Generate High-Quality Leads Using Google Ads

Before learning how to use Google Ads to get conversions, we must understand the platform itself. Thankfully, it’s pretty simple. Enter your business name and your campaign goal, identify your target demographics, pick your keywords, and create your first ad. Then, you’ll just enter payment information and can go live!

You might consider using a “smart campaign,” which puts Google in charge of most of your campaign features. But with a traditional campaign in which you optimize the ads manually, you’ll have more control and can more accurately tailor your strategy and control your spending.

Google Ads campaigns have three main elements: Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Ads.

The Campaign is where you’ll set your budget and your targeting information. The Ad Group is where you can set your keywords for that specific campaign. The Ad section itself is where you’ll create your image, video, or text-based ads to display on Google and its partner sites. Remember, these ads should aim to bring visitors to a landing page on your website.

Keywords can be incredibly helpful in improving both your PPC and SEO performance by bringing in better quality traffic. A keyword is a single word or a short phrase that users enter into a search engine to bring up relevant results. Google lets you do quick and easy keyword research with its Google Keyword Planner.

Google Keyword Planner displays everything from average monthly search volumes and cost-per-clicks, to performance data for different regions or even certain times of the day. You simply need to enter a seed keyword (a one- or two-word key phrase) to be presented with additional keyword suggestions and to see all kinds of helpful metrics.

Those using Google Ads would be remiss not to take advantage of the Keyword Planner. To get here, visit the Google Ads Dashboard, select “Tools and Settings,” and select “Planning.” (Note that you’ll need a high spending ad account to access more granular search volume data, but if you have an active Google account in general, you can still get access to search volume data.)

To make the most out of your campaigns, segment your keywords. Start with lots of keywords and break them into groups according to the ad group you would use them for. This structure, called a taxonomy or hierarchy, lets you create ads that are more relevant to viewers and more cost-effective for you.

First, select your top-level keywords, which broadly represent your business’s products or services. From there, you can create increasingly smaller and more specific groups until you reach the final level. This final level should contain an “orientational term,” which signifies the orientation of the query. Examples include “cost,” “buy,” and “best.”

Finally, don’t forget to optimize every level of your keyword groups. Be sure to check all versions of keywords, including plurals and derivatives, synonyms, and those that fall into multiple groups. As your company grows and your industry changes, be sure to periodically revisit and update your segmentation strategy.

Your PPC ad strategy shouldn’t remain stagnant. As you gain a larger audience, Google will collect data and use it to get you even more clicks. While you’re updating your strategy, keep in mind that there are three main types of bid strategies you can opt for.

Manual CPC Bidding

In this method, you’ll set your own maximum cost-per-click. You can do this either by putting an individual bid for every keyword or by picking a default bid for all your keywords. Manual bidding lets you control your costs, but it can be a lot for new advertisers to keep up with.

Manual CPC bidding allows you to activate Enhanced CPC if you wish. Enhanced CPC is a middle ground between manual and automated bidding, updating your manual bids for you if there’s a greater or lesser chance of a click turning into a conversion. You’ll get more value out of your budget this way since you won’t be investing as much in clicks that are less promising.

Automated CPC Bidding

Automated CPC bidding, or “Maximize Clicks” on Google Ads, lets you specify your CPC within your given budget and attempts to get you as many clicks as possible. You can also set a maximum budget that Google will not exceed. If you don’t set a limit, Google Ads will use your budget to determine your CPC. Google Ads also has a Target Spend feature that lets you note how much you want to spend every day.

Automated CPA Bidding

“Maximize Conversions,” or automated CPA bidding, is another option. Google will set your bids for you and will try to get the most conversions possible for that amount. You also have the option to set a target CPA (cost-per-acquisition) based on how much you’re willing to spend to acquire a lead.

Similarly, “Target CPA” will also try to get as many conversions as possible. However, the difference here is that you’ll need to specify how much you want to spend for every conversion.

Google uses keywords to match users’ queries with relevant ads. So, having different keyword match types lets you determine how closely a user’s search must match your keyword to get your ad in front of them.

The “Broad Match” type lets your ad appear on searches related to a keyword (but perhaps not containing the actual keyword) or a section of a key phrase. While this match type can open you up to a lot of traffic potential and save time researching keywords, it may also bring irrelevant visitors to your site and eat up your budget quickly.

The “Phrase Match” type ensures that your ads only appear for users who enter the exact key phrase you’re bidding on, even if other words are entered in the search. Your ad will get in front of potential buyers who are already interested in your product or service.

Finally, the “Exact Match” type only puts your ads in front of users that enter the exact keyword or key phrase you’re bidding for. If any other words are entered in the search query, your ad won’t appear. (Note that Google has since removed the Exact Match keyword option however this is still available on Bing Ads).

Consider assigning different match types to different ad groups. That way, you can test and see what strategy works best for your company, and you can target your ads more efficiently and effectively.

Google Ad Extensions essentially provide free space to offer additional information about your company, like your locations, contact information, sitelink extensions, and more. Using relevant extensions can improve your click-through rate in two ways: users are given more useful information, and your ads will get more visibility in Google SERPs.

Google Ads can analyze a user’s search query and decide which extensions to provide them. If a user is given too much information at once, your ad might come off as confusing or busy, thus turning them off. For instance, if a user enters a query with the phrase “near me,” they’ll be shown the location extension and address nearest to their location.

Ad campaigns can include both manual and automated extensions. As you can probably guess, manual extensions have to be added yourself, while automatic extensions are created and shown by Google without the need for your input.

Your ad campaign does the job of getting users to your site; however, those clicks are useless if you don’t have a well-optimized site that converts users.

Your landing page is the place where you try to convince your audience to follow through with a purchase or an action such as submitting a contact form or calling your business. So, ensure that your landing page is properly optimized for its target audience. If you have multiple ad groups targeting different products and services, you’ll need unique landing pages for each.

In addition to adding headings and utilizing keywords, you can optimize your landing pages by making sure they’re mobile-friendly and don’t use too many fields on the contact forms.

Heat mapping software like Hotjar can also help you track your landing page’s performance by highlighting where users drop off and how they engage with your pages. You might also consider call tracking which allows you to monitor how many phone calls you receive from the landing page associated with a particular ad.

Remarketing (or “retargeting”) allows you to recapture leads that have gone cold by placing ads in front of users who have previously expressed interest in your site or business. To do this, you can add a script to your website that uses cookies to track users.

Google Ads’ remarketing features let you target ads specifically to those who have visited your website before. Remarketing campaigns can also target specific behaviors, like those who leave your website with items in their cart but don’t follow through with a purchase.

Just like with traditional Google Ads campaigns, you can use automatic bidding with your remarketing campaigns as a hands-off way to see results.

Standard remarketing gets users to return to your website, while dynamic remarketing shows them a product or service that they’ve viewed before on your site. Either way, you’ll be getting valuable campaign data that reveals the most successful aspects of your marketing efforts.

If you already use a CRM like GetResponse or HubSpot, you can connect it to your Google Ads account. You can combine these two tools to automatically put your cold leads into email marketing funnels. Then, you’ll be able to easily follow-up with these users sending out targeted offers and email reminders about sales, abandoned carts, and more.

Automating your emails is one of the best ways to reduce your workload and free up hours of your time each week. CRM programs automatically send messages to users based on their behavior, giving you the best chance at increasing your conversion rate. Best of all, you no longer need to work to build relationships with each and every customer.

HubSpot and GetResponse are two popular CRM automation services, but they’re far from your only options. There are CRMs available for any budget and with a wide range of features. If you’re not yet using a CRM and are considering it, make sure you can link your Google Ads account and website to the email automation service within the CRM in question.

These tips can help you see a significant increase in your conversion rates with Google Ads. But it’s okay to feel overwhelmed or discouraged. You might be new to the platform and need a full rundown of its features, or you may be interested in relearning the platform after being away from it for a while. Either way, you don’t have to navigate Google Ads alone!

OneClick Media Group offers the expertise and insight you need to make the most of lead generation with Google Ads. We can help you create a customized plan to meet your goals, all while maximizing your time and keeping you under budget. Contact OneClick Media Group today to learn more!