5 things you need to know when you run Google Ads campaign

Owners of companies who are trying or have tried to run their Google Ads campaigns normally have negative experiences. They believe that this kind of advertising is ineffective and expensive. No wonder, because the complicated settings, configuration of user tracking, planning the strategy and executing it may be overwhelming for someone who is not expert in Google Ads and in analytics; and running out of money on your credit card over the weekend is an unpleasant surprise.

Moreover, modern advertising systems change very rapidly, so you need to keep your ear to the ground.

If you are running a Google Ads campaign, but you are not satisfied with the results, we have prepared 5 pieces of advice that will help you increase the effectiveness of your campaign.

1. Know keyword match types

One of the mistakes that I often come across during auditing Google Ads campaigns is the following: When you add a keyword in search ads, by default it is set to so called “broad match”. It means that your ad will be shown not only when a prospective client types in the search engine the keyword that we chose, but also its stemmings, misspellings and close variants, not necessarily ones covered by your business.

Let’s say there is this company that offers massage courses in Warsaw and its ad is displayed to a user who is looking for a course massage in Cracow. I know that the user might be interested in such courses in Warsaw too, but that is rather unlikely (after all, it was not their intention when they typed in the search term) so when your budget is limited, it is better to rule this word out of the campaign.

So what kind of keyword match is best to use? If you decide on broad match, it is a good idea to apply the broad match modifier (by adding a “+” sign in front of every word in the key phrase, eg. +kurs +masażu +kraków). Owing to that, the ad will cover many queries in which our key words will appear in varying order. If your budget is too small for that, then it is best to apply exact match (you put square brackets in front and at the end of the phrase, eg. [kurs masażu kraków]. In this case, the ad will be shown only if a user types in precisely the phrase that you choose (the search term does not include extra words). Recently, there was an update of this kind of match, thanks to which the ad may also be displayed if Google decides that the user’s intention is the same for “kurs masażu kraków” and “kurs masażu w krakowie”. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the campaign, I recommend mixing various match types.

2. Check the search terms report regularly and add negative keywords

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, it is recommended to regularly check the search terms report and to add negative keywords that are unrelated to your business activity, so that your ad is not shown to users who are not looking for your company or your products. It will allow to save the budget on the clicks because, if the ad is not unnecessarily shown, the users will not click on it. Furthermore, in the long run, your keywords will have better Quality Score which will translate into lower advertising costs.

3. Implement conversion tracking

This is something elementary, that should be done before launching any marketing campaign (if you have a website). Speaking bluntly: traffic on the website is good, but what counts at the end of the day is that the user buys something / fills in a form / makes a phone call or anything that you want him to do and that is of value for your business. Without applying conversion tracking you do not know whether your ads are effective and what ROI they bring. Because of that, optimization of your activities is impossible, you just scrabble your way around. Which keywords and which ads bring you satisfying results? Conversion tracking will give you the answer to these and other questions.

4. Test the advertisements

When you create your ads, you never know which one of them is going to be more successful. You can assume or guess, but you can never be certain. Here Google Ads is also helpful. Choose 2-3 ads (I personally recommend two, this way you can choose the winner sooner) and after some time, choose the one with best results. You need to check their CTR, conversion rate, and their number. However, what is important here, is that if you want to test ads, you need to change the automatic ad rotation at the campaign level. In order to do that, sign in to Google Ads, open settings in the page menu on the left, choose “advanced settings” then “ad rotation” and choose the option “Do not optimize: Rotate ads indefinitely” and click “save”. Owing to that, you will have control over the ad that you later decide to choose. The problem with the default (automatic) optimization is that Google does not take all the important data into account and it can act too quickly.

5. Apply remarketing

Remarketing is a way to reach the users who have already visited your website. They are a very valuable group of potential clients because people rarely decide to purchase during their first contact with a brand or a website, so it is worth reminding them about it. Moreover, your possibilities of segmenting this group are practically limitless, which creates you the possibility to reach given groups with adequate content at the right moment. A good example here is displaying ads to users who have added products to the basket but have not completed the purchase. By sending a suitable advertising message, we can persuade them to go back to the shop and buy.

If you are looking for help with setting up and running a Google Ads Campaign, write to us. We will prepare the strategy, design, implement and run the campaign as well as optimize its results.