How your website can help you save money on your Google Ads campaigns
It seems like the cost of everything is going up these days! Wouldn't it be nice if something could go down in price for a change? Lowering the average cost per click (aka the CPC) in Google Ads campaigns is usually an account optimisation goal for PPC advertisers.
Simply put, the average cost per click is how much, on average, you need to pay when a person clicks on your Google search, display or shopping ad. How much you need to spend is determined by Google's Ad Auction (if this is a new concept to you, I highly recommend you pause here - grab a cuppa while you're at it - and read Search Engine Land's excellent guide to how the audition works. Enjoy!).
The part of the auction we're going to focus on today is...*drum roll*...the landing page experience.
Why does your website landing page impact your CPC?
In a nutshell, it isn't in Google's best interest for people to have a bad experience after they click on an ad. If they do, that user may be less likely to click on ads in the future (less money for Google and fewer conversions for advertisers).
What Google wants is for people to trust that it is showing them ads that are relevant to their search and likely to match their intent.
Therefore, if Google's algorithm decides that your landing page isn't relevant to your ad or that users will have a bad experience on your website, it will harm your Quality Score.
The lower your Quality Score, the more you will have to pay to secure a prominent spot for your ad on the search results page.
On the other hand, impress Google’s algorithm with your website, and you could be on track to secure clicks at a lower cost which can help your ad budget go further.
Three areas Google Ads uses to determine website quality
Broadly speaking, Google has told PPC advertisers to focus on three things if they want to deliver a good landing page experience. These are:
Content relevancy and originality
Transparency
Easy of navigation
Keep these in mind as we run through a few things you can try if you want to improve your Google Ads campaign landing pages.
Impress Google’s algorithm with your website, and you could be on track to secure clicks at a lower cost which can help your ad budget go further.
Take people to a page specifically for what you're advertising
If you're advertising a particular part of your business, such as a service or a product range, don't take people to a generic page, or worse, your home page.
Make it immediately clear to people that the page they have landed on is relevant to their search or else there's a good chance they will quickly bounce off the site. Believe me, Google can tell when people don't hang about on a site for long and it can work against you in future ad auctions.
For example, when you’re advertising scented candles, don't take the user to a generic homeware page. Instead, link to a page that shows your range of scented candles.
If a page like this doesn't exist on your website, experiment with setting up stand-alone landing pages for your campaigns that aren't linked to elsewhere on your website.
Use the ad copy on the landing page
Want to show Google Ads that your landing page is relevant to your ad? The simplest way to do it is to use the copy on the page.
Don't just slap an ad or a few random keyword-stuffed phrases onto the page though. Weave your ad copy into the page text in a way that looks natural and reads well.
Take care not to make the text on your landing page too long - we are dealing with short attention spans - and you don't need to cram every line from your responsive text ads in there. Start with the phrases that seem like they will have the most impact and are highly relevant to the searches that are likely to trigger your ad.
As time goes on, review your ad performance to learn which headlines and descriptions are most popular with your audience and if it makes sense to do so, update your landing page copy accordingly.
Create a clear conversion path
Your landing page should focus on achieving one clear goal, and everything on that page should assist in doing just that.
Want people to sign up for your webinar? Make sure your sign up form is prominently displayed on the page. Want people to buy now? Use a strong call to action that encourages them to make a purchase. Want people to find out more about a particular service? Tell them about it and it alone in the copy.
Make sure every element on the page - visuals, copy, video, headlines, etc. - is working together to encourage people to take the desired action.
When you're successful in your efforts to achieve the page’s purpose, it signals to Google that your website is good quality and meets people's search intent.
Top tip: if you want users to take a specific action on a landing page, avoid linking to other areas of your site on the page as much as possible. If you do, it could result in people clicking around your site and leaving without returning to the landing page to convert.
At the same time, don't prevent people from using the website's main navigation as they may need to know more information about your company before converting. Try to achieve a balance by reducing in-text links to a minimum and keeping the website’s main navigation on the page.
If you want to supercharge your website's user experience, you can always work with a UX/UI designer who will be able to advise on best practices.
Make sure your website has a reasonable load time
Not only does Google take site speed into consideration when determining the website quality, but people are also notoriously impatient when browsing online. If your site loads too slowly, there's a strong chance they won't hang about.
Google's PageSpeed Insights tool is a good place to start if you want to find out whether your site has a reasonable load time and if not, what you can do to improve it such as reducing the size of your images or weeding out issues that are holding up the load time.
This point comes with a caveat: always put the user experience first. That means, don't resort to actions that will make your website seem low quality. For example, don't use blurry or pixelated images just because Google suggests reducing the size of your visuals.
It can help to speak to a website developer who can make recommendations and action improvements.
Never resort to shady practices
No invasive pop-ups. No unethical data collection. No intentionally misleading people, and so on. Not only will people get annoyed and you’ll risk your website seeming low quality to Google's algorithms, but you may also fall foul of Google's advertising policies and won’t be able to run ads.
Be transparent with people and don't resort to unethical or questionable tactics.
How did you get on with your review of your website landing pages? If you want a professional PPC audit of your Google Ads account, or you'd like a hand to manage your campaigns, get in touch for a chat to find out how I can help.