S74 Top Tips - Six Key Steps For A Successful Google Ads Campaign
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Google Ads campaigns are a great method of advertising. It is no surprise that so many businesses are using them to market their products and services. That being said, creating a successful campaign takes some effort, but that’s where we can help. Keep reading for some great tips for your own campaign, or contact us now to find out how we can push your campaign even further!
But, what is Google Ads?
Google Ads is a service offered by Google that allows businesses and entrepreneurs to launch digital ad campaigns. Campaigns made in Google Ads can show ads in different places online including google search, YouTube, Gmail etc. These ads are shown in prime real estate like the top and the bottom of Google search results and on third-party websites that are a part of the Google Display Network.
The benefits of a Google Ads Campaign
We have found Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools currently available for digital ad campaigns. Ads can be shown in various formats (e.g. text, image, video, rich media) and on different websites, this allows us to access a wide audience. We can set your Google Ads for remarketing and retargeting, which makes it ideal for effective advertising.
Overall benefits include:
Targeting to get high-quality leads
Increasing conversions
Better return on investment (ROI)
Remarketing and retargeting
Quick results with lasting impact
As mentioned above, Google Ads are already quite popular thanks to their effectiveness. A Google Ads campaign gives us the opportunity to use Google’s advertising platform to promote your brand. From search results to websites to mobile apps, there are many places your ads can show up for your target audience to see.
Based on your brand strategy, objectives, and other factors, we can help you choose an appropriate campaign type and start advertising. Depending on your chosen campaign type, you will be working with a specific set of targeting and ads.
Marketing objectives of a Google Ads Campaign
With Google Ads, we can choose marketing objectives for your Google Ads campaign. These include:
Building Awareness: This will help build your brand awareness and recognition by targeting people at the top of the marketing funnel.
Influencing Engagement: This will help target people at the middle of the funnel who are aware of your brand and are considering buying your products.
Generate Leads and Conversions: This will help convert leads at the bottom of the funnel and make them perform a specific action (e.g. contact you, make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter).
Now that we’ve briefly established the basics of Google Ads, here are the key steps we follow to set up effective campaigns to fully leverage this powerful advertising platform.
Research and prepare well
The first thing we do for every project is research and prepare thoroughly. We have found that the better we prepare, the easier it is to set up a campaign that will be effective and achieve the goals you are aiming for. Everything from your business goals to your target audience is crucial for making your campaign work the way you want it to.
Keep in mind that understanding user intent and matching your own promotional activities is crucial for the success of your Google Ads campaign. Another aspect of getting prepared is learning the technical side of things. Here is a rundown of basic terms you will need to know to set up and run your Google Ads campaign:
Keywords: Words and phrases that will trigger your ads when users search for them.
Bid: The maximum amount you will be paying when someone clicks your ad. (You won’t be paying for your ads showing up – only for clicks.)
Quality Score: How relevant your keywords are to your ad.
Ad Rank: A metric that determines where your ad shows up relative to other ads.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC): The actual amount you pay when someone clicks your ad.
Conversion: A case where a user who clicked your ad performs another action on your site (e.g. makes a purchase).
2. Look at your previous ad campaigns
If you have launched any ad campaigns before, you need to look at your past experiences to see if there is something valuable for you to use now. After all, any knowledge you have about ad campaigns can be useful in setting up similar new campaigns.
How did you set up the campaigns and who was your target audience?
How effective were your campaigns?
Which metrics did you use to measure performance?
How different or similar was the digital world at the time?
All of these questions will help you better understand your past campaigns and apply your knowledge and experience to new ones.
3. Make final preparations
Before we get started there are still more essential preparations. Will you be providing the copy or would you like to use our in-house copywriters to create your ads? That’s just one of the questions we will ask you. Here are some things that need to be taken care of before we can proceed with your Google Ads campaign:
Account Setup: Do you have an account already, or would you like us to set one up for you?
Budgeting: We generally advise spreading out your budget over multiple campaigns at first. Once we understand what is more effective for you, we can adjust your budgeting accordingly.
Keyword Research: We will pick your keywords by using the Keyword Planner among other tools to effectively target the right audience.
Writing Ads: The Studio Seventyfour team will write compelling ads based on the research we have done. We consider user intent, your campaign goals, keywords, and other factors that will impact how your ads are perceived by your target audience.
Landing Pages: We will select the landing pages users will get to after clicking your ads. These will be relevant to your ads. If we designed your website we can customize your landing pages in a way that will maximize conversions by living up to the expectations your audience has after seeing and clicking on your ad.
Devices: We will format all of your ads for different devices. Depending on your campaign type, your ads will need to show up on different platforms and in different formats.
4. What are your objectives and goals?
Now we are prepared we need to finalise your advertising objectives and goals this will help us determine which type of campaign will be best for you.
5. Select your campaign type
After you have chosen your objectives, we will select your campaign type. As explained earlier, your chosen campaign type will determine where your ads show up and in what form they appear. Here are all of the campaign types:
Search: Text ads on search results
Display: Image ads on websites
Video: Video ads on YouTube
Shopping: Product listings on Google
Discovery: Advertise within online feeds
App: Promote your app on many channels
Local: Promote your locations on many channels
Smart: Simplify your campaigns
Performance Max: Find high-value customers across all channels
Which ad campaign type is the best?
Though it would be nice if there were one definite answer to this question, that is simply not the case. The truth is that the best ad campaign type just won't be the same for every business running Google Ads. Depending on your business model, business type, niche, and other factors, the best Google Ads campaign type will vary wildly. The most commonly-used Google Ads campaign type is the Search ads. This is because search ads account for a large majority of ad spend on Google, but it's not the right choice for everybody.
6. Evaluate results and optimize campaigns
We like to run and optimize your Google ads for at least 3 months for optimal results. Every month we go through the campaign goals and objectives to make sure we are reaching the target and maximizing results. To maximize ROI, we NEED to optimize your campaigns constantly.
A good way to evaluate your results is by having specific metrics that we use to measure the performance of your campaigns. The key performance indicators (KPIs) will depend on the campaign type and goals you set for your campaign, but the most important ones are:
Impressions (how many times your ad was displayed or seen)
Clicks (how many times your ad was clicked)
Cost (how much you are paying)
Conversions (how many conversions you got)
Click-Through Rate (CTR) (how often users click on your ad)
In order to maximize the ROI of your campaigns, we will optimize your Google Ads campaigns constantly. We optimize your ads through:
Using research and PPC spy tools
Utilizing Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs)
Targeting specific audiences with Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs)
Matching intent to your CTA
Converting using Geolocation
A/B test your ads, titles, descriptions, image colours, and so on.
And that’s a wrap
To summarize, an effective Google Ads campaign depends on a wide variety of factors. Follow the tips in this article to help you get through the process and create campaigns that will make a difference, or contact us here to save yourself the hassle, we can do it all for you. We also provide a variety of marketing services that may interest you, including marketing strategy, social media management, photography, videography, web design and SEO. And finally, don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter to receive the latest news and tips/tricks for marketing your business. Let’s chat.