Having trouble revving up your Google Ads campaigns? Whether you’re dealing with fewer impressions, higher CPCs, or a drop in conversions, this article breaks down 6 straightforward steps to improve your campaigns.
From inspecting your conversion tracking setup and bid strategies to analyzing ad groups and search terms, these tips will supercharge your PPC strategy for better results.
#1 Make Sure The Conversion Tracking Is Correct
When you’re trying to figure out why your Google Ads campaign is underperforming, the first step is to look at how conversions are set up. Having clear and accurate conversion tracking is key to understanding how well your campaign is doing.
Make sure your conversion tracking is set up correctly to capture important actions, whether it’s form submissions, purchases, or any other goal you’ve defined. Check if you already have conversion values or if you can add them to let Google know the value of each conversion action.
If you’re facing low conversions, take a look at the tracking code, and if needed, reach out to Google support for assistance with tag setup. Having precise tracking and aligned values is crucial for boosting your campaign’s performance and getting accurate ROAS and conversion data.
#2 Monitor Your Bidding Strategy
If your campaign has an unattainable goal, Google might show a status like “Limited by bidding strategy.” To overcome this, consider upgrading your bid strategy to a fully automated one.
This adjustment can potentially increase your conversions at a similar cost per acquisition (CPA) or enhance your conversion value at a similar return on ad spend (ROAS).
Another common limitation could be bid limits that are below the average for your keywords. To address this, you can boost your maximum cost per click (CPCs). If you’re using smart bidding, you have the option to increase your target cost per acquisition (tCPA) or decrease your target return on ad spend (tROAS).
Adjusting these parameters can help optimize your bidding strategy and improve campaign performance.
#3 Search Impression Share
The search impression share is a metric that reveals the percentage of total impressions your ad receives compared to the total it could potentially get. If you’re dealing with a campaign struggling to spend effectively, this metric is quite insightful.
A lower search impression share indicates missed opportunities for visibility, and potential solutions include:
- Refining keyword targeting.
- Adjusting bid strategies by setting a lower return on ad spend (ROAS) target or a higher cost per acquisition.
- Improving ad relevance.
- Expanding the budget, especially in competitive auctions.
Two additional metrics to consider are:
- Search lost IS (rank): Indicates the impression share lost due to ranking issues.
- Search lost IS (budget): Indicates the impression share lost due to budget constraints.
If a high percentage is lost due to ranking, it’s essential to enhance your landing page, ad copy, and keyword targeting. If the loss is due to budget, allocating more spending can increase competitiveness.
For campaigns with a search impression share greater than 10%, exploring competitive metrics in the Auction Insights report is recommended. This report provides insights into other advertisers bidding on the keywords in your campaign.
For campaigns with a significantly lower impression share, expanding the budget and making bid strategy adjustments to be less restrictive are viable strategies.
Regularly monitoring and optimizing the search impression share is a proactive approach to optimize campaigns and maximize their reach.
#4 Ad Group Configuration
Analyzing the ad group structure is a crucial step in identify issues within your Google Ads campaign.
The organization of ad groups plays a pivotal role in ensuring ad relevance and precise targeting. When faced with an underperforming campaign, it’s essential to scrutinize how ad groups are structured.
Consider the following:
- Are all conversions bundled under one campaign?
- How many keywords are present per campaign?
Ensuring that keywords within an ad group are closely related and align with ad copy and landing page content is vital for providing a seamless user experience.
An effective ad group structure should ideally contain 1-20 keywords, and high-performing ad groups can be separated for better results. In case of low-quality scores for many keywords, consider:
- Adding or removing keywords.
- Confirming that all keywords are present in ad headlines, and prioritizing top keywords in descriptions.
Evaluating and optimizing ad groups contributes to enhanced campaign relevance, improved Quality Scores, and overall performance by aligning ad content closely with the targeted keywords.
#5 Quality Scores
Quality Score is a metric that gauges the overall quality and relevance of ads, keywords, and landing pages in a campaign.
Each keyword is assigned a number from 1 to 10, with a lower score indicating potential issues affecting ad performance. These issues could range from misaligned ad copy and irrelevant keywords to suboptimal landing page experiences.
By scrutinizing quality scores, you can identify specific areas that need enhancement. Integrate metrics for landing page experience, ad relevance, and expected click-through rate (CTR), as they all contribute to the quality score. If any of these metrics fall below average, focus on improving that particular aspect to boost your quality score.
A higher quality score positively impacts ad rankings and positions while lowering the cost per click. This, in turn, enhances the overall efficiency of the campaign. After implementing changes, revisit your keywords after 1-2 weeks to observe any improvements in the quality score.
#6 Search Term Reports
Consistently checking this report helps pinpoint irrelevant or low-converting search terms that could be consuming your budget without providing substantial results. This is particularly important when utilizing broad match keywords, and it’s advisable to perform this check on a weekly basis.
Creating a list of negative keywords and implementing them in the respective ad group or campaign allows you to:
- Block low-quality searches from affecting your campaign.
- Fine-tune your targeting for better precision.
- Enhance ad relevance.
This, in turn, has the potential to elevate your quality score and expected CTR.
Conclusion
To get your Google Ads campaign on the right path again, you need a systematic plan to pinpoint and fix the core issues. By following these essential steps, you’ll understand where improvements are needed.
Consistently fine-tuning your strategy based on performance data is vital to reach your campaign goals. By continually improving with the help of metrics, you’ll unleash the full potential of your Google Ads investment.
