Four Google Ads Management Tips That Will Boost Your ROI

Are you dissatisfied with your Google Ads ROI, but don't have a ton of time to manage and optimize your ad campaigns? If so, these four proven and practical Google Ads management tips below will help you boost conversions, stop wasted ad spend, and boost your Google Ads return on investment.

1. Setup Conversion Tracking Correctly

This is arguably the most important step in your Google Ads management process, but unfortunately one of the most overlooked. If you want to be able to track your return on investment - and understand what keywords and audiences are really driving revenue - you must use the Google Ads conversion tracking script. First, you need to know what type of conversion (goal) you are going for. What online action do you want visitors to take? Some conversions you can track with Google Ads include:

To setup your Google Ads conversion tracking pixel, sign into your Google Ads dashboard and follow these steps:

1. Click Tools at the top of the page, then click Conversions.
2. Click + Conversion, and you'll see step-by-step instructions, depending on your conversion goal (see screenshot above).
3. After you've installed your Google Ads conversion tracking pixel, check the Conversions page 24 hours later (Tools > Conversions) to make sure that your conversion tracking pixel is working properly.

You should also connect Google Analytics and Google Search Console with your Google Ads account, so that it can have extra data to report on - data that will help you improve your Google Ads ROI. In addition to using the Google Ads conversion tracking pixel, we also recommend you improve and track your Google Ads conversions using call tracking software (we use and recommend CallFire) and live chat software (we use and recommend Zopim). This will help you track conversions when people come to your landing page(s), and choose to call or chat with your company instead of purchasing or filling out your form. I once talked with an eCommerce store owner who closed a $250,000 deal over live chat. (Crazy, I know!) It's important that you allow your customers to engage with your business in the way they feel comfortable, and that you're closing the loop on all advertising channels.

2. Set Up Automated Rules (And a Shared Budget) To Control Your Ad Spend

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship." If you're not looking at your pay-per-click (PPC) dashboards daily - and if you're not working to optimize your ad campaigns - small PPC clicks can drain your wallet fast. This is where Google Ads's automated rules can help you stop wasted ad spend. With automated rules, you can automatically pause specific campaigns once they reach a specific spend amount. For example, let's say you don't want to spend more than $3,500 on Google Ads this month, and you currently have 10 campaigns running in your Google Ads account. You can select all the campaigns and apply an automated rule to them, telling Google Ads to pause your campaigns once the total ad spend reaches $3,500. To setup a Google Ads automated rule to control your budget, login to your Google Ads dashboard and follow these steps:

1. Click Campaigns at the top of the page and make sure the Campaigns sub-tab is selected.
2. Select all your campaigns (or specific ones) then click Automate > Pause Campaigns When...
3. Set your settings for your automated rule. (I usually pause the campaigns when cost is just under the total monthly budget. That way, your ad spend doesn't exceed your budget before the automated rule runs.)
4. Preview results, and make sure everything is working correctly.
5. Click Save.

A second option you can implement to control your ad spend - in addition to Google Ads's automated rules - is setting up a shared budget. Instead of having an individual budget for each campaign, you can have one budget shared across various campaigns. To create and use a shared budget in Google Ads, login to your Google Ads dashboard and follow these steps:

1. Click on the Campaigns tab at the top.
2. On the lefthand side, click on Shared Library and click Budgets underneath it. (See screenshot below for example.)
3. Click + Budget to create your shared budget and apply it to the campaigns of your choosing.

3. Set Up Your Google Ads Remarketing Tag ASAP

Have you ever been browsing on one website, and then seen an ad for that same product/business while browsing on a different website? That's called retargeting or "remarketing." If done right, it can be an effective advertising channel for your company. With Google Ads, you can retarget the following audiences:

• Website and landing page visitors
• Customer email addresses
• Mobile app users
• YouTube users

In order to start retargeting people who visit your website and landing pages, you need to be "tagging" your website and landing page visitors. To do that, you need to use the Google Ads remarketing tag: a simple snippet of JavaScript that you copy/paste right before the closing </body> tag of the page(s) you want to track. To setup your Google Ads remarketing tag on your website or landing page, sign in to your Google Ads dashboard and follow these steps:

1. Click Shared Library on the lefthand side, and then click Audiences.
2. Click Set Up Remarketing and follow the step-by-step instructions. (If you're an eCommerce company, make sure you select dynamic remarketing. This will allow you to show specific product ads based on a user's previous shopping history.)
3. Make sure you place the JavaScript code on all the webpages you want to track, right before the </body> tag. (If you feel uneasy getting into the code, Google will give you instructions to email so that your web developer can install the code for you.)
4. Recommended: Connect your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account, so that you can have more data to work with.

Remember: Be sure to check back in 24 hours, to make sure that your remarketing tag is installed correctly. If it is, you should see this:

Once your tag is installed correctly, you can begin running display and search remarketing campaigns.If you need further guidance along the way, here's a helpful article on remarketing from Google.

4. Do These 5 Things Once a Week

If you're managing your company's Google Ads and are strapped for time, here's a weekly Google Ads management process you can follow to keep Google Ads performance strong. This weekly process will help you avoid wasted ad spend, increase conversions, and boost your overall return on investment from Google Ads. Every week, spend 30-60 minutes doing the following:

1. Check and track your return on investment. We use and recommend a simple Excel spreadsheet, so that you can format the data as necessary and add conversions that occur through another means (such as: advertising source on checkout, call tracking, and live chat).
2. Check your settings & fix any account issues: Keyword conflicts, disapproved ads, billing problems, conversion tracking, and remarketing tag. All should be checked weekly to make sure everything is running smoothly in your Google Ads account, and that there aren't any problems in your account.
3. Check search terms report and add/adjust keyword match types: Utilizing keyword match types allows you to control what search terms your ads show for. If you see a common string of words generating a lot of conversions, utilize the best keyword match type to maximize conversions.
4. Check search terms report, add negative keywords as needed: Negative keywords tell Google what words and phrases you don't want your ads showing for.
5. A/B test your ads: Make sure each ad group has at least two ads being A/B tested at all times. After your ads have gained enough impressions and data, pause poor performing ones and test new copy/images/sitelinks/etc. to see what boosts click-through-rates and conversions.

This may seem like a lot of time, but if it helps you generate more leads and sales, isn't the time (and money) well invested? You don't want to be running Google Ads for your company and have no idea what's going on. This leads to wasted money and a poor return on investment.

Conclusion

Google Ads is an incredibly profitable and effective digital marketing channel. We know that the above four Google Ads management tips work well - and that they dramatically boost your Google Ads return on investment - because we use them in our own business and for our clients. Are you ready to start skyrocketing your revenue and ascending the search engines? Get a FREE proposal today!