Google Ads vs Adwords: What's the Difference?

Google Ads and AdWords are two different tools that offer different benefits for businesses. Learn how they work and which one is right for your business.

Google Ads vs Adwords: What's the Difference?
The new Google Ads brand is the umbrella term for the full range of campaign types available today, including Search, Display and Video. It is designed to help advertisers reach potential customers and publishers monetize their current traffic. When you type something in Google, you are presented with a list of results on the search engine results page (SERP).

Search ads allow you to display your website's listing at the top of search results and drive more traffic to your website. Advertisers can customize the style of their ads or create their own, allowing them to change the size, color, text, background, and border details of the ads displayed on their website. These placements can be on Google's search engine results pages (SERP) or on the Google Display Network (the network of sites, apps, and more that display Google's display ads). In other words, part of the space on your website will show ads that another company created with Google Ads.

Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) is a powerful tool for street vendors to advertise on partner pages, videos, searches and more to reach potential buyers. These publishers are part of the Google Display Network that advertisers can take advantage of through Google Ads. For display ads, as with search ads, advertisers bid for the advertising space of publishers in the Google Ads auction.

Google Ads and AdSense are effective ways to generate revenue with digital advertising methods. The former helps you drive traffic to your site while the latter uses your site to drive traffic to other places. With AdSense, publishers can only place three content ads, three link ads, and two search boxes on each of their web pages.

If you decide to use AdSense and support Google advertising on your website, you can immediately check your account reports to check the program's performance. The only time you'll pay your maximum bid is if you're the only bidder in the auction or if you place the highest bid in the auction, but you have the lowest ad ranking. Search ads that appear on SERPs are a great option if you know there is a demand for your product and your audience uses search engines to meet it.

Google Ads and AdWords are two different tools that offer different benefits for businesses. While both are effective ways to generate revenue with digital advertising methods, they have different features and capabilities that make them suitable for different types of businesses. Understanding how each works can help you decide which one is right for your business.