Google Advertising

[billbenson]

I had an online store that was quite profitable for quite a while. It failed for a variety of reasons in 2016 or there abouts. I'm trying to restart it. I have much lower sales goals than I did in the past. In any case, I used Adwords at that time quite successfully. I am curious what has changed with Google web site advertising. I want to run ads for particular products on my site. I am not referring to any social media or youtube types of ads at this time, although I am interested in what others are doing for this.

[Harold Mansfield]

From my experience it has gotten harder than it was a few years back. Of course it depends on what you're advertising and how much competition there is in the space.
From what I've seen working with other clients it's a lot more expensive than it used to be.

Used to be you could target a small traffic niche, now Google won't let you even bid on keywords that fall below a certain number of queries anymore.
If you're in a space with a lot of competition, like say a local plumber in a pretty populated area, you need some deep pockets to rise above players like Yellow Pages and the Home Improvement sites that suck up everything above the fold.

Also, you need to build a complete profile online. Doing it with just ads is hard now. Gotta have a website with the right Google Meta tags, Google business profile, it helps to start accumulating reviews on Google, social media is a factor but not sure how that's going to work now that they are shutting down G+

And that's just if you're local. Google has put heavy emphasis on local now. Especially now that most users are mobile..location dictates what you're going to see.

As for adsense ( on site ads) you have some control, but not complete control. Best way to attract certain ads to your site is the content. You'll eventually attract ads that match the content you have on the site. The better your traffic, the more you'll attract higher priced per click ads.

[billbenson]

I'm going on memory here, but my Adwords campaign several years ago had over 100 targeted ads matching the page it linked to. It was for a very niche product and it wasn't that expensive for some of the ads. Some were more expensive. I made enough from a sale to pay for an ad, so at a minimum I was at a break even point. My plan would be to duplicate the same effort and see where I get initially.

Does this make sense? Does Adwords even still exist under the name 'Adwords'? I am going to write completely new pages for the site. The old site which I haven't touched in a year and a half still ranks reasonably well in regular SERPS. I am going to write completely new pages (use a different cart program) for web pages that I will link ads to. Will Adwords help me get the new pages indexed?

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm going on memory here, but my Adwords campaign several years ago had over 100 targeted ads matching the page it linked to. It was for a very niche product and it wasn't that expensive for some of the ads. Some were more expensive. I made enough from a sale to pay for an ad, so at a minimum I was at a break even point. My plan would be to duplicate the same effort and see where I get initially.

Does this make sense? Does Adwords even still exist under the name 'Adwords'? I am going to write completely new pages for the site. The old site which I haven't touched in a year and a half still ranks reasonably well in regular SERPS. I am going to write completely new pages (use a different cart program) for web pages that I will link ads to. Will Adwords help me get the new pages indexed?
Well, you're already ahead of the game being that you have extensive Adwords experience. You may have to adjust to what has changed, but you're in better shape than most who start out with no experience with it. BTW it's just called Google Ads now.

Will Google ads help get that page indexed? Yes and no. The page will be indexed just by putting it up and connecting it to your search console. Will it help it rank? No. Not one bit. The only thing that's going to help you rank naturally is content, design, https, natural links, and time.

[billbenson]

BTW it's just called Google Ads now.

Thanks Harold. Everything including the quote above helps. I appreciate it.

[Willie Posey]

You can switch to Instagram or Facebook advertising. These are also effective to bring success to your business.

[ewebber]

Instagram and Facebook are monsters in the advertising game but like any marketplace or social media your business is at the mercy of them not disabling your account. I would look at social media advertising as a supplement to search engine marketing just for that fact. Search engine marketing offers more control and less worry about being disabled from your account that feeds your business.
Be sure to connect your site with Google Webmaster tools. Create a site map and force an index from there. Also google a free "ping" site. Google likes SSL alot these days. Check with your hosting to see if they have free ssl.

[Clifford Buda]

Pinterest marketing is also working a lot for business promotion these days. You can give a try.