Google Ads work, but do not work for every advertiser
Sending traffic to a landing page will only work when certain criteria are met. Some of these conversion influencing criteria are
- The prequalifying effect of the Ad copy
- The usability of the landing page
- The relevance of the landing page to the expectations set by the Ad copy etc.
The list above is not exhaustive, but even with lots of commercial intent keywords, persuasive copy, and a visually salient landing page, a key criteria is the relationship between the landing page's call to action and the traffic temperature that is funneled from the ad to that landing page. But what is the traffic temperature? To answer this question, we would have to explore associated concepts within the context of what it takes to be great at Google ads.
What will it take to be great at Google Ads? Here is the outline
- Meaningful metrics & accurate goal setting
- Understanding the Iceberg Effect
- Native Google Ads Research Tools
- External Research Tools
- Weekly optimization routines
- Monthly optimization routines
- Keyword, Audience, & General Expansion
Meaningful metrics & accurate goal setting
Before a successful campaign can be configured, the desired outcomes should be clearly visualized in a quantifiable way.
To set quantifiable Ad goals, it is imperative to understand all the metric targets that must be met before the goal can be realized. That's one of the reasons why a Return on ad spend calculator and other Cost analysis tools could be very beneficial.
Some of the metrics listed in the sheet above would help to not just concretize the goals, but to guide the efforts made in the iterative improvement of the campaigns. Some of these vital metrics used in goal determination are:
- Lifetime value of the customer
- Conversion rate of the existing landing page.
- Cost per click
- Close rate
- ROI per sale etc.
Understanding the Iceberg Effect
The Iceberg Effect is a terrible thing that happens in many PPC campaign setups. It occurs when many targeting options like keywords, audiences, topics, placements, demographics etc are layered within individual ad groups or ad sets. When this happens, it becomes difficult to optimize the campaign because it would be impossible to assess the contribution of each targeting option to the successes or failures within the campaign. The best practice to avoid this effect is to focus on granularity and simplicity in the selection of targeting parameters for a campaign.
Read: 6 Google Ads Mistakes That Lose You Money
Native google ads research tools
Within the Ads, account are powerful research tools like the keyword, performance, and display planner. In the keyword planner, we can research new keywords or get data for search volume estimation. What makes the keyword planner very powerful is the ability to use URLs and domains to mine for keywords across various niches.
The display planner is no longer a stand-alone tool and can only be accessed when a display campaign is created. In the planner, there are research possibilities based on available targeting parameters like audiences, demographics, and content targeting options. With audiences, all you have to do is input a url and the planner would spool out buckets of audiences related to the topical focus and visits associated with the inputted URL. In the demographic section, selection can be made based on age, gender, parental status, and even household income.
A best practice is to leave all demographic options set so as to get the broadest audience size at the start of a campaign.
Other targeting options are keywords, topics, and placements.
Keywords: This is where you can actually use specific terms and Google will be able to scan websites that it thinks are related to that keyword.
Topic: The topic is basically a bucket of websites that Google thinks are related to keywords we use for audience selection.
Placements: are actually the exact URLs that you want to target. So, you can target mobile apps. You can target actual websites. You can target YouTube channels. You can target individual YouTube videos too, but they have to be opted into the Google Adsense program which allows publishers to have ads on their properties
External Research Tools
Beside the internal research tools, external tools serve to mine for data that google does not reveal, but which can uncover new opportunities for campaign optimization. Some of these tools are
- SpyFu
- SEMRush
- WhatRunsWhere
- Moat.com
Some of these PPC tools allow you to analyze what competitors are doing, their budgets and a sense of their overarching acquisition strategy. For example, with spyfu all you need is to type in the domain name of a competitor and you get data on the number of keywords the domain is bidding for, the cost per click, the ad position and the number of searches associated with their keywords. While useful, these insights are not the key value that can be derived from these tools. Instead the focus should be on finding net new keywords that you haven't found through the keyword planner which can improve the clicks and sales volume in your campaign.
For competitive research in display advertising, that's where tools like what runs where become important. This tool allows you to see the type of ads, the actual creative, the actual location/placement where that ad was seen, the number of days the ad was seen (length correlates with success), the type of ad network, the landing pages that they are sending traffic to.
Weekly Optimization Routines
Once an Ad goes live, it is likely to not be perfect in terms of the size of the negative keywords list, the keywords in the bid, the match types, the bid prices, the bid strategy or the audience selection in the case of display advertising. For this reason, the successful google ads campaign is not determined by how it starts but how well it is managed and optimized. Here are some optimization routines to follow.
- Look at the conversion rates
- Observe the cost per conversion
- Observe the click-through rates
- Review the number of impressions
Based on unwanted developments in each of these criteria, winning and losing ad copies can then be selected. In this case, the losing Ads will be paused while the winning ads will be modified across several iterations based on headlines, descriptions, etc.
At the keyword level, we would observe the conversion rate of a keyword relative to the bid costs. The ones above the conversion thresholds will have their bids dropped, while those below the conversion threshold will have bids (but below the Conv. Cost) increased so as to get more volume.
The search terms report will also be reviewed in terms of performance. This would serve as a mine for potential negative keyword ideas which can help lower the costs within the campaign. To automate the analysis of keyword and ad group performance, you can also use
Google Ads filters, Rules, Scripts and software (kite software) e.g
Monthly optimization routines
On a monthly basis, campaigns can be optimized in a number of ways
1) we would observe performance at a device level within campaigns, ad groups and keywords. So if a particular device is contributing a fair number of clicks but a lower conversion rate, then bid adjustments can be made to lower costs for that device category and vice versa.
2) Then we would also observe campaign performance based on hours of the day in the predefined reports.
3) Another optimization criteria is the geographic distribution of the Ad and variances in performance results based on user location. This data can be used to modify bids according to location which will improve the profitability of the ad
4) Another optimization criteria would be based on micro-conversion tracking. These micro-conversions like time on site, bounce rate, average pages per visit, etc can then be used to create a custom column against which the bids and keyword targeting can then be assessed.
5) Another monthly optimization routine is to observe the attribution overview. This would help to understand the characteristics of the account that influence the major or micro-conversions that happen on landing pages. So in this report, one of the key things to observe is the time lag between the first or last click of an Ad and the final conversion. You can also review the top paths and path lengths which can help with campaign iteration.
Keyword, Audience, & General Expansion
Once you're happy with your cost per acquisition and you're also having an ROI with your Google ads campaigns, it's time to figure out how you actually scale. So there's different ways to go about that. For search, you can go after more broad match keywords. You can add additional layers like in-market audiences
In addition to that, there's a very almost unlimited opportunity when it comes to display in the video side on YouTube.
Conclusion
Google Ads rake in billions of dollars from advertising spend on a yearly basis. These huge spends would not be happening if the platform doesn't work. Getting it to work for you, is what this article has summarized