Optimize Google Ads With These 12 Tips

We explain to you what Google Ads is, what the goal of Google Ads optimizations is and how an account is structured. We also provide you with 12 concrete Google AdWords optimization tips with which you can optimize your Google Ads account and thus also the use of your budget.

We also show you some practical tools that can make your work with Google Ads and Google Ads optimization easier. You can find an overview of numerous tools on OMR Reviews in the Category Search Engine Advertising (SEA).

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the tool for placing paid advertisements in Google search results (Search Engine Advertising).

The advertiser can determine which search queries his ads should be delivered for.

You only pay for the delivery of your ads when the user actually clicks on them and is redirected to your website.

As an advertiser, you can specify exactly how much you are willing to pay for a single click on an ad for a particular keyword. The payment model used is called Cost-per-Click (CPC) or Pay-per-Click (PPC).

The delivery and order of ads are determined by an auction process. In addition to the bid, the ad quality and the expected effects of extensions and other ad formats play a role (more on this below under Quality Factor).

The aim of using Google Ads is to direct potential customers to the website via the ads and lead them to a purchase or another conversion there.

There are different types of campaigns in Google Ads. The most common are classic search campaigns and shopping campaigns. Shopping campaigns advertise the items from a product catalog submitted to the Google Merchant Center.

Goal of Google Ads Optimizations

The goal of Google Ads optimization is to improve the performance of the respective campaign. Usually the focus is on increasing conversions or the conversion value while keeping costs low.

However, the relevant key figures differ depending on the target. The CPC (Cost-per-Click), the ROAS (Return-on-Ad-Spend) or the cost per conversion can act as the basis for optimization measures.

Possible goals could be, for example:

• Gain as many new customers as possible for a service with maximum costs of X euros per completion (Cost-per-Order/Cost-per-Acquisition, cost per achieved conversion).
• Obtain as many clicks (visitors) as possible with a budget of X euros.

Structure of a Google Ads Account

A Google Ads account can basically be divided into the account itself, campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords.

A Google Ads campaign is always assigned to the parent account in which the campaign was created. A campaign usually consists of several ad groups with different keywords and ads.

Google Ads Account

Global settings can be made at the account level. In the shared library, for example, you can create lists of excluded keywords that can be used across multiple campaigns.

In addition, this is where, among other things, the administration options for linked accounts (e.g. Google Analytics), conversions, account access or payment information can be found.

Google Ads Campaign

Various settings for the target of the campaign are available at the campaign level. The main settings relate to the time period, location, languages, device, budget and bid settings for the ads to be delivered.

Each campaign must contain at least one ad group.

Google Ads Ad Group 

Ad groups (AZG) are used to sort ads with similar objectives thematically. An ad group consists of several individual ads and keywords.

Each ad group must contain at least one ad. Three ads per AZG are recommended.

Google Ads Ad

Since mid-February 2021, the so-called responsive search ads have been the standard ad type for search campaigns in Google Ads.

A responsive search ad consists of several ad titles and descriptions that Google independently combines and tests over time using machine learning. This determines which combinations are most relevant for which search queries.

The text of the ad has a major influence on the click-through rate and should therefore be optimized continuously (more on this below).

Keywords in Google Ads

Keywords are the words or phrases that determine when an ad is delivered. There are various keyword options that control how closely the keyword must match the user's search query. The broader the keyword, the greater the risk that the ads will be displayed for unsuitable search queries and money will be spent unnecessarily.

The individual keyword options are briefly explained below:

• Broad match: Broad match is the broadest keyword option. It covers all search queries that have a (distant) thematic similarity or kinship to the keyword.
• Phrase match: With the keyword option phrase matchads are displayed if the search query has a meaning similar to the keyword. It is more precise than broad match. The keyword is enclosed in quotation marks.
• Exact match: Exact match is the most specific keyword option and covers all search queries that have the same meaning or search intent as the keyword. The keyword is enclosed in square brackets.
• Excluding keyword: There is also the option to exclude specific search terms from a campaign to improve ad targeting. For example, terms can be excluded that are similar to the defined keywords but indicate a different search intent.

12 Google Ads Tips

1. Clean Conversion Tracking

Using Google Ads Conversion Tracking the actions of users on the site can be tracked. This can be used to determine whether a customer makes a purchase or performs another action considered valuable after clicking on the ad.

A cleanly set up Conversion Tracking is the be-all and end-all to sensibly optimize a Google Ads account, as all optimization measures of a campaign should primarily be based on the measured conversion data.

Conversion tracking provides clear figures on which keywords, ads, ad groups or campaigns lead to the desired goal and thus provides an opportunity for optimization. Because just because a keyword or ad brings many visitors to the site does not mean that they are performing the desired action.

2. Set up conversion

⁠In order to measure a conversion on a website, a conversion action must first be created in the Google Ads account. Here, for example, you can specify what value the conversion has and how the conversion should be counted.

⁠In the second step, the respective javascript tracking tags must be implemented on the website. There are two tags: the general website tag, which should be added to every page of the website, and the specific event snippet, which should only be inserted on the page that is relevant for the conversion. The general website tag can also be inserted on the website via Google Analytics.

The general website tag can optionally be adjusted. For example, you can decide whether website visitors should be added to the remarketing list.

⁠It is also possible to import existing goals from Google Analytics as conversion in Google Ads. A goal captures specific user actions on the website.

⁠When embedding the tracking code on your website, always make sure to comply with GDPR and TTDSG to avoid legal difficulties.

3. Pay attention to and optimize the quality factor

The Google Ads quality factor is an evaluation of ad quality compared to other advertisers on a scale of 1 to 10 and is calculated at the keyword level. A high quality factor stands for a relevant and helpful ad (from the user's point of view).

⁠The Calculation of the quality factor is based on the three components expected click-through rate (CTR), ad relevance, and user experience with the landing page.

To increase the quality factor and thus improve the performance of a campaign, primarily the campaign structure, ad texts and ad extensions, as well as the landing page and its content relevance should be optimized.

Keywords with low quality factors lead to very high click prices (CPCs) and rare ad performance, making it significantly more difficult to achieve good campaign performance.

4. Optimizing active landing pages and testing it against each other

The landing page is the website that potential customers are directed to when they click on an advertisement. It serves to induce the user to take a targeted action, such as a purchase (conversion) or enrollment in a newsletter (lead).

A good landing page fulfills the specific needs of customers, i.e. it provides exactly the information or products they are looking for. It should clearly display the content and benefits of the respective product and encourage users to act through a call-to-action.

The landing page must match the keywords and ad texts of the SEA campaign. If users often click on the ads but perform no or hardly any actions on the landing page, this indicates a lack of harmony between the target page and campaign. The users then did not find what they were looking for.

It is recommended to test several ads with different landing pages as final URLs against each other in order to optimize the landing page for AdWords. For example, in an online shop, both the home page and various category pages can be used as landing pages and their performance can be compared.

5. Use as many ad extensions as possible

There are numerous ad extensions with which an ad can be supplemented with additional information about the company or the website. They make it possible to make the ad more meaningful and interesting and thus increase the click-through rate.

Among the most successful ad extensions are site links, additional information and image extensions.

⁠Using as many suitable ad extensions as possible is an easy way to optimize the performance of your campaigns with little effort, without incurring additional costs.

6. Optimize ad texts

Improving ad texts is a simple way to optimize a Google Ads campaign. Your Google Ads ad texts are the connection between the keywords and the landing pages. They should present the characteristics and advantages of your product or service as clearly and concisely as possible in order to ensure a high CTR.

⁠Here are a few tips on how you can optimize your Google Ads ads: Communicate benefits, characteristics and unique selling points in clear words.

• Mention advantages such as free shipping, free returns etc.
• Use the highest possible number of headlines and text lines for responsive ads so that the algorithm can most easily find the best possible combinations.
• ⁠Ask a question and provide the answer.
• ⁠Use keyword placeholders.
• Keyword placeholders in ad texts are an easy way to increase the CTR of your ads. Here, the searcher's search term is automatically inserted into the text of your ad.

7. Exclude Display Network

When new search campaigns are set up in Google Ads, the display network is automatically included by default, unless you have removed the check mark. This means that the text ads are automatically also played out as display ads. However, this is strongly discouraged, as this broadcast often performs poorly and distorts the KPIs of your campaign.

In the campaign settings, you can exclude the display network under 'Advertising networks' by removing the check mark.

Display campaigns should be set up as standalone campaigns.

8. Use scripts

⁠Google Ads scripts make your work easier, as they can automate routine tasks.

A very useful script is the Link Checker script, which is provided free of charge by Google. It regularly checks all links in your account and notifies you if there are dead/broken links in the ads or extensions.

9. Use Smart Bidding

⁠Smart Bidding is part of the transformation process of Google Ads towards more automation. Here, the Google algorithm takes over the once laborious setting and optimizing of individual bids for individual keywords. The focus of Smart Bidding is to achieve and increase conversions or conversion values. The bids for various keywords are adapted individually to the users using machine learning.

Google takes into account many different signals to predict the probability of a conversion based on the identifiable attributes of the searcher and the context of the search query and to optimize the bids accordingly. These include the device, location, time of day, remarketing lists, browser and languages.

Implementing conversion tracking is a prerequisite for using bidding settings with Smart Bidding.

10. Maintain negative keywords

⁠Especially when using broad keywords in combination with Smart Bidding, maintaining the negative keywords is essential.

Since Google usually delivers the ads very broadly, there can often be search terms among them that are far away from the actual offer on the landing page. Even individual search terms with a very high CPC can become a problem and pull down the performance of an entire campaign.

Especially with a limited amount of conversion data, it is therefore necessary to lend a hand to the Google algorithm and manually exclude certain search terms.

11. Import and monitor metrics from Google Analytics

⁠Another option for optimizing campaigns is to import various metrics from Google Analytics.Google AdsThese include, for example, the average session duration and the bounce rate. Keywords or ads with a short session duration and a high bounce rate may indicate that the user did not find what they were looking for. Based on the insights gained, you can optimize the landing page for your AdWords.

12. Deviate from Google's best practices

Google provides numerous instructions and best practices designed to contribute to optimal campaign performance.

In general, it makes sense to take note of and orient oneself to the best practices defined by Google. However, it is often clever to deviate from these and instead define your own best practices for individual accounts.

For example, Google advises to advertise the entire product range of an online shop with a single Smart Shopping or Performance Max campaign. However, in the case of different profitability targets depending on product category or brand, it may be advantageous to split the assortment into different campaigns with different budgets and bid settings.

Helpful tools to optimize Google Ads

There are numerous tools that can make your work easier or help you improve the performance of your ads. You will find reviews of individual software in the Google AdsOMR Reviews Category Search Engine Advertising (SEA).

In addition to the two tools mentioned here, we also have a practical overview of the best SEA tools.

Google Ads Keyword Planner

The Keyword Planner in Google Ads is a tool that can help you find relevant keywords for your campaigns. It gives you the respective search volume and the CPCs. With it, you can optimize your Google Ads keywords.

Channable

With Channable you can process your product feed for shopping ads in between. You can then adjust and optimize the individual data fields before uploading the product feed to the Merchant Center. This enables you to optimize the product titles or add necessary fields that the export from your shop does not yet contain. In addition, with Channable you can even let search ads be generated automatically on the basis of the product data in the feed.

Conclusion on Google Ads Optimization

Google Ads is a very helpful tool to direct potential customers to your website or your shop. However, in order to stand out from the mass of ads and achieve satisfactory performance, it is essential to continuously optimize Google Ads. Otherwise, you're leaving potential potential on the street, which ultimately means wasting money and thus demonstrating poor performance.

Fortunately, there are many tools that can help you with your Google Ads work. This way, you save time and can still improve the performance of your campaigns and ads.

At OMR Reviews you will find an overview of numerous tools to optimize your Google Ads. findet Ihr eine Übersicht zahlreicher Tools, um eure Google Ads zu optimieren.