Looking for some top Google Ads tips to get better results from your campaigns?

In this article, I am going to share my top Google Ads tips that I use on our clients’ campaigns to achieve lower click costs, better ad position and better return on investment. So let’s dive straight in.

Carry Out Keyword Research

It is essential to know your market and keyword research can generate literally thousands of keywords that your potential customers are using to search for your products or services online. The simplest way to get you started is to use Google’s very own ‘Keyword Planner’. Type in a keyword that best describes your business and receive an extensive list of all recent searches for anything associated to your keyword, including a count of how many times this has been searched for and the estimated bid cost.

Check Your Keyword Quality Score

Create ads using keywords with a Quality Score of 5/10 or above to reduce clicks costs. If your keyword has a low Quality Score then Google will penalise you with higher click costs. On the other end of the line, they will discount your click costs if you achieve a higher Quality Score. 5/10 is their benchmark and therefore, you want to look at this as a minimum, however the higher you achieve, the less you pay per click. You can find out what the Quality Score of your keyword is by clicking on the Keywords tab. If you do not already have the column added, then select ‘Columns’, click on ‘Modify Columns’ and select ‘Quality Score’ from the drop down menu and tick the box next to the word ‘Quality Score’. Some more generic keywords may have a lower score but can still be worth using. For example, one of our clients sells platform lifts and this basic keyphrase has a low Quality Score of 3/10 and yet still generates many clicks and conversions, so you need to use your industry expertise to assess if a low scoring keyword should still be used.

Capitalise Each Word  

Capitalising each word of the ad is statistically known to grab attention of readers and help your ad to stand out amongst the competition. Be sure not to capitilise every letter e.g. FREE as this is against Google’s rules and your ad will be disapproved.

Split Test Your Ads

Once you have your headline and description you need to split test. To do this you create a copy of your Ad and change just a small part i.e. one description line and monitor the performance of each ad over a week or so and select the ad wording which is generating the best results. Dispose of the underperforming ad and create a new one using the same process. Repeat this method CONSTANTLY.

Choose The Right Landing Page

Directing your potential customers to the information they are looking for in one click is essential. If a customer has to search around your website to find what they need they will soon give up. Make sure your website is user friendly and eye catching. Never send all of your ads to your homepage as this can seriously   damage your Quality Score.

Add Negative Keywords

Make negative keyword additions a regular part of account maintenance. Our long-running accounts still have 2-3 negative keywords EVERY WEEK!

Change Google Automatic Settings

There are many settings that Google has automated or set to a default that does NOT give your campaigns the best results. Listed below are the default/auto settings and what I recommend they be changed to.

Network – This is usually defaulted to Search and Display Network. Change this to Search Only. If you wish, you can click on ‘Include Google search partners’ to widen your reach with Googles network.

Bid Strategy Type – This is defaulted to Maximise Clicks. Select Bidding then click on ‘Change bid strategy’ (in blue), then ‘Select a bid strategy directly’ (also in blue). Next select ‘Manual CPC’ from the drop-down menu and untick ‘Enhanced CPC’ and click ‘Save’.

Ad Rotation (hidden in additional settings)– This is defaulted to Optimise: Prefer best performing ads. Change this to Do not optimise: Rotate ads indefinitely. Google often determines the best performing ad after only a few clicks and therefore, not giving a real chance to gain valuable data. My recommendation is to wait until you have at least 100 clicks on both versions of your ad (see split testing) and then you decide then best performing one and follow the recommendations suggested in this article.

Add Extensions

There are many extensions available on the Google Ads platform, however, there are three that I recommend you use, regardless of your industry. They are:-

Sitelink Extensions – These give more information about your products or services showing other categories you specialise in under your ad and shows customers you have a lot more on offer. These are clickable links to other pages on your website.

Call Extensions – These are a great asset with the ever-increasing use of mobile devices and give the searcher the option to call direct, by a click of the button. If they are using a desktop, your telephone number will appear. This also enables you to use Google’s call forwarding options allowing you to monitor conversions when someone calls.

Call-Out Extensions  – These are similar to Sitelink extensions however they are purely for advertising purposes as they are not clickable links.

Structured Snippet Extensions – These are a way to add some extra specific information about your products or service. You select from a range of headlines i.e. Brands, Courses, Styles, Types etc and then add the key words about these. Keep them short to appeal to customers using mobiles.

In addition, I recommend you set all extensions at Account Level as this enables you to use the same extensions on several campaigns to save time rewriting.

Schedule your Ads

Setting up and effective Ad Schedule can save you money on wasted clicks. For example, if your target audience is large corporate CEOs, then running your ads at 2am on a Sunday morning is not likely to generate business. Alternatively, if you are offering a different service ‘out of hours’ than during daytime, you will ONLY want your ads to show at particular times of the day.

Set Up Location Targeting

It is important that your ads only show in the areas where you are looking for business. For example, there is no point advertising a local business, based in Southampton to searchers in Aberdeen as they may click on your ad, costing you money, and never become a customer.

Use Power Words And Numbers

There are many ‘Power’ words that have proven to be effective, when used correctly in your ad copy. For example, Free, Discount, Get, Buy, Now, Best, Today etc. These words tap into the emotions of the searcher and trigger a psychological reaction. Numbers and discounts are also a great way to grab the reader’s attention as they communicate value. Whether you are telling them how much discount is available for a limited time or the cost of a product or service you are selling, the reader is already being made price aware and can make an informed decision if this is within the price they are willing to pay. Another great way to grab attention is with symbols. Exclamation marks (!) or questions marks (?) have proved to be very popular. WARNING – Google only allows one symbol so use it wisely!

Carry Out Regular Maintenance

One of the biggest mistakes I see as an Google Ads manager is the lack of ongoing maintenance on campaigns. You spend hours creating them and coming up with the winning ad copy and then just leave it to run it’s course, sometimes for months on end, without looking at it again.

A successful Google Ads account needs regular maintenance to keep it effective from bid optimisation to adding negative keywords. A study showed that up to 65% of searches carried out on Google have never been searched before, which means that you could be ignoring new negative keywords that need to be added to prevent your budget being wasted, or worse, missing out on potential new keywords/ads that can generate great income.

So now you have my top Google Ads tips that we use to gain better results for our clients. Have you found any great tips that helped your campaigns? I would love to hear them in the comments below.

Are you still struggling to get the best return on investment on your campaigns? If so, why not let us take a look and give your campaigns a performance check with a report of recommendations to get more for your money.

If you think Google Ads may be the way forward for your business, book a chat with me today and we can see if we are a good match. Just click on my diary link below and book a FREE 45 minute Discovery call and we can have a chat.