3 Key Features of High Performing Google Ads Campaigns
Whether you’re working with an agency or managing your own campaigns, here are my top 3 things to check to make sure you’re making the most of the opportunities that Google Ads provides to increase your leads and sales.
Making the most of Google Ads
1. Have Conversion Tracking Set Up
I can’t stress enough how important this is!
Conversions are actions that you want people to take after they arrive at your website. Things like:
- Filling in an online enquiry form
- Calling you
- Registering for an event
- Buying a product.
If you don’t have conversion tracking set up you’ll never know what return you’re getting from your ad spend. But when you have this valuable information available you can use it to optimise your campaigns and make the most of your ad spend.
Expert Tip – Conversion tracking can be set up from within Google Ads, in Google Analytics or via Google Tag Manager. Ask your web developer or Google Ads agency what they recommend based on your specific needs.
2. Plan Your Campaigns Carefully
Never ever dump all your keywords into one campaign and ad group!
To get started, structure your Google Ads campaign in a similar way to how you’ve structured your website. Or if there is a specific product or service that you’d like to promote it’s fine to start with that one.
For example, if you have an eCommerce website where you sell shoes, break out your ads for the different types of shoes that you sell. Topics like:
- ‘women’s sandals’
- ‘men’s trainers’
- and ‘kids school shoes’.
This structure allows you to make your ad copy more relevant to what the person searched for and you can direct the ads to the most relevant landing page based on the type of shoe.
Expert Tip - We like to initially plan campaigns in an Excel spreadsheet so that it’s easy to see how things flow before adding the campaigns and ad groups to your Google Ads account.
3. Monitor your Google Ads campaign performance
Google Ads is NOT set and forget!
Regardless of the amount of budget you’re spending on ad clicks each day, your marketing budget is precious. Monitor your spend and the campaign stats so that you have benchmarks and can tell if your campaign performance gets better or worse. Also be aware that it will vary over time and might also be impacted by seasonal factors.
Things to monitor include:
- Impressions – how many times your ad was shown each day/week/month
- Clicks – how many times the ads were clicked on
- Click Through Rate – this is a really important stat for Google. It’s the percentage of people who see your ad and then click on it. We always aim for a minimum of 2% for search campaigns, but the higher the better.
- Cost – How much you’ve spent during the time period
- Conversions – How many conversions were tracked during the time period
- Conversion Rate – What percentage of people who click on an ad go on to take one of your important conversion actions.
Expert Tip – Set up a report to be automatically emailed to you regularly with the key stats that you’re monitoring, so that you can see at a glance if everything is OK or if you need to log in to Google Ads and check things.
I’m looking forward to answering your Google Ads questions at the YTM Lunch and Learn on 14 April at 12.30pm. Feel free to send through your questions ahead of time so that I can give you a complete answer.
About the Author
Mel Samson, founder and co-owner of Click-Winning Content, has been working with Google Ads for over 15 years. She helps individuals and organisations maximise their investment in Google Ads to improve business performance.
As a marketer by experience and a scientist by Melbourne University qualification Mel combines her marketing and analytical skills with her in-depth knowledge of the Google world. She will take your business from Search to Results. And she will never bamboozle you with jargon!
