Don’t Let Google Decide the Faith of Your Campaigns
Starting an advertising campaign seems simple nowadays: Google will direct its users to start their first campaign immediately after creating an account, and it gives you suggestions on what settings and bid strategies you should use. But what users may not know is that they give Google free hands to run the campaign as it wants.
Google also directs users to make decisions (for example, with settings) without knowing what kind of impact they will have. Running a campaign with the wrong settings equals wasting money because the ads will be visible to the wrong people.
Common Issues I See on Google Ads Accounts
I have gone through over 100 Google Ads Accounts, and almost all of them have at least one of the following issues:
- The ads are shown for everyone in Finland, even though the customer operates only in specific locations
- The same campaign runs with both Search Ads and Display Networks
- The campaign visibility is far from ideal because of wrong decisions with language options
- Missing ad extensions
- There are no negative keywords used
- There’s no conversion tracking
- All the keywords are involved in the same (or in a couple) ad groups
- There’s only one running ad in all of the ad groups
- No one has been monitoring the campaigns for months
Do you want me to be your partner in Finland and go through your Google Ads account? Please contact me.
When Done Right, Advertising With Google Ads Will Bring You Positive Results!
Paid ads on Google offer you an effective way to bring in people from your target audience to your website or e-commerce site. But when done wrong, it is the perfect way to waste your money.
You Need Campaign Optimization If…
What are the main reasons why businesses want me to optimize their ad campaigns? Lack of time or knowledge.
- You pay for unnecessary clicks – you are wasting money
If you ignore your Google Ads campaigns for a week and therefore don’t optimize them, there is a high risk you are wasting your advertising budget on useless clicks – meaning, you are burning money. Useless clicks will bring visitors to your website, but they don’t convert, meaning you pay for nothing.
- Clicks are coming in, but you’re not selling anything
If the clicks you gain from your Google Ads campaigns bring in people who don’t care about your products or services, you will never see a positive outcome for your efforts. Carefully chosen keywords, intriguing ads, and optimized landing pages guarantee that the right people are coming in, leading them to buy something after finding your website.
- The Quality Score for Keywords Takes a Hit
A keyword quality score is calculated based on clickthrough rate, landing page, and ad copy. If the quality score is low, you pay a higher price for your keywords. Also, your ads aren’t visible as often as otherwise. It leads to a situation where you are losing to your competition!
- The clickthrough rate is abysmal
Clickthrough rate (CTR) will stay low if you don’t have specific ad groups with 5 to 10 keywords per group. The ad copy and your message also impact CTR. That is why you need to test different ads and messages.
How Do I Do Advertising on Google?
Below, I will share some thoughts regarding optimizing Google Ads campaigns. Of course, every account is different, and different things apply in particular industries, but the main principles are the same.
I Understand My Customers’ Business And Goals
It is crucial to understand your customer’s goals before you start advertising. Some customers focus only on creating sales with their advertising efforts, while others aim to make their brand more recognizable. The set goals impact what kind of campaigns you should run big time.
You need to know your customer’s business to monitor the campaign results: what are the measures you can use to follow the effectiveness of the ads (sales, tender offers, registrations, impressions)?
The Keyword Research Is Where I Start
I always investigate what keywords my customers should use on Google Ads. To do that, I need to look for the keywords your potential customers use to find you, their popularity, and what kind of budget it requires to advertise with these keywords. I use the knowledge I gain from a customer and various tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs.com, and Keywordtool.io.
I Ensure That the Google Ads Account Structure Makes Sense
When I have found the right campaign keywords and ensured they fit my client, I separate them into topic-specific ad groups. A good rule of thumb is to have 5 to 10 keywords in each ad group so that the subject stays the same. In some cases, it is wise to make the ad groups bigger. And in other cases, a single keyword ad group can be more beneficial (only one keyword).
The campaign structure needs to serve its users; they should be able to see immediately what the ad is all about, and the account structure needs to make it easy to see where we’re at with each campaign. It will help tremendously with the constant optimization and results monitoring.
I Never Ignore the Quality Score for the Selected Keywords
I place the keywords pedantically in ad groups based on the topic, ensuring the same subject matter is visible in the ad copies and landing pages. This way, it is possible to improve the quality score of the keywords, which leads to better ad visibility and lower CPC (cost-per-click).
Weekly Monitoring
Constant monitoring, testing, and development are the only ways to create campaigns that bring results. If you hire me to handle SEO in Finland, I promise you weekly monitoring, which means 1 to 2 hours of work every week with campaigns. There are also cases where the monitoring needs to happen daily because of the competition in the industry.
Irresistible Ad Copies
No one can say which type of ad will work the best. That is why you should always test various versions with slightly different messaging. Testing will teach us which words or sentences bring the best results. In general, I create ads that differentiate from others and repeat the main keyword of the ad group (this way, we ensure a better quality score).
Exploiting Conversion Tracking
Using suitable conversion tracking add-ons is vital as they draw attention and lead to better visibility on SERPs. These add-ons should be at least campaign-specific, if not ad group-specific, to have them associated with the same topic as the ads and keywords.
Landing Page Optimization
When a customer clicks an ad that, for example, advertises software for accounting, the landing page needs to tell about the same topic.
Too many advertisers direct their ads to the home page, which tells about the services and products of the business in general. Instead, it is usually better to link the ad straight to a product page or a campaign-specific landing page that says the same things as the ad itself. In the long run, excellent landing pages ensure better quality scores, leading to higher conversion rates.
Display, Shopping, and Remarketing Campaigns
I have a lot of experience with Display advertising and Performance Max campaigns. I also run various Google Shopping Ads for my customers and remarketing campaigns.