A Beginner’s Guide to Using Google Ads in Kenya

Last updated on February 25th, 2023 at 12:29 pm

For you to understand how Google Ads in Kenya works, you need first to understand how Google works.

With Google, it always starts with a person.

This person has a thought or an idea and they have a question of something they want to search on Google.

So what do they do?

They go to Google.com to try to get this question answer to get this pain point solved.

Now, this is the key part.

When people search on Google, they want to find the answer to something.

This is your opportunity to show your company, to show your product, or to show the solution that your business has to this person’s problem.

And within Google, that is called the organic results.

These are the things that Google puts in the search results for free because it is just really high-quality content.

Google knows that it’s going to provide a solution.

But also, Google puts at the top of the search results paid ads.

How do you create Google Ads in Kenya?

The way to get to the top of the search results with these paid ads is through the Google ads platform.

It used to be called Adwords but it has since changed its name to Google ads.

So, to get to the top of the search results on Google in Kenya, you have to pay.

I’ll explain how this works in just a minute.

But let’s recap what happened here;

1. Someone had a question, a concern, or some kind of pain that they needed a solution for
2. They go to Google 
3. And when they googled it, your business showed up at the top of the search results.

At this point you might be wondering;

“Why use Google Ads in Kenya?”

Especially because right below it is the organic search results that Google puts there for free.

I mean, why not just use organic search results?

My answer is simple;

Yes, it’d be great to show up on organic search results.

But that is very very hard to do.

You have to write really high-quality content, get lots of links pointing to your pages.

On the flip side, using Google Ads in Kenya accelerates your results.

All you have to do is tell Google, you know what, I want my ad to be on the top of the search results for a certain keyword.

A keyword is whatever someone searches in Google.

For example;

You might instruct Google to show your business at the top anytime someone searches the word, ‘best headphones in Kenya.’

Now, Google wants to get paid for this.

How Google Ads Pricing Work in Kenya

So what you tell Google is, I am willing to give you KES 3 every time someone clicks on my ad.

The beauty of it is that you do not pay anything unless someone clicks on your ad.

That is why such ads earned the name, Pay Per Click (PPC) in Kenya.

But there is something else.

Google ads cost is determined by a bidding system.

As such, someone else might along and say, I will pay KES 14 to show my ad for the same keywords.

When that happens, they will go to the top of the search results above you who is paying KES 14.

Such a bidding war can continue as more and more people target the same keyword.

It is a little more complicated than that.

But the simple version is you pay Google every time someone clicks on your Google ads in Kenya.

Is Google Ads worth it in Kenya?

If every time someone clicks on the ad it cost you KES 100 and you can make KES 200 on average every time someone clicks on your ad makes sense.

For example;

So, it cost you KES 100 per click.

And if for every 10 clicks you get to your website, you make a sale.

Then, that sale brings you KES 2000.

It means that you are spending KES 1K (10 clicks X 100 per click) to make KES 2000 (profit per sale).

That is not the end of it.

There is so much you can do with Google Ads in Kenya.

The other thing that makes Google ads so powerful is the fact that you can not only target very specific keywords, but you can actually get so specific.

You can target by geography, time of the day you want to show your ads to show, and the type of device whether a mobile or desktop they are using.

With such capabilities, you can get very analytical in figuring things out that work for you in your business in Kenya.

Can I pay for Google Ads with mpesa?

No, you cannot pay for Google Ads with M-Pesa. Google Ads requires you to pay with a credit card, debit card, or other accepted payment methods.

Here is a quick tip;

If you are selling peanut butter, for instance, you wouldn’t want to bid on the “keyword peanut” butter.

Why?

Because people search for peanut butter for a ton of different and crazy reasons.

Instead, you’d want to bid on a more targeted keyword like “organic 16-gram peanut butter.”

The person searching that is much more likely to buy your product than someone searching for something more generic.

This is called a longtail keyword and is another reason why Google Ads can be so powerful.

A secret to profitable Google Ads in Kenya

Another very important thing to know about Google ads is, you need to split test the message as well as your ad copy.

Split testing, also commonly referred to as A/B testing, allows marketers to compare two different versions of a web page — a control (the original) and variation — to determine which performs better, to boost conversions.

So, you might have an ad that looks like this;

But maybe you can write a better ad.

You might want to try a second one out;

Google has a feature that lets you test different messages.

This way you can nail a message copy that converts as high as possible.

What this means is that out of every 100 times someone sees your ads, how often do they actually click on your ad?

This is called click-through rate (CTR).

You want that number to be as high as possible.

The better your click-through rate, the lower Google will charge you per click.

Wrapping up advertising on Google in Kenya

To sum all this up, this is called a funnel.

At the top of the funnel is everybody in the world that is searching for “headphones in Kenya.”

Of those people that are searching for headphones in Kenya, a small percentage of them will actually click on your ad.

And of those people that click on your ad, a small percentage of them will actually purchase your product.

That is what is important.

You want to try to grow every section of this as you can because ideally, not all of those people searching for the target keyword will click on your ad.

At the same time, not all of those who click will buy from you.

The way to increase your sales is to increase the percentage that goes through every step of your funnel because that’ll have a trickle-down effect.

Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg for Google Ads in Kenya.

I will keep creating more guides for you.

Let me know what you want to know in the comments below.

Google AdWords Consultant in Kenya

Are you looking for a Google AdWords consultant in Kenya, you are in the right place. I have been doing search engine marketing in Kenya since 2018.

I understand how search engines work in Kenya and how to find profitable keywords for you to target.