When you advertise your website with Google, or hopefully, more specifically, a page on your website, you have the choice of both, but what is the difference between them, and which is better? Google AdWords or AdWords Express?
The differences are subtle, but important. Google recommends only using one or the other – using both AdWords and AdWords Express can complicate your ad management and cause your ads to compete against each other. There’s zero advantage to using both advertising products at the same time.
On both platforms, your ads will be shown next to Google search results on the web, mobile phones, Google Maps and relevant partner websites.
Your ad can show when people anywhere include your location in their searches (e.g. “chicken burger Durban”) or when people are already in your geographic area and simply search for your product or service (e.g. “chicken burger takeaway”).
AdWords Express is good for:
If you don’t have a website*, you can use AdWords Express to send traffic to your profile on Google My Business. You can also use AdWords Express if you don’t have a physical shop – all you need is a postal address. If for some reason you’d like to hide your address (for instance, you work at home or have a mobile business) you can easily make it private. However, AdWords Express is specifically designed for local businesses. If you want to advertise in a larger geographic area, consider using AdWords.
AdWords is good for:
AdWords also offers additional ad formats, such as video ads and Shopping ads, which you don’t get with AdWords Express. Further to that, you will be able to write really specific ads for each of the services you offer – and target that traffic (the clicks which your ads generate) to specific product or service pages on your website.
If you would like to schedule campaigns through the year, based on your marketing calendar, you can do that with AdWords, and if you’re into testing – like we are – then AdWords is for you. You can create campaigns that test which ads your audience responds to, and which of your website’s landing pages is giving you the most conversions.
Basically, AdWords gives you a lot more flexibility than AdWords Express.
What’s next for your online advertising?
If you’re not 100% sure whether to choose Google AdWords or AdWords Express for your business, get in touch with us so that we can advise. Brand Candy can manage your AdWords campaigns for you – starting with the keyword research and planning that is required, through to writing your ads, setting them up on the AdWords platform, and managing their performance. You will receive a report on a monthly basis – detailing the campaigns and their ads, and our recommendations for improvement. We even have some lovely success stories to show you what a well-executed AdWords campaign can do.
*Eek! Please get in touch with us if this is the case!
