Search engine advertising, or SEA (Search Engine Advertising), refers to text-based advertising in search engines. By advertising on Google, you reach customers when they are searching for your service or product.

Every company should invest in search engine advertising, as it practically guarantees round-the-clock visibility on Google. This naturally helps to increase brand awareness and boost sales.

In this article, we will explain in more detail why it is worth doing search engine advertising, how you can advertise more effectively on Google, and what the costs are for outsourcing and doing search engine advertising yourself.

How does search engine advertising (advertising on Google) differ from search engine optimization?

Search engine marketing, or SEM (Search Engine Marketing), consists of search engine optimization, or SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), and search engine advertising, or SEA (Search Engine Advertising).

These concepts are sometimes confused with each other, and their connection to each other is not always understood. Contrary to what someone might think, neither search engine advertising nor search engine optimization should be practiced alone.

Search Engine Marketing or SEM includes a set of methods and strategies aimed at increasing a website's visibility in search engines, enhancing brand awareness, and boosting the sales of a product or service. These are the goals of both search engine optimization and advertising on Google, but the ways in which these objectives are achieved differ from each other.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO refers to actions taken on a website to improve its organic or natural search engine ranking over the long term without investing a cent in advertisements. This can include everything from improving the technical structure to content and link building. Search engine optimization yields excellent results in search engine visibility, especially with lower volume keywords that are not too competitive.

Search Engine Advertising or SEA is advertising where a website is made to appear above the organic search results. In search engine advertising, the ads are always text ads. The most common place to do search engine advertising is Google, and therefore we speak of search engine advertising and Google advertising as synonyms.

Search engine advertising is the best choice when targeting keywords with high monthly search volumes and for which several authoritative websites are competing. In such cases, search engine optimization may be too slow to yield results and even ineffective.

In practice, if you want the best possible visibility and a lot of clicks for your Google ads, it requires conducting a successful keyword analysis. If you want the customers who clicked on your ad to also purchase your product or service, your website must be optimized for conversions before advertising on Google. Once you have reached the point where search engine advertising is effective, the results should be analyzed and developed regularly.

For these reasons, you too should advertise on Google.

1. Reach potential customers at the right time

Often the first place to search for information, products, and services is Google. With search ads, you capture the attention of users who are looking for information and/or a solution to their problem and are therefore interested in your company that provides information and/or solutions.

In addition to reaching people in your domain at the right time, i.e., during the information search phase and later when they are ready to purchase, advertising on Google allows you to increase brand awareness and make your product or service a familiar and safe option for the customer.

2. You can target Google advertising effectively

Google text ads can be targeted to exact groups. This ensures that precisely the target group or groups you are aiming for see your ad. With precise targeting, the funds invested in advertising are not wasted, and search engine advertising yields definite results. This, of course, also requires that you know how to create appealing ads and that your website is in order (obstacles to purchasing have been removed).

Search ads can be optimized based on keywords, location, target audience, interests, age, days and times, or the devices used for searching. Ads can thus be set to appear, for example, only to locals or to those who have previously visited the homepage or online store.

3. You can control costs

In display advertising, the budget is entirely at the discretion of the advertiser, i.e., the company, to decide, modify, and control. Expenses can be controlled in detail, or you can set a fixed daily maximum for the campaign.

You can always adjust the budget based on the performance of the ads and pause or stop the campaigns entirely whenever you wish. If you notice that a particular ad is performing more effectively, you can invest more in it and less in others.

In addition, with search engine advertising, you only pay Google for actual results, i.e., clicks.

4. It is possible to monitor and improve the results

The biggest advantage of advertising on Google is that the results are 100% measurable. And when you know how to analyze the results accurately, it is possible for you to develop them almost endlessly.

By following and utilizing data with Google's tools (Google Analytics), you can determine what works in your own search engine advertising and what should be done more, and conversely, what does not work. With the right tools, the results of search engine advertising can be improved with each new campaign.

In addition, it is possible to see results and start improving them within a few days or weeks of starting the advertising, rather than only after a couple of months.

5. Results come quickly and much faster than by optimizing

We emphasize that if you want to appear in search engines without advertising, you need to invest in search engine optimization. However, search engine advertising will bring your company to the top of search results much faster than optimization. Advertising on Google thus brings almost immediate results, meaning several potential customers to your website.

Which brings more results, advertising on Google or search engine optimization?

Both search engine optimization and search engine advertising yield good results (when done correctly). However, search engine advertising may require search engine optimization to function effectively.

Due to the requirements set by Google's website, the effectiveness of keyword advertising improves and the cost of ads decreases when your site is optimized for search engines. Conversely, if the site does not meet these criteria, keyword ads will not achieve the best possible visibility, even if you spend more money on them than your competitors.

For these reasons alone, search engine optimization in addition to advertising is worthwhile. An unoptimized homepage or online store also tends to drive away most potential customers as soon as they land on the site.

The most common causes of user attrition are excessively long loading times, low-quality or uninteresting content, a confusing structure, or a website that is otherwise outdated. Even if advertisements receive many clicks and bring people to the website, no sales are generated because no one simply has the patience or desire to use a poorly functioning site. In such cases, customers turn to your competitors.

So, website search engine optimization and conversion optimization are indeed an essential part of search engine advertising whenever an entrepreneur wants to make advertising a truly profitable and cost-effective way to grow.

On the other hand, advertising on Google can effectively bring people to new websites when a new homepage or online store has not yet gained visibility through search engine optimization. In such cases, it is advisable to engage in keyword advertising, assuming that the website is technically sound and persuasive.

If your website has deficiencies, it is good to use a professional's help for search engine optimization. Next, let's move on to what advertising on Google costs.

What does outsourcing search engine advertising cost

When you outsource the planning and execution of search engine advertising to an industry expert, several factors influence the price. The most common are the hours worked and the number of results (clicks). The price difference is created by the unique practices and pricing models of advertising agencies.

At the beginning of the collaboration, the cost of advertising on Google may be determined by how much the company already has in place. If the advertising implementation continues from an existing setup, starting search engine advertising often does not cost much.

When outsourcing search engine advertising, it also includes reporting and client meetings, which at Digitoimisto Growly are always included in the monthly price of search engine advertising. In more demanding search engine advertising projects or at the client's request, reporting and meetings can be conducted more frequently.

The cost of search engine advertising is also influenced by the total number of different ad groups, campaigns, and search terms used by the client company. When search engine advertising is implemented on a larger scale and with bigger objectives, the time spent on search engine advertising and the cost of advertising also increase.

In Google advertising, however, good results can be achieved even with a smaller investment. For example, at Growly, the cost of search engine advertising typically ranges between €399 and €1299.

If the work begins with advertising planning, or if actions such as search engine optimization or conversion optimization need to be performed on the website first to improve advertising effectiveness, costs will naturally increase. When the advertising is later maintained and developed on a monthly basis, the costs are considerably more moderate.

However, for fear of costs, search engine optimization should not be overlooked, because if you jump directly to search engine advertising, the ads will run inefficiently and money will be wasted. The best possible results from search engine advertising are achieved when search engine and conversion optimization have been done as a foundation.

Cost per click in Google's text ads

In search advertising, Google charges for clicks, meaning the entrepreneur only pays for actual results. The cost of these results also depends on a couple of factors.

Since Google's pricing operates on an auction basis, clicks cost more the higher the competition for the keyword used.

Depending on the competition, the click price of different keywords can vary quite significantly. For example, the average cost per click for an online retailer might be around twenty cents, but for an accounting firm, a click may cost nearly ten euros.

In addition to competition, the price paid per click is determined by the quality scores given by Google. The better your ads and website are, and the higher your ad's click-through rate is, the better the quality scores will be. Therefore, you will pay more for search engine advertising if your website and ads are poorly executed.

When determining scores, the search engine considers how high-quality the ads are, how relevant they are in relation to the website or landing page, and the condition of the website (whether it is user-friendly).

If any of these pieces are missing, advertising on Google can become quite expensive, and the results are still not guaranteed. When outsourcing advertising, the ideal partner should be able to explain to the client, if necessary, why effective search engine advertising involves much more than just advertising, such as refining the website to be user-friendly. This saves the client's time and money.

Summary of Keyword Advertising/Advertising on Google

With search engine advertising, you can target ads to those potential customers who are ready to receive the information and solution you offer, meaning to purchase your company's products or services either at the moment of the search or later when it becomes relevant.

Advertising on Google is very fast and cost-effective, and therefore every entrepreneur should take advantage of it in their marketing. 

Although search engine advertising is a great way to drive potential customers to a website, other factors must also be addressed to make it as productive as possible. The most important thing is to optimize the homepage or online store primarily for customers and also for search engines.

Since search engine advertising is sometimes technical and quite demanding, it is advisable to leave it to a skilled and experienced partner. We implement Google advertising that delivers reliable results for our clients. However, nothing prevents you from advertising on Google yourself.