With these figures only set to climb, companies around the world are paying more attention to the internet giant’s ability to reach and engage new customers.

Businesses are in-turn dedicating more of their budget and resources to the platform, with Google Ads quickly becoming a staple for most commercial marketing strategies.

This is no different in South Africa, where online sales tactics experienced a stark increase in uptake, thanks in part to stringent lockdown measures, which seriously impacted the ability of small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) to do business.

But for businesses new to Google Ads, a lack of knowledge and experience means that many SMME owners are unsure of how much to spend on the platform.

This is an important point to consider, as small businesses have to be very deliberate in how they assign their limited resources. However, the answer to this question will vary on the type of business; the product it sells; the industry it operates in; and the economic climate at the time.

This is because Google works on an auction-based structure. Unlike print advertisements, which are sold at a fixed cost, the cost of running Google Ads will fluctuate on the number of businesses vying for the same visibility.

Therefore, marketers must analyse how much their industry competitors are spending and assess how this equates to their ability to reach potential customers (Impression Share); how much it costs for each person reached to click on the advertisement (Cost-per Click); and the likelihood that someone who sees the advertisement will in-fact engage with it (Click Through Rate).

Except, this then creates a new challenge: how can you properly assess the performance of your industry if the only information publicly available is for competitors based in markets like the United States and Europe? These economies are larger and home to exponentially more businesses than South Africa.

When you consider how Google Ads are structured, this means that there are more businesses in these over-saturated, foreign markets vying for the same attention.

This in-turn forces businesses in these economies to spend more money to achieve results which should theoretically cost far less, in a less densely populated market like South Africa.

Without relevant data, South African businesses are forced to base their Google Ad spend on information and statistics that do not make sense for the local market.

Worse still, this even deters some businesses from harnessing the opportunity presented by Google Ads, as they see the wrongfully inflated prices as too expensive for their limited means.

Thankfully, this is all about to change. For the first time, South African’s now have access to Google Ad data from local industry, generated by Adbot – a Cape Town-based business which harnesses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help small business owners successfully advertise on Google.

The findings shared above reveal that there is an untapped opportunity for local SMMEs adopting marketing tactics for Google Search. In South Africa, the Click-through Rate is several per cent higher in almost all industries compared to international markets. This indicates that an equitable amount of spend will see better results for local businesses, than those advertising abroad.

Moreover, when one considers the Dollar-Rand exchange rate, the data indicates that, prior to this information, businesses were paying in some cases more than ten times the market equivalent for Google Ads.

For example, while international ecommerce companies typically spend $2.23 (R33,45), local businesses in this category only spend R2.66.

When reading these statistics, it is important to remember that the trick to Google Ads is to try maximise your Click-through Rate while minimising your Cost-per Click.

These findings show, then, that the South African market is far less saturated than those in the United States and Europe. Therefore, local SMME owners advertising on Google Ads today are able to reach a larger share of the audience for less spend than the international average.

The key, however, is to get in early. Businesses that are the first to adopt Google Ads into their marketing strategies will benefit from lower costs for higher gains. They will have a huge advantage over their competitors, who might only realise the opportunity later.

What this means for small businesses is that their customers are pretty much always online, so they need to be advertising online to reach them. But when sales aren’t streaming in after setting up Google and Facebook advertising, how do they measure success?

“A common misconception that businessowners have when starting out is they expect everyone who lands on their website will buy their products and services. But think of it this way, if you have a physical store not everyone who enters will buy something.

“They might just be browsing and may come back when they’re ready to make a purchase. It’s the same online. So you need to measure more than just your sales,” says Michelle Geere CEO of Adbot, the leading provider of simple, successful, and supportive online advertising solutions for owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

She continues, “Luckily with online marketing, everything is measurable. You can see how many people clicked on your website, how much it cost in ad spend to get them there, and how quickly they left. You are also able to see what product they viewed and for how long. All this info gives you a better picture of what your customer is doing on your website. And once you know what they’re doing, you can tweak your website to make sure your customer is more likely to buy something.”

To get started, Geere explains that there are two things businessowners new to the online space need to consider: their click-through-rate (CTR) and their cost-per-click (CPC).

CTR is the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown on Google. In other words, if the ad is shown 100 times and two people click on it, the CTR is 2%. “The average CTR in Google search ads on mobile devices across all industries is 4%.

This means if your CTR is higher than 4%, you are doing very, very well!”

With Google, businessowners only pay when someone clicks on their ad. This is called a cost-per-click model. Industry averages for CPC on Google search are $2.69 (almost R40 per click).

“Ideally, you want your CTR to be as high as possible and your CPC as low as possible. But remember, there isn’t a standard for CTR and CPC – each industry has its own benchmark driven by the competitiveness of that industry,” shares Geere.

She concludes by saying, “While getting the balance right might seem daunting for businessowners, Adbot assists by continually optimising ads using machine learning to ensure the most clicks to websites for the lowest cost. Currently, we achieve an average CTR of 8.3% and a CPC of R2,30 across industries.”

More about Adbot

Adbot helps startup founders advertise on Google Ads successfully. We understand that as a Startup you don’t have the time to figure out how the complicated interface of Google works, nor do you have the funds to pay someone to do it for you. That is where Adbot comes in.

By harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Adbot optimises keywords, ad copy and bidding 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Adbot not only gives Startup founders access to new markets, it also gives them freedom – financially, in terms of their time and to growth.