Running Google Ads? Quick Checklist to Max Out Your Results ??

I believe Google Ads can be one of the best investments for a business.

It can quickly put you in from of your ideal customers and help you drive new leads and revenue growth for your business.

We recently got a client that was spending $30k+/month in Google Ads. When they come to us they were missing simple yet critical things that were hurting their results.

In this article, I’ll give you a quick checklist for launching a successful Google Ads campaign.

If you’re currently running ads, run through this checklist to make sure you’ve got everything in place.

You might not be spending $30k+/month yet but if you've been seeing promising results from your initial Google Ads spend and are ready to scale up, you're on the right track.

Here’s how you can make your Google Ads campaigns more reliable and effective as you start spending more:

1. Set Up Conversion Tracking

Tracking conversions is essential to understand which ads are driving real results. Even if you think you have conversion tracking setup, triple check everything. Ideally, you want to track from click to customer. Here’s how to do start:

• Google Ads Conversion Tracking: Set up conversion tracking in your Google Ads account to measure actions like purchases, form submissions, or phone calls.
• Google Analytics Integration: Link your Google Analytics account with Google Ads for more detailed insights and to track goals.
• Integrate Your CRM: Tools like Hubspot allow you to link your Google Ads account and see results right in your CRM. This allows you to see the actual people who converted from your ads. It’s magic and an absolute gamechanger
• Use UTM parameters: UTM parameters are little pieces of information attached to your URL that tell your CRM where the traffic is coming from. it’ll look something like this at the end of your URL ?utm_source=google-ads or ?utm_source=paid-search

2. Implement Call Tracking

For most service businesses, a phone call is a key step in the buyer journey. Call tracking is a must:

• Call Extensions: Use call extensions in your ads to encourage prospects to call directly from the ad.
• CallRail: Implement third party call tracking tools like CallRail to track which campaigns, ads, and keywords are driving phone calls, and measure the quality of these leads. You also have call recording which allows you to see your team is doing handling these calls and converting leads into clients

3. Proper Account Setup and Management

A well-structured Google Ads account is key to efficient management and better performance:

• Campaign Structure: Organize your campaigns by product/service type, location, or audience segment to make management easier and improve relevance.
• Ad Groups: Create tightly themed ad groups with relevant keywords to ensure your ads are highly targeted.
• Negative Keywords: Regularly update your negative keywords list to filter out irrelevant searches and save budget for high-intent traffic.
• Try different campaign types: The most common ones are search ads, but recently PMAX, Local Service Ads and other campaign types have emerged. Try a mix of them but don't rely on a single campaign type. You don't want to have all your eggs in one basket.

4. Optimize Your Landing Pages

Ensure that your landing pages provide a seamless experience and are optimized for conversions:

• Don’t just send people to your website. Try dedicated landing pages that are optimized for Google Ads and conversions. Test both 1) traffic to your website and 2) landing pages/funnels
• Strong CTAs: Use clear, compelling calls to action to drive conversions. Is your offer clear?
• Relevance: Make sure the landing page content matches the ad’s promise and keywords.
• Load Speed: Optimize your landing pages for fast loading times to reduce bounce rates.
• Clear CTAs: Use clear and compelling calls to action to guide visitors towards conversion.

5. Use Smart Bidding Strategies

As you increase your budget, leveraging Google’s automated bidding strategies can help optimize your bids for better performance:

• Maximize Conversions: Automatically set bids to get the most conversions within your budget.
• Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Set bids to help get as many conversions as possible at the target CPA you set.

6. Regular Performance Analysis

Consistently analyze your campaign performance to identify areas for improvement:

• Reports and Dashboards: Use Google Ads and Google Analytics reports to monitor key metrics like ad spend, click through rate, conversion rate, and ROI. The most important metrics for lead generation is Cost Per Lead (CPL) and cost per acquisition (CPA) aka how much it cost to get 1 new client.
• A/B Testing: Continuously test different ad copies, images, and landing pages to find the best-performing variations.

7. Leverage Ad Extensions

Ad extensions can improve your ad’s visibility and click-through rate:

• Sitelink Extensions: Add links to specific pages on your website.
• Callout Extensions: Highlight unique selling points or special offers.
• Structured Snippets: Provide additional information about your products or services.

8. Enhance Audience Targeting

Refine your audience targeting to reach the most relevant prospects:

• Remarketing: Re-engage users who have previously visited your website.
• In-Market Audiences: Target users actively searching for products or services like yours.
• Custom Audiences: Create audiences based on user behavior and interests.

9. Optimization Checklist/Routine

A regular optimization routine ensures your campaigns continue to perform well as you scale:

• Weekly Review: Check key metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, and cost per conversion.
• Bid Adjustments: Optimize bids based on performance data to ensure you’re getting the best ROI.
• Ad Copy Testing: Continuously test and refine your ad copy to improve engagement.
• Keyword Management: Regularly update your keyword lists, including adding new high-performing keywords and refining negative keywords.
• Landing Page Optimization: Regularly test and optimize your landing pages for better performance.

By implementing these strategies, you can ensure your increased Google Ads budget drives reliable and sustainable results.

Use this article as a checklist for your Google Ads campaigns.

Hope this helps!

How we help: At Just Digital, we specialize in optimizing Google Ads campaigns to help businesses like yours scale effectively. If you’re ready to take your advertising to the next level, let’s connect!