Google Ads Tips from a Google Representative

This article comes from a post from one of the Facebook groups I follow for Google Ads. I found it interesting and want to share it with you. Here we go. This next part was written by Travis in a post at Google Ads Strategy with Kyle Sulerud after he had a call with a google rep about his Ads account. It was taken as is and no editing was made. Here is a summary: Negative Keywords: Only add broad keywords. I was adding phrases and exact phrases into my negative keywords list. She mentioned not to limit yourself with keywords. Just add them as words so that way that word is removed from the ads (duh lol). She said you can use phrases or exact if there is a lot of search for a specific phrase that you want to eliminate. Otherwise, in general, you should be analyzing for keyword searches weekly (if not daily) and keep on adding to your keywords list to reduce the cost of your spend. Keywords (short version): I didn’t know this, but the more exact your keywords are, the more it’s going to cost you per click. I was more focusing on phrases and exact keywords because of what I knew people were typing in…but because I wasn’t letting Google be strategic, etc…it was just setting a specific price for my keyword. Example: having [massage gun], which is an exact phrase would cost me say $1.00 a click. However, if I had used a Broad Modified Keyword +massage +gun, then allowing people to search things like “best massage gun” or “massage guns for sale” would create lower costs as they aren’t so specifically targeted. I’ve now changed all my new ads to Broad Modified to test. Responsive Search Ads: I’ve never been a fan, but I also think it was because I was too lazy to set them up lol..who’s with me! Let Google do the work. Go back in a week and check on what versions of the RSA work and maximize on those ads…remove underperforming Headlines and descriptions and replace them with new unused ones so they can get cycled in. Product Titles & Landing Page Just make sure your ads are relevant to your product page. Make sure you have proper keywords based on what the consumer is searching. If you don’t have enough keywords on your landing page to match your Google ads, then create another product page. You want the customer to buy in from your ad, but not go to a landing page that offers something different or doesn’t have the same message that your ad did. I was A+ on this, but she brought it up. Asking Questions in Ads: I was disappointed that I assumed this one was a NO. Coming from Facebook ads, I had a lot of No’s that I just assumed couldn’t be done on Google. She asked me why I wasn’t asking questions and really talking to the consumer. I told her my reasons coming from Facebook. Ugh. I changed A LOT of my ads to re-direct the question back at the consumer who just searched for my products. Search and Display: When you are setting up a campaign, Search and Display are automatically checked as additional options of your advertising. She said these are good for brand awareness, but not necessary if you are selling a specific item…unless that item is truly trending. What happens is Google will spend a good portion of your money on these ads, which will take away from your text or video ads. She said if you are going to use these options, don’t have them both turned on in the same campaign. Make 2, then have 1 turned on in each so you can keep track and control where your money is being spent…but in the end, you still want majority of your money being spent on your initial text or video ads. Target Impression Ads, Going into Conversions: I’ve been addicted to this type of campaign. I always set my absolute top impression to 30-40% just to guarantee clicks. This seemed to work, but was costing me more money than I knew. She mentioned this type of bidding is good if you are just launching a product and starting off…to get people to your site and create awareness, but not longterm. I let her know the reason why I wasn’t doing conversion bidding was because my conversions didn’t track 100% and I’ve always had this issue. I track via Google Analytics, and I can get into that more, that’s more a personal issue that I’m dealing with haha. Either way, she let me know to still continue with conversion ads since I have more than enough data for Google to know who my potential customers are. Right now, my conversion (cost per action) recommendation is $84 per action, so I disabled that and am just letting Google run with its recommendations (for now). SKAGS (Specific Keyword Ad Groups) I asked her about this method of setting up ad groups, as this is how I’ve been doing them, and she recommends them. I know there have been debates on what works best when setting up your ads. She’s for this because it allows you to control your ads based on the keywords. It also allows you to navigate and analyze better. Re-structuring ads: Start with multiple keywords. Then once you have enough traffic, re-create new ads with the Top 5 keywords…don’t waste anymore money on underperforming keywords. Editing Campaigns, Ads: Google doesn’t penalize you if you adjust bid prices or add/remove keywords and ad groups. However, if you are editing a current ad or a campaign bidding strategy (say from target impression to conversion), then it will start your campaign all over and go back into learning mode. Avoid this and just start a new campaign so you don’t skew the data you’ve been building. Quality Score: Pay attention to your quality score per keywords. This will help determine if you pay more or less for your clicks. The higher the quality score, the lower your cost. Most of the above will affect your quality score. Hope this helps. This was just the first phone call and more of a basic phone call. As I speak with her more, I will definitely be able to ask more advanced questions and learn more advanced tricks from her. – Travis Sidenote: You can follow Travis on his ecom IG account here