Challenge #1:
Making sure your campaign has an audience.
A rookie mistake when
starting in Google Ads is to build out campaigns without fully
researching your target audience. Sure, you could get lucky and add the
right keywords without any help — but more likely you’ll either get a
trickle of traffic, or worse, get lots of traffic from tire kickers!
Make sure that doesn’t
happen by using the free Keyword Planner tool found in Google Ads.
You’ll find the demand for various relevant keyword terms along with
estimates for what you’ll pay per click.
Challenge #2: Not
overspending on clicks.
Google loves making
money just as much as you do. When launching campaigns I recommend
starting with high bids because you’ll put your ads in a position to
get more clicks, which leads to high Quality Scores and, ultimately,
cheaper clicks. Bid too high, though, and you might blow through your
advertising budget with a negative return on your investment.
It’s a balancing act,
but you can take out the guesswork with some simple math. Calculate
your maximum bid with this formula:
Max CPC = (average
profit per customer) x (conversion rate of your online customers) x (1
– desired advertising profit margin).
You’ll need to estimate
these numbers if you’re just starting out, but you can plug in real
data as you go. Check the Google Keyword Planner tool and focus on
keywords with estimated costs below your calculated Max CPC.
Challenge #3:
Keeping up with your competitors.
As you know, one of the
keys in business is to stay one step ahead of your competitors. The
same is true in Google Ads.
To keep an eye on what
your competitors are doing, I recommend using a tool like SpyFu. You’ll
be able to “spy” on your competitors’ ad copy, keyword terms, and even
see how long they’ve been using certain ads and keywords. This is
invaluable information you can use to improve your campaigns and give
you a competitive advantage.
Challenge #4:
Defining what makes your business special.
Why should Google users
click on your ad over all the others?
To answer this question
is to define what makes your business special. That alone can be
surprisingly challenging; then, you must summarize that uniqueness in a
very limited space using text ads. Focus your ad on whatever it is your
business does better than everyone else, and build from there.
Challenge #5:
Saying everything in limited characters.
Your ads must be
compelling enough to grab attention and drive conversions. However,
with standard ads, you only get 30 characters for your headlines and 90
characters for your two description lines.
That’s not much space to
work with, especially when your ads should:
- Convey
what makes your business special.
- Make
an irresistible offer.
- Include
a call to action.
Like all writing, the
most important step is to start. Once you have a few drafts, then you
can refine them to find the best 2-3 variations you want to test first.
Remember, no one knows for sure which ad copy will perform best so
always run multiple variations and let the data guide you.
Challenge #6:
Make sure your landing page follows through.
It’s all too easy for
adjustments to your ad copy to accidentally become promises your
landing page doesn’t keep. This happens when you only focus on your ad
copy rather than reviewing your ads and landing pages together.
Your Google Ads Quality
Scores can plummet over poor landing page experiences, resulting in
less traffic and more expensive clicks. Google can even suspend your
ads over what it deems to be false advertising. In addition, you’re
likely to end up irritating people who might have otherwise become
customers.
Before changing your ad
copy, first, make sure that whatever you plan on writing is well
represented on your landing page. If your revised ad offers free
shipping, then people who click that ad should instantly know what to
do when arriving on your website. Those irresistible offers play a huge
role in bringing people to your site, but if you don’t follow through
on your landing page, neither will your prospects.
Challenge #7:
Getting your website to work on mobile.
Most web developers
today will build websites to be functional on both mobile and desktop
platforms. However, many small business websites were built before
mobile took off.
Two things will happen
if you advertise to mobile devices without a mobile-optimized website:
- Prospective customers
will bounce because the page will not look or function properly on
their mobile (aka you’ll lose sales)
- Your
Quality Scores will suffer, which leads to higher costs and lower
ad positions
Sure, you can choose to
not advertise to mobile devices, but keep in mind that an estimated 100
billion Google searches per month originate from smartphones and this
number is growing!
Challenge #8:
Setting up conversion tracking.
Enabling conversion
tracking is an absolute must. Without it, you won’t ever know which ads
are driving the most leads and sales.
Get your conversion
tracking code from Google Ads and embed it within the page of your
website that signifies a completed transaction. If your goal is to
drive sales, then embed the code on your receipt page.
If you want to drive
leads, then embed the code on the page that shows after your contact
form is submitted. This code allows Google Ads to track when prospects
complete your forms so you can see exactly which ads and keywords
result in more conversions.
Plus, if phone calls
are important for your business, then don’t forget to set up phone call
conversion tracking. This is additional code you’ll need to embed on
the website so you can see which ads and keywords are driving phone
calls.
Challenge #9:
Learning and using extensions.
Extensions are
additional bits of information that can make your ads much more
enticing to Google users — especially those who are searching for local
goods and services. Ad extensions include call buttons, additional
links, your company address and more.
Google does display
some extensions automatically, but you’ll miss out on the most useful
extensions if you don’t set them up manually.
Activate this feature
under the “Ad extensions” tab in Google Ads and follow the directions
to set up each extension.
Challenge #10:
Optimizing your campaigns.
Optimizing your
campaigns is an ongoing effort. From the day you launch the ads, you
should always be split-testing ad copy, adjusting your bids, testing new
keywords, pausing poorly performing keywords, testing different
targeting options, and split-testing landing pages.
Successful campaigns
eventually require less optimizing and, like everything else with
Google Ads, it gets easier over time.
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