To increase your pay per click return on investment from Google AdWords and improve your return on ad spend (ROAS), there’s a host of advanced techniques, but we recommend starting with the top 8 easiest AdWords optimisation tips:
1. Up your bids
Now this immediately sounds counter-intuitive. But the position your ads appear in depends on your AdRank which is calculated by multiplying your AdWords Quality Score by your Maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) Bid.
AdRank = AdWords Quality Score x Maximum CPC Bid
The higher your AdRank, the higher your ad will appear in the search results and the greater visibility your brand has, making it more likely you’ll win the click and the conversion.
2. Keyword in the ad headline
You’d be amazed at how often this is missing from ads. This is especially an issue for eCommerce brands where so many different keywords could trigger your ads.
Including your exact match keyword in the headline of your ad not only improves your AdWords Quality Score so you’re more likely to appear higher in the results. It also helps to win the click from the potential customer, so you’re more likely to convert them.
3. Keyword in the URL
As in the example shown above, by including the keyword within the display URL as well, you further increase your Google AdWords Quality Score whilst increasing your chances of converting the customer. Once your Google Analytics and AdWords conversion data proves which keywords are driving multiple conversions, it’s those keywords that you want to start rolling out with their own ads, in their own ad groups.
4. Call to action in the ad description copy
An essential element of any direct response campaign, the call to action or CTA is the enticing piece of copy that will drive your potential customer to click on your ad.
Including the next step your customer needs to take to and why they need to act now is all you need. You can also A/B test your call to actions to see continuously improve your Click Through Rate (CTR) and further enhance your Google AdWords Quality Score, clicks and of course, new customers.
Once your paid ads win the click, it’s up to your website landing pages to work their magic and convert that customer.
However, even if they don’t buy the first visit, if you’ve added Google Remarketing tracking code to your website, you can continue to promote your brand within future relevant Google searches and across pre-determined third party sites until those browsers turn into a buyers.
5. Exact match keywords in their own ad groups
Another way to boost your Google AdWords Quality Score and ramp up your PPC ROI is to break exact match keywords into their own ad groups.
A well architected PPC campaign structure will always win over a lazy one because Google rewards your efforts by you paying less per click and appearing in higher ad positions. Double win and that’s multiplied by every keyword you hive off into its own ad group.
The ultimate PPC account optimisation could be down to the Single Keyword Ad Group (SKAG). Now when you’re looking at an AdWords account with 10,000s or 100,000s, even 1,000,000s of keywords, you can quickly see just how big the business benefit of taking this approach is.
However, due to the scale of the work involved in rolling this out, it’s not something that can be done instantly and there may well be other priorities – this is just one PPC ROI improvement tip out of basic starter for 8
6. Promotion extensions
So this a pretty new Google Ad Extension that gives you the ability to manage your sales promotions, discounts and special offers within your Ad Extensions.
The major advantage of Promotion Extensions is that rather than needing to create, manage and delete sales promotions within their own separate ads, you can apply the discount or special offer to your existing ads.
The reward is two-fold. You’re maintaining your existing ads and building up your Google AdWords Quality Score, rather than starting from zero each time you have a promotion. Plus every Ad Extension you use in your ads gives you a better Quality Score – another double win for your PPC ROI.
7. Ad Sitelink extensions
The beauty of Ad Sitelinks is they can take up to DOUBLE the amount of ad real estate in the search results, making your ad TWICE as eye-catching to potential customers.
Of course, being an Ad Extension, they also improve your Google AdWords Quality Score so you’re more likely to appear at the top, whilst stretching your media spend budget even further.
8. Ad Seller Ratings
There’s something about those 5 gold stars, AKA Google Ad Seller Ratings, which means even without necessarily being at the top of the search results, those reviews draw in the clicks.
Google Authorised Review Platform, Feefo published an Ad Seller Ratings case study proving there was a massive 29% increase in Click Through Rate (CTR) when ads had Ad Seller Ratings in PPC ads, compared to not having them.
Plus having product reviews on landing pages, was also proven to increase conversion rate by 6.7%. So if you have Feefo, Trust Pilot or YotPo product reviews, make sure all your Google AdWords text ads and shopping ads are set up to display them to increase your PPC ROI.
Implementing all of these AdWords ROI tips together will give you the biggest boost to your eCommerce sales and lead generation.
From our 200,000 hours of digital marketing experience, we’ve regularly seen Google AdWords return on ad spend increase from 200% to 600% (getting back 6 times revenue from ad spend). For AdWords accounts with advanced optimisation, return on ad spend of between 1,000% to 1,800% is possible (getting back 10 – 18 times in revenue from ad spend).
To find out what’s possible for your Google AdWords account, ask us for a free PPC Account analysis.
