Google Ads can be a massive revenue producer for businesses when managed properly and combined with a proactive website conversion rate optimization strategy (CRO). As an experienced digital marketer with over 20 years of experience managing hundreds of successful Google Ads campaigns, I've cracked the code on how to achieve great results. But I know that for most businesses, getting the most out of Google Ads is a major challenge. Often, their agency or in-house staff simply lack the right techniques and experience.
That's why in this article, I'll share 20 insider tips to help businesses optimize their Google Ads campaigns and improve their website's conversion rates, leading to better overall performance. So let's dive in and take your Google Ads game to the next level!
20 Tips for Google Ads Mastery
- Daily Keyword Management: Daily and weekly keyword management is crucial for optimizing your Google Ads campaigns properly. By reviewing and optimizing your keyword list based on factors such as conversions, cost per conversion, ROAS, and conversion value, you can ensure that your budget is being spent on the most relevant and effective keywords. Track and lower the average cost per click on each keyword phrase over time.
- Monitor the Search Terms Report: Checking the "search terms report" is a crucial task in managing your Google Ads campaigns. This report, separate from your keyword list, should be reviewed daily, especially for broad and phrase match keywords. Add irrelevant or low-performing search terms as negative keywords to avoid wasting your ad spend.
- Creating Headlines and Descriptions with Chat GPT: AI is revolutionizing the way businesses create Google Ads copy, enabling them to create more intelligent and high-converting ads. With AI-powered ad copy optimization, businesses can leverage cutting-edge technology to deliver messages that resonate with their audience and drive results.
- Use Manual CPC Bidding: Manual CPC (enhanced) bidding is often more effective for high-cost keywords as it allows businesses to control the cost per click per keyword and prevent overspending. A lot of businesses' budgets get killed without controlling the cost per click average.
- Regularly Monitor Google Ads Performance: Monitoring Google Ads performance regularly helps identify any changes in performance and make necessary adjustments. If sales or leads start to drop, you might have a website or other issue that needs to be fixed or addressed.
- Set Realistic Goals: Setting realistic goals for the Google Ads campaign and regularly tracking progress can ensure that the campaign is meeting its objectives.
- Use Ad Scheduling: Ad scheduling can be used to show ads during peak hours when the target audience is most likely to be online, maximizing budget efficiency.
- Regularly Conduct Competitor Analysis: Conducting competitor analysis can help monitor competitors' ads and bidding strategies to adjust campaigns as necessary and maintain a competitive edge.
- Use Target CPA Bidding: Target CPA bidding can help optimize bids for conversions and achieve a specific cost per acquisition (CPA) goal. Note: Bid strategies need to be tested to see which ones work best for the brand or account, and sometimes automated strategies can result in unreasonable cost per clicks for some phrases. Add max cost per click ceilings to control the CPC rate.
- Leverage Ad Extensions: Ad extensions can provide additional information and options to potential customers, leading to increased click-through rates and conversions.
- Use Dynamic Search Ads: Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) can help businesses reach a wider audience by dynamically generating ads based on the content of the website.
- Implement Remarketing: Remarketing allows businesses to target users who have previously interacted with their website or ads, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
- Utilize Negative Keywords: Adding negative keywords to campaigns helps prevent ads from showing for irrelevant search queries, ultimately reducing wasted ad spend and increasing ROI. Add these from the Search Terms report on a weekly basis, and daily if the keywords are on phrase match or broad match.
- Focus on Quality Score: Quality Score is a metric that determines the quality and relevance of ads and keywords, ultimately affecting ad placement and cost per click. Improving Quality Score can lead to higher ad positions and lower costs per click.
- Utilize Automated Bidding Strategies: Automated bidding strategies such as Target CPA and Target ROAS can help optimize bids based on specific goals and objectives, ultimately leading to increased conversions and ROI.
- Implement Ad Customizers: Ad customizers allow businesses to dynamically insert text into ad copy based on specific attributes such as location or product type, increasing relevance and engagement.
- Test Different Ad Formats: Testing different ad formats such as video ads, responsive search ads, and image ads can provide insights into which formats perform best for a particular business and audience.
- Implement Ad Schedule Bid Adjustments: Ad schedule bid adjustments can help optimize bids for specific times of the day or week.
- Use Location Targeting: Location targeting can help businesses reach users in specific geographic areas.
- Optimize Landing Pages: Optimizing landing pages and the website overall will help improve the user experience and increase conversion rates. Proactive CRO is a must for maximizing your Google Ads account!
If you need an expert Google Ads audit or want to explore professional management services, I'm here to help. With over 20 years of experience, I'm confident we can take your campaigns to new heights.
