Last Updated on Sep 29, 2020 by James W
Let’s skip a formal introduction and appreciate PPC’s potential for business growth and see how you can draw the best returns from the same. As we consider the most recent PPC trends, businesses are reducing their paid marketing budget to lower than ever. The reason for this inverted trend is none other than COVID-19, which has brought a significant shift in the economy and reduced the average buying potential across the globe. Therefore, it is time to optimize your Google Ad Campaigns according to the “new normal” market scenario.
Businesses have already resorted to a reduction in their marketing investment owing to the decreasing revenue per month. But the smartest solution is to get the most out of your’ already reduced’ budget. Therefore, here are 5 Google Ads optimization techniques you need:
- Screen your Account Structure for Unwanted Campaigns
When you hire PPC experts, the first thing they would optimize for stellar PPC performance is your account structure. It unfolds down to:
- The number of campaigns you are running
- The number of ad groups in each campaign
- The number of ads in each ad group
- The number of keywords in each ad group
- Your keyword relevancy and ad copies, which might directly hint at your ad score
People often mess up their PPC account structure by trying to carry more eggs in one’s basket than possible. Typically, the account structure should be well-planned and structured to differentiate each campaign objective and target audience easily.
Trick: Try to reduce the number of campaigns in your account, and it will automatically reduce your account budget. Having two or more campaigns with striking relevance in the same account will only deplete your account budget faster without adding much to the sales. Instead, segregate your campaigns according to the audience, business offerings, bid value, or campaign goals.
For example: If you are running an eCommerce store for selling footwear. You can categorize different campaigns for Men’s, Women’s, Kids’, and Accessories, etc.
You can now create different ad groups for these campaigns. For example, a campaign ‘Men’s Footwear’ can have ad groups like – ‘formal,’ ‘casual,’ and ‘daily wear.’
Nevertheless, an optimized account structure can help you remove unwanted or duplicate campaigns, ad groups, and keywords. It will increase your overall ad scores and campaign performance. Thus, growing your ROIs.
2. Eliminate Vanity Data Columns
When working on a reduced budget, the most vital goal is to draw as many conversions possible from each minute dollar you invest in your campaigns. And a critical step towards it is removing the vanity data columns that are not used in your regular optimization routine.
One such column can be “Search Imp. Share,” as even if your competitors are bidding higher than you, you wouldn’t wish to follow them with your reduced budget.
When you hire google adwords expert, they create a custom data column set for your campaigns by eliminating all the irrelevant columns so that you can only focus on the areas you wish to optimize. The goal is to optimize your campaigns, ad copies, and keyword sets for better CTR and conversions.
3. Include More Exact Match Keywords
Now, when you lead with a reduced PPC budget, you have no room for experiments. It typically means you need to reach the exact target audience, most likely through ‘exact’ match keywords.
However, you cannot just go for the high-competition transactional keywords in exact match, as the bid value on those keywords is usually high. So, a good option is to choose long-tail transactional keywords in exact match, because:
- They have a lower competition with decent search volume
- They allow your ads to get ranked at a lower bid value
- The exact match screens the irrelevant audience
Long-tail keywords that contain 2-5 words perform the best for budget-oriented PPC campaigns usually. You need to hire PPC experts that help you create good keyword sets and promising ad copies to gain significant returns from your campaigns.
4. Optimize your Keyword Research
Are you still using the Google Keyword Planner tool for keyword research? If yes, you need to upgrade.
The Google Keyword Planner tool offers comprehensive keyword data that includes many irrelevant keywords, which might defocus your research and increase your screening efforts.
There are many competitive keyword research tools, such as SEMrush and Ubersuggest.
Ubersuggest helps you find accurate search terms with information like trends, volume, and CPC, etc.
It would be best if you also used Google Search Console to see which keywords are working the best for your business or driving the best conversions for you. Since these keywords are working for your business, you can utilize them to their highest potential through your PPC campaigns and expect good conversions.
Conversely, there might be terms that attract great impressions and clicks but drawing irrelevant traffic to your business. It would be best if you eliminated these keywords from your campaigns.
5. Utilize Google Analytics for In-Market Segment
Your team of PPC specialists would have been actively using Google Analytics for tracking and optimizing your Google Ads campaign performance. The tool offers marketers different data columns to analyze and track ad campaign performance. One such segment in the “Audience” tab is “In-Market Segments.” This segment categorizes your site visitors according to the purpose for which they are in the market.
Now, if you have your campaigns’ conversion goals decided, you can check the In-Market
segment to see which In-Market audience is converting the best for you. You can now open your Google ads account to add this audience in the “Audience” tab and increase the bid for this particular audience. This trick will help you grow your conversion rate.
One can follow the same practice for other categories like demographics and affinity.
In Conclusion:
The pandemic has brought a tectonic shift in the business landscape. It is recommended to hire Google adwords experts or a PPC expert who have a proven track record of delivering excellent results to their clients. The new business arena demands a revised search marketing strategy, and therefore, consulting with an experienced digital marketing agency can be a better idea.
