Being direct with your Google Ads search campaigns
Daria Isanska - 16 September 2020
In 2019, Google’s advertising revenue was over $116 billion. Why? Because Google Ads convert 50% better than organic search results.
On average, the majority of businesses see a 200% return on their investment when purchasing Google Ads. This makes Google Ads one of the most efficient means of advertising at a marketer’s disposal.
The aim of running any paid campaign is to achieve the best results possible through minimal spend. In order to do this, a clear focus must be given to minimising irrelevant cost on traffic that isn’t likely to convert. Taking a precise and direct approach can help to provide this level of efficiency.
To ensure your campaigns remain focused, there must be continuity through each aspect of the journey. This starts with the keywords that you are targeting and continues through to the landing page for your campaign.
Let’s take a look at the key steps to work through when building a Google Ads paid campaign.
Audience targeting
Developing an understanding of who your target audience is will allow you to focus your campaigns towards users who are most likely to convert.
If you have a wide audience that covers multiple demographics, you can develop separate campaigns that target select areas with a more detailed focus. This allows you to dictate messaging and imagery that appeals specifically to the audiences you are targeting.
Keyword targeting
Platforms that compete within search listings, like Google Ads or Microsoft Ads (formerly Bing Ads), allow you to target keywords and phrases that users are searching for. This already gives a good level of direct marketing, however additional progression is needed to further refine campaigns.
Keyword match types help you to dictate in which search queries your ads will show:
- Broad Match – red shoes – these keywords can appear at any point in the search query and in any order. Synonyms and related words are also eligible here
- Broad Match Modifier – +red +shoes – like broad match, these keywords can appear in any order or location in a search query. However, synonyms and related words are NOT eligible here
- Phrase Match – “red shoes” – these words can appear anywhere in a search query, but they have to be in this order and next to each other
- Exact Match – [red shoes] – only targets these exact keywords
To maintain a direct marketing strategy, the majority of the budget should be placed onto exact match keywords. This will ensure that your ads are focused on relevant searches that you have decided hold a good user intent.
Negative keywords are essential for ensuring correct targeting. Applying negative keywords and phrases will stop your ads from showing for queries. The negative keywords work with the same match types as the keywords shown above.
Consider dedicating some time to developing which queries you would not want your ads showing up for, following any ideas laterally to see if further irrelevant keywords can be found and removed.
Campaign structuring
Structuring Google Ad campaigns gives you the control needed to be precise and efficient. The goal here is to create granular ad groups based on the keywords you are targeting.
Think of your ad group as a bucket with your keywords in and your ad message labelled on the front. Whenever a user searches for the keywords in that bucket, the ad will show. In light of this, you want to make sure that the ad message is reflective of all the keywords in the bucket or ad group. The idea is to be granular with which keywords you include in each ad group. Best practice is to include 1-5 keywords that are closely related in each ad group.
Ad messaging
Google Ads need to be written to reflect the intent of the keyword that the user is targeting. Including the keyword in the ad copy is a good way to show a strong intent, which also helps to show Google that your ad is relevant to its users. This way, your ad is more likely to be shown in a stronger position.
Landing page experience
Driving traffic to a website is important. Ensuring that traffic lands on a relevant and relatable page, even more so.
Similar to a connection between the target audience and the ad provided, there needs to be a strong through-line from the ad to the landing page. It can be very jarring for a user reaching a landing page that does not reflect the ad they clicked on.
As such, it is common practice to incorporate elements of the ad on the landing page. Where messaging changes within a campaign, new landing pages should be created to reflect the different ad messaging or intent.
Whether your landing page encourages visitors to fill out a form, call the office or sign up to download a whitepaper, the value of having a clear and dedicated page is unrivalled for an efficient user journey.
The most successful Google Ad campaigns achieve a strong return on investment because they are direct and targeted towards a specific audience. They focus on all aspects of the campaign and leave no queries untouched. They benefit massively from the fact that 90% of internet users see Google display ads worldwide and use this as an opportunity to promote their product or service to customers.
If you’re looking for someone to build, set up and manage your Google Ads, our team of experts can help. We’ll work with you to ensure budget is spent on relevant audiences, correct search terms and strong landing page experiences. Get in touch today to find out how we can optimise your Google Ads campaigns and ensure they’re direct to provide the return you’re looking for.
