Whether you are a seasoned marketeer or just getting started with Google Ads, we have built a guide on how to build compelling ads and get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns. We cover the importance of understanding the structure of each ad type, including character limits and Google’s machine learning. We also cover our process in discovering words that sell and our experimentation techniques to find optimal performance within your campaign.
What Are Google Ads?
Ads are a paid form of communication, usually with a goal of promoting or raising awareness of a product or service. They can be a great solution for businesses wanting to reach a specific audience and persuade them to take a desired action, also known as a conversion, such as submitting a lead or making a purchase.
In particular, Google Ads run on the google network and come in a variety of formats. They have proven to be a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes looking to connect with potential customers who are actively searching for what they offer. These ads come in a variety of formats, including Search Ads, Display Ads and Shopping Ads, as well as many others, all designed for meeting different marketing objectives and reaching audiences at different stages of the online user journey. These ads all link to different campaign types, with one of the most commonly used being search, which is detailed below.
Search Campaigns
Search campaigns make up a key part of most Google Ads strategies, helping to connect businesses with highly engaged audiences. This campaign type focuses on text-based ads that appear on Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and are shown based on the keywords that a user searches for. Their power and popularity is reliant on the fact that they can hone in on user intent, showing up in the right place, at the right time for the audience to be searching a relevant query.
Within this campaign type, there are two main ads; Responsive Search Ads and Dynamic Search Ads.
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
RSAs are a flexible ad format that allow you to create ads with more assets, showing relevant messaging to your audience. With these ads you can provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Google will then use machine learning to test different combinations of these assets and will match the assets with the most potential to users based on a number of different signals, including search query and device.
Key Characteristics:
- Multiple Assets – highlight different aspects of your business, add calls to action and target separate keywords with multiple assets
- Automated Testing – Google’s machine learning tests asset combinations to determine which perform best
- Improved Performance – reaching the audience with relevant combinations can lead to improved click-through rates
- Time Saving – automate testing of assets whilst leaving an option
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs)
Instead of relying on keywords, DSAs use the content of your website to target relevant search queries. When you give Google a specific landing page, it crawls it, indexes it and then automatically shows ads to users who are searching for things that are closely related to the content on your website.
Key Characteristics:
- Website-based targeting – targets searches that are closely related to the content on your website.
- Dynamically generate headlines – Google will automatically generate headlines based on the content on your website and the user’s search query
- Landing Page Selection – Google will select the most relevant landing page for the user to land on, based on what they are searching for
- Discover new keywords – DSAs can help you to find new keywords to target within your keyword-based search campaigns
Words That Sell
Your ad copy is your digital storefront window and sales team rolled into one. In a crowded search results page, the words you choose are critical for grabbing the searchers attention and persuading potential customers to click. Bland, generic ad copy gets ignored and powerful, targeted copy gets results.
So, what makes the words “sell” in Google Ads?
- Mirror users’ intent: Your ad should mirror what the user has searched for, using relevant keywords naturally in your ads. If someone is searching for “emergency plumbing near me” having an ad that reads “Fast Local Emergency Plumber” as this will immediately signal relevance.
- Focus on benefits, rather than features: People buy into the benefits rather than the features. Will it save time? Will it save them money?
- Feature: “Waterproof” > Benefit: “Keeps you dry in a downpour”
- Feature: “24/7 Customer Support” > Benefit: “Get help, any day, any time”
- Feature: “Saves time” > Benefit: “Do more in less time”
- Incorporate numbers: A user will be more likely to click through on an add if there is a specific figure rather than a generalised quantity
- Use “50% off sale” over “Big Savings”
- “Over 5,000 happy customers” adds social proofing to your ads
- “Get a quote in only 2 minutes” adds ease and convenience
- Create a sense of urgency: Encourage immediate action by creating urgency in your ads
- “Limited time deal”
- “Only 3 spots left”
- “Offer ends in 5 days” Utilise Google’s COUNTDOWN function to have a dynamic
- Call to action (CTA): Guide the user to what you want them to do next.
- Common CTAs: Shop Now, Contact Us, Enquire Today
- Be creative and offer something if you can: Get Your Free Consultation, Download Our Free Guide
- To ensure strong ad rank, it is important to match the CTA to the landing page – unsuccessfully doing this may, in turn increase your cost-per-click.
Optimising Your Ads: Measure, Test, Improve
Google Ads is not a set it up and forget, although this may seem to yield results, you will also find that you will be underperforming too. To truly maximise the performance of your Google Ads campaigns, you need to continuously optimise your ads based on performance data. This means understanding what’s working and what isn’t.
Evaluating Ad Performance: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
You cannot improve what you cannot measure. Regularly review these following metrics within Google Ads to help understand how your ad copy is performing:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): This is a primary indicator of ad relevance and how well your written copy grabs the attention of the user. A low CTR might suggest your headlines or descriptions are not matching the users search intent well enough.
- Conversion Rate: This measures how often a click leads to your desired action or “Primary Conversion” (e.g. Purchase, Lead, Call). A high CTR with a low conversion rate could often suggest a disconnect between your ad and your offer.
- Cost per Conversion / Acquisition (CPA): This will tell you, how much, on average you are paying for each conversion. The aim of optimisation is to decrease this figure whilst maintaining or increasing volume.
- Quality Score: Google’s rating (1-10) of your ad quality based on a number of measurable metrics. Expected CTR, Ad Relevance (to keywords) and Landing Page Experience. These are often good indicators to how you can improve your ads and also a low rating here can result in a much more expensive Google Ads experience with CPC driving up with lower relevancy.
The Testing Process
A/B testing is the process of running variations of an ad simultaneously to see which performs better against your specific goals. It will take the guesswork out of optimisation.
It’s important to know that your Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) will inherently perform regular testing. The ads will automatically mix and match the various headlines and descriptions that you provide, learning over time which combinations perform best.
However, deliberate testing allows for more controlled experiments on specific elements or comparing entirely different ad concepts: You may test:
- Two different RSAs against each other (eg one focused on discounts vs another of features)
- Specific pinned headlines or description within an RSA (if you need certain messages to always show)
- Test RSAs with all headlines and Descriptions filled out vs the bare minimum
Use the main KPIs to evaluate the performance of your experiments and use your learnings within one area to expand across your various campaigns.
Learn more about our Google Ads Management services and how we can help you boost your sales and enquiries while keeping your advertising costs down.
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