Search engine marketing is one of the foolproof strategies employed by digital marketers in this day and age. With paid search advertising, you can potentially reach a massive amount of audience that can be converted to customers. This method of online advertising works by paying for every time your business ads show up on a relevant search engine results query.
For those who decide to use Google Adwords, you have another important choice to make: Adwords vs Adwords Express. These are two versions of the Google Adwords advertising method. They enable you to reach potential customers via the internet’s largest search engine, as well as target your audience geographically. But how do they differ? Is there a difference between these two?
Google Adwords
Adwords is an online advertising service that is provided by Google as part of the search engine marketing efforts. It works by bidding on keywords that are relevant to the products or services offered by your company – the advertisers. Your bid gives you the opportunity to appear on Google search results when searches are done using the relevant keywords.
The method of paying in order to appear in the search engine results page is known as “paid search”. Your company, or the advertiser, will be paying for any clicks that are performed on your ad whenever someone searches via Google. This is how the term “pay per click” was coined.
To use Adwords, you can sign up for free. It is available to advertisers from various parts of the world. To ensure a successful campaign via Adwords, you have a lot of work to do. One of them is keyword selection. It is important to identify the best keywords to target that are relevant to your products or services.
It is also vital that you set a limit to your budget and how much you want to spend for each keyword. That way, you know exactly how much you will be paying to advertise your website on Google. Any AdWords expert is more likely to use AdWords than the Express version.
Adwords Express
Adwords Express is another option that is available for digital marketers. This is slightly different from Adwords because it has been designed for local and small businesses. This means that you can use the Adwords Express service to advertise your business even without an online presence or website.
Adwords Express is, therefore, a great solution for small business owners who do not have the luxury of time or a team who can manage online advertising. It offers an easy setup method that you can get started within minutes. Just like Google Adwords, you are also charged only for every click on your ad.
You need to set a budget for a specific campaign. Aside from the budget, you must also identify your target audience based on location, or any other characteristics that you want to focus on.
While Adwords Express is praised for its ease of use and setup, it does lack in terms of user control. One example is that you are only allowed to promote one product or service at a time. You will only be given one keyword to focus on per ad campaign. At the same time, the report provided by Adwords Express is not as detailed as Google Adwords. Therefore, it might be difficult to analyze the data and assess the campaign performance. If you are not a Google Ads expert, then AdWords Express is a reasonable choice.
Google Adwords vs Adwords Express: Which to Choose?
When deciding between Adwords vs Adwords Express, it is important to look at the similarities and differences of each online advertising solution. You can break it down to the different features so you can do a side-by-side comparison. This is the best approach since there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to choosing the right advertising service.
- Campaign Management
The campaign management is the first and most obvious difference that Adwords has over Adwords Express. In Google Adwords, you can get full control of the campaign details. From the keyword selection to the budget, you can optimize your campaign performance. In fact, you can update your ad campaign even when it is active. If you see any keywords or ads performing really well, you have the chance to optimize that.
If you want full control over your campaign management, then you must choose Google Adwords vs Adwords Express. The latter does not give you the same amount of control as the full version of Adwords. Google’s bots do all the work once the campaign is launched. You won’t be able to use the report insights to determine what works and what does not.
- Ad Format
The format of the ads is another area wherein the two advertising services differ largely. While they are both part of Google’s advertising network, the ad formats used for each are completely different.
In Google Adwords, you can use static or animated banners. You can even use expanded texts and video adverts if you like. This is a great tool that you can use when A/B testing your ads. You can look at which ads are most effective in getting a higher amount of clicks and conversions.
On the other hand, Adwords Express only allows you to display text adverts on Google. In this day and age, text ads are no longer as effective as powerful imagery and videos. Therefore, you could potentially lose out on clicks and conversions.
If you prefer to use complex and media-rich ads, then Google Adwords is the best option.
- Ease of Use
While Google Adwords is not very complex to set up, Adwords Express has the edge in terms of overall ease of use. It is ideal for first-time users with no previous background setting up ad campaigns online.
It is also recommended for small business owners who cannot afford to hire their own search engine marketing manager. You can set it up and then leave it. Google bots will automatically manage your campaigns using the parameters that you have specified, such as geographic location. You can even advertise your business via Google Maps, which is ideal since you are promoting a local business.
The choice between Adwords vs Adwords Express boils down to your needs and your campaign goals. You can weigh the pro’s and con’s for each campaign tool to determine how you can get the highest clicks and conversions.
