Essential tips on planning a Google Ads PPC campaign

Google is known to be continuously introducing new algorithmic updates that affect advertisers who use the search engine for PPC. It is determined that Google is veering towards a more automated campaign, which essentially means that Digital Marketing Agencies should delegate marketing processes like placements and banner sizes to its AI for better returns in their marketing campaigns.

To launch a successful Google Ads campaign, it is crucial to understand the buyer persona and the specific keywords to target. Below, we’ll share some tips on how to enhance the efficiency of your Google Ads marketing strategy so that you can reap benefits from your marketing campaign.

Establishing ad copy variety

While it may be a Herculean effort to write up 3 versions for each of your ads consistently, there is a guide to achieve this efficiently.

Reimagining current ads

An effective first step is to look at your current ads and modify them. The good thing about ad copy is that it is never a perfect product; there is always room for improvement or a different variable to test out.

For example, experiment with Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) such as creating a free trial if your product is an SEO tool or application. Once you identify the USP that defines your brand, you can refine it to one that is most suitable for your online target audience.

Be inspired by your competitors

While reimagining your existing ads enable you to expand your sets, you may reach a limit eventually. It is only normal then that you borrow certain ideas from your direct competitors. Using ad building applications to analyse many ads at once will help you ascertain popular trends or formats by either domain or keywords so that you can structure your ad creatives accordingly.

Formatting ads with ad extensions

An ad extension is a format that includes additional information regarding your service or product. Extending your ads ensures higher visibility on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The benefits of using an ad extension are that it improves the click-through rate, enhancing the quality score of your ad and reducing the overall CPC of your campaign.

Some examples of ad extension formats that you can use are:

• Sitelinks – these are hyperlinks that take people to specific pages on your website
• Callouts – text that highlights the features of a service or product, such as discounts, price matching, free shipping etc.
• Structured Snippets – a customised body of text that focuses on specific aspects of the services or products you offer and provides brief contextual information for users

Add a negative keyword list to eliminate unwanted searches

One problem commonly encountered by advertisers is to have your ads show up when consumers search for keywords that are irrelevant to your brand and goals. This wastes the advertisement budget you have allocated to your campaign and in turn, causes a loss of relevant traffic to your site. A solution to this is to add a list of negative keywords to your campaign or ad group. When words are added to a negative keywords list, your advertisements will not appear when these words are searched by consumers. For example, by adding the word ‘free’ into your negative keyword list, your advertisements will not appear on searches containing the term ‘free’. This will allow you to filter out unrelated searches and spend your advertising budget on the specific audience you are targeting. It is advisable to constantly check and update your negative keywords lists to improve the relevancy of your ad.