In this lesson, you will learn about different bidding strategies, keyword strategies, campaigns vs ad groups, responsive ads, and ad extensions. Finally, you will have the opportunity to practice what you have learned.
Learning objectives for students
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Understand the different bidding strategies available in Google Ads
- Create keyword strategies that align with their business goals
- Create campaigns and ad groups that are well organised and easy to manage
- Identify responsive ads and create ad extensions
1. Introducing the different bidding strategies
Below are the five Smart Bidding strategies you can use.
- Target cost-per-action (CPA): If you want to improve your conversions, you may target a certain cost-per-action (CPA) and use target CPA to assist optimisation for conversions.
- Target return on ad spend (ROAS): You can use target ROAS to assist boost conversion values while restricting ad spend ROAS if you want to optimise for conversion value.
- Maximise conversions: If you just want to focus on conversions but don't have a budget cap, Maximise conversions is an option.
- Maximise conversion value: If you want to get the most value from your ads but don't want to spend more than what you have in your budget, you can set a maximise conversion value.
- Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC): ECPC is a bidding strategy that you may use to automatically alter your manual bids in order to increase conversions. It's an optional tool for CPC bidding that you can enable if you want to optimise conversions manually.
Focus on clicks with CPC bidding
There are two cost-per-click bid methods to consider if you're focused on increasing the number of visitors to your website in order to increase traffic:
- Maximise clicks: This is an automated bid strategy. It's the most straightforward approach to bid for clicks. All you have to do is establish a daily budget, and the Google Ads system will take care of your bids so you can receive as many clicks as possible within your constraints.
- Manual CPC bidding: This feature allows you to manage your maximum CPC bids yourself. You may establish distinct bids for each ad group, as well as individual keywords or targeting locations. If you've determined that certain terms or placements are more profitable, you can utilise manual bidding to allocate a larger proportion of your advertising budget to those keywords or locations.
Focus on visibility
If you want to concentrate on getting your site discovered, here are a few bid strategies that might help you get more exposure:
- Target impression share: This automatically sets bids to display your ad at the top of the page or anywhere on the Google search results page.
- CPM: You'll pay for each impression of your advertising on YouTube or the Google Display Network, depending on how you bid.
- tCPM: The approach you use to bid is called a "tCPM bidding strategy." It optimises bids by maximising the reach of your campaign. You can keep your campaign's average CPM lower or equal to the target you specified (depending on tCPM).
- vCPM: This is a manual bidding strategy that you can use if your ads are intended to boost awareness but not necessarily drive clicks or traffic. It allows you to establish the highest bid amount for each 1,000 viewable ad impressions on the Google Display Network.
Consider your goals
Each bid strategy is designed for a different kind of campaign and advertising goal. Consider five distinct sorts of goals, as well as your present campaign parameters, when determining which bid strategy to use.
- Conversion tracking can be useful, but it's best to focus on conversions if you want consumers to take a direct action on your site. If that's the case, Smart Bidding is ideal.
- If you want to boost your website's traffic, paying attention to clicks may be the way to go. For your campaign, CPC bidding might be a good fit.
- If you want to raise brand awareness, focusing on impressions may be a good option. You may use cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (vCPM) bidding to get your message in front of consumers.
- You may choose to use cost-per-view (CPV) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) bidding if you're running video advertisements and want to improve the number of views or interactions your ads receive.
- You can employ cost per view (CPV) if you run video advertisements and your aim is to raise customer or brand consideration.
2. Campaigns vs Ad Groups
In Google Ads, a campaign is a collection of ad groups. An ad group contains one or more ads, and each ad belongs to one and only one ad group.
When you create a campaign, you'll need to decide on some high-level settings. These include the campaign's name and type and the bid strategy that you want to use. You can also set a daily or lifetime budget for your campaign. All these settings will apply to all the ad groups in your campaign.
Ad groups are where you'll create and manage your ads. Each ad group has its own name and contains one or more ads. You can also set a default bid for all the keywords in an ad group. This default bid will be used unless you've set a different bid for a particular keyword.
3. Keyword strategy
A keyword strategy is important for any marketer because it helps focus on which keywords to target and how much to bid on them. There are three main parts of a keyword strategy:
1. Targeting the right keywords: To show your ad to the right people, you'll need to target the right keywords. This means finding the right balance between too many and too few keywords. If you target too many keywords, your ad may be shown to people who are not interested in what you're selling. On the other hand, if you don't target enough keywords, you may miss out on potential customers.
Tip: The rule of thumb is that an ad group must contain at least three keywords, with no more than ten keywords.
2. Bidding on the right keywords: If using manual CPC you'll need to bid on them. The amount you bid will determine how often your ad is shown. If you bid too high, you may end up spending a lot of money without getting any results. On the other hand, if you bid too low, your ad may not be shown at all.
Tip: Start with maximising clicks and a daily budget of $10 or $20, and run your campaign for seven days. This will allow you to evaluate the true cost per click and determine whether or not a higher bidding strategy such as Target cost-per-action (CPA) is appropriate.
3. Using the right match type: There are three different keyword match types: broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. You'll need to choose the right match type for your campaign to get the results you want.
Broad match: this is a type of keyword match that tells Google Ads to show your ad to people who are looking for a wide range of related terms. This is the default match type, and it's generally best to use it when you're not sure what keywords your customers are using.
An example of a broad match keyword would be "Nike shoes." This keyword would match to ads for any queries related to Nike shoes, such as "running shoes," "jogging shoes," or "nike running shoes."
Phrase match: this is a type of keyword that tells Google Ads to show your ad to people who are looking for similar terms. It's best to use this type when you want to control what ads your customers are going to see.
An example of a phrase match keyword would be "Nike shoes." This keyword would match to ads for any queries related to Nike shoes, such as "buy Nike shoes," "Nike shoe sale," or "Nike shoes for women."
Exact match: this is a type of keyword that tells Google Ads to show your ad to people who are looking for the same term. It's best to use this type when you know what keywords your customers are using.
An example of an exact match keyword would be "Nike shoes." This keyword would only match ads for people who are looking for the exact term "Nike shoes."
As a rule of thumb, start with a phrase match. You may modify your keywords to a broad match if you need more impressions. However, remember to check your search terms every week, as we demonstrated in lesson 1.
4. Responsive Search Ads
Expanded text ads are retiring on June 30, 2022.
A responsive search ad is an ad that can show different headlines, descriptions, and final URLs to people, depending on which devices they are using. This makes your ads more relevant to people, which can lead to better results.
Google Ads creates responsive search ads automatically based on the data it has about your campaign. However, you may want to create your responsive search ads to have more control over what is shown.
When writing a responsive search ad you can write up to 15 different headlines and up to 4 different descriptions. Collectively, those headlines and descriptions can be arranged in 43,680 different permutations, which means the ad testing possibilities are nearly endless!
Google’s responsive search ads can show up to three 30-character headlines, a display URL with two 15-character path fields, and up to two 90-character description fields.
To create a responsive search ad, go to the "Ads & Extensions" tab and click on the "+" button. Then, select "Responsive Search Ad."
5. Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are special features that you can add to your ads to make them more relevant and useful to people. There are many different types of ad extensions, such as callout extensions, site link extensions, location extensions, and more.
You can find ad extensions under the "Ads & Extensions" tab. To add an ad extension, click on the "+" button and select the type of extension you want to add.
Some common ad extensions are:
Location extensions: add your business address and phone number to your ad so people can easily find you.
Callout extensions: add extra text to your ad to highlight special features or services that you offer.
Sitelink extensions: add links to specific pages on your website so people can go directly to the page they're looking for.
Structured snippet extensions: add extra information about your business, such as your products or services, so people can learn more about what you offer.
Key with ad extensions to add after you have 48 hours after you have started the initial campaign and ensure everything else is working.
Practice Session
Google Ads Practice Sessions! In these lessons, you will write the ad headlines and descriptions for the keywords you have selected. Click here to download the exercise Google sheet CM - Responsive Search Ad Exercise
1. Select a webpage
Choose a product or service page from your website (not the homepage).
2. Determine your budget
What is the total amount you want to spend on theatre bills this month? Divide this number by 30 and you'll have your daily budget. If you're not sure, start with a $10 or $20 daily budget.
3. Select your keywords
Go into the Google Ads account and select the Keyword Planning tool.
Select the option to "start with a website" and enter the webpage, then select "Discover new keywords."
Enter the webpage URL, and select "use only this page" to ensure the language and location are set correctly.
For the lesson, we propose that you choose your entire nation and then click Get Results.
When working with products, your webpage may only return 2 or 3 keywords or no keywords. If this happens, select the higher category.
You will now have a list of hundreds of keywords. Click the Grouped View.
Select 1 ad group of 3 to 10 keywords.
Download the keyword ideas and the keywords in the spreadsheet using the tab Keywords.
5. Create search responsive ads for each ad group
For example, it's now time to write your Responsive Search Ads using the supplied tabs in the spreadsheet.
Write the headline
Here are the categories we suggest, as well as some made-up examples:
- Keyword focused: Free Video Library, Videos for All Channels, Free PPC Videos
- Features: Step-by-Step Tutorials, Learn At Your Own Pace
- Benefits: Improve Ad Performance, Grow Your Business, Save Wasted Budget
- Brand messaging: Paid Marketing Pros
- Social proof: Over 15k Subscribers
- Price comparison: Free to Watch Online
- Advantage over competitors: Watch Ad-Free, No Signup Required
- Calls to action: Get Free Access Today, Join the Email List, Subscribe on YouTube, Download Today
Create as many headlines as you can that are within the categories provided. If your industry demands it, include any additional classifications that make sense.
Write Descriptions
Then, create a similar practice of theme development and content creation for descriptions and include them in your spreadsheet to produce a fully clear ad variety.
Here are some suggestions for writing a good description:
- Do not overly duplicate the language used in headlines. It's just not smart.
- Don't forget to include calls to action in some versions.
- Description 2 won’t always show, so be sure you’re writing copy that isn’t reliant on that variable to make sense.
Here are some sample descriptions for the fictitious advertisement we're creating:
- Best Google Ads services for Brisbane
- Get the best Google Ads agency in Brisbane to achieve high ROI with digital marketing
- Get a free Google Ads review and learn how you can start dominating your competition.
- Boost your business with Google Ads!
- Free Consultation - Get The Most Out Of Your Google Ads
Before the next lesson, email your spreadsheet to your instructor.
Access the CM - Responsive Search Ad Exercise
