Creating Google ads to promote your business is both an art and a science. Excellent writing skills are important for the development of ad copy, and accurately interpreting data can help you make decisions that improve ROIs on existing or future campaigns. During our June Digital Drop-In webinar, I gave listeners tips on how to write content for more successful Google ads, and which factors affect Google AdWords quality scores (and in turn can determine the cost per click).
Keywords Run the Show
Here’s an important trifecta:
- The Landing Page: Where visitors go when they click on the ad. The section of your website where you want to send traffic.
- Keywords: Terms from your landing page or from keyword research that a potential customer is likely to use in their search. These words or phrases should accurately represent the products or services you offer.
- Ad Copy: A message that focuses on user needs and benefits. Use the best keywords from your list, and avoid generic sales language.
Each entity must be aligned with the others so that you are sending a clear message to your potential customers (and they are mostly likely to convert!). As an aside, if you want to learn more about conversions, check out my past blog post here. You want to make sure the message is simple and straightforward and in line with what it is you can provide.
To begin your list of keywords, I advise people to take the best keywords from their landing page and put them on a list. This will usually include H1s and various titles. Separate them if you want to create different combinations, like nouns and adjectives. Or, use the keyword planner to multiply combinations.
Get in your potential customer’s mind! Use words/phrases that they would search for. You can also look and see what competitors are ranking for. Every bit of research helps. If this leads you to finding keywords that are valuable, but not entered in the copy of the page, you may want to go back and include them in your landing page content.
Remember: CTRs can Lead to Conversions
The click-through rate (CTR) is a measurement of how often people click on your ad after it’s shown to them. It’s the number of clicks your ad receives, divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). Multiply that by 100 to get a percentage. The CTR is often used to help determine the effectiveness of an ad. If a campaign’s CTR is not at least 2%, then you need to make changes to increase performance. You want to obtain the highest CTR you can.
Increase Your Quality Score
On a related note, the CTR greatly affects the quality score (QR). The higher your quality score, the less you will pay for each click. The purpose of Google ads are to appeal to users who are searching for products and services that you offer. When you spend advertising dollars to potentially reach these people, getting a return on investment is essential. The cost per click (CPC) decreases when your quality score increases. So, how do we increase the ad’s quality score?
Once you’re in the Google AdWords platform, go to the Keywords level, select your columns >> Modify columns >> Quality score. You can now see all the factors that affect QS in the auction.
Test, Test & Test Again
Play around with Google AdWords! Part of the challenge and fun of online advertising is figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Try and create a better user experience for potential customers by helping them find solutions to their queries. Google AdWords is a robust advertising system with many moving parts, and one of the keys to running a successful ad campaign is writing great ads. Remember to write clear, useful, relevant ad copy and you’ve completed the first step toward increased click-through rates. Happy testing!
