Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a quick and effective way of driving traffic to your website and gaining visibility at the top of the search results page.
If you’re new to – or inexperienced in – PPC, getting it right can be tricky. Defining your target audience, targeting the right keywords, selecting the best platforms, creating compelling ads and setting your budgets correctly can all cost a fortune if you don’t know what you’re doing.
The truth is, money doesn’t grow on trees (although we wish it weren’t true), and there are several things you can do within your Google Ads account to avoid wasted spend on your campaigns.
Keyword match types
Keyword match types have the potential to ruin your search campaigns. There are three match types; broad, phrase and exact. Broad is usually where problems with wasted spend can arise. Using broad match keywords leaves your campaign far too open to irrelevant search terms.
If, for example, your business wanted to target users searching for ‘purple trousers’, here’s what each match type might pick up:
Broad match keywords
Ads would appear for any search query containing any word in your keyword, in any order, for example – ‘trousers shop near me’.
Phrase match keywords
Ads would appear for any search query that has words before or after your keyword, such as ‘purple trousers online’ or ‘where can I buy purple trousers’.
Exact match keywords
Ads would appear for searches that are exactly ‘purple trousers’ (or a very similar variation of this).
As of 2021, Google removed a match type called Broad Match Modifier (BMM) which was a better version of the broad match type. This keyword match type triggered ads for search queries that contained all keywords but in any order. For example, ‘shop that sells trousers that are purple’. Google now includes any queries that would have triggered a BMM match type into an updated phrase match.
To avoid showing ads for irrelevant searches on the SERPs, we recommend using only phrase match and exact match keywords.
Negative keywords
Negative keywords and negative keyword lists are lifesavers when it comes to avoiding wasted ad budget.
By monitoring your search terms report, you can pick out any searches that aren’t relevant to your business and your offering and add them to a negative keyword list. This ensures from that point onwards, your ads will no longer appear for searches including the negated keyword which, in turn, means reduces wasted spend.
How to write the best ads
Your ad copy is the first piece of content a user will read from your business, so naturally you want it to be as enticing and Google-friendly as possible. Ad relevance is one of the three factors that make up Quality Score – a score out of ten from Google that determines how successful your ad is.
To get your ads as relevant as possible to your keywords, make sure your headline (h1) includes the keyword you’re targeting for that ad group, as well as including it in the path and descriptions. It also helps to have your keywords dotted in your website copy on the landing page that your ads are going to.
What should I measure most in Google Ads
Conversion tracking is everything.
Without proper tracking of calls, form submissions and/or transactions, there’s no telling how successful your Google Ad campaign is. Conversions, conversion rate and return on ad spend (ROAS) are all key areas you should measure to identify the performance of your campaigns.
How do I get PPC support from QBD?
Our specialist PPC services have helped hundreds of businesses to grow and reach their goals.
If you’re looking to quickly build an audience for a new website, drive more traffic to an existing site, convert clicks into sales or maximise your Google Ads or PPC spend, we can help. We’ll take the time to understand your business and objectives before delivering a PPC solution that meets your needs.
Give us a call to find out how we can help.