PPC Archives | IMSR https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/category/ppc/ Improve My Search Ranking Tue, 05 Dec 2023 11:32:08 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 What is Google Ads relevance, and how to improve it? https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/google-ads-relevance-improve/ Fri, 30 Jul 2021 11:00:56 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=15993 Google Ads is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website, generate MQLs, and increase sales and revenue. However, Google Ads can also be a very expensive advertising channel if you do not know what you are doing. The basic idea is that you bid on relevant keywords and compete with other businesses to […]

The post What is Google Ads relevance, and how to improve it? appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google Ads is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website, generate MQLs, and increase sales and revenue. However, Google Ads can also be a very expensive advertising channel if you do not know what you are doing.

The basic idea is that you bid on relevant keywords and compete with other businesses to get a spot on the top of search engine results pages.

However, the key thing to understand here is that money isn’t the only factor that plays a role in the bidding process. Ad relevance is an equally important factor.

Moreover, if your ad is highly relevant, you will be paying less money than your competitors. That’s why improving Google Ads relevance can be a major differentiator between a failed and a highly successful Google Ads campaign.

In this blog post, we will discuss more about Google Ads relevance and quality score, and what you can do to improve the quality score and, therefore, reduce the amount you pay for ads.

 

What is the quality score in Google Ads?

Here is how Google defined quality score:

“The Quality Score is Google’s rating of the overall user experience that your ads and landing pages provide when users search for your keyword(s). This is represented on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.“

If you have an active Google Ads account with active campaigns, you can check your Quality Score by looking at the keywords report.

 

Three main components of the Quality Score

 

How Google defines the quality score is the next big question.  The good news is that Google has clearly highlighted the three main components of the Quality Score.

The three major components of the Quality Score are:

  • Ad relevance
  • Landing page experience
  • Expected click-through rate or CTR

By improving one or all of these three factors, you can improve the overall quality score of your ad and reduce the amount you have to pay for each click.

 

How to improve Google Ads quality score

Let’s discuss how to improve Quality Score in Google Ads.  We will categorize the tips for each component.

 

1. How to improve Ad Relevance

As we mentioned earlier, ad relevance is an important factor in Google Ads. For instance, if you have a gardening website and you are showing your ads for keywords such as ‘how to play guitar’, the ad won’t be relevant.  

You will have to pay a lot more money than other more relevant ads, and your ads still likely won’t show because of how irrelevant it is.

To increase ad relevance:

  • Make sure that your ads are built around a theme.
  • Use relevant keywords in your ad — headline, body, and display path fields — to ensure relevance and consistency.
  • Do not just copy and paste your ads from other campaigns without making important changes to make your ads relevant for this ad group.
  • Make sure the ads match the searcher intent of the keywords.
  • Divide your ads into multiple ad groups.  Then tailor customized, keyword-rich ads for each ad group.

 

2. How to improve the landing page experience

Having an excellent ad is just the start — not the end.

An ad only brings a potential customer to your website. After that, it is up to the landing page to convert a potential lead into a paying customer.

That’s why the landing page that receives traffic should offer a good experience. If the landing page experience is not good enough, it will affect conversions and the overall quality score.

To improve the landing page experience:

  • Use the same keywords and phrases you used in the ad copy.
  • Simplify the navigation experience
  • Improve the landing page performance and loading speed. You can use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
  • Make sure the pages are mobile friendly.

 

3. How to improve the expected CTR

This one is more tricky to get right because this component refers to the expected CTR — not the actual CTR.

The expected CTR is estimated based on how a particular keyword performs in your Google Ads account vs. how it performs in other advertisers’ accounts.

To ensure a high expected CTR:

  • Expand your negative keyword list and prevent irrelevant queries from triggering your ads.
  • Make sure that the ad copy and the keywords are closely aligned.
  • Make sure that each ad matches the keyword group it is for.
  • Divide your ads into multiple, highly targeted ad groups.
  • Pause or delete keywords and ads with extremely low expected CTR.

 

Conclusion

Improving ad quality score is extremely important for a successful Google Ads campaign. Use historical quality score data to monitor any improvements you make.

The post What is Google Ads relevance, and how to improve it? appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
5 reasons why your PPC leads may not be converting https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/5-reasons-ppc-leads-may-not-converting/ Tue, 27 Oct 2020 09:00:50 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=13857 Running PPC campaigns is an effective way to drive instant traffic and potential leads. When it all clicks, PPC campaigns can be extremely profitable and beneficial for most businesses. However, there are many potential issues you can come across when running a PPC campaign. One of the big ones is when your PPC leads do […]

The post 5 reasons why your PPC leads may not be converting appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Running PPC campaigns is an effective way to drive instant traffic and potential leads. When it all clicks, PPC campaigns can be extremely profitable and beneficial for most businesses.
However, there are many potential issues you can come across when running a PPC campaign. One of the big ones is when your PPC leads do not convert.
In this article, we highlight a few reasons why your PPC leads may not be converting and what you can do to resolve that problem.

1. Irrelevant traffic and low-quality leads

One of the most common reasons for a low conversion rate is low-quality and irrelevant traffic from paid search ads. The problem usually arises when you are specifically on high-volume keywords and keyword phrases.
The good news is that you can easily identify this problem with a little investigation.
Analyze your PPC campaigns and shortlist the keywords that drive the most PPC traffic to your landing pages. Once shortlisted, ask yourself if these keywords are too broad, irrelevant to your target audience, products, and services, and whether they represent the right search intent or not.
Many times, tightening your keyword lists can weed out irrelevant traffic and improve the quality of leads.

2. Confused messaging

There should be complete synchronization and synergy in your PPC campaign: from the ad to the landing page copy to the messaging your sales team uses to qualify leads.
Otherwise, you are bound to get fewer leads and many low-quality leads that won’t convert.
If you are constantly getting less-than-average conversion rates, it would be a good idea to revisit your funnel and messaging from start to finish.

3. Budget issues

How competitively priced are your product and services?
Budget issues are one of the most common reasons why many leads often fail to qualify for the next stage. People may want your product and service, but they may not always have the budget to afford it.
It is especially true in times like these when people aren’t willing to spend a lot of money on things, other than absolute necessities. The overall economic conditions matter, in addition to how your competitors price their products and services.
You can investigate this by asking your sales team to note down the disqualification reason.
Moreover, these leads may be approached later when the financial situation improves or if you announce a heavy discount on your products.

4. A long sales cycle

What is your average sales cycle timeline?
It is important that you are fully aware of your sales cycle timeline before you proceed. Moreover, it must not be based on assumptions, but on actual data.
Sometimes — depending on the product, audience, and industry — a sales cycle can last up to several weeks. For some companies, it may take even a couple of months.
In that case, it is possible that your company won’t see any results until the end of that sales cycle period.
If a client or your boss wants to see results in only a couple of weeks, that wouldn’t be a possibility. If you have actual data on the average sales cycle, you will be able to make your case more effectively.
The key is to set realistic expectations — based on actual data, not assumptions — and then modify your strategy, if needed.

Investigate and improve

Generating traffic from PPC ads isn’t always the trickiest part. You select a bunch of keywords and throw some money on it, and boom. You start getting traffic to your website.
However, converting those traffic visitors into qualified leads and, later, paying customers, can be way more tricky and complex.
If you see unreasonably low conversion rates, try the tips and tricks we highlighted in this article. If this doesn’t work, consider a deep-dive investigation with the help of your sales team.
Identify the exact disqualification reasons, put them in a pie chart, and identify the top three biggest reasons. Then tweak your strategy accordingly to make sure you address those problems.

The post 5 reasons why your PPC leads may not be converting appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google to show less search term query data to Google Ads advertisers https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/google-show-less-search-term-query-data-google-ads-advertisers/ Mon, 14 Sep 2020 09:20:39 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=13532 Google recently slipped an update that will likely irk most Google Ads advertisers and SEMs. According to this update, Google will show less search term query data and will instead only show the terms that were searched by a lot of people. Here is what a notification by Google said: “We are updating the search […]

The post Google to show less search term query data to Google Ads advertisers appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google recently slipped an update that will likely irk most Google Ads advertisers and SEMs.

According to this update, Google will show less search term query data and will instead only show the terms that were searched by a lot of people.

Here is what a notification by Google said:

“We are updating the search terms report to only include terms that were searched by a significant number of users.  As a result, you may see fewer terms in your report going forward.”

Its impact on how SEMs optimize their campaigns and keep everything more cost-effective is quite significant.

When Google says the new search term report will only include “terms that were searched by a significant number of users”, it is sort of pointless. Because most of the clicks are relevant anyway. It is the outliers — a smaller number of people — who bring irrelevant clicks.

And that’s what you need to add to your negative keyword lists. By taking away this ability, advertisers will end up spending more money on irrelevant clicks.

As a result, we may see:

  • Lower conversion rates
  • Increase cost per conversion

Moreover, this will be most damaging for SEMs and digital advertisers who are in industries with very high cost per click (CPC). These industries include transportation, legal, tech, doctor, local services, etc.

Seer Interactive recently analyzed their account and saw that as much as 28 percent of their search terms have been removed by Google — which is quite significant and not ideal for advertisers at all.

According to their analysis:

  • Prior to the update by Google, 100,000 clicks got them search term data for 98,300 clicks.
  • After the update, they see search term data for 77,900 for 100,000 clicks.

Approximately $27,000 worth of search term data (for a $100,000 spend) is gone from their account.

And people are very concerned.

What’s next?

Going forward, this is something that you will have to account for making PPC reports for your company or clients. 

It would also be a good idea to explain this change to your boss or client. An explanation might help clarify the higher cost per conversion or lower conversion rate that you may see in the near future.

The post Google to show less search term query data to Google Ads advertisers appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
5 simple Google Display Network (GDN) tips for digital marketers https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/5-simple-google-display-network-gdn-tips-digital-marketers/ Wed, 29 Jul 2020 14:55:45 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=13160 Google Ads allows digital marketers to run two types of ads: Search Network ads that appear on the search engine results pages whenever someone searches for relevant keywords. Google Display Networks that display text and image ads on websites across the internet. And although the focus is almost always on Google Search Network, the Google […]

The post 5 simple Google Display Network (GDN) tips for digital marketers appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google Ads allows digital marketers to run two types of ads:

  • Search Network ads that appear on the search engine results pages whenever someone searches for relevant keywords.
  • Google Display Networks that display text and image ads on websites across the internet.

And although the focus is almost always on Google Search Network, the Google Display Network is also an excellent tool for creating brand awareness and increasing conversions & ROI.

Here are five simple Google Display Network tips for digital marketers to get started with Google display ads.

1. Use Google Display Network for remarketing ads

Although you can use search ads for remarketing, Google Display Network ads sometimes perform better than search ads when it comes to brand awareness, brand recognition, and bringing people back to your site.

Remarketing allows you to follow people who visited your website — or certain pages on your site — and display targeted ads.

For example, if someone put items in the shopping cart and later abandoned the cart, you can display a GDN ad to her that offers free shipping or a limited-time 10% discount.

They were clearly interested in buying the items, but something “surprised” them, and they abandoned the cart.

Remarketing can lead to a much higher conversion rate and amp your ROI significantly. And Google Display Network is often the perfect medium for running remarketing ads.

2. Use managed placements

The Managed Placements feature allows you to direct your ads to certain websites that your potential leads and customers visit most often.

Analysing data and turning them into actionable insights is a key part of digital marketing success. By being more informed and basing your decisions on data with managed placements, you can drive targeted traffic to your site.

For example, if you sell SEO software, like Ahrefs or SEMRush, showing an ad about it on SEO-related blogs would get you more targeted traffic with potentially a higher conversion rate.

3. Don’t forget image ads

It is highly recommended to use all types of ads because it is possible that some websites would only support one format.

Having said that, it is important to reiterate that you must not forget image ads.

Approximately, 67.5 percent of ads on the Google Display Network are plain text ads. This is despite the lower click-through rate these ads get. According to a study, text ads get an average click-through rate of 0.23 percent. On the other hand, image ads get an average CTR of 0.31 percent.

This makes image ads kind of a necessity. Even if you are testing different ads (which you should), we would recommend testing your CTA in an image format for GDN ads.

4. Monitor, tweak, and improve

Just like search ad campaigns, you will have to spend some time collecting important data, monitoring the account for any major and minor changes, and make your tweaking decisions accordingly.

Your Google Display Network campaigns demand and deserve the same kind of love you give to your search ad campaigns.

Set aside some time for reviewing display ads, just like you do for search ads. Instead of adding negative keywords with search, exclude placements with display network campaigns.

When analysing your data, also pay special attention to websites that get you the most traffic. Are those websites relevant? Will they bring you targeted traffic? Are people on those websites expected to spend enough time on your site to become a lead?

Apart from the number of conversions, other metrics such as time-on-site should also be considered.

By looking at everything and spending time analysing data on a regular basis, you can make data-driven decisions to improve display network ads and the ROI you get from it.

5. Set aside some budget for testing

Just like with search ads, you might have to test many different elements and variables before you find that winning formula for your campaigns.

We recommend setting aside 10-20 percent of your total budget for testing.

You can try different ad groups for topics, interests, contextual targeting, managed placements, etc. You can also try different types of ads and different variations of text and image ads for your Google Display Network campaigns.

Conclusion

It is very easy to waste thousands of dollars in Google Network Display ads.  But when done right, it can deliver an excellent ROI for the right campaigns.

Use the tips mentioned in this article to make your display ads campaigns more effective and efficient.

The post 5 simple Google Display Network (GDN) tips for digital marketers appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Branded keywords in SEM: To bid or not to bid https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/branded-keywords-sem-bid-not-bid/ Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:33:53 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=13026 Should you bid on brand terms or not? This is an important question that almost all businesses and search engine marketers think about at least once. If you are already ranking on the #1 spot on Google’s first page for brand keywords (i.e., the name of your business), should you pay to have an ad […]

The post Branded keywords in SEM: To bid or not to bid appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Should you bid on brand terms or not?

This is an important question that almost all businesses and search engine marketers think about at least once.

If you are already ranking on the #1 spot on Google’s first page for brand keywords (i.e., the name of your business), should you pay to have an ad on the top of the SERPs? Even above your website’s organic listing?

CPCs seem to be rising continuously. If brand campaigns are not generating incremental MQLs for your business, why not save that money and invest it somewhere else or perhaps use it to fuel other campaigns?

The answer to this question, however, is not very simple.

 

Brand SEM campaigns: Pros and cons

 

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of what you should do, it is important to take a look at some of the pros and cons of each option.

Pros

 

Here are some benefits of running brand campaigns.

  • You get more real estate on the search engine result page if you have an organic listing as well as an ad at the top of the page.
  • You control the messaging. With organic listings, you cannot always control the sitelinks that appear on the page. With an SEM ad, you can control exactly how your website appears on the page.
  • You get more overall traffic, MQLs, and sales. As we have often noticed, having ads as well as an organic listing on the same page increase traffic and MQLs.
  • You can send the traffic to a different landing page, instead of the homepage.

 

Cons

 

On the other hand, here are some potential disadvantages of bidding for brand terms:

  • If brand campaigns are not driving incremental MQLs and sales, you waste money.
  • You run out of the marketing budget sooner, which means you’re less likely to explore other areas and initiate other marketing campaigns.

 

Should you bid on brand terms?

 

Now that you know some of the big pros and cons of bidding on brand terms, should you do it?

Unfortunately, only you can make that decision.

In our experience, it is usually beneficial to bid on brand terms. However, that may not always be the case.

Therefore, the best solution is to run a brand test and see whether paid campaigns are driving any incremental traffic, leads, and sales.

Running a brand campaign test

 

Here is how you can run that test and determine whether bidding on brand terms is for you or not.

  • Make sure you have a separate brand campaign with only brand keywords in it.
  • Get a sense of how many MQLs you generate on a daily basis via SEM and organic channels.
  • Define the period of your test. A 14-20 day period is usually sufficient, but it depends on how much you’re spending and the number of leads you generate per day.
  • Turn on your brand campaign on day 1, turn it off on day 2, turn it back on day 3, off on day 4, and so on.
  • On each day, make sure to note down the MQLs (or sales) you generated via SEM and organic channels.

 

After a couple of weeks, you should get statistically significant results on whether bidding on paid terms is generating incremental MQLs/sales or not.

On the days you turn off the SEM campaigns, the number of leads should remain more or less the same. Those leads would just be attributed to organic channels. However, if that’s not the case — and if the total number of leads drops significantly on those days — it means you should bid on brand terms.

 

The Reinforcement Effect

 

While the above-mentioned test should give you credible numbers to determine if you should bid on brand terms or not, there is one more test that you can.

The Reinforcement Effect test won’t highlight the incremental MQLs or sales, but it will tell you how having an ad and an organic listing on the same page affects the overall CTR.

  • Make sure your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are connected.
  • Log in to your Google Ads account.
  • Go to Predefined Reports > Paid and Organic.
  • Download the report and export it to Excel or Google Sheet.
  • Add another column to that report and mark whether a keyword is branded or non-branded.
  • Calculate the CTR for branded terms if (1) only organic listings appear on the SERPs, (2) only ads show, and (3) both ads and organic listings appear via pivot table.

 

If you are not sure how to do it, check out this tutorial.

 

Usually, when both the ad and organic listing appear on the same page, the overall CTR increases significantly. But it may vary from business to business and is something that you should test.

The post Branded keywords in SEM: To bid or not to bid appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Paid search remains the most dominant digital advertising channel in 2019 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/paid-search-remains-the-most-dominant-digital-advertising-channel-in-2019/ Thu, 25 Jul 2019 12:00:17 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=9692 A new report by Marin Software shares valuable data on digital advertising in 2019. According to the report, paid search continues to be the dominant digital advertising channel in 2019 with 39% of the total budget spent by online advertisers. Having said that, advertisers are now spending more money on other advertising channels than they […]

The post Paid search remains the most dominant digital advertising channel in 2019 appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
A new report by Marin Software shares valuable data on digital advertising in 2019. According to the report, paid search continues to be the dominant digital advertising channel in 2019 with 39% of the total budget spent by online advertisers.

Having said that, advertisers are now spending more money on other advertising channels than they did in 2018, the report reveals.

According to Marin Software, the report is based on a survey that included more than 450 B2B and B2C digital marketing professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Here are a few interesting insights we learned from the report.

While paid search remains the top channel, paid social is at the second number with an 18 percent share in the advertisers’ budget. This year, 67 percent of advertisers plan to increase their spend on Instagram. This would put the numbers on social even higher.

It is important to note here that the increased spending on Instagram will not come at the cost of spending on other social channels. The greater spending on Instagram will come from an incremental marketing budget, according to the report.

The study also reveals that 60 percent of the surveyed digital advertisers are planning to increase spending on Amazon ads in the next year. Most of them see the platform as a “significant growth opportunity” — especially at increasing the conversion rate at the lower end of the funnel.

The report also revealed that Google remains the most trusted publisher for advertisers with a rating of 98 percent. Google’s new responsive search ads are also a big hit as 84 of the respondents (paid search users) are planning to use it.

In terms of content marketing, 32 percent of the surveyed digital marketing professionals believe that video works best in the social ad format. Images ads came next (26 percent), followed by Instagram Stories (23 percent).

The post Paid search remains the most dominant digital advertising channel in 2019 appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Google Ads to Grow Your Business https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/10-reasons-using-google-ads-grow-business/ Fri, 19 Jul 2019 15:47:16 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=9685 Google Ads is an advertising platform that lets you pay to have your website listed on Google. Known as Google AdWords once upon a time, the advertising platform is a form of PPC (pay per click) that only requires you to pay if someone clicks on your ad; you don’t actually pay simply for your […]

The post 10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Google Ads to Grow Your Business appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google Ads is an advertising platform that lets you pay to have your website listed on Google. Known as Google AdWords once upon a time, the advertising platform is a form of PPC (pay per click) that only requires you to pay if someone clicks on your ad; you don’t actually pay simply for your advert to appear on Google.

Here are 10 reasons why you should consider using Google Ads to promote your website to expand your customer base and generate leads and sales.


1. The ball is in your court

The beauty of Google Ads is that you are entirely in control; if you know what you’re doing, you can decide how much of your time and advertising budget you would like to spend on Google Ads. Whatever the obstacle or problem may be, Google Ads has a solution.

“I have a limited budget”: that’s fine, control the amount you pay for each click and also the total spend per day.

“I’m going on holiday”: not to worry, you can manually pause your advertising whenever you want and then resume when you find the time.

“I am always busy”: okay, you can opt for automatic ad scheduling so that your ads only appear on certain days and/or certain times of the week.


2. Ain’t no mountain high enough (with Google Ads)

If you want to climb to the very top of the search results, Google Ads is the only way to do it. Even if you have SEO (search engine optimisation) under your belt and get to the top of the organic results, there could still be four paid-for listings above you. So if you want to climb that mountain, put your money where your mouth is.


3. 2. 1… Action!

You won’t get any business from your website until people can find it; when you advertise through Google Ads, your ad will generally appear in the search results within a few hours of going live, whereas it can take up to several months to see results from SEO.


4. The Devil is in the detail

When you understand your audience you can tailor your ads based on the searcher’s location, their age, or their gender; if you only want your advertisement to target women in their 30s who are based in Birmingham and want a multi-purpose blender, then you can do it with Google Ads.

So when choosing your keywords, make sure that they’re relevant to your campaign and that you have the correct keyword match type.


5. You Have the Green Light

According to a 2019 survey, if you want to increase traffic to your website, Google Ads is the perfect platform. The survey went on to clarify that 63% of people said they would click on an advert on Google.


6. Safety first

Using Google Ads is also a great way to increase brand awareness. Google research suggests that brand awareness can increase by 80% when using Google Ads and the more your brand is known, the less likely it is that your competitors will try to steal customers from your business. Protect your brand and turn to Google Ads!


7. The Grass is Greener on the Google Ads side

Investing in Google Ads can pay big dividends. Google has said that for every $1 spent on advertising, businesses make an average of $2 in revenue. Unbounce stated that your website visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something when visiting your site via PPC ads than those who visit your ad via organic ads.


8. Keep your eyes on the prize

If you link your Google Ads with Google Analytics or make use of Google Ads built-in conversion tracker, it is easy to monitor your budget and measure the return on your investment. The tracker allows you to gauge how many of your PPC visitors submit an enquiry form, make an online purchase, sign up for a webinar, or whatever else your conversion goal may be – so you never lose focus on your objective.

As if that isn’t enough, you can also narrow down the keywords that bring you the most conversions and refocus your budget on those, guaranteeing the best return on investment.


9. Everyone deserves a second chance

Someone’s first visit to your site didn’t result in a conversion? You need remarketing, one of the many additional features that are available to businesses that use Google Ads. Remarketing ads are text, image or video ads which appear all over the internet through a variety of platforms to encourage someone to return to a website that they have previously visited. In fact, remarketing has been shown to increase conversion rates by 161%, so unlock this feature and watch your visitors come back.


10. The Internet is your Oyster

Why stick to being featured on just one platform and not choose to engage with your target audience across a range of platforms? Although the main use for Google Ads is to get your website featured on page one of Google, your Ads account can also be used to advertise on third party websites that make up the Google Display Network, as well as on YouTube videos, and via promotional Gmail messages.

So, are there any cons to Google Ads? Well, the reason why some businesses are sceptical is because Google makes it very easy for a first time user to set up a Google Ads campaign but they also make it very easy for you to do it in a way which will make more money for Google than it does for you.

But you do not need to worry about falling into that nightmare. If what you have read has convinced you to give Google Ads a go, then your next step would be to follow my free guide that will show you how to do it the right way.

To find out more about it and download your free copy just follow this link to 7 Simple Steps for a Successful Google Ads Campaign.

The post 10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Google Ads to Grow Your Business appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Advertisers can now promote YouTube live streams as Google display ads https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/advertisers-can-now-promote-youtube-live-streams-google-display-ads/ Mon, 24 Jun 2019 13:16:47 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=9562 Google has introduced a new ad format, which would allow digital advertisers to promote YouTube live streams as Google display ads across screens and devices. A particularly interesting feature is that users will be able to interact with the video (ad) with familiar YouTube player controls. They could: Preview the live stream Watch the ad […]

The post Advertisers can now promote YouTube live streams as Google display ads appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google has introduced a new ad format, which would allow digital advertisers to promote YouTube live streams as Google display ads across screens and devices.

A particularly interesting feature is that users will be able to interact with the video (ad) with familiar YouTube player controls. They could:

  • Preview the live stream
  • Watch the ad in full screen
  • Control the sound volume
  • Use the mute functionality
  • And exit when they are done to continue using the website

The familiarity with how users interact with video ad content and control the entire experience may play a key role in increasing engagement and the click-through rate.

Google mentioned that the rising popularity of live events and video content paved the way for this new ad format. According to Google:

“Increasingly, people are tuning in to live events like concerts, sports, and shows through live streams. Brands are noticing this shift and are investing in live stream content through sponsorships and their own branded content. We know it takes a lot of time and resources to build these assets, and we want to make it easier to get more out of your live stream investment.”

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/original_images/ezgif.com-video-to-gif.gif

Questions about the cost of these ads

Not many details were shared about the cost of these ads and how advertisers would be charged.

At this stage, it is assumed that advertisers will only have to pay for the ad unit because live streaming is free on YouTube. However, we do not know if advertisers would be charged the same amount if a user watches the entire or abandon it only after a few seconds.

Questions like these will continue to go unanswered until Google gives further clarification or the ad format is rolled out more widely.

What else?

Apart from introducing this new ad format, Google has also announced Swirl — a new and immersive display format that allows you to showcase your product in 3D. This enables users to rotate your product and inspect it from every angle.

If you want to learn more about Swirl or the YouTube live stream video ads, check out this official announcement by Google.

 

The post Advertisers can now promote YouTube live streams as Google display ads appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Why people search on click ads? And how to increase the CTR https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/people-search-click-ads-increase-ctr/ Fri, 11 Jan 2019 11:02:55 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=8891 Why do online users click on search ads? Are they aware of the fact that they are clicking a search ad? Moreover, are they even aware of the difference between an organic listing and a paid ad. Surveys reveal that most consumers aren’t aware of the difference. Having said that, there are certain factors that […]

The post Why people search on click ads? And how to increase the CTR appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Why do online users click on search ads?

Are they aware of the fact that they are clicking a search ad? Moreover, are they even aware of the difference between an organic listing and a paid ad. Surveys reveal that most consumers aren’t aware of the difference.

Having said that, there are certain factors that are always working in the background and affecting an average user’s decision of clicking an online ad.

In this blog post, we are going to explore some of the major reasons why people click on search ads and what you can do to improve the click-through rate (CTR).

What makes people click on search ads?

Clutch, a research firm, recently released the results of a new survey that explores what makes people click on search ads.

The survey took into accounts the feedback of 506 people. Here are the results.

 

How to increase the click-through rate (CTR)

75% of the survey participants who clicked on a paid ad search in the last 30 days said that ads make it easier to find the information they are searching for.

This highlights the importance of providing relevant information at the right time to the right people, including ad heading, description, timing, keyword selection, and audience targeting.

To increase the click-through rate, make sure that your ad appears relevant and informative to the people searching for information on the web. Unless the ads answer the searcher’s queries, they won’t be clicked.

As you can see in the above chart, people also like to click on ads that mention a familiar brand. It highlights the importance of building a brand and creating brand awareness.

It won’t happen in a day or two, but it’s more of a long-term goal that you always have to keep working towards. Keep establishing your brand, continue to build brand awareness, provide great service and products to the users, publish great content, and be active on social media channels to engage with your existing and potential customers.

Once the brand is established and become a respectable name in the industry, you can leverage it in the ads and get better click-through rates.

Surprisingly, having compelling titles, description, or images only account for approximately 19% clicks. However, don’t let this fact confuse you. Titles, description, and images are extremely important and are actually responsible for much more than just 19%.

How?

Because having the right title, description, or image will help searchers ascertain what a link holds for them. Unless the contents in the ad send a message that the ad contains the information they are looking for or answers the query better than the other search results, users will not click it.

You can include images that catch attention. Also, include keywords like “sale”, “deal”, “best”, “discount”, etc. to increase the perceived value and the click-through rate.

A few additional stats

The survey also revealed a few additional stats that online advertisers might find interesting.

  • 49 percent of the survey participants revealed that they click on text ads.
  • 16 percent responded that they click on video ads.
  • 31 percent of people said that they click on Shopping ads.
  • 77 percent of survey participants said they are confident that they can differentiate between search advertisements and organic listings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
  • 63 percent said that they’d click on a Google ad.
  • 15 percent said that they’d click on an ad on Amazon.
  • 9 percent said that they’d click on an ad on YouTube.
  • 6 percent said that they’d click on an ad on Bing.

These stats do not really represent how click-through rates are affected.

Conclusion

By improving click-through rate — even by a percent or two — you can dramatically increase the profitability of your marketing campaigns.

By learning from the stats and tips mentioned in this article, you will be able to achieve a better click-through rate.

The post Why people search on click ads? And how to increase the CTR appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
Google offers extra ad real estate if you automated AdWords A/B testing https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/google-offers-extra-ad-real-estate-automated-adwords-ab-testing/ Mon, 14 May 2018 14:59:45 +0000 https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/?p=8075 When it comes to Google AdWords and ad optimisation, how much do you trust Google’s machine learning over manual optimization and A/B testing? Most online marketers would prefer manually running A/B tests and optimizing Google ads, but Google wants to change that. Google AdWords new responsive search ads are in beta right now. And although […]

The post Google offers extra ad real estate if you automated AdWords A/B testing appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>
When it comes to Google AdWords and ad optimisation, how much do you trust Google’s machine learning over manual optimization and A/B testing?

Most online marketers would prefer manually running A/B tests and optimizing Google ads, but Google wants to change that.

Google AdWords new responsive search ads are in beta right now. And although they aren’t available to all advertisers at the moment, they have become a bit of a talking point.

Google wants you to let its machine learning option a bit of a go on your Google Ads. And in return, it’s giving you pretty impressive incentives.

With Google AdWords new responsive search ads (the feature currently in beta), you can set up an ad with multiple headlines and descriptions (up to three headlines and two 90-character descriptions). Once you are done, Google will start testing the different combinations to achieve the stated goal as best as possible.

It is important to note that Google has attempted similar things in the past with dynamic search ads and automated ad suggestions, but none of those attempts were very successful.

However, now with the incentives of extra real estate, Google may finally achieve its objectives of bringing its machine learning to the front lines.

google-ad-real-estate

Advertisers are allowed to set up to 15 different headlines and 4 descriptions for their ads. The rest of the fields will be the same as they are in expanded text ads.

The days of manual A/B testing might be coming to an end, and with features and incentives like these, we may be looking at automated A/B testing sooner than later. However, we believe there is still some time to go before we move to fully automated A/B testing.

Machine algorithms have some way to go before fully understanding human psychology and emotions that affect consumer buying behaviors. However, this is certainly a right step towards it.

The post Google offers extra ad real estate if you automated AdWords A/B testing appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

]]>