Google’s advertising platform is perhaps one of the largest and the most popular among businesses. However, Google advertising can be deceptively simple. That said unless you are willing to take some time out to understand the advanced features buried deep in the platform your ads will probably never perform as they should.
This is something that many industry experts point to being the one reason why businesses who do not invest in a professional advertising service often fail to garner significant results. The good news is that if your Google advertising campaign is not performing as it should or as you expected there are a few things you can do to improve it.
Tip no. 1 : Run your ads during business hours / day time
Depending on the type of business you run this is a very important small step that you should take. For instance, if you are offering extermination services you will obviously expect people to search and hire you during waking hours of the day. However, if your ad runs 24/7 there is a good chance that people from other countries are viewing it too but to whom you do not provide this service.
The same goes for other regions within your country. This will help you save some money which can then be put towards ensuring that your ad is ranked in the top three by placing a higher bid on the keyword. So, as a rule of thumb it’s better to run smaller yet highly targeted campaigns as opposed to larger and broader campaigns.
Tip no. 2: Use long tail and specific keywords
Businesses often bid high on keywords like “Real estate”, and “property dealers” which are both very broad terms and because of that they are very expensive. Yes, they will drive thousands of visitors to your website but your return on investment is going to be extremely low. That said the more you can narrow down the keywords to your specific niche the less you will have to pay Google for advertising and the higher will be your return on investment.
For instance, if you have a real estate consultancy in Auckland you may want to target keywords like ‘Auckland real estate consultancy’, “Auckland property dealers and consultants”. These will be a lot cheaper and will attract only those who are specifically looking for dealers in Auckland.
Tip no. 3: Ads should have a call to action
There is no point having an ad that does not tell the viewer what to do. Google’ advertising platform offers you just a few words to say what you want and it should be impactful. Your ad should for instance tell the reader to “get a discount today”, “buy the new Samsung galaxy 4 at a discount” etc.
Simply running an ad that says “we have the latest collection of designer clothes” is not going to get too much attention and does not tell the viewer what to do, also since everyone is selling designer clothes (with that keyword) you’ll have a really low CTR (Click Through Rate). Your ad should be specific and offer something of value right away.
Tip no. 4: The landing page should complement your ad
Businesses often have their homepage or their product page as the landing page when using Google advertising. However, despite them yielding some sales they can do a lot better if they have a custom made landing page on their site for every ad they run.
For instance, taking the above instance of a Google ad that says “buy the new Samsung galaxy 4 at 20% discount”, the landing page should have a big picture of the handset along with its discounted price and a place where people can enter in their credit card information to buy. This reduces all the extra steps they would need to take in order to buy and hence reduce the chances of them having second thoughts.
Tip no. 5: Split test your ads
To find which ads work best for your business on the Google advertising platform you need to split test your ads according to Smart SEO which is one of the leading SEO services in New Zealand. By split testing you can find out what is working and why which helps you improve your ads a great deal over a period of time which improves your return on investment.
Citations:
- The Advantages & Disadvantages of Advertising on the Internet
Mark is one of the leading experts on Google advertising. He also specializes in SEO and online marketing. He started off in the online marketing space a decade ago and since then has grown to be known as a guru. Today, he offers advice and tips to all businesses who are interested in using Google advertising to boost their sales and marketing.
