Learn how to set up, write, and optimize Google Search ads to improve your digital marketing strategy.
Writing your Google Search Ads
Incorporating search ad extensions
The importance of conversion tracking
Ongoing optimization of your search ads
In today’s digital world, an online presence is crucial for businesses and organizations of all sizes. One of the most effective ways to drive traffic, leads, and sales is through search engine advertising—specifically, Google Ads.
Over 8.5 billion searches are submitted to the Google platform every day, making up 78 percent of all online search behavior. When someone searches on Google, they’re greeted with pages upon pages of attempts to answer their questions or address their keywords. And, at the top of the page, they’ll find a sponsored match, persuading them to click there to find the information they need.
Often, it works. The first result on the Google search engine results page (SERP) gets 27.6 percent of all clicks on the platform. That’s why Google Search Ads are so valuable to your marketing strategy.
Google Ads can be intimidating if you haven’t spent a lot of time with them. We’re here to help you through every step of the process, from setting them up to tracking and optimizing your Search Ads. Let’s dive in!
What are Google Search Ads?
Google Search Ads are the sponsored results on the search engine results page (SERP). They appear at the top of the page based on an “auction” that happens in the split-second between a search and the appearance of the SERP. This auction is based on the keywords you bid on, how much money you put into those keywords, and the amount of clicks you collect from those keywords.
It’s a pay-per-click (PPC) system, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on the sponsored result. To get the most out of your ads budget: carefully set your goals, determine a campaign structure, and choose keywords that fit your products or services.
Setting up Google Search Ads
Now that you have some background knowledge, it’s time to set up your first campaign! This is where you determine your campaign structure, set your conversion goals, and choose appropriate keywords.
When you build your first campaign, Google will prompt you to choose a campaign objective—sales, leads, website traffic, app promotion, awareness or consideration, local store visits, or promotions. After selecting an objective, you will be prompted to choose the type of ad you would like to create. Choose “search” and start setting your conversion goals. (You can also opt to create a campaign without the guidance of an objective.)
Setting campaign-specific conversion goals
Setting goals is a great way to track and measure your success. Before you even start your first campaign, you should know the goals you want your campaign to achieve. Then, when it comes time to set your campaign-specific goals in Google Ads, you’ll be able to easily identify what you want to define as a conversion.
In Google Ads, “conversion” doesn’t necessarily mean “sale.” It depends on what you select as a conversion, which can be anything from filling out a form to clicking a specific page on your website. A conversion goal helps you figure out your conversion actions, giving you information to optimize your Google Search Ads based on your advertising objectives.
When you’re determining your conversion goals, you can choose either standard or custom goals.
Standard Goals
These are automatically-generated goals, grouped by their conversion category type, like “Purchases,” “Contacts,” or “Submit lead forms.” You can choose these goals as account-default conversion goals, meaning it will be your default bidding optimization for all of your campaigns. Choosing a standard goal as your account-default conversion goal will allow Google Ads to bid and optimize toward it, giving your ads a higher likelihood to get selected in auctions with users who are likely to achieve that goal.
Custom Goals
Custom goals are typically used by more advanced users of Google Ads. With a custom goal, you can add any primary and secondary conversion actions. They’re useful for getting hyper-specific with your target audience, rather than making general assumptions.
Whether you choose standard or custom goals, the most important thing is to define what a conversion is for your specific campaign. This will help you in the rest of your Google Search Ads campaign process, from writing to optimization.
Choosing your keywords
People type keywords into the Google Search bar to trigger a search engine results page. When choosing keywords for your Google Search Ads campaign, you want to pick high quality, relevant keywords that your products or services have the answer to.
For example, if someone is Googling “red hats” and you’re a shoe store, you don’t want to rank for those keywords. Instead, you’d choose phrases like “shoes for sale,” “best place to buy sneakers,” or “shoe store near me.”
Choose two to three keywords or phrases that make the most sense for your business or organization. It may not seem like a lot, but you’ll add to them later, once you gather more information about your audience and what they’re searching for.
On Google Ads, there are three keyword match types: broad, phrase, and exact. Your search ad may show up on a broad match; these are searches that are similar to your keyword but don’t use any exact words or language. They also may show up on a phrase match, meaning that one or two words in the phrase match your keywords or match the same definition as your keywords. Or, they could appear on an exact match, meaning someone typed in the exact phrase you bid on, or their search has the same meaning.
Let’s look at an example. Say you’re advertising a payroll software company and want to use that phrase as your keywords.
This information—broad, phrase, and exact matches—tell you what other keywords or phrases you should bid on and the ones you should establish as negative keywords.
Negative Keywords
These are the keywords or phrases that you don’t want to show up for. These searches may be related to your industry, but aren’t specific to your business or organization. Avoid paying for that click by designating them as negative keywords.
For instance, say your shoe store sells most shoes except high heels. The phrase “high heels” is close enough to “shoes” that your Google Search Ad may show as a phrase match. But, the Googler will be disappointed because you don’t sell high heels, and you’ll lose money on that click. Instead, declare “high heels” as a negative keyword so your ad doesn’t appear on the SERP.
Use this conversion and keyword information to write your search ads.
Writing your Google Search Ads
It’s time for the fun part: writing your ads!
The pieces of a Google Search Ad
A Google Search Ad is made up of several different parts, and getting to know them will help you write copy that the search engine algorithm and your audience wants to see.
Keep in mind that Google Search Ads are dynamic, meaning the platform will randomly match various headlines and descriptions to see which combinations appeal most to your audience.
Headline
The headline is the most prominent part of your ad. It’s the blue text at the top of the ad, informing the reader what they will find if they click the link. Do your best to align the language of your headline to the user’s search intent. For example, if the user is looking for “shoes on sale,” they want to see “on sale” in the headline. You only get 30 characters for your headline, so use them wisely!
Description
The description falls directly below the headline. This gives the reader more insight into what they will find on the webpage if they choose to click it. Your description must be under 90 characters, so keep it short and sweet. Because Google Search Ads are dynamic, you can take this opportunity to test different tones to see what appeals to your audience best; for one description, take a funny approach, whereas with another you could be more serious. As long as it fits in your brand’s voice, this is a great way to learn more about your audience.
Final URL
The final URL is the page your users will land on after clicking your ad. To follow best practices, your URL should match the search intent of the Googler. If someone is searching for a new pair of sneakers, your ad should bring them to the sneaker section of your website, instead of your home page, contact page, or other less relevant pages.
Display URL
The display URL is different from your final URL; the final URL is where the Googler will land, and the display URL is the one they see on the SERP. The final URL is usually more specific, leading a user directly to the information they search for, whereas the display URL is typically just your website’s domain.
Creating responsive Google Search Ads
Google gives you the opportunity to create responsive search ads to test which messages are most relevant to your customers. Add multiple titles and descriptions, and Google will test different combinations to see which ones perform the best. From there, you can access metrics to help you make changes and try out new keywords to determine closer matches to what your customers are searching.
Responsive search ads help you:
- Share appropriate messages to more potential customers.
- Tailor headlines and descriptions to match customers’ locations, regular locations, or locations of interest.
- Reach more people with options that open up opportunities to compete in more auctions and match more searches.
When a user searches, they will see the most relevant combination based on their query, and ad text may appear in bold if it matches their language. This makes users more likely to click the ad because they know it will contain the information they need.
Tips for writing effective digital ads
1. Supply your audience with the information they’re looking for.
This is your opportunity to use relevant keywords to relate both to the content of your ad and what your audience is searching for. Make sure your keywords relate to a specific page on your website.
Sixty-one percent of people say that if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds, they’ll go to another site. A specific landing page gives you more room to capture broad search terms. Find ways to incorporate keywords into both your ads and landing page.
2. Match the voice and tone of your organization’s brand.
One of the most powerful things you can do as a brand is to keep your voice and tone consistent. Your ads should reflect the value of your business or organization’s products and services while also sticking to the language you use on your website. If your brand is playful, be lighthearted in your headline and description. If it’s more serious, stick to sincere, determined language to match.
3. Keep it conversational.
The best ads don’t feel like an ad at all; they’re simply a connection to your audience. Try to keep the tone of your ads conversational rather than robotic, and people will be more likely to click.
Incorporating search ad extensions
When creating a Google Search Ad, you also have the opportunity to add extensions. Ad extensions give more information to your viewer, like contact information, ratings, and click-to-call buttons. Incorporating ad extensions gives you more real estate on search engine results pages and can aid searchers when they’re making a decision on which result to click. They also improve lead quality and give you a better ad ranking.
Types of ad extensions
Select one or more of the following extensions to improve your ad’s success.
- Location: Opens a map, shows an address, or shares the distance to your business from the viewer’s current location.
- Sitelink: Shows extra links to more content on your website, showing relevant links depending on a user’s search query. Enhanced sitelinks show a snippet of text for each, helping a user know if the page is relevant.
- Rating: Displays Google reviews and ratings for your business.
- App (Only on Mobile): Shows an option to download an app on Google or Apple devices.
- Phone Number: Presents your business’s phone number. Click-to-call is available as a mobile-only option that users can click to directly call your business.
- Price and Promotion: Gives users examples of the prices or promotions available at your business.
- Call-to-Action: Shows your audience a call-to-action button, which is customizable.
- Ad disclosure: Displays any necessary disclosures (for example, a political ad).
The importance of conversion tracking
Once you set up your conversion goals and write your ads, it’s time to track your progress. After all, how will you know if your campaign is successful? This will help you identify which ads and keywords are doing the most for your business and conversion goals.
Conversion tracking helps you see what happens once a customer interacts with your ads. Did they make a purchase? Did they sign up for your newsletter or send you an email? This is all based on the goals you set earlier in the process.
Sending the data from conversion tracking back to Google Ads is important to fuel their machine learning algorithm, and it will serve your ad to people similar to those who completed a conversion. The Google machine finds other behaviors that match the ones that are converting. To get the most out of Google Ads, you have to give the machine the information it needs to learn.
Ongoing optimization of your search ads
When you’re creating a new Google Search Ad campaign, don’t just set it and forget it. Check certain analytics on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to analyze performance.
Don’t make any changes right away. It’s important to wait at least three months before making significant adjustments. This way, you can see the pieces that are working well versus those that aren’t, and it gives the Google algorithm ample time to do its thing.
After the first three months, when your ad is fully matured, take a look at its progress. Pause any keywords that have a low success rate in terms of conversions, quality score, and click-through rate. Add any new keywords that arose from customer search activity, and change your target audience if necessary.
Google Search Ads are an effective way to drive qualified traffic and conversions for your business. By setting clear goals, choosing relevant keywords, writing compelling ad copy, incorporating extensions, and tracking analytics, you can create and optimize successful search ad campaigns.