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Digital Marketing
03 Nov 2021

Do's & Don'ts While Running Google Ads

Using Google Ads can be the best decision you can make for your business. Google dominates the search engine market as there are a lot of users searching for their queries on Google.

Some facts that prove Google is the most popular search engine:

About 35%-38% of product searches in the world start on Google.
Google processes nearly 75,000 search queries every second.
Google controls over 90% of the search engine market globally.
Google processes approximately 4 billion searches per day.


What are the Do’s & Don'ts to follow while running Google Ads?


Google Ads can give maximum profit to your business if certain things are kept in mind while running the Ad. In this article, we have enlisted 10 Do's and 10 Don’t, to help a business achieve optimum benefits while running Google Ads.


Do's 


1. Plan your campaign

Before running the Ad, plan your campaign properly. Review the business goals to be fulfilled in order to select the correct campaign objective.

Here is the list of campaign types and goals included in the workflow.

Four important campaign types:  Search, Display, Video, Shopping Ads

Campaign goals: 

• Website traffic
• Product & Brand consideration
• Brand Awareness & Reach
• Lead generation 
• Sales
• App promotion

For example: If you want your brand to reach people & get recognition (to invoke their interest to buy the products/services), you can select the 'Brand awareness & Reach' objective.

2. Use Google keyword planner tool

Keywords play an important role in the Ad's overall performance because they lead the right customers to your website.  Perform enough keyword research for deciding which ones you want to target for your campaign. Google has its own 'Keyword Planner Tool' for keyword searching and optimization.


It is an excellent tool, it is free of cost and reliable which you can use to target some long-tail keywords too. Using effective and relevant keywords attracts people which leads to more clicks and more conversions. If proper keywords are researched, targeted & optimized you can see the best results for your efforts. 


3. Use negative keywords to refine your targeting

A negative keyword acts as a medium to tell Google Ads to not display your ad to people who are searching for that particular keyword.As Google Ads is pay-per-click if viewers who are irrelevant to the ad click on it, the advertiser has to pay for those clicks, it is a waste of money.  

If negative words are added, they can save you money and create more opportunities that actually lead to conversions in real-time. Adding negative keywords like 'free', 'cheap', 'compare, 'review' etc. can refine your audience.


4. Setup remarketing (retargeting)

Remarketing is a way to re-engage those customers who have previously shown an interest in your services or products. By means of re-targeted ads, you can attract those potential customers who did not make the purchase the last time when they visited your website.

Remarketing is a good strategy because you are displaying your ad to your potential leads as they had already shown interest in your products. The easiest way of doing remarketing is to make your ad format really appealing to the customers and to give special offers/discounts for clickbait.


5. Use ad groups efficiently

An ad group contains one or more ads that have the same targets. Each of your campaigns consists of one or more ad groups. You can set a bid to be used while targeting keywords for an ad group, which is called cost per click (CPC). Ad groups if used effectively can lead your business to generate more clicks and leads. 

Few tips to optimize your ad groups :

Categorize your ad group as per keywords
Use ad extensions option according to ad theme
Integrate your keywords into the URL that will get displayed on your ad.
Have tight themes set for ad groups e.g: If you sell artificial jewelry and pearl jewelry, have different ad groups for each category.


6. Use conversion tracking

Conversion tracking is helpful in analyzing your campaign performance by measuring leads generated, sales, downloads, etc., and other interactions between the customers and Ads.

Conversion tracking also helps to find where the purchases or installs are done from (source), which we can use for future campaigns. You need to monitor and track your campaign's performance precisely so that you get a reference for future optimization also.


7. Go through Google guidelines carefully

It is always a good plan to get familiar with Google's policies and guidelines before setting up a campaign. It might happen that you don't follow a certain thing and later get frustrated if the ad doesn't get approved. Google guidelines are basically set for enhancing user experience in order to make your ad campaigns more successful. Also, there are certain ad formats not made available by Google till the advertiser does not meet their requirements or complete their certification process.


8. Make sure to optimize your landing page

No matter how perfect or appealing your ad strategy is, your actual conversion will depend on your landing page. Make sure to optimize your landing page for aspects like fast loading speed, simple navigation, mobile-optimized web pages, etc. Optimizing your landing page can improve your quality score and also give a successful conversion rate. How effectively you have optimized your landing page will ultimately determine the success of your digital marketing strategies.


9. Target the relevant audience

Having knowledge about your brand's target audience is very essential to plan any marketing strategies. If you find your target audience it will be beneficial for boosting your sales & for leading successful marketing campaigns. In Google Ads, there are many audience targeting demographics available.

10. Utilize ad extensions 

Ad extensions provide detailed information about your ad and let your viewers take action. Ad extensions make your ad more effective and appealing which helps the ad get more clicks.

Advertisers often focus on other details of the ad, but implementing ad extensions leads to an impactful method to improve click-through- rate(CTR). It adds value to the ad by providing additional relevant details that the viewer would want to know. 

If you are a beginner, refer to this blog for the basics of Google Ads.



Don't


1. Use broad/irrelevant keywords

In order to get more traffic, you can make the mistake of targeting broad and irrelevant keywords. Broad keywords or high volume keywords can sometimes lead to a loss whereas targeted keywords will refine your audience and show your ad to the targeted customers only.

Using targeted keywords will yield better results than the high search volume keywords for the ad. The CTR and CPA will also improve, as you will get a decent amount of clicks that are likely to convert. Make sure your keyword selection is relevant to your target audience.



2. Don't ignore geographic targeting 

It is a wise move to consciously do geographical targeting. The benefit of geographical targeting is that you can focus your budget on the users you want. It means you are just targeting a particular audience that is likely to convert.


3. Don’t leave your campaign running without tracking

This is one of the stupidest mistakes an advertiser could make, once the campaign is live. Make sure you track and monitor the campaign performance for small details from where you can take references for future campaigns.


4. Don't outbid your competitors just for the sake of competing

Every advertiser wants to show their ad on top of the search page, it is a great goal too. But before blindly investing/ setting a high bid, plan a strategy that will actually work. Bidding on high competition keywords is not a smart move as your ad will be in competition, and can get very few clicks. It is a loss-loss situation as the investment is high. 


5. Don't target/stuff all keywords in one ad group

If your ads are created as per your specific targeted keywords, your ad's click-through rate will get improved. If you are bidding on certain high-competition keywords, your ad will be more unique and appealing to stand out from the competition.

You can also use negative keywords to avoid unnecessary clicks for different ad groups


6. Don't stop testing

Don't stop analyzing and testing all the elements in your ad like ad copy, the keywords you are targeting, your landing page, ad group, etc. This is good practice so that you can see better results.


7. Don't optimize Ads by clicks

Instead of selecting optimize ads by click, select rotate ads. By this, you can analyze what reduces your costs while offering maximum conversions. Rotate the ads evenly, by this you can identify which ads perform better and which ones don't.

In optimizing ads by click, if there are multiple ads in a single ad group, the better performing ads will be displayed more often. In rotate ads, all the ads in the ad group will be shown equally.

8. Don't bid on broad keywords

Don't pick broad keywords just because its search volume is high. Target the keywords relevant to your ads instead of the high search volume keywords. In this way, your ad might get a few clicks, but those clicks will be more likely to convert. So, the click-through rate also improves and your cost reduces.


9. Don't send traffic on generic pages

Optimize your landing page well. Instead of sending the traffic on any generic page, as there are high chances of users finding it irrelevant. Create appealing landing pages that are relevant to your ad groups(targeted keywords), to take maximum advantage of the traffic that will lead to more conversion. This will not only give maximum conversion rate but also improve your quality score. 


10. Don't forget to update your knowledge regarding Google Ads

Updating your knowledge from time to time is a very essential thing. If you are not aware of the changes in PPC, your overall campaign can be affected negatively and can give disastrous results. For industry news and knowledge you can join webinars or subscribe to relevant YouTube channels or read articles in your leisure time.

Follow this guide to learn how Google Ads work.


Conclusion

Google Ads can be a vast topic if you are not familiar with the platform. If you are a beginner, these enlisted do's and don'ts if followed you can master PPC marketing. These aspects will help you create well-optimized and well-performing campaigns.

To gain more knowledge about PPC Marketing, refer to this link.


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