If you’re a business owner, you may be wondering about how to get started with Google Ads and PPC strategy. Digital marketing is a great investment, but knowing how to get the most out of your ad dollars can be challenging. Hiring a Google Ads manager either independently or from an agency can make the entire process smoother and better for your budget.
Getting started with Google Ads
There are a ton of so-called experts in Google Ads, but Jason Marzec, founder of Jay Agency, is here to give a little insight into the process of setting up and optimizing Google Ads along with what makes a great Google Ads campaign manager.
Take one of his Real Estate campaigns for example – he knew he wanted to set up ads targeted toward first-time home buyers, but it wasn’t as simple as writing some copy and launching the campaign.
“Setting up Google Ads actually takes time and research,” Jason explains. Many inexperienced ads managers will just throw a bunch of ads up without any research or naming conventions and hope for the best. These kinds of strategies (or lack thereof) are huge wastes of time, money, and resources. Even if leads are generated from these kinds of campaigns, they’ll likely be low-quality and won’t result in conversions.
Great Google Ads management and campaign optimization is done in several phrases. Keyword research should be one of the first steps in successful Google Ads campaigns. Identifying keywords that will be searched by your target audience and understanding their cost and volume is essential to creating ads that get conversions. For Jason’s first-time home buyers campaign, he put together comprehensive research and ideas to begin testing within Google Ads.
This spreadsheet took a combination of keyword research, understanding the industry, and understanding the target audience along with several days of work to complete. “This is why a lot of people charge a lot of money upfront,” says Jason. “Because it does take time.”
PPC Optimization
Once these ads have been loaded into the platform, campaign optimization can begin. A successful Google Ads manager will monitor the results of the campaign and determine which ad sets make sense to continue with. Google Ads managers should take note of impressions, clicks, and conversions along with how much each ad is spending. Based on that information, ads can be adjusted and the budget can be reallocated to ensure the business is getting the best bang for its buck.
“You don’t want to be spending money on keywords that aren’t going to resonate with your campaign,” Jason explains. Over the course of the next few weeks, he’ll go through and remove keywords that aren’t working or have a high cost per lead (CPL). He’ll also figure out what is working well and leading to conversions at reasonable rates, and he’ll add new keywords and copy based on those observations.
Cost per lead is a great way to measure how each piece of a campaign is performing. Jason typically takes a slower approach to PPC optimization – by limiting the budget early on, Google Ads managers can really dial in on the strategy and begin collecting data without putting excessive money behind untested campaigns.
It’s important to note as well that Google Ads typically cost more than Facebook or other social media ads. The reason for that is that Facebook ads are very broadly targeted to a market that you’ve specified, whereas Google Ads are presenting prospective customers with the exact information they were already searching for. Even if Facebook produces more leads, leads originating from Google are typically higher quality. If done correctly, a Google Ad should direct future customers to the right information to solve their queries at exactly the right time.
By the time enough ads had been tested and more budget was put behind the successful ones, Jason’s campaign looked like this at the 30-day mark:
More than anything else, a good Google Ads manager will never stop learning and optimizing. Even when things are going well, the campaign shouldn’t go on autopilot, as things are always shifting. Split-testing especially can help businesses identify where their budget can best be spent. Jason incorporates split-testing into every campaign he works on. “Once I find the winners, I throw it right into the top performing audiences and let it run with some budget behind it,” he explains.
Looking for a Google Ads manager who knows their stuff?
If you’re ready to see how Google Ads can help accelerate your company, Jason is currently taking on new clients. Schedule your 100% free Zoom call to get your questions answered and begin optimizing your PPC strategy.