These days, everybody and their mother seems to be fighting for attention online—and for good reason. It’s estimated that there are 4.3 billion people using Google around the world, and more than half of them are using Google to find or discover new brands.
Needless to say, Google is teeming with opportunities for your business. The biggest question is, how will you get seen? What can you do to get seen right away?
The answer: Google Ads. Google Ads offers a fast way to top Google’s search results pages and to get in front of shoppers the moment they’re searching for brands like yours. That said, Google Ads can be challenging to manage, adding yet another platform to monitor.
To help take some of the weight off your shoulders, we’ve teamed up with Google to create Google Ads with Wix. With Wix’s Google Ads integration, you can create and manage your ads directly from your site dashboard.
Looking for a website builder where you can centrally manage your advertising and marketing campaigns? Create a website with Wix.
Why should you use Google Ads with Wix?
Two words: time and money. As a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur, you’ve got zero time or money to waste. That’s why we created Google Ads with Wix: to ensure that your ads work for you and your marketing strategy. More specifically, with our Google Ads integration, you can:
Manage everything in one place: Manage your advertising activities in the same workspace as your business instead of hopping between platforms. From Wix, you can manage everything from your site and business operations to your marketing emails and Google Ads.
Launch your ads faster: Automatically sync your Wix data with your Google Ads rather than keying in your product data by hand. You can additionally use Wix’s AI for Google Ads to find keyword themes and generate ad content even faster.
Receive Google Ads credit: If you’re a first-time advertiser, you'll be eligible for up to $500 in Google Ads credit after spending $500 in the first 60 days (terms and conditions apply).
Tap into Wix analytics: Automatically install dynamic tracking on your Wix website and get accurate conversion tracking. In other words, use real-time, first-party data to understand behaviors once someone clicks onto your site from a Google ad—and find ways to spend your money more efficiently.
Get hands-on support: Wix provides 24/7 support for all its users. Ask a Wix specialist for help optimizing your Google Ads campaigns and diagnosing any issues.
What kind of campaigns can you run with Wix Google Ads?
Wix currently supports two types of Google Ads campaigns:
Smart campaign: Uses machine learning to automatically define your targeting, ad content and bids. Smart campaigns are great for service-based businesses, looking to attract new customers to their site with their ads.
Performance Max campaign: Available for Wix Stores subscribers, Performance Max campaigns* use Google’s AI technology to do your targeting and bidding for you. Performance Max ads will appear at the top of Google search results, in addition to the entire Google Network (think: YouTube, Display, Maps, etc.).
Pro tip: “You can use both types of campaigns simultaneously,” notes Wix Product Manager Ivan Terechin. “For example, if you sell baby products online, you can advertise your products with a PMax campaign, but advertise your shop itself with a Smart campaign.”
How do I use Google Ads with Wix?
Google Ads with Wix is available to all Wix users with a Premium plan. You must also have a published site with a custom domain. From there, getting started is as simple as a few clicks. Follow the below steps to run your first Google Ads campaign in Wix:
01. Open Google Ads
From your Wix site dashboard, go to the “Marketing & SEO” dropdown on the left-hand menu. Click “Google Ads,” then “Start Advertising.”
02. (For Wix Stores users) choose your advertising goal
Choose between creating a Google Smart campaign, geared towards driving more site traffic, or a Google Performance Max campaign, aimed at increasing product purchases. If you don’t have a Wix Store, you will automatically be sent to the next step.
03. Set up your campaign
The steps to creating your ads will vary slightly depending on your advertising goal. For example, if you’re a store owner looking to connect your inventory to your ads, you’ll have to connect your ads to your Google Merchant Solutions account (view Merchant Center terms of service). Alternatively, if you’re just looking to drive traffic to your site, then you can get started with creating your first Google ad right away. At this stage, you’ll need to decide on your campaign settings, which may include picking your target locations, keyword themes and landing page.
04. Create your ads
If you’re a store owner running product ads, then your ads will be auto-generated from your inventory. Otherwise, you’ll need to take a few moments to write out a few headline and description options for Google to use. Wix also has built-in AI text tools, which can lend a hand with your ad headlines or descriptions.
05. Set your budget and launch
As the final step, you’ll need to decide how much money you’re willing to spend per day on your ads. Keep in mind that Google may spend above or below your daily budget on any given day, but it will never go above your monthly max (that is, your daily budget times the average number of days in a month). Once you’ve set up your payment details, you can launch your ads.
06. Follow your campaign's progress
Google will need to review your ads before they can officially go live; this process can take anywhere from one to seven days. However, you can easily follow its progress from your Wix dashboard. Once your ads are live, you can even track which products or keywords yield the best results and make tweaks to your campaign from Wix.
Tips for getting the most out of Google Ads with Wix
Getting set up is a cinch and most of the heavy lifting will be done for you. Still, it doesn’t hurt to follow a few best practices to ensure that your campaign performs the best that it can.
Keep your Wix catalog up to date. If you’re planning to advertise your products, make sure that your catalog is up to date with the latest details (note: any changes in Wix will automatically update your Google merchant feed). Don’t gloss over details such as your product specs, product variations, descriptions and images. Google will draw from this information to build your ads—so you’ll want to make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward and offer as many details as possible.
Make sure that your landing pages are highly relevant. In a similar vein, you’ll want to check that any linked landing pages are relevant to your ad content. Don’t drop visitors into a random or broad page on your site. Rather, send them to a page that speaks to their particular interest. You’ll often find that a dedicated landing page—free of distractions—will perform better than your homepage. For example, if your ads are targeting the keyword “online cooking courses,” then you’d benefit from sending visitors to a page that lists out your available cooking classes, not a page that lists any type of online course available.
Pick keywords themes with high intent. By “high intent” we mean keyword themes that are relevant to your target consumer and precede a desired action. In other words, just because someone Googles the word “yoga” doesn’t mean they’re looking to buy a yoga mat. Perhaps they’re trying to sign up for a yoga class or watch a free class on YouTube. Or, perhaps they’re simply looking to understand the benefits of yoga. A better, high-intent keyword for a store selling yoga gear is “buy yoga mat” or “best yoga mats.”
Be mindful of your headlines. When it comes to creating your Smart campaigns, your headlines play a big role in enticing a click. “Make sure to speak directly to your prospect’s desired outcome,” advises Terechin. “For example, if you’re advertising a fitness class, consider something like ‘Get Fit Fast’—which immediately speaks to your customers’ goals.” At the same time, you don’t want to overpromise and be specific about what you offer, says Terechin. Avoid meaningless fillers like “world-class” that aren’t backed by research, and replace them with stats or trigger words like “free.”
Use your Wix Analytics reports to your advantage. Wix offers a slew of reports that can strengthen your understanding of your site visitors. For example, using the Behavior Overview report, you can see which pages people click to from other pages on your site, and see where they drop off. Or, using the Marketing Overview sites, you can see how your Google Ads campaign stacks up against your other marketing efforts.
Test and refine continuously. “Don’t settle for your first attempt at your ads,” says Terechin. “Create multiple variations of your ads and run A/B tests to determine which creative performs best and why. Regularly analyze your ads based on click-through rates and user engagement.”
Learn more about how to advertise on Google, or check out more step-by-step guides on using Google Ads with Wix.
* In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Performance Max campaigns can be used with any Comparison Shopping Service (CSS). The ads will show on general search results pages and on any other surfaces the CSS has opted in to.