your Search campaign. 7 Actionable Google Ads Hacks to Upscale Successful Search Campaigns

To make the most of your advertising budget on Google, your search campaigns must effectively reach the maximum potential audience. So, how can you broaden the scale of your online presence?

This article spills the secrets of seven Google Ads hacks that can propel your campaigns to success. Consider them as your enhanced toolkit to take your campaigns to new heights. Start now!

1. Center efforts on conversion tracking

Conversion tracking enables advertisers to measure and analyze the effectiveness of their ad campaigns by tracking users’ actions after clicking on an ad. Understanding advertising efforts’ return on investment (ROI) and making data-driven decisions is crucial.

Center efforts on conversion tracking

This constitutes a significant deficiency for retail businesses using Google advertising and requires improvement. So, what can be done to enhance the effectiveness of Google AdWords Conversion Tracking?

Here are some helpful tips:

  • Outline clear conversion goals, including purchases, form submissions, sign-ups, or other desired user interactions.
  • Focus on tracking conversions that align with high-value actions for your business.
  • Create multiple conversion actions for different interactions. For instance, you might have separate actions for newsletter sign-ups and product purchases. 
  • Enable cross-device conversion tracking to get a comprehensive view of user behavior if users often switch between devices before completing a conversion.
  • Analyze which campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads drive the most conversions. 
  • Implement call conversion tracking to measure the effectiveness of your ads in driving phone leads. 

2. Optimize your Google Ads account structure 

Before you start planning your account structure, it is essential to clarify the following questions:

Optimize your Google Ads account structure 
  • Are you advertising for a Brand, Product/Service, or Hybrid? 

Find out why Brand and Hybrid campaigns typically outperform Product/Service campaigns. 

→ Splitting your campaigns gives you better control over your spending and results.

  • What is the website’s structure? 

Examining your website’s structure can assist in designing the organizational tree for your Google Ads account. 

→ Align your campaigns and ad groups with how your products/services are categorized on your website.

  • What’s your daily budget? 

Consider your budget and keyword bids before splitting ad groups. This helps you gauge the expected traffic and see if it aligns with your conversion goals.

→ If you have a limited budget, consolidate your campaigns to allocate more funds to each campaign.

  • Do you want to reach multiple languages or countries? 

If you’re targeting countries with the same language, goal, and communication, you can group them into one campaign.

→ Create separate campaigns for each language to ensure your keywords, ad text, and landing page match the selected language.

  • What is the main objective of your campaign? 

Is it to generate leads, make sales, increase video views, drive website visits, or something else?

→ Focus each campaign on one specific objective or action you want your audience to take. You can also group related actions if they contribute to your campaign’s goal. 

For example, if you’re tracking leads from various relevant forms to your objective, you can optimize your campaign using this group of leads.

  • How long does it take for visitors to convert? 

Optimize your campaign by gathering more conversion data for Google.

→ If the conversion funnel is too long, create fewer campaigns and collect conversions more efficiently.

  • How much have you bid for your products/services? 

Calculate the potential clicks and conversions you can achieve within your budget. Consider important factors like CPC, competition level, and seasonal trends using tools such as Keyword Planner.

→ Create a campaign structure to achieve a minimum of 30-50 conversions in 30 days.

3. Use bid adjustments on audiences

Want to improve your bidding strategy and get more conversions at a lower cost? Try this Google Ads hack: grouping internet users based on their online behavior and interests, you can analyze performance and target specific audience segments. 

Use bid adjustments on audiences

Before adjusting your bids, it’s crucial to understand which adjustments can be used with your campaign’s bid strategy.

4. Optimize effectiveness with Customer Match

Customer Match in Google Ads is a feature that allows advertisers to target their ads to a specific audience by uploading a list of their customers’ email addresses. 

Optimize effectiveness with Customer Match

Customer Match is valuable for advertisers looking to strengthen their relationship with existing customers, increase brand loyalty, and drive repeat business. It leverages businesses’ data about their customers to create more targeted and personalized advertising campaigns.

5. Implement Performance Max (PMax) campaign by Google

Performance Max provides performance advertisers with a consolidated view of their Google Ads inventory through a single campaign. Specifically designed to enhance keyword-based Search campaigns, it assists in discovering more customers and converting them across various channels, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps within the Google ecosystem.

Implement Performance Max (PMax) campaign by Google

Once your campaign is live, Google will automatically create ads on the relevant channels whenever they’re eligible. Using machine learning, Google ensures that the right ad is shown at the right time, with the correct bid, to help you achieve your goal.

6. Remove duplicate keywords from your account

Have you ever explored your Google Ads account and discovered identical keywords with the same match type assigned to different ad groups or campaigns? What could be the reason behind this?

Remove duplicate keywords from your account

These duplicate ads can harm your search relevance, resulting in a negative user experience and decreased click-through rates. To prevent these issues, it is essential to thoroughly review the list and decide on the keywords to remove or retain. 

Refer to the following steps for guidance on removing duplicate keywords from your Google Ads accounts: 

1. Go to the top menu and select Tools.

2. Click on Find duplicate keywords.

3. Specify your criteria for duplicate keywords.

4. Click on the button Find duplicate keywords.

You can download the relevant statistics for your campaign goals to determine which keywords to pause. Look for this feature in the top right corner of Google Editor, next to the post button.

7. Enhance your Google Ads quality score

Google Ads Quality Score is a metric used by Google to evaluate the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages within your advertising campaigns. It plays a crucial role in determining the ad rank and the cost-per-click (CPC) of your ads in the Google Ads auction.

The Quality Score is measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest possible score. 

Enhance your Google Ads quality score

But how can we improve the Quality Score of our keywords? Here’s what you need to do:

  • Focus on keywords with a Quality Score of 5 or lower.
  • Label these keywords for easy performance tracking.
  • Assess how well your keywords, ads, and landing pages align.

Additionally, consider implementing remarketing to target those interested in your marketing efforts. Prioritize this strategy to raise your Quality Score and reach a qualified audience.

However, when optimizing your Quality Score, you may encounter some of the problems below: 

1. Keyword displays a generic or unrelated ad

How to fix the error? You can start by reviewing and refining the list of keywords, including:

  • Adjust match types, incorporate negative keywords, and optimize ad copy to align more closely with user intent. 
  • Organize your keywords into separate ad groups to optimize your ad copy for each specific keyword group.
  • Focus on ad relevance, click-through rate, and landing page experience. 
  • Monitor performance, conduct A/B testing, and leverage analytics tools to gain insights and refine your approach.

2. The landing page doesn’t align with the interests of visitors

How to fix the error? You can conduct a comprehensive review of your content alignment, including: 

  • Refine headlines, descriptions, and visuals to be concise and tailored to your target audience.  
  • Present a compelling call-to-action, improve navigation, and consider implementing dynamic content for personalization. 
  • Optimize for mobile responsiveness and fast loading times.

3. The landing page is encountering technical issues

Encountering errors such as 404 on your landing page can result in a negative user experience and increased expenditure. In such cases, Google Ads will alert you through Email and on the Google Ads platform.

How to fix the error? Use Google tools like PageSpeed Insights to gain insights into your website’s performance. This tool provides recommendations you and your developers can implement to enhance your website’s overall score, ensuring a smoother user experience.

4. The landing page isn’t optimized for mobile devices

How to fix the error? 

  • Implement a responsive design that adapts seamlessly to diverse screen sizes. 
  • Prioritize fast loading times by optimizing images and minimizing server requests. 
  • Ensure a clear call-to-action (CTA) and readable text on mobile screens, avoiding Flash and pop-ups that may disrupt the user experience. 
  • Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool for specific insights, and consider implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for a faster mobile browsing experience. 

Conclusion

For a successful expansion of your Search campaigns, staying abreast of the latest Google Ads features and tactics is imperative. It’s important to note that the efficacy of these Google Ads hacks can vary depending on your unique business, industry, and campaign goals. We recommend conducting thorough testing and performance measurement across different strategies to identify the best approach that suits your specific needs.

IMP provides digital marketing services for global ecommerce companies. Our solutions help businesses increase their profits sustainably and reduce dependency on paid media.