Small business owners often struggle with Google Ads because they let campaigns run on autopilot. The result? Wasted ad spend and disappointing returns. While being visible at the top of Google search results is essential for businesses serious about their marketing, getting results without destroying your profitability requires smart optimisation.
These 5 Google Ads tips will help you cut costs while improving your ads performance, giving you the best of both worlds.
1 Write Good Ad Copy
Your ad copy is your first impression with potential customers. If it doesn’t grab attention and clearly communicate your value, you’re losing money on every click. There are a few key elements of good ads:
- Use a clear value proposition – why should I choose you over someone else, what makes your business the best of the best
- Compelling call to action – don’t just stick to “learn more” or “contact us”, try instead “Get a free quote now” or “Claim your free trial, this week only”
- Utilise callouts – this is a great place to list your product/businesses key features and benefits, whether that’s “24/7 customer support” or “free shipping”
- Add media and sitelinks – the more things you provide google with the more chances you have at it utilising these assets to promote your brand. Add photos, videos, site links, phone numbers and more to your ads to increase your CTR.
2 Review Your Ad Strength
Ad Strength is Google’s way of telling you exactly which parts of your account need attention. Ignoring these scores is ignoring free help from the experts. Higher Ad Strength mean lower costs per click and better ad positions. It’s a win-win situation that impacts your profitability.
Ideally you want your ads to be hitting ‘Excellent’ where you can but it’s not the end of the world if they are Good. You can view your quality score in the ads section of your ads account, simply hover over the Ad Strength score that needs improving and you can see exactly what needs to be done to help improve it. Our example below shows we need to add in not only more headlines, but also some more unique headlines.
3 Optimise Your Landing Pages
Your landing page is where conversions happen or don’t. Even the best ads will fail if your landing page doesn’t deliver on its promise.
To make sure your landing page is in top condition we recommend taking a look at these few things:
Is your landing page relevant?
If you are targeting family law services in Bristol, you don’t want to send your potential clients to a page a general page where it mentions your other services such as construction or employment law. Make sure your ads are pointing to the most relevant page in relation to the keywords you’re targeting.
Is your website optimised for mobile?
More than half of all searches are now done on mobile devices. If your landing page isn’t optimised for smartphones, users will race back to the search engine and find someone else. Ensure your website works well on phones and tablets and is quick to load.
Is your keyword mentioned on your landing page?
This one comes hand in hand with ‘is your landing page relevant?’. By putting the keywords you’re targeting on your landing page you help increase the chances of the advert performing better, as well as the chances of it converting rising too. Make sure your keyword mentions feel natural, using them throughout the copy or within FAQs if they are longer phrases.
Is your call to action clear?
Once I’ve gotten to your landing page, is it clear what I can do next? If you want people to get in touch, book a meeting or buy, make it as clear as possible. Keep your main call to action above the fold (the first bit of the website you see when it loads) and use contrasting colours to highlight clearly where users need to click.
4 Use Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are a secret weapon in eliminating those irrelevant clicks that drain your budget and ruin your metrics! Adding negative keywords can immediately improve your click-through rates and reduce wasted spend. This is one of the fastest ways to see results improve in your Google Ads. To find negative keywords check your Search Terms Report regularly to see what actual searches triggered your ads. Look for searches with high clicks but 0 conversions, competitor names (unless you are actively targeting them) and irrelevant search terms that don’t match your services.
Some common negative keywords we use in our clients’ accounts:
- “free”
- “jobs”
- “careers”
- “reviews”
- “complaints”
5 Consider Remarketing
Have you ever noticed those ads that follow you onto Facebook and the local newspaper after you’ve had a sneaky browse on ASOS? That’s remarketing in action. Remarketing helps you stay in front of potential customers who have already shown interest in your business.
A simple way to look at remarketing is to consider the marketing funnel:
A lot of the time clients may discover you in the awareness stage of their journey, right at the top of the funnel, they are still narrowing down their options and creating a list of pros and cons. To help move your business into the consideration and conversion phase of the funnel you need to remind this person what you offer and why it should be your business they spend their money with.
Remarketing puts your business front and centre when someone is in this part of the decision process, you’re remind them about why you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread in an environment they may not expect to see you, like those cheeky ASOS ads.
To get started with remarketing you need to add the Google tag to your website and connect your Google Analytics accounts together. Once these things are set up it’ll start collecting data in Audience Manager, you can then select these audiences when you set up a campaign.
Google Ads optimisation isn’t a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process. Start with these five suggestions and you’ll begin to see improvements in both your costs and results.
Remember, small changes can have big impacts. Even a 10% improvement from each tip can transform your campaigns’ profitability.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or simply want expert support, WorkPR is here to help. Our team specialises in Google Ads optimisation and can assist in maximising your campaign’s effectiveness while minimising costs. Don’t hesitate to reach out, contact us today to take your Google Ads performance to the next level!
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