Tips to make your Google Ads campaigns more profitable
Let’s get down to brass tacks, how profitable are your Google Ads campaigns? Get it right and Google Ads can be a powerful way to reach new customers and stay in the mind of previous website visitors. But, if you’re spending a lot of time and money with not much to show for it, it might be time to revamp your approach.
Here are my 4 top tips to help improve the return on ad spend (ROAS) from your Google Ads campaigns.
Track your ROAS
This might seem too basic to mention, but when e-commerce businesses speak to me for the first time about Google Ads, you’d be surprised at how many don’t have conversion tracking in place. This makes it 100x harder to track the impact of your campaigns.
If you fall into this group, it’s time to get the ball rolling and get comfortable with conversion tracking. When it’s working, you can track everything from newsletter sign-ups to the value of sales from search traffic (depending on how your website is set up).
Talking about tracking can seem technical and a bit daunting if you’re new to it. But, a lot of website builders like Squarespace automatically track e-commerce data if the site is connected to a Google Analytics account. This, in turn, can flow into your Google Ads account to let you see which campaigns are generating a profit and which ones are operating at a loss.
Once you know which campaigns have a high ROAS, you can allocate more budget towards what’s working and identify trends like seasonality’s impact on campaign profitability.
Reduce wasted spend
Familiarise yourself with the Search Terms report; it's your ally in the mission to make your Google Ads campaigns more profitable.
Sure, Google has limited how much Search Term data we can get our hands on, but the report is still a valuable tool so don’t write it off yet. Put a reminder in your calendar to check it regularly and simply exclude irrelevant terms when they crop up.
If you're ready for a more advanced way to claw back some of your Search Terms data from Google, try out the hacks in this handy article on PPC Hero.
When you get it right, Google Ads can be a powerful way to reach new customers and in the mind of previous website visitors.
Improve account quality
Simply put: a well-optimised account lets you secure more clicks at a lower cost per click. If you want your Google Ads campaigns to be more profitable, regular account maintenance to make sure it’s running like a well-oiled machine is a no brainer.
Just like a plant, your account needs regularly tended to if you want it to thrive and remain profitable. Signs of a healthy account include:
Focused campaigns and ad groups
Relevant keywords that aren’t too broad or too narrow
High keywords Quality Scores
Well crafted ads that drive traffic to your site (and not your competitor’s)
Landing pages that deliver an excellent user experience
Want a fresh pair of eyes to identify where there's room for improvement? Bring in a PPC specialist (cough cough) to conduct an audit of your account.
Be savvy about keyword CPC
The average cost per click (CPC) for keywords can vary widely depending on factors such as Quality Score, match type, competition, etc. the list goes on. If you have a keyword with an exceptionally high CPC in an ad group, it may be using up the daily budget for that campaign and preventing cheaper keywords from getting their shot at the ad auction.
Does this mean you need to pause it? Not necessarily. If you aren’t ready to give up on it yet, try moving the keyword into its own campaign so you can regulate how much you want to spend bidding on it. Taking it out of the original campaign will give the other keywords in it a chance (and the budget) to shine.
Once the expensive keyword has been isolated, you can work on bringing down its average CPC, and if it’s still not profitable despite your best efforts, then you can pause it with confidence.
Is your Google Ads account working for or against you? Get in touch to chat about how I can help make your Google Ads campaigns more profitable.