You’ve just started your first Google Ads Search campaign. You did the keyword research, have specific ad groups in your campaign(s), and wrote the ads to the best of your ability. Now what?

No Google Ads campaign is successful without proper monitoring and tweaking as necessary. Luckily, there are several tips and tricks to streamline your campaigns by making them as relevant as possible, which saves you time and money.

Creating Ad Extensions

All well-written ads can be better by implementing ad extensions. They further direct your potential customers to exactly what they are looking for; generate phone calls; and free up space in the headline and descriptions of your ads. All extensions can be added at the account, campaign, or ad group level.

Sitelink extensions are useful for people who want to read less and get where they need to be faster. Adding a “Contact Us” or “Get a Quote” sitelink that directs people straight to those pages on your site helps impatient searchers skip the fluff.

Call extensions with your business’s phone number also satisfy this customer need. Why make a potential customer search on your site for your phone number? Increase and easily track incoming phone calls by adding this extension.

You may have struggled while writing your ads with the character limits Google imposes on the headlines and descriptions. Sometimes it is difficult to get your point across with such limited space. 

Structured snippet extensions and callout extensions can help.  Structured snippet extensions allow you to choose a category (called a “Header”) and list out the items your business provides that fall under that category. 

For example, if you own a spa, you could include your services: facials, Swedish massages, pedicures, etc. Callout extensions outline special or unique features about your business. Both these extensions add the room you need to paint the full picture of why your business is so great.

Confirming Your Conversions

Conversion tracking is crucial in measuring the success rate of your ads. Conversion actions are the actions you want your customers to perform after seeing your ad and are goals or successes for your business. Having these actions set up before your campaign starts is ideal.

Depending on your business and your ad campaign goals, conversion actions could be phone calls, getting directions, filling out contact forms, requesting a quote or proposal, or purchasing your product. Further, if your bid strategy is set to “Maximize Conversions,” the accuracy of those conversions directly correlates with the amount Google will spend.

Establishing Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are crucial to ensuring your ad budget money is being spent wisely. You will likely quickly realize that Google Ads loves to spend your budgeted money–almost desperately, in some cases. That’s where negative keywords come in handy. 

Thanks to the complexity of the English language, and the way Google’s algorithm works, many search queries can unintentionally generate unwanted results. For example: if your company sells musical instrument keyboards, it would be beneficial to create a negative keyword list that deters queries for computer keyboards. This all depends on what product or service you sell.

Keep in mind that negative keywords can be added at the campaign level or ad group level. If you’re having trouble deciding which level the keyword needs to be added to, consider whether it is irrelevant to your campaign as a whole or just a specific ad group.

Analyzing Search Terms

As much as you may plan out your negative keywords, there will likely be some search terms that returned your ad that surprise you. Check in on your search terms regularly, for both good and negative keywords. Always take into consideration the type of keyword being added to your list or negative list (broad match, phrase match, exact match) and adjust accordingly.

Monitoring Ad, Ad Extension, & Keyword Performance

Take time to review your ads, ad extensions, and keywords for their performance – mainly their clicks, click through rate (CTR), and conversions (for more information on Google Ads metrics, see our blog here). Google Ads recommends establishing three ads per ad group. You can test out your ads with slight variations between each one and see which perform best. Seeing an ad or extension perform well is also very gratifying!

Watching Your Optimization Score

Google always knows best (or at least thinks it does) and will make recommendations to improve your Optimization Score. While most recommendations are useful and helpful, some may not apply to your business. Use your best judgment to apply or dismiss recommendations and keep your campaign running smoothly.

Conclusion

While it may sound time consuming, creating a routine and staying vigilant with your Google Ads campaigns is so important. Keeping your campaigns efficient and relevant help ensure every advertising dollar is used to its greatest capacity.

It may be in your business’s best interest to employ a marketing agency to manage your Google Ads campaigns, especially if one of the following factors applies:

• You operate in a niche market and want to ensure you reach your potential customers
• You operate in a saturated market and need help outperforming your competition
• You offer a multitude of products or services that would require several different campaigns and ad groups
• You need to devote your time to other areas of your business

UP Market Media is a Google Ads partner. We maintain this status by managing successful campaigns for multiple clients and participating in Google Ads continuing education. We love brainstorming ad campaign ideas; if you would like to discuss what you are thinking for your business, contact us to get started.