Stop Spending More Than You Should on Google Ads

If most marketers were honest, they would probably say that a healthy portion of their search engine advertising budget is being wasted. Whether they are spending a few dollars a day or a few thousand, the majority of businesses that advertise on Google are spending more than they should on each click and conversion. 

Whether your conversions are micro-conversions like a newsletter signup or a full-on macro-conversion such as selling a product, make sure your campaigns are moving your visitors forward in a meaningful way.

How can you avoid making the same mistakes as so many others? Here are a handful of good tips to follow:

Embrace negative keywords.

It's as important to tell Google who you don't want to advertise to as it is to attract the right kinds of buyers. With each negative keyword, you reduce the number of wasted clicks and impressions you're going to pay for. If you set a keyword as negative, your ad will not appear when that keyword is searched for.

Only compete where it matters.

A lot of companies like to compete nationally when their best chance for conversion lies with local buyers. If 90% of your customers come from your local area, consider scaling down your AdWords account geographically. Review your location data in Google Analytics to learn more about your website’s visitors.

Pay attention to those quality scores.

For every keyword quality score that's less than a 10/10, you're paying more than you should for each click and enjoying the worst search engine position. Keep tweaking your account until your quality scores reach the top.

Make it easy for mobile customers.

More customers than ever are coming to you via smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Make your site easy for them to use and your overall conversion rates will increase.

Include a free offer for searchers.

Not everyone is going to buy something from you right away. That's why you should include something on your website (like a free download) that you can use to follow up later with people who have visited your site. These micro-conversions will pave the road to macro-conversions (like making a sale) in the future.

Test your landing pages.

Getting people to your landing pages is only half the battle; test different layouts, headlines, and calls to action to see if you can find a formula that turns more of them into actual customers.

Take advantage of ad scheduling.

Once your campaigns have been running for a few weeks, review conversion data by day & time. If you see trends, schedule your ads to run only during those days and times. This will help conserve your budget too.

It's actually incredibly easy to burn through a good deal of money using Google AdWords if you aren't paying attention to the details. So, keep a close eye on each of these factors – and your account in general – to make sure that none of your advertising budget is being wasted.

If you’re interested in getting started with an AdWords campaign, contact us today for a free $100 voucher when you spend $25.