When it comes to advertising, we understand that the goal is to make the most out of every dollar you spend.
Google Ads is one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers and increase your return on investment (ROI). However, to truly optimise your Google Ads campaigns, you need to understand which metrics matter most for service-based businesses and how to measure them.
When it comes to maximising your ROI, you first need to make sure your Google Ads campaigns are optimised. Structure, target audience and spend will differ for each client’s campaigns, but at a glance, there are some standard practices for optimising your Google Ads campaign for maximum ROI.
Know Your Audience
Before launching your Google Ads campaign, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your target audience. Who are they? What do they want? Where do they live? What problems do they need to solve? Once you have a solid grasp of your audience, you can create ads that speak directly to their needs and pain points. Knowing your audience also allows you to better segment them for more targeted ads and quality traffic.
Use Relevant Keywords
Keywords are the foundation of any successful Google Ads campaign. Make sure your keywords are relevant to your business and services and are clear on the search intent. It’s critical to research your competitors and use Google’s Keyword Planner to research the most effective keywords for your campaign. You don’t want to waste money appearing for searches that aren’t relevant.
Create Compelling Ad Copy
Your ad copy is what will entice people to click on your ad. It needs to be engaging, informative, and compelling. Use your keywords in your ad copy and highlight your unique selling proposition (USP). Your USP is what sets you apart from your competitors and should be front and centre in your ad copy. There is also a range of extensions you can include that may encourage clicks, such as call, location, sitelink, product and rating extensions just to name a few.
Here’s an example of different extensions we have used for our clients’ ads and how they can look.
Image extensions for Gladwin Legal:
Sitelink extensions for Davidson Property Advocates:
A combination of extensions for Showfront:
Optimise Landing Pages
Your landing page is where your ad traffic will land and is the key to generating leads. There is little point in setting up a high-performing Google Ads campaign only for users to click on the link and quickly exit the page they land on. Your landing pages must be relevant, engaging, and optimised for conversions. Make sure your landing page matches the message in your ad copy and offers a clear call-to-action (CTA). Your CTA should be prominent and easy to find, encouraging visitors to take action. There also needs to be strong imagery, some social evidence, e.g., testimonials, and a user-friendly layout.
Here is a snippet of one of our PPC landing pages for our client, Betta Fire Protection:
Here is another PPC landing page snapshot from our client Ace Sports Clinic:
Monitor and Adjust Your Campaigns
Once your campaigns are up and running, it’s crucial to monitor them regularly. But measuring success is about more than just the amount of clicks and impressions; you also need to look at metrics such as:
- Conversions
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Cost per Conversion
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
- Total Cost (Monthly)
Remember the QUALITY of your conversions is just as, if not more important than the QUANTITY. Assessing these metrics will give you a good indication of how well your campaigns are performing and an understanding of where in the process you could improve the campaign.
Optimise Your Budget
Managing your budget correctly is vital to your campaign’s success on Google Ads. Under-budget your campaign, and you won’t get enough clicks to get a conversion; over-budget and you may end up spending needlessly with a higher cost per enquiry. There is a tendency to assume that doubling your budget will result in double the conversions. Sounds logical, right? However, this isn’t necessarily the case. The law of diminishing returns applies beyond a certain point.
The optimal way to manage a budget is to carefully monitor your cost per enquiry and aim for the maximum number of conversions for the lowest possible cost. Careful assessment is needed before any major changes in budget are applied. Try using our PPC ROI calculator to help assess your budget.
If you’re not seeing the results you want, adjust your campaigns accordingly. Try different ad copy, landing pages, targeting options or split testing until you find what works. But don’t make changes too often. Once changes are applied, give them a few weeks to actually kick in and then a few more weeks to monitor the performance – changing the campaigns every week will negatively impact your results and skew your data.
Remember, it’s not just about getting clicks and impressions. If you want help optimising your campaigns for maximum ROI, speak to the Google Ads experts at 80/20 Digital today.
