Google Ads are an effective way of getting your business in front of people who are most likely to interact and/or convert.
Google Ads work through combining clever machine learning with user behaviour to automatically serve ads from your business that are likely to provide the most value and relevancy. You can read more about How Google Ads Work here
In order to get the most out of Google Ads, you need to ensure you are putting the most in. Best practices vary depending upon your goals and industry.
- Do thorough keyword research Conducting keyword researching is the staple of any effective campaign - whether it be for paid or organic reach. Keywords give a strong indication into the search terms our users are typing or saying into their search engine. Getting the right keywords is what helps get us to our target audience.
- Optimise your account Google Ads uses machine learning to suggest improvements to your Google Ads account to optimise the performance of campaigns and their individual advertisements. A perfect optimisation score is 100%, and anywhere above 80% is considered a good score.
- Keep your ad content fresh and relevant Whilst it’s not recommended to continuously edit your advertisements, it is best practice to frequently analyse their performance and make adjustments accordingly. These adjustments could be reflective of changes in user behaviour, the external environment and the offerings your business has. Making use of keyword and search term analysis, in combination with campaign reporting against your objectives will provide good indication of which changes you might need to make to your Google Ads.
- Utilise negative keywords and search terms Many advertisers think that focusing solely on keywords is what will drive their campaign to have the best performance - however, it is also just as important to utilise negative keyword lists and search terms. These lists tell us who is seeing our ads, and these people may not be who we are wanting to target; meaning valuable budget may be being spent on the wrong audience. To avoid this, and to keep adverts and budget concentrated on our desired group of users, it’s best to add unwanted search terms to your negative keywords,so they don’t push an ad in future.
- Ensure your bidding method matches your campaign goal Google Ads provides various bidding methods that have been designed to best support the various campaign goals available on the advertising platform. Having a good understanding of your goals and the individual bidding methods available will result in a campaign that spends money only where it is most valuable. You will likely read about Automated, Manual and Smart Bidding Strategies - each of these options will enhance campaigns based on your performance objectives (whether you’re aiming for awareness, traffic, sales, leads, or other conversions). Deciding upon the best bidding strategy for your goals will also help give an indication of how much money you should be including in your budget.
We understand that navigating paid advertising can be overwhelming - if you would like to find out more about how Google Ads can benefit your business, our team of specialists is able to provide exclusive Google Ads Offers to new and existing accounts. You can discover our latest offer by clicking here.
You can also discover more about The Benefits of Google Ads, How Google Ads Work, and Marketing for Charities by reading our useful guides.