Google Ads Best Practices

If you have a budget and are considering using it on ads that can help you penetrate your target audience, you’re best using it on a proven platform, one that averages monthly traffic of over 1.77 billion visits in Canada —Google.

To be more specific, you should give Google Ads a shot. Initially introduced as Google Adwords two years after the launch of Google.com, the platform boasts of such an extensive reach that it’s highly likely that you and your prospective clients have seen and even clicked on one of its ads.

Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that falls under a marketing channel known as pay-per-click (PPC), where you pay per click or per impression (CPM) on an ad. It’s no secret that in the highly competitive market, you need your paid campaign to be strong and focused so you can generate more clicks and increase your chances of gaining new customers.

Google Ads is an efficient method of driving qualified traffic to your business while they’re looking for products and services similar to the ones you are offering. With the use of Google Ads, you can bolster your website traffic, get more phone calls, and raise your in-store visits.

If you have tried Google Ads and did not get the results that you want, don’t fret. Perhaps you just need to make specific adjustments. Here are some of the best practices that you can try:

1) Avoid broad keyword terms

Your keywords need to be specific and on point when you’re using Google Ads. This is where consistent testing and adjusting come in so that you can nail down the right keywords for your campaign. If your keywords are too wide-ranging, Google may place your ad in front of the wrong audience, which can then lead to fewer clicks and higher expenditure.

Always be on top of your campaign and keep a close eye on which keywords are working and which aren’t. Make adjustments so that your keywords match your ads with your desired audience. Don’t worry too much if the right combination eludes you at first but don’t stop at adding, removing and adjusting keywords either.

2) Run ads that are relevant to the searcher

if your ad does not suit the searcher’s intent, then you won’t get enough clicks to justify your expenditure. Your headline and copy should match the keywords that you’re bidding on and the resolution that your ad is endorsing must answer whatever issue the searcher needs help with. This is a combination that will deliver the results that your campaign is looking for.

3) Better Quality Score

You should pay attention to your Quality Score as this will indicate how your ad should rank. A high ranking would mean that your ad will get better placements while a low rank will essentially mean that fewer people will see your ad, resulting in lesser opportunities to convert. Google will show you what your Quality Score is but bolstering it lies in your hands.

Three factors define the Quality Score, namely expected clickthrough rate, landing page experience and ad relevance. If your ads and landing pages are more significant to users, you’re likely to have a higher score.
A Quality Score of 8 to 10 is considered good but you can’t find it for every keyword because Quality Score may differ from low commercial intent to high commercial intent keywords.

4) Optimize your landing page

Getting a user to click your ad is not the endgame. Rather, it’s but a pathway for a possible conversion. And so, your efforts should extend past your ad and include your landing page. What does the user see the moment he or she clicks your ad? Is the landing page optimized for conversion? Does the page provide the prospect with a clear-cut answer to their particular concern? Your prospect should go through your ad and landing page towards conversion without any fuss.

5) Test Multiple Expanded Text Ads in Every Ad Group

Expanded text ads can give you outstanding results especially if you have invested in writing and experimenting on new creative outputs. Safe to say: the quality of your ad matters and you must practice prudence when creating additional headlines and characters.

You should also try different approaches with the space your ads have. Go for 3 to 5 new ads per ad group as marketers who test numerous creatives almost always experience better performance.

Focus your testing on headlines. Headlines are the most important parts of your ads, and you now have an extra line to experiment with.

6) Use ALL the Different Ad Extensions

Search engine marketing has utilized ad extensions to endorse alternative offers and stress significant value propositions that they did not include in the ads. Including ad extensions and displaying them beside your ads can extensively bolster the ad’s CTR and Quality Score. There are many different extensions that you can use to raise the effectiveness of your ad campaigns, and the key to seeing improved CTRs and conversion rates is to know which ones to use when. You can use multiple extensions on any given campaign, which helps with your campaign. Some ad extensions that you can try include sitelink extensions, call extensions, callout extensions, structured snippet extensions, location extensions, price extensions and app extensions.

7) Post your ads at the right time and the right place

With Google Ads, you make the most out of the information that you have involving users’ habits, profiles and intentions to determine what keywords you’ll be using. You should also use this strategy to location and set ads to display in particular geographic locations and at specific times

For example, your business specializes in the delivery of organic fruits and vegetables and most of the time, your orders come through on Friday nights. If you want to reach locals on Friday evenings, you can do so by broadcasting your ads to the areas or regions that serve to reach those who are most likely to be interested in your business.

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