Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is one of the leading pay-per-click marketing platforms. It enables you to place ads on a huge partner website network. You can also place ads at the top and bottom of the search engine results pages.
Now, you will only be charged with Google Ads when someone actually clicks on your advert. Because of this, the easiest and most effective way to maximize your return on investment (ROI) is to ensure your ads are highly targeted and only clicked on by interested visitors.
In this article, we explain a few ways to do this, ensuring you’re getting the best return on your money possible.
Target Small Areas
If you’re a small business advertising in your local area, one of the best ways to boost your ROI is to specify clear target locations. Head to Google’s location settings and work to identify areas that are likely to contain relevant customers.
It might be that you want to target wealthier neighbourhoods, or it might be that your services are only relevant for certain demographics or property types. Once you’ve identified relevant areas, select “people in my targeted location” as your location targeting setting, and watch the results roll in.
Target Actionable Keywords
Another crucial part of Google Ads optimization is ensuring that you only target actionable keywords. Let’s take the example of an online store selling gift hampers. Rather than targeting a keyword like “gift hamper” or “gift basket”, you will be much better off targeting things like “buy gift hamper” or “where to buy gift hamper”. As you can imagine, the people using search terms like these will be much more likely to actually make a purchase.
Target Seasonal Events
In many countries, businesses market specific items or product lines during specific seasons or events. For example, most online stores have had huge success on Black Friday, which has become known for the huge sales associated with it.
By using seasonal advertising, you can ensure people are seeing ads that are relevant to their current mind frame. Start Christmas-themed ads a few months before the event. After Christmas, switch to a Valentine’s Day campaign, and continue changing things around throughout the year.
Create Specialised Landing Pages
It’s all well and good to get people to click on your ads, but it doesn’t matter how high your click-through rate is if your website isn’t well designed. One common strategy is to direct people straight to your home page or a specific product page.
But this isn’t always the most effective thing to do. Creating specialized landing pages that build on your Google Ads content is certainly worth considering. Send interested visitors to a page that outlines exactly what they’re likely to be looking for to maximise the chances of them making a purchase and becoming a new customer.
Analyse Campaign Results
When you’re creating your first Google Ads campaigns, it’s a good idea to set up a few A/B tests and different campaign types to help you figure out what works. Google also collects clear data about your ad performance, and you should be using this to make informed future decisions.
For example, you might like to use something as simple as how expensive each conversion is for each type of ad. You can also look at the type of people clicking through in comparison to your target audience, among various other things.
Final Word
All things considered, Google Ads doesn’t have to be hard to use. Businesses across the world experience an excellent ROI every day, and there’s no reason why you can’t experience the same.
Start by ensuring you understand exactly how the platform works. Pay attention to the things we’ve outlined in this article, and don’t be scared to seek professional assistance if you’re not sure what you’re doing. But most importantly, don’t continue doing something that isn’t working in the hope that it will magically get better.