When I started using Adwords in 2004 I thought I had more money to burn. I told Google heres a $1K a day budget. They would call me up and give me all the love I deserved. But I soon realized I was getting traffic that didn’t make sense to my business and Google wasn’t interested in what I wanted any longer.

I have spoken to many Google Ad Support agents. Every time I walk away from them realizing they are there to earn Google money and not to earn me money. So when working with a Google Ad Support agent take note, no question to it their job is to make Google money. Things I have noticed when working with Google Ads Support agents. 1.) Ads they create are often not approved by the Google Machine. 2.) They work to enable features on your account that are not right for your business Google maximizes their profits. 3.) Your cost per lead or sale will often go up after working with them. So just be careful.

That all being said heres the top 5 things I have discovered while using optimizing Google Ads for myself and for my clients.

Setup

Go small or not at all is how I like to describe it. This means to create very specific ad groups with very specific keywords that lead to a specific landing page that match those keywords. There shouldn’t be more than 10 keywords in an ad group. Then 2 ads at most at any given time. You can a/b test the ads every 15 days. If you start seeing more than that in a group. Look at creating another ad group with an a/b tested lander. Meaning your second ad group goes to a second lander similar but optimized for that new ad group. Google Ad engine is almost human but still a computer. So what you tell it that’s what it considers as what you mean. Computers only do what we tell them to do.

Search Terms

Search Terms are the actual search keywords that are being used to discover your service or product. These are great and can be found under Keywords then tab over to Search Terms. Here you will find the actual searches Google is displaying your ads for. This can give you a good idea if the keywords you are bidding on are actually the right ones for your product or service. Remember it is a computer and it will only do what you tell it to do. So as you advertise longer the bigger list of search terms gets. You fan use this list to create new ad groups or ad to ad groups. Also to create negative keywords lists. So google doesnt show your ad for the wrong reasons.

When adding keywords to new or existing ad groups. Make sure you add them as Exact Match, Phrase Match, or Broad Match Modifier. By default, Google Ads will add the search terms as Broad Match this means the computer will show your ad with a lot of random things if it includes that keyword. A lot of waste happens here and earns Google a lot of money.

Phone Number

What my experience has been, if you place the phone number in the ad on all displays you often get the wrong calls. This happens when you are bidding on your competitors brand names or have an offer that could mean two things. For example: phrase keyword “premium insurance” could be for insurance agents and people that are looking for insured. Dont place your phone number in your ad place it on your landing page and people can use the phone there. You can place it in your ad once you know your traffic is perfect.

Location

If you are local and not a national campaign you can setup in that location only. This works great but what if you are local and you want people in California and you are in Oregon to find you because you are an assistant living facility and children are looking for a facility for their parents. So make sure you exclude everywhere except for your location. As Google will still show your ad to people not even close to your location.

Tracking and Bidding

Make sure your conversion pixel and remarketing pixel are installed and working properly. If these two things are not installed and not working properly don’t run your ads at all. Google’s heart of heart they do want you to get sales and for you to keep giving them money. So the conversion column is very important to them. If you are converting more than your competitors they will give you a better rate. Once you have enough conversion data you can set your bidding to Conversion. I like to start with Targeted CPA but it is slower as Google wont have any targeting infor on your account but if setup properly they will come and the focus will always be on conversions. Then you can set your daily budget to your CPA cost to the number of conversions / sales you would like to reach on a daily basis.

All of this applys to Bing Ads as well.

If you would like a free Google Ad consult to see how you could be saving money let me know.

Learn more about our Google Ads Consult here

To your success!