.
Understanding the full potential of advertising on Google
Google Ads is divided into various networks, including the Search network (where text ads are shown on the search engine results pages on Google and you pay when someone clicks your ad to go to your website), the Display network (placement-based or remarketing ads, where you pay based on how many times your ads are shown), the Video network (including advertising on YouTube, where you pay based on the number of views) and the Shopping network (showcasing ecommerce products). Each network provides a different opportunity and it’s possible to include multiple networks into a comprehensive and highly effective Google Ads strategy for photographers. The first three are covered in a little more depth below.
Google search ads
Search engine results pages contain both paid ads and organic listings, all competing for the user’s attention. Google search ads achieving the highest positions for the particular search term entered by the user are shown in the most prominent spot: above the top-ranking organic results.
DIY search campaigns often include a lot of wasted budget, typically due to clicks on completely irrelevant searches due to oversights in the setup process or by not optimising the relevancy of the ad copy and landing page to the particular keywords being targeted.
Photomo implements search campaign and ad group structure best practices to ensure optimum relevancy while also A/B testing messaging and continually seeking to optimise settings to capitalise on identified opportunities for improved return on investment.
Google display ads
With more than two million websites within the Google Display Network, its reach extends to 90% of internet users globally. As such, utilising professionally-designed graphics featuring your photography is a great way to promote your business to people browsing online.
It’s possible to bid for ad placements on particular websites or to specify that ads should only be shown on websites with certain content topics. Audience targeting can be refined by age, demographics, geographic location, interests or intent (people currently researching specific topics, products or solutions on the web).
The ability to create remarketing audiences, for example to show certain ads to those who have previously visited your website or particular pages of your website, is extremely powerful to ensure multiple touchpoints with prospective customers.
Google video ads
Another visual advertising option, the Google Ads video network provides a great brand awareness opportunity for photographers who have set up a YouTube channel or have invested in the creation of an engaging brand video that tells a compelling story that resonates with your ideal client.
Video ads can be shown across the Google Display Network and on YouTube, the world’s No.1 video platform with more than 30 million viewers a day (the majority aged between 18 and 49).
As with the graphic-based, static Google display ads, video ads can be targeted to people who are most likely to become clients of your photography business and you only pay when those people actually watch your video. Videos that are up to three minutes can work well as ads, although they will need to be less than 15 seconds in length for non-skippable in-stream ads on YouTube.
“(I’ve) been getting more enquires than ever from Google. 100% believe in what Fred does. He is super easy to deal with (and) gives all the info you need so you are confident in what he is doing.”
— Matt Ashton of Matt Ashton Photography
Trusted by photographers across Australia and internationally
