Google has been a goliath in the marketing realm for too long. It has become synonymous with search and marketing. This is mostly due to its features and the way it allows marketers to interact with their audiences. However, harnessing the full potential of Google Ads is easier said than done; especially if you’re a small business owner who is new to this online advertising. Google was ranked first amongst the most visited multi-platform web properties in the U.S in 2019. With close to 259 million U.S. unique visitors and a market share of 62.5 percent, Google is among the leading U.S. search engine providers. The Parent company Alphabet’s market capitalization in September 2019 was valued at 825 billion U.S. dollars. This comes after the American multinational conglomerate Alphabet Inc. was created as the parent company of Google and several other companies previously owned by or tied to Google.
The global revenue of Google in 2019 was around 160.7bn USD. This makes is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Subsequently, there have been many companies that have recently catapulted their businesses from startups to be unicorns. There are many challenges that can hinder your business growth but being on the right track will help you get through tough times. Overcoming these challenges of using Google Ads must be a top priority. Creating effective ad campaigns requires research, optimization, and patience that will eventually connect your business with potential customers. It will not be difficult to begin working on Google Ads but getting results can be hard. Thus, getting past these common challenges can help you get through the tough times. Here are 10 challenges that you can face and how to overcome them.
- Make Sure Your Campaign has an Audience.
People often make rookie mistakes while beginning in Google Ads by building out campaigns without fully researching your targeted audience. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll add the right keywords without any help but more likely you’ll either get a trickle of traffic or worse, get lots of traffic from tire kickers. You can use the free Keyword Planner tool found in Google Ads to make sure that doesn’t happen. Moreover, the demand for various relevant keyword terms along with estimates for what you’ll pay per click will find its way to you. Thus, by making sure you have an audience will increase your chances of targeting specific gender and demographics accordingly.
- Do not overspend on clicks.
Spending the right amount for your campaign is very necessary. Spend less and the campaign will not perform well while on the other hand spending too much is also not required. Adequate spending that leads to maximum conversions is the key. Launching a campaign must begin with high bids as you’ll want to put your ads in a position that gets more clicks, which will eventually lead to high-quality scores and ultimately, cheaper clicks. Bidding too high can result in blowing through your advertising budget with a negative return on your investment. Thus, it is necessary to balance each element which works brilliantly abreast some simple math. Calculate your maximum bid using the formula:
Max CPC = (average profit per customer) x (conversion rate of your online customers) x (1 – desired advertising profit margin).
You’ll have to estimate these numbers if you’re just starting out, but eventually plug in real data as you go forth. Keep a check on the Google Keyword Planner tool and focus on keywords with estimated costs below your calculated Max CPC.
- Keep up with your competitors.
One of the key aspects in business involves keeping a check on our competitor and staying one step ahead of them. As such is the case with Google Ads as well. You as a marketer need to keep and an eye on your competitors and the recent advancements they are doing. A tool like SpyFu let you “spy” (figuratively speaking) on your competitors’ ad copy, keyword terms, and even see how long they’ve been using certain ads and keywords. This valuable information can be used to improve your campaigns and help you gain a competitive advantage.
- Define what makes your business special.
The first question you must ask yourself while creating a campaign is why should Google users click on your ad over all the others? Answering this question is what will define the uniqueness of your business. It is not always easy since you must summarize the uniqueness in a very limited space using text ads. Bottom line, you must focus your ads on whatever it is your business does better than everyone else, and build from there. This way, people with similar interests who come across your page are more likely to click on it.
- Say everything in limited characters.
Since it is important to mention the unique features of your campaign, it is necessary to do it in the most efficient way. Your ads must be compelling enough to grab attention, drive conversions but also short and to the point so it conveys the idea swiftly. However, standard ads allow you just 30 characters for your headlines and 90 characters for your two description lines; which can be clearly not enough.
Therefore, you need to convey what makes your business special along with and an irresistible offer. You must also include a call to action which can immediately help your users connect with you. Once you begin writing you can have a few drafts before you refine them to find the best 2-3 variations you want. Since no one knows which ad copy will perform best, so it’s advisable to usually run multiple variations and let the data guide you.
- Make sure your landing page follows through.
The adjustments to your ad copy can accidentally become promises very easily that your landing page cannot keep. This usually happens when you solely focus on your ad copy rather than reviewing your ads and landing pages together. Your Google Ads quality scores can plummet over poor landing page experiences which can result in lesser traffic and more expensive clicks. Moreover, Google can even suspend your ads over what it deems to be a false advertisement. Other than that, you can end up irritating people who might have otherwise become customers.
Therefore, you need to first make sure that your writing is well represented on your landing page before changes are made to your ad copy. If your revised ad offers free shipping, then users who are clicking that ad should instantly know what to do the moment they arrive on your website. Many irresistible offers play a huge role in catching people’s attention but if you don’t follow through on your landing page, neither will your prospects.
- Get your website to work on mobile.
As of 2019, there are 2.71 billion people in the world who own a smartphone. Almost all web pages have developed mobile compatible apps so that people can use them whenever they wish to. Hence, it is very important to make our website compatible with mobile or smartphone. Most web developers today have developed websites that are both functional on mobile and desktop platforms. However, many small business websites were built before the mobile platform took off.
If you advertise without a mobile-optimized website your prospective customers will bounce as the page will not look or function properly on their mobile; hence losing sales. Moreover, your quality scores will suffer, leading to higher costs and lower ad positions. Sure, there is always a choice and if you choose not to advertise on mobile platforms, that’s up to you but keep in mind that an estimated 100 billion Google searches per month originate from smartphones and the number is growing.
- Set up conversion tracking.
Enabling conversion tracking is highly recommended to know which ads are driving the most leads and sales. You can get your conversion tracking code from Google Ads and embed it within the page of your website that signifies a completed transaction. You can embed the code on your receipt page if you’re aiming to drive sales. But if you want to drive leads, then embed the code on the page displayed after your contact form is submitted. This code will allow Google Ads to track when prospects complete your forms and tell you exactly which ads and keywords resulted in more conversions.
Moreover, you can set up phone call conversion tracking if phone calls are important for your business. An additional code is needed to embed on the website so you can see which ads and keywords are driving phone calls.
- Learn to use extensions.
Extensions are defined as additional bits of information that can make your ads much more enticing to Google users. Ad extensions can include call buttons, additional links, your company address, etc. and especially useful for those who are searching for local goods and services. Google does display some extensions automatically, however, you can still miss out on the most useful extensions if you don’t set them up manually. Activating this feature under the “Ad extensions” tab in Google Ads and following the directions to set up each extension should do the work.
- Optimize your campaigns.
You as a marketer must always optimize your campaigns. Optimizing campaigns is an ongoing effort that ensures maximum ROI. Right from the day of your ad launch, you must frequently split-test ad copy and landing pages, adjust your bids, test new keywords, pause poorly performing keywords, and test different targeting options. Successful campaigns require less optimizing and it gets easier over time like everything else with Google Ads.