In this article we take a closer look at advertising with Google Ads, or the application of Search Engine Advertising (SEA). We keep it simple by only going into Search campaigns that can be linked to your Stager account. If you want to go deeper into the matter, we would like to refer you to our online marketing partner Afdeling Online.
Step 1: Create a search campaign
The basis of Google Ads lies with Search. A Search campaign is therefore easy to set up. If you want to advertise via Search, start at the beginning and ask yourself the following questions:
What do I want to achieve with my advertising campaign? Selling tickets?
What is the main keyword for a search? This can be a band name, or genre.
What phrases and combinations can I come up with with my main keyword? Think of 'concert tickets + pop music'.
By asking yourself these questions, you define the basis of a search campaign. In other words, a campaign that you use to be displayed within the search results (hence, search) of a search engine such as Google.
Compile a campaign list based on your keywords, phrases and combinations. Next, group the words and phrases you want to advertise with in an ad group. Here you combine general and specific keywords.
Step 2: Set your campaign budget & your bids
At least as important as organizing your ad groups is determining your campaign budget. After all, you don't want to spend too much, or undersell your campaign.
Once you've set your budget, it's time to set your keyword bids. Within Google, the rule is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This is also referred to as the cost per click (Cost per Click; CPC). The more popular the keywords you use, the higher the competition, and the more you pay for them. When a keyword is very relevant to your ad and to the landing page, the keyword gets a high quality score. With a high quality score, you pay less per click, because of the relevance.
You can of course choose to advertise using popular names eg Ed Sheeran, to increase reach. But when you compete with giant venues who will book Sheeran, you can expect to pay top dollar for this keyword.
Better to choose wisely for more specific keywords. For example, for less well-known artists, or by linking concert tickets to your city or name.
Step 3: Write catchy ads
If you advertise within Google Ads, you will appear in Google search results with a title, description and display URL. In this you describe briefly and clearly what you offer. Feature your most important keywords within an ad group. The most effective is once in the headline and once in the description. Make sure your ads link directly to the most relevant page on your website and not your homepage.
Step 4: Measure your results
Do you want to see whether, or how, your advertisements actually lead to ticket sales? Then link your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts. You do this as follows:
Sign in to Google Analytics.
Click on 'Admin' at the bottom left.
Go to Link Products in the 2nd column and click on 'Google Ads Linking'.
Click on 'Link' and then click on 'Choose Google Ads Accounts' and search for the account ID or name of the Google Ads account, then select it by ticking the checkbox and click 'Confirm' at the top.
NOTE: If you do not see your Google Ads account listed here, you are probably logged into an email address that has not been added to Google or does not have sufficient rights in Google Ads. Log in to an email with sufficient rights and repeat the steps above.
Your account number can always be found at the top of Google Ads and always consists of 10 digits in the form of XXX-XXX-XXXX.
For the following two steps you can both press 'Next' and finally you can confirm the setup by clicking 'Submit'.
Step 5: Import conversions from Google Analytics
Now that your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked, it is possible to import goals from Google Analytics as a conversion in Google Ads. You can read more about conversions in the article Measuring conversion with e-commerce.
The steps to add Google Analytics conversions to Google Ads are as follows:
Sign in to Google Ads and go to your Google Ads account.
Go to the top under 'Tools and Settings' to the column 'Measurement' and click on 'Conversions'.
Click on the blue plus sign and then click on 'Import'.
Now choose the Analytics product that is relevant to you (Google Analytics (UA) or Google Analytics 4) and click on 'Continue'.
You then see an overview of all Google Analytics conversions that you have not yet imported. Select the desired conversions here by ticking the checkbox and then click on 'Import and continue'.
Now click on ‘Done’. Your Google Analytics goals are now imported into Google Ads!
To create new goals in Google Analytics, repeat the steps above and import the new conversions.
Step 6: Add audiences to improve your results
You should have already read how to set up remarketing groups. You can also add these to your search campaigns. Go through the following steps to add them:
Click on your campaign.
Click on 'Target groups' in the menu.
Then click on the blue pencil.
Choose the option 'Observation'.
Click on ‘How they interacted with your business’.
Then you choose 'website visitors'.
And finally click on 'all visitors'.
Google Ads will then automatically return to the previous page, where you will see 'all visitors'.
You can then set a bid adjustment, for example choose +20%.
This means that if previous visitors to your website search within Google for one of the keywords that you have set up in your Search campaign - such as concert tickets - they will see another advertisement. Since previous visitors are also more likely to make a purchase, your campaign is optimized for a relevant target audience.
It is important to note that adding remarketing target groups is not possible for Google Grants accounts. An alternative to this is to create an extra account just for your remarketing campaigns.
In addition to Google Ads, there are also Google Grants for cultural organizations that have ANBI status. Google Grants gives cultural institutions $10,000/€9,000 per month for free advertising within Google's search network. There are a few rules to this, however. You must only advertise on relevant keywords. If you would like to know more about Google Grants, click here or contact the Google Grants specialist Afdeling Online.