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Google Ads Efficiency: Learn How To Make Your Campaigns More Efficient
Prioritize Relevance and User Experience
Google wants to show the best ads, meaning those most relevant to what the user is searching for. Here's how to boost your relevance scores:
Keyword and Headline Alignment: Your ads should directly mirror the user's search intent. If your consumer searches for the keyword “women’s running shoes” and your ad headline matches exactly that, reading “Women’s Running Shoes,” it is likely that the consumer will click on your ad increasing your expected click through rate. Further, this is a great customer experience improving your ad relevance. Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) helps tailor your ads to specific searches.
Relevant Landing Pages: Seamlessly guide users to landing pages that match their search. For example, if your ad is for “asics running shoes” send them to a landing page that only shows products for asics running shoes, rather than sending them a generic running shoe category page that might include all brands of running shoes. Page load time is also crucial – a one-second delay can hurt conversions by 7%.
Diverse Match Types: Find the right balance between precision and reach with a mix of exact, phrase, broad match (along with robust negative keyword lists), and Smart Bidding. For example, using Broad Match with Negatives is common practice. Broad match for "women's hiking boots" allows you to capture those valuable searches. However, you might also show up for less relevant terms like "women's hiking sandals" or "cheap women's hiking boots". By adding negative keywords like "sandals" and "cheap", you refine your targeting and prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches.
Expand Your Reach with Keyword Expansion
Simply put, keyword expansion is adding more relevant keywords to your Google Ads account. The idea here is to continuously improve the efficiencies of your ads by ensuring you are capturing the most relevant audience possible. Further, you will be able to expand your reach to new, untapped audiences.
If you are just starting out, we recommend you begin by reviewing the list of search terms (in Google Ads) which have previously converted and adding those terms as keywords. That way you are adding in keywords which have historically performed well.
The Benefits of Keyword Expansion
When doing keyword expansion we’ve found that:
- CPCs dropped across the board – the average search campaign dropped from $0.64 to $0.52. This is a decrease of over 20% (23.24%)
- More bang for your buck – this means that we’re directing more traffic to your site for the same budget leading to more conversions and sales
- Increased clicks – overall clicks increased by 3% across the board
Why Keyword Expansion Maximizes Your Budget
Lower Cost, Higher Volume: Pay less per click, stretching your budget further.
Qualified Traffic: Long-tail keywords signal greater buyer intent, leading to better conversion rates.
Keyword Strategies for 2024
Traditional keyword strategies mentioned above remain important, but here's how to take them to the next level:
- Audience-Centric Targeting: Combine traditional keyword targeting with audience-focused strategies. Google's in-market and affinity audiences provide powerful ways to layer onto your keyword campaigns.
- Focus on Natural Language: Target how people actually search by focusing on topics and concepts, not just isolated keywords. Google's Keyword Planner is a great tool for finding semantically related terms.
- Continuous Refinement: Regularly review your Search Terms report. Add valuable new search terms as keywords and use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant traffic. Test broad match keywords and refine your strategy with negatives over time.
Key Takeaway
- Adapt and refine your Google Ads strategies continuously to stay ahead in a dynamic landscape.
- Prioritize user experience to improve quality scores and boost campaign efficiency.
- Use keyword expansion strategically to lower your costs and reach a more qualified audience.