Google Ads for digital products: how to advertise your course

If you're just getting started in the digital market and want to find students, Google Ads is a tool that needs to be part of your strategy.

But how do you use Google Ads for digital products?

The truth is, there's no one-size-fits-all recipe or set of rules for each type of business. Google Ads is a powerful tool for reaching new customers, as long as whoever uses it knows how to send qualified traffic to sales pages. So if you're not familiar with how it works, in this article the experts at Cademí (the first Member Hub in Brazil) will help you understand how to promote your online course and attract the right audience with Google Ads.

Keep reading to learn:

• What Google Ads is
• How Google Ads works for digital products
• How to choose keywords for your campaign
• Terms you need to know
• Beyond your Google Ads campaign

What is Google Ads

First things first, it's important to understand what Google Ads is and how it works. In short, it's an advertising platform where you pay to have your website featured on Google's search results pages and on partner sites.

So when a potential customer searches for a keyword you've targeted, your website will be one of the first results.

To illustrate, imagine you searched for “perfumes” on Google. Before the organic results, meaning the ones optimized for SEO, three websites were featured: Época Cosméticos, Sephora and Natura. All three used Google Ads to get there.

You can do exactly the same with your digital business.

How Google Ads works for digital products

In short, the platform runs on an auction system.

You choose the keywords that matter to your strategy and bid how much you're willing to pay. The more competition there is, the higher your bids need to be to get results, and the harder it is to win the top spot.

Let's go back to the perfume example. The stores listed the keywords their target audience would probably search for and for which they'd like to be the first result. Then they created a campaign for those keywords.

The order in which they appeared in the search was determined by the amount they bid.

In Google Ads, you set both the keywords and the amount you'd like to pay. The platform then uses that amount to determine the order.

According to Cademí's experts, the best approach is to start with a lower amount and adjust it based on how your ads perform. They also recommend testing different bidding strategies to find the right balance between cost and performance.

In fact, if you search for “perfume” right now, you might find a completely different order. After this article was published, the bids may have changed (that can happen at any time).

How to choose keywords for your campaign

As you've probably noticed, the first step toward a successful campaign is having well-defined keywords. So here's our tip: if you don't have a persona yet, take a step back and create one.

This will help clarify a lot of things.

With a clearly defined target audience, the next step is to get clear on your goals. To help you out, your goals might be:

• Lead acquisition;
• Landing page visits;
• Increasing brand awareness;
• Guerrilla tactics (that is, showing up when people search for your competitors).

Next, it's time to choose the right keywords to reach your goals. To do that, think about what your potential customer would search for, and use tools like Google Trends and Semrush. They show you how often the terms you want to target are searched, other relevant terms, and how competitive they are.

In other words, it becomes easier to see where and how much to invest.

Terms you need to know

As soon as you start using Google Ads as part of your digital business strategy, some terms will become part of your routine. It's important to know what they mean:

• Landing page: the sales page your ads will point to.
• CTA: short for call to action. It's what you tell the user to do next (click, sign up, etc.);
• CTR: click-through rate;
• CPC: cost per click;
• KPIs:

Beyond your Google Ads campaign

Google Ads is a great way to promote your digital business. But it shouldn't be your only strategy. Use social media and SEO-optimized content too, to build a solid brand that also benefits from organic reach.

Just as important, think about where your leads will be taken. Depending on the platform you choose, you can convert sales faster and with much cheaper leads. At Cademí, we call this the diamond funnel.

If you still have questions, our experts are ready to help. Book a strategy call and get clarity on everything that will take your business to the next level!