Google Adwords, presently known as Google Ads, is one of the most popular forms of paid advertising for businesses with an online presence. Easy to use by beginners and versatile enough to handle ads campaigns made by professional digital marketers, Google Ads is a must-have in your marketing toolbox.
But how do you get better conversion rates in Google Ads? It’s not easy to find out what the underperforming element in your campaigns is, but the ideas below usually do the trick.
Here’s what to check for and what to do to increase your conversion rate.
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Track Your Performance
Being aware of how your ads are performing is a must. You can’t go in blind and hope for the best. You should always keep an eye on the conversion tracking tool included in the Google Ads platform to see how your PPC campaign is performing.
Only by measuring the performance of your PPC ad you can maximise the outcome of your campaigns. The variables you should look into are impression rates, CTR (click-through rates,) conversion rates, and so on.
Use Negative Keywords
A good way of targeting your ads more effectively is to use negative keywords. This means giving Google Ads a keyword list that it should eliminate when distributing your ads in the Display or Search Network.
Some of the types of keywords you would want to eliminate are those that are too general, vague, branded searches, or keywords like “free” or directly tied to a location you’re not active in. Use negative keywords to also tell Google what your product is NOT. For example, if you are a real estate company that lends apartments to families, but not students, then you should use negative keywords like “students accommodation” or “cheap apartments for rent.” That way, you ensure that only your target audience clicks on your ad.
Write a Powerful USP in Your Ad Copy
Whenever someone types a query in a search engine, they are overwhelmed with an endless list of results. Of course, consumers don’t want to spend hours browsing through these options but want to learn as quickly as possible what makes one product or brand better than the other.
That’s why your ad copy must contain a powerful unique selling proposition (USP) that tells prospects what makes your business unique or better than the competition.
A powerful USP should be:
- Concrete: Avoid generic statements like “we offer high-quality products.” Tell prospects what exactly makes you different.
- Offer value: A good USP focuses on what the customers need and shows them how your product or service can help them solve their problems.
- Not a marketing promise: While a 30-days guarantee sounds like a compelling offer, it is not a USP, but a marketing offer. An USP should be unique and not something any business can copy and use in their advertising.
Tweak Your Calls to Action
Many small business owners have CTA buttons on their landing pages or emails, but they often forget to include them in their PPC ads. The logic goes: if people are searching for that specific thing, then I don’t need to tell them what they should do next. Only that, by improving your calls to action you can actually get a 148% boost in paid leads.
Here are a few things that you can do to improve your CTAs:
- Be as straightforward as possible and tell prospects what you want them to do;
- Avoid CTAs like “click,” “sign up,” or discover as they don’t drive that much conversion. Use words like “get,” “buy,” and “shop.”
- Create a sense of urgency and make prospects feel like they might be missing out on a great deal if they are not taking action now. Example: “Get Your Free Free 30-Day Trial Now”
Test Your Landing Page
Some of the most common mistakes made by advertisers with Google Ads have to do with how well their landing page matches the message in the ad.
Test your landing page before fully launching your ads, as the conversion rate will be directly impacted by it. The easiest way to test it is through split tests, which means sending two or more versions of an ad element of the same group.
Your landing page probably contains various elements that you can’t predict in terms of performance. Testing thoroughly gives you the best chance to improve your conversion rate.
More than anything, you should always make sure that your ad copy is in line with your landing page. If you promise prospects a 20% discount on a smartphone, but when they click on the ad, they get on your homepage and have to browse through your website to find the offer, then they will most likely leave. You are not only losing potential customers but also driving your cost per click up and wasting your advertising budget.
Use Social Proof
What’s the first thing you do when you are looking for a product or service online?
Most probably, you are looking for customer reviews to see what the people that bought the product you are interested in think about it. Reports show that 9 out of 10 customers read online reviews to determine the quality of a local business and 88% of them trust these reviews as much as personal recommendations.
If you want to improve the conversion rate of your Google ads, then leveraging social proof is one of the most effective ways of doing it.
Can We Help?
Are you looking to increase your conversion rate in Google Ads, but don’t have the time or experience for it? Australian Internet Advertising provides the complete range of digital marketing services that a company needs, from web design and SEO to Google advertising.
Get in touch now and let us help you grow your business.
