Google Ads – How to Get a Return on Your Investment
If you’re new to using Google Ads, then you may not be sure if it’s even worth your investment. After all, you might not want to put your business profits into something that isn’t going to give you a good return, right? This is completely understandable, but believe it or not, there are ways for you to make sure that you are going to get the best return possible, and it all starts with you making a few simple changes to the way that you approach your campaign. Want to find out more? Simply take a look below.
What’s the Most Substantial Way to Rocket your ROI?
The most substantial way for you to increase the amount of ROI that you get on your account would be for you to improve the quality of your keywords. Easy, right? Well, if you want to do this then you need to look at the goals that you have set for yourself so that you can cater your keywords according to them as well as your customers.
Creating your Google Analytics Goals
When you have the analytics code installed on your site, you will then need to build measurable goals. There are various templates that you can use to do this, and there are also custom goals too. If you want to make a new goal, then you just need to click on Admin and choose the analytics “view” that you would like to make the goal in. Even though Google Analytics is a very good tool that has a lot of versatility, it’s only able to function in very specific ways. There are four different goals that you can choose from.
- Event goals
- Destination goals
- Duration goals
- Page or screen goals
What’s an Event Goal?
An event goal is based on how a user interacts with your website or your app. Some examples of events include someone clicking on a button or even playing a video. The event has to be set up before the goal is created. The event condition is essentially a way for you to measure the traffic you’re getting.
What’s A Destination Goal?
Sometimes you want to know when a user has gone onto a specific page on your site. One example of this would be if you are visiting a page, such as the checkout page. This is where destination goals come in. Goals like this help you to measure traffic or app views through specific URLs. You can also track page visits so you can monitor your funnel and the progress people are making. The first step may be “add to cart” and the second may be “checkout” for example. Lastly, you’d have the “order confirmation page”.
Want to start tracking this goal?
If you want to utilise this goal, then you need to try and use the page URL or even the app screen name in your destination field. You then need to match the type that works the best. If you want to use a funnel, click “on” which is under the “funnel” heading. You then need to click on “+add another step”. You can then add the URL or screen name again. You have to remember though that the match type has to be the same as what you chose for the destination. You can easily keep on adding pages if you want to increase the length of your funnel.
What’s a Duration Goal?
When you set a duration goal, you’ll count a conversion depending on the amount of time a user spends on your site. This is otherwise known as a session. You can set this to be any number, from a minute to an hour.
What is a Screens per Session Goal?
This goal gives you the chance to see how many pages a user viewed during that specific session.
Using Smart Goals
Get more information here.
Smart goals are a fantastic way for you to make sure that the goals you are setting are suited to your campaign. They need to be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Agreed
- Realistic
- Timely
What will you Pay for People to Do?
So now you have a good understanding of how to set your goals and the metrics that you intend to track, you need to work out what you are going to pay for people to do. It may be that you pay them to
See the video here.
With this, you’ll want to make sure that your visitors are completing the objective that you’re paying for them to do. It may be that your perfect visitor:
- Makes a purchase
- Signs up with you
- Makes an enquiry
- Makes a booking
- Reads your content
- Watches a video
- Requests a call back
- Completes a form
With these goals in mind, you can then use the according metric listed above to track this to ensure that you are not just monitoring your SMART goals, but also trying to put your money into your ads as a means of conversion. If you want your visitors to make a purchase, you’d set Google ads to have a “destination goal”. If you want them to watch a video, you’d set a “duration goal”. With reading content, maybe you’d choose “screens per session”, and so forth.
Focus on your Target Market
Next up, you need to take the time to focus on your target market. You need to make sure that you document everything about your target market, including:
See the video here.
So at this point, you’re aware of the goals that you want to track, the people who you are targeting and the metrics you are going to be using to measure your success. Now it’s time to move on to how you’re going to bring all that together. Keywords are a crucial part of your success with AdWords, mainly because your choice of keywords will depend on the action you want your user to take, what gender you are targeting and what metrics you’re tracking.
What Makes a Good Keyword?
If you want to make sure that your keywords are the best that they can be then you need to:
Understand what makes a Good Phrase
Keywords and phrases have to be specific. They also need to be relevant to what you are offering. When someone types in their keyword, your business should come up naturally, and you should offer whatever they search. If you do this, then the traffic you get will be predisposed to purchasing from you.
Think like a Customer
Put yourself in their shoes, if they are looking for a product such as yours, what are they going to be searching for?
Target
Don’t use terms that are too general. Don’t be tempted to add some keywords that generate a lot of traffic if they are not related to your ads. Single keywords tend to be too generic, and long-tail keywords are much more targeted.
Variations
Your customers may well use different terms to look for your product. You have to list variations of your keywords if possible. This may include colloquial language, such as store vs shop.
Location Targeting
Remember when we talked about listing everything about your customer? This is where it comes in. You need to make sure that you are targeting your customer based on the language that they use, and you also need to make sure that you are targeting them based on where they are living right now. This is especially important if you’re marketing for a brick and mortar store.
If you need some help with your keywords, there are some keyword tools out there, some of which are listed below:
See the video here.
So now you have a good idea of the keywords that you are going to be using, the way that you are going to track your campaign and what action you want your customers to take. It’s time to move on to how you’re going to construct your campaign. It’s mentioned above that you need to use keyword variations because this will help you to construct a solid campaign. Take a look below-
See the video here.
As you can see, there’s a number of ways for you to create multiple campaigns as this will ensure that your ads are targeted. It also gives you the chance to drive traffic to multiple pages through segmented traffic. See below:
See the video here.
Ideally, you should give each of your campaigns the appropriate name. You should also make sure that you are splitting your campaign into ad groups. One theme per campaign is always a good way to go, with three ad groups per campaign, as explained here:
See the video here.
What are Keyword Match Types?
Whenever you create a text advertisement for your campaign, you will be able to choose broad match, modified match, phrase match or even exact match. Every match type in your account will come with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Broad Match Type
Broad match is essentially the default match type. It’s the one that will give you the widest audience. If you use broad match, then your ad will be eligible to appear whenever a search query includes a word in your phrase. One example of this would be if you use a broad match on the word “luxury car” then your ad may show up if someone searches for “luxury car” “luxury apartment” or “fast car”. Google may also match your ad to synonyms, so if someone searches for “expensive vehicles”. This doesn’t include any of your terms, but it will bring you traffic. So, broad match advertisements are set to reach the biggest audience possible. Searchers may well see your ad when they enquire about topics that are not at all relevant and this can quickly add up the cost. You can set up negative keywords if you want as this will stop your ad from showing up on searches that do not relate to your company at all.
Phrase Match Type
Phrase match will offer you some versatility, but with more control. Your advertisement will only appear if a user queries your phrase by using your keywords in the same order that they are entered. That being said, there may be words that come before or after that phrase. If you choose to include “lawn mowing service” as your phrase, then you may show up for “seasonal lawn mowing service” or even “local lawn mowing service”
Exact Match Type
Exact match types are very specific and they also restrict the keyword match types. In previous years, with this match type., the user would only see your ad if they typed in your keyword exactly how it is. If your keyword was “fine wine” then your ad would only ever show up if the words “fine wine” were searched. If you typed in “fine expensive wine” then your ad would not show up.
See the video here.
How does Google Ad Bidding Work?
Google gives you a huge range of ways to bid on ads, depending on what end goal you have. Most advertisers like to focus on things like clicks, conversions or impressions. Google runs an auction every single time there is ad space available. This sounds simple, right? You place a bid, you come away with a win and then everything’s great. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work this way, and there’s way more that you need to think about before you go ahead and make your decision.
What you Need to Focus On
There are many things that you need to focus on. Some of which can be found below.
Target CPA
If you want to make the most out of your conversions or if you want to get more target goals and leads, then this is the option you should be choosing.
Target ROAS
This option will help you to get the most return on your ad spend. Keep in mind though, that you should be comfortable spending double your average budget with this strategy. This is best used for eCommerce campaigns that do not have a budget limitation.
Maximising Clicks
With this option, Google Ads will automatically set your bids so that they get as many clicks as possible. This is all done within your budget. This is the best option if you want to have a strong conversion and need more volume. If you want clicks, go with this option.
Maximising Conversions
If your goal is to get more sales or even more leads then you can have Google set your bids so that you get the most conversions for your money. This strategy is ideal if you want to use your entire budget in a day, or if you want to max out the money you spend every month.
Maximising Conversion Value
Google Ads will automatically set your bids so that you can get the most conversion value for your money. Google will use the information gathered on the device, including the time of day and the demographics so you can find the optimal CPC for every auction.
When you choose your option here, you will want to make sure that you are choosing the one which reflects your needs the most. You need to look at the goals you have set, and you also need to make sure that you are putting a good amount of thought into every aspect of your process. If you can do this, while also monitoring and tracking your keywords then there’s no reason at all why you cannot automate your process. If you just find the whole thing too perplexing or if you are having a hard time finding out which keywords are the best for you to target then you’re in luck. There are many tools out there that you can use to simplify the process of choosing keywords and they can also give you a clear indication of which ones are most suited to your business. The Keyword Planner by Google is a fantastic resource, that you won’t want to miss out on. Click here to get started with that.
If you want to get some help with creating your customer profile then this is very easy to do as well. You can check out this link on customer profiling if you want to make sure that you are segmenting your customers enough, and to also make sure that you are taking the right amount of data into account when you are making your selections. You can find some other neat and useful tools below if you really want to boost your campaign and target your customers effectively.
Further Reading
If you want some more help with Google Ads then this guide has plenty of actionable information and it is ideal if you want to take your knowledge to that next level. It’s also very helpful in giving you the chance to understand the aspects of your campaign in-depth if you want to increase the amount of technical knowledge you have. Some other, useful links can be found below.
Simple Google Guide to Adwords
Learn More about Google Adwords
If you have an accountant, they should be your first stop for business advice. If you don’t have an accountant or they can’t help, BuBul has a wide range of experts available. For more advice on getting more from Google Ads, contact our expert* Jonny on LinkedIn.
*We’ve picked experts we know and trust who are good at what they do. All of them will give you at least an extra 30 minutes free advice if you contact them and would then charge their normal prices. They don’t pay to be on BuBul and don’t give us any money from anything they earn as an expert.
