If you are thinking about investing some amount of money in ads to reach your audience, then Google Ads is most likely on the list.
Google Ads is one of the most innovative and advanced advertising platforms that enable both large and small companies to market their goods and services to generate leads and sales.
Launching and managing your Google ads marketing campaign may seem difficult and overwhelming at first. However, with a proper set up and choosing the right type of ad for your campaign, your business will see a healthy Return on Investment for every dollar you invest in Google Ads.
Here are some tips you can follow to run a successful Google Ads campaign:
- Make sure you are targeting the right locations through your location settings
Google Ads location targeting enables you to display your ads only in the geographic areas that you choose. Target locations may include a specific country, a radius around the location, areas within a country, or location groups, which incorporates your business locations, places of interest, or tiered demographics.
Targeting a location on Google Adwords will allow you to focus your advertising on particular areas where you can find your potential customers, thus helping to control costs and boost Return on Investment (ROI). So if you have a local business, you can start by targeting your city where you want to advertise your product or service. And if you have a large business, you can target the entire country.
Remember, buying behavior may enormously vary when you are targeting a larger area. Therefore, based on your market research, you can choose specific radiuses around a location where you want your ads to be displayed.
- Make sure you have conversion tracking setup
Conversion tracking is one of the most powerful tools in Google Adwords. It tells you exactly how your ad campaign is producing leads, sales, email signups, downloads, and more. Conversion tracking also helps you to identify which part of your ad campaign is effective and not effective, so that accordingly, you can optimize your keywords, ad text, and your bids.
Based on the nature of your business, a conversion could be tracked when a customer downloads an application or whitepaper, makes a purchase through your website, fills out a contact form or an online survey, signs up for a website, and more. Once you have decided what customer actions you would like to track, you are ready to set up conversion tracking for your ad campaign.
- Make sure you have your Google Ads linked to your Google Analytics
You most likely have set up Google Analytics on your website to track goals, traffic, conversions, and other unique metrics. Now, if you are also running an ad campaign, you will need to link your Google Ads account to the Google Analytics property. Linking these accounts will help you to analyse and track customer activity on your website after people start clicking on your ad. It will also make it easy to report between channels and campaigns as you will be able to view these activities in one place.
4.Monitor your spend, so you don’t over/underspend
At first, when you launch a new Google Ads campaign, it is tough to predict how much traffic your advertisement will draw and how quickly you will spend your money. And there is nothing worse than blowing away thousands of dollars in a few days or even hours without making any actual conversions. To prevent this situation, it is suggested that you set your daily budget to half or a quarter, mainly if you are new to it. Setting your budget in half will help you ease into the process and monitor how much traffic is drawn based on your target.
If you choose manual Cost per Click (CPC) bidding for your ad campaign, it is recommended that you start with lower CPCs and then gradually raise the bids, depending on the results the keywords generate. Also, it is crucial to remember that lowering bids too much can lead to fewer ad clicks, mainly if your bids are not competitive anymore.
- Ensure your CTR is at least 2%
Your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) measures how often people who view your advertisement end up clicking on it. Several factors impact CTR, including ad positioning, imagery, keywords, etc. A higher CTR shows that viewers find your ad relevant and helpful. You should at least aim for 2% CTR, which is considered good for ad campaigns on Google Ads.
Additionally, you can use CTR to determine which keywords or advertisements work for you and which ones need to be improved. Bear in mind that the more your ads and keywords relate to each other and your business, it makes it more likely for viewers to click on your ad.
Following the tips mentioned above will not only save you plenty of time but will also help you to set a fixed budget to run an effective Google Ads campaign.