What Does This Means for Your Small Business?

Google recently announced that its Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising service Google AdWords would be consolidated into a new system called Google Ads. So, what does this change mean for small business owners who use this service for their online marketing?

It turns out that the name change is primarily just that. According to Google senior vice president Sridhar Ramaswamy, the rebrand is based on “consistent feedback” that the myriad native and third-party marketing services provided by Google are confusing and difficult to use. So rather than a complete overhaul, the rename is primarily Google’s attempt to repackage its services into neat bundles with greater data sharing capabilities. But that isn’t all. Google is also releasing a series of important new tools for small businesses.

Google Ads Tools

The most significant new tool is Smart Campaigns. This tool is targeted at small, street-level type businesses with little digital advertising knowledge or expertise. It works by having owners choose the actions they want to prioritize (be it phone calls, store visits, or purchases), then allowing them to step back and let Google’s AI automate their ad campaign to achieve those goals. The service is so powerful because it can use machine learning to constantly update the text and image displayed to better drive conversions.

But while digital marketing with no expertise necessary is certainly a plus, it can just as easily be a negative. A piece of software will not understand the ins and outs of your business like a human marketer can, and there’s no guarantee that the type of actions you ask Google to drive will be the best actions to help your business. Even so, for small businesses who want to break into digital marketing but can’t afford an agency yet, this do-it-yourself PPC advertising provides a great opportunity to increase your visibility and get your name in the minds of potential customers.

Another tool is the Google Marketing Platform. This service brings together marketing and performance measuring software to create a more comprehensive view of a company’s marketing campaign all in one place. It provides a number of different ways to connect Google’s tools, allowing for the PPC program of ad-buying to apply to a range of different formats. This will make it easier for small marketing teams to organize their campaigns and get a top down view of their digital marketing operations.

New Directions for Google Advertising

The switch from Google AdWords to Google Ads also represents a shift in how the company views digital marketing. Rather than focusing on keywords, the new target is audiences. Think paid channels on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. This change means Google is looking to be less dependent on queries to target ads, increasing the scope of its digital marketing capabilities.

This is significant for small business because it can provide the kind of multichannel marketing previously associated with expansive campaigns. Google Ads is looking to cheaply provide a powerful service for small business. It can’t be expected that these campaigns will have the same effect as enterprise-level marketing, but in time it could shift how companies view digital marketing and expect their operations to be run.

But in the end, while new names, logos, and tools will be rolled out over the next few months little is likely to radically change. Google is cleaning up its interface with the new marketing suites, and introducing some great new tools, but nothing revolutionary is happening. Campaigns are still going to be run the same way, and query-based marketing is still the strongest PPC tactic for digital marketers. Smart Campaigns is a viable option for select small-budget operations, but many companies should still invest in a team or agency. That said, Google’s status as an advertising juggernaut means businesses and advertisers alike need to keep a careful watch on the company to see where the industry will go in the future.

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