Managing your Google Ads for Effective Results
To achieve success in the digital space, Google Ads is an essential tool that ensures you reach your audience, get more leads and ultimately grow your sales and revenue. This platform is accessible to anyone, so any business can build and place campaigns for their products and services in front of their most influential prospects. Mastering this channel is another thing altogether, as it has so many layers and functions – so let us show you the ins and outs of how Google Ads management works.
Consider this
How are your ads and campaigns performing? Are you finding that you are struggling to be seen in the same places where your competition appears? Are you disappointed by the volume of leads and conversions coming through? Do you find yourself relying on old-school methods of making sales, like word-of-mouth and traditional advertising?
As experts in this field, we allow our customers to use this powerful tool from Google to power up marketing performance. Delivering the right information and user experience when it’s needed most, we’ll ensure we act as the only Google Ads agency you’ll ever need.
How? Well, we work hard to deliver tangible results for your business, no matter what industry you are in. Our team is highly trained and understand the nuances of this advertising channel. Let us introduce your brand to this extremely beneficial channel and amplify your ROI now. It starts with our experts.
What’s the difference between Google Ads and AdWords?
Sometimes internet jargon can be a bit confusing. Is there a difference between Google Ads and AdWords? Actually, no. There isn’t. The platform used to be called AdWords before it evolved to Google Ads. The modern version now has far more features than AdWords, which is now redundant and no longer used.
You may have also heard of a third term called AdSense. This platform allows publishers to sell ad space to businesses, the same advertising space you will be competing for through Google Ads. These do not always go hand-in-hand, so it’s important to have a Google Ads account manager on your ad campaigns 24/7. This ensures every aspect of management are kept in line, from performance to information offered, feedback gained, landing page design optimisation, sales funnel tactics, ad management and more.
What is a Google Ads campaign?
Each campaign you run will have a specific plan that comes with various different parameters. This is what makes this platform so powerful – you can highly fine-tune each campaign to give yourself the best chance of success in search results. By taking care and attention at this step, you’ll end up far ahead of competitors who either aren’t running a campaign or aren’t appearing for the right search phrases.
The first step in a campaign is to choose which network you want your Google ads to appear on. You can select from three umbrella options:
Google Search Network
This puts your ads on search-related websites and apps with the search engine’s network. For example, when you run a search, you will notice results at the top of the first page identified as advertisements. As well as searches, these will appear on a wide range of non-Google websites that are part of the network.
Display Network
These are visual ads that can appear on more than 2 million websites, videos and apps. When people start using Google to find a product or service, they will be shown ads in their regular internet activity which highlight those products and services. It is a way of targeting ads to the right audience, which means they are more likely to be successful.
YouTube Network
Video ads will appear on the popular YouTube platform, and within videos appearing on millions of partner sites and mobile apps.
A decision needs to be made on which of those networks you want your campaigns to run across. This can include a combination of:
Search Network with Display Select
The best of both worlds – a combination of Search Network and Display Network so you cast a wider net.
Search Network only
Text ads across this network only.
Display Network only
Visual ads only.
Google Shopping
This channel is perfect if you are selling a specific product and trying to get ahead of competitors in the same space. When a prospective customer searches for “running shoes,” then they will be presented with shopping ads including an image, price, description and a link to click so they can purchase.
From there, there is a range of different options you can choose for your advertising campaign. Define your budget and bidding strategy and advertise globally, or choose to target your audience based on location. You also have the option to remarket to users from your database or those who’ve already visited your website.
Best of all, there are many different drafts and experimental options on hand, allowing you to test strategies and determine which are the most successful.
However, this is where it starts to get complex as you micro-manage your campaigns. Our experts take all the confusion out of this, marrying your business objectives up with the search engine’s requirements to deliver the best outcomes for you.
What are ad groups?
While you will have different campaigns running, many of these could share common goals, targets or themes. Ad groups allow you to bundle these together so you can see how they are performing in one spot, with their own search phrases or keywords accompanying them.
This could mean that you divide your campaigns into different products or services. Your ad groups are where you store the various campaigns assigned to their specific product or service. They allow you to see which ads are performing better to improve advertisements that may not be doing so well, or cut them entirely and start again.
Having these groups also allows you to better control your budget by setting your bids according to different keywords, text ads, ad copy locations and other factors. You can also see areas where further investment will reap the rewards and places you might need to scale back your spending.
What are ad variations?
Just like it was on AdWords, finding the right formula for your Google Ads campaign is very rarely achieved on your first go – including keywords. It requires testing and tinkering to discover the right words and phrases that reach your target audience and inspire them to take action.
This is where ad variations come into play. They allow you to have multiple versions of the same ad, but with slight variances. You could have different headings, keywords, different calls to action, other descriptions – a run of various advertisements that are all looking to accomplish the same thing in one campaign. Having your ads well defined will help you enormously in this step, ensuring your campaigns are on track for the best possible results and performance.
These variations will then be played off against each other so you see in real-time which ones are working and which ones are not. It allows you to take out the best elements to assemble a single advertisement that ticks every box. It also helps reduce costs as they’re all running at once with live data.
You can halt advertisements if they’re ineffective, and work quickly towards creating the perfect ad that will sell your product or service to your target audience.
How do I create a winning bidding strategy?
This is where Google Ads hands you the keys and lets you drive. While Google provides all of the tools that you need, ultimately, it is your products, your services, your goals and your ambitions that are going to fuel your advertising campaigns.
And that also means you’ll need all the right keyword research and technical data driving your ad groups, variations or stand-alone text ads.
To create a winning bidding strategy on Google Ads, several factors need to be considered:
Conversions: This is when you want your audience to take direct actions on your site, like making a purchase. You can set up conversion tracking to see how effective your advertising is, and Smart Bidding will help you optimise your conversions.
Cost-per-click (CPC): You only pay when someone clicks on the Google ad and comes through to your website. This is an ideal choice for when your goal is to generate traffic.
Cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (vCPM): This is the best option for awareness through impressions.
Cost per view (CPV) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): This is when you either use video ads or focus on getting your audience to interact with your ads.
Cost per view (CPV): This focuses solely on videos, and is designed to help you increase your product or awareness and consideration.
Once you have established your goals, you’ll need to select the bidding strategy for your ads management. You can choose from:
Cost-per-action (CPA): This will assist in setting bids to get as many conversions as possible using Google Ads’ advanced machine learning technologies.
Return on ad spend (ROAS): This is about return on investment when you need to have a measured amount of conversions per volume of spend to make it a feasible return on your investment.
Maximise conversions: This automates the entire process by setting bids to get you the most conversions within your budget – the perfect option for beginners.
Maximise conversion value: Getting conversions is one thing, but you want quality conversions as well. This will use Google’s AI to determine the personality and behaviours of your audience, and focuses more on sales growth rather than just efficiency.
Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC): This will adjust your manual CPCs to help maximise your conversions or the conversion value.
How to do keyword research for your Google Ads campaign
Keyword research is essential to your campaign if you want your accounts to be effective. Words and phrases that people are using to search for products or services like yours need to be included in your ad copy to ensure you are connected to the right people who are most likely to take action.
This requires you to think like your customers in order to be specific and targeted with your advertising. The wording of your ads management is essential, but it is also vital to know when your audience comes online when they are most likely to purchase, where they are located, how they work with your value proposition, etc.
How much budget will I need to see a return on investment?
The exact amount that you invest is variant on a range of factors. Your business’s size, goals, operating budget, industry, customer life cycle, current conversion rates and performance data, location, competitors, and current trends come into play when nominating how much money you are going to allocate. You’ll need to run reports to understand how this can affect your company’s ability to use search ads like this.
Once you’ve done the hard work, you’ll understand the opportunities available to your team, and work your way up to search ads that deliver huge conversion rates. However, this needs plenty of attention if you’re looking to get a positive ROI.
Your search ads should never be treated as an expense – a Google Ads campaign should always be viewed as an investment for your company. When you allocate money towards your advertising, you should be working on getting a return on your investment – otherwise, it is not worth advertising.
What are Google Ads campaign landing pages?
When you place search ads throughout the Google network, people will click on them, and your landing pages are where they go. You don’t want to send people to your homepage as it creates work for them to find what they need directly, leaving them more likely to click out again.
These landing pages are stand-alone pages separate from your website homepage and have been designed to serve a specific purpose. In most instances, this means gathering leads that can turn into conversions or closing sales by delivering the most action-driven content to your prospects.
You can make these landing pages match your specific advertising so that you are delivering on your promises. For example, if you have an ad that is promising “two months free,” then the content and language on the landing page associated with this ad should clearly show the audience how they can get these two months of free service.
Landing page design is essential as you only have a brief window to capture the attention of the person clicking through. It’s the make and break of your ads’ performance. Stay on-brand, make the landing page clear and concise, use buzzwords and keywords, and have a very prominent call to action for your best chance at success. If you’re not looking for an agency to help you with this, at least make sure you use software that’s designed to target the elements involved in this type of website technique.
What is a quality score?
We know that the user experience means everything on our websites and in our brick-and-mortar stores. Providing a positive encounter gives you the best possible chance of making a sale and earning repeat business and loyal customers. This journey is just as important with your Google Ads.
From the presentation of your ad itself to what happens when they click through, it is vital to make the entire process simple and rewarding for your potential customers. The quality score is the tool that Google provides to give your ads and landing pages a grade on the overall user experience.
This is presented on a scale of 1-10, where a low score means there is work to do, and a high score means you are providing a positive sentiment. You can view this quality score under the keywords report.
There are three factors that impact your score within your ads management:
- Expected click-through rate (CTR): Your ad presentation is assessed on how likely it will attract users to click through to your website.
- Relevance: If your advertising is not relevant to your keywords, you will likely be placing it in front of the wrong audience or people that are unlikely to click through. This is where ad copy also comes into play.
- Landing page experience: This needs to match the ad in terms of content and relevance, and be clear and straightforward for the visitor to take action, like leave their contact details or make a purchase.
How does Google Ads impact my search results?
Google Ads is not designed to boost your SEO, but that does not mean that it can’t. While this advertising platform is not directly linked to your position in organic searches, it delivers data that will help you improve your organic SEO and ability to rank for keywords.
By having visual data on which keywords are performing the best in your ads, you can apply these to your SEO efforts as well, which means:
- You will have finely tuned keyword strategies for your SEO
- You will know precisely which keywords to include in your titles and meta descriptions
- You can improve the quality of your organic visitors, bringing in people who are motivated to spend
While you cannot spend money to directly improve your organic presence in SERPs through Google Ads campaigns, the money you invest will arm you with the data you need to be successful.
Why should I use an ads manager or agency?
When you enlist in our help, you are getting an entire team of specialists in your corner and a company that knows how this field works. We ensure your ads are placed where they should be to get proven results. That way, you can focus on your business without spending hours trying to navigate this yourself with guesswork.
With our agency, you only pay if there are proven results. There is no “spend” on Google Ads – only an investment that will deliver a sizeable return so you can grow your business. Find out more today, and give our expert team a call.