Over the last year, business spending on Google Ads paid search has increased by nearly 25% with almost three quarters of marketers prepared to spend even more in the near future.  Google Ads paid search is an important channel for brands these days, and it’s only going to become a stronger platform. So, if you’re ready to incorporate this avenue into your marketing strategy, here are some tips to help you get the most out of your ads so that you can make your way to the top of this increasingly competitive landscape:  

  • Focus Ad Groups with Few Keywords – If you want to raise your quality score, you must create tightly focused ad groups using no more than 5-10 keywords.  This will ensure that each campaign stays focused on a single message or theme. Utilize keyword research tools to assess search volume and competitiveness when trying to determine which keywords to focus each ad group.  
  • Don’t Forget to Focus on the Bottom of Your Funnel – The ultimate goal is to get more conversions and not just attract more traffic to your landing page.  But, to do this, you must remember to target those bottom-of-the-funnel keywords in addition to those at the top of your funnel.  To attract these customers who are ready to convert, use the keyword research tool to find keywords that are price and/or service-specific instead of using broad terms.        
  • Utilize Negative Keywords – In order to make sure that your ads are reaching your target audience, study your Search Terms report, and use negative keywords to remove your ads from any irrelevant searches.  These may include things like misspellings, homonyms, alternate definitions, and even pop culture references. You should also use negative keywords to remove unqualified traffic – those who will cost you a click but aren’t ready to buy into your brand.      
  • Optimize for Local – With more and more searches being conducted by users on the go with their mobile devices, you must optimize your ads for local searches.  You can do so by targeting audiences based on their location, increasing bids for mobile devices, writing location-specific ad copy, and scheduling ads during operating business hours.
  • Use Call Extensions – Call extensions increase your click through rate by as much as 10 – 15%, thereby giving your ad more play in search results.  They also encourage users to engage across the call channel resulting in an additional 28% increase in spending compared to web leads.  
  • Use Call Tracking Data on Google Ads – Though Google Ads are equipped with various marketing reports that make quantifying online results easier to track, you must also find a way to track conversions that resulted from calls.  By tracking the marketing sources of your inbound calls and integrating this data with Google Ads, you’re able to view a full customer journey for clearer reports on your actual ROI. This is key to accurate reporting, as Google Ads are expected to drive over 60 billion calls in the US alone in the coming year.      
  • Optimize Bidding with Voice Analytics – In addition to tracking the quantity of calls, you must also track the quality of these calls.  To do so, use voice analytics to better understand which time slots, locations, ad copy, and even device types are driving the highest quality calls.  This information will help you optimize your bid strategy to boost ROI.
  • Bid on the Competitors – Marketers are just now learning that they can actually bid on their competitors’ brand names and keywords (without actually using the brand or company name itself).  But why do this? By bidding on competing keywords, you’re able to place your business alongside your competitor’s searches for a fighting chance at persuading those customers who may be on the fence to choose you over them.   

Finding your best Google Ads strategies is an ongoing process.  But, with these tips in mind and your continuation of testing new keywords and bidding strategies against collected data, your ads will find peak performance in no time.