Google Ads are a crucial part of running a successful business. With the right strategies in place, you can drive traffic, increase conversions, and grow your business exponentially. In this article, I’ll be sharing my tips and tricks for managing Google Ads like a boss.
First things first, let’s start with the basics. Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that allows businesses to place ads on Google and its advertising network. When someone searches for a keyword that’s related to your business, your ad may show up in the search results. The goal is to create an ad that’s relevant, eye-catching, and gets people to take action.
- Set a Budget
One of the most important things to keep in mind if you don’t want to go broke when managing your Google Ads is to set a budget. This will help you control your spending and avoid overspending on advertising. You can set a daily or monthly budget depending on your preference. Just make sure to stick to it! This is the first thing you should set in your campaign. I remember once a long time ago when I was learning Google Adwords (yep, it’s not even called that anymore) i pulled the trigger and set a campaign to live. Then I went to grab lunch. I was gone maybe a hour and because I forgot to set the budget I had already blown through my intended budget for the month. Learn from my mistakes, SET THIS FIRST SO YOU DON’T FORGET! - Choose Your Keywords
When creating your Google Ads campaign, you need to choose the keywords that you want to target. These keywords should be relevant to your business and what you’re offering. For example, if you’re selling shoes, you might choose keywords like “running shoes”, “tennis shoes”, or “sneakers”. The more targeted your keywords, the better your chances of success. Now that you have addressed the keywords that you want your ads to show for you also need to pay special attention to the words that you don’t want your ads to show for. Say you run a fishing charter. Of course, you are going to want to target people that like and are interested in going fishing. Naturally you might think that using fishing as a keyword would be a good idea. But that could be only one of the words in their search. What if the person searching was actually looking for a fishing video game. Unless you are also selling video games you could have just set yourself up to lose some of your advertising budget by getting a click from someone who was just curious but didn’t actually want to go out on your tour. Negative keywords are used to stop that. If you had added video game as a negative keyword it would have stopped your add from showing. Try to get as targeted as possible. - Create Compelling Ads
Your ads need to be eye-catching, relevant, and provide a clear call-to-action. Make sure to include a strong headline, a clear message, and a high-quality image or video. Your ad should stand out from the crowd and get people to take notice. Which headline would you be more likely to click on if you were looking to take a date out for a boat ride “Dinner Cruise” or “Romantic Sunset Dinner Cruise With Dolphins Just Off The Bow” it’s hard to see how a small change can make a big difference. - Optimize for Mobile
With more and more people accessing the internet on their mobile devices, it’s important to optimize your ads for mobile. At this point almost every search starts out from a mobile device and then moves to a computer only when it gets serious. Why boot up the computer for a simple answer when your phone is right in your pocket. Make sure that your ads are easily viewable and readable on mobile devices. This will help you reach a wider audience and increase your chances of success. - Track Your Results
You can not determine performance if you don’t measure! And, one of the best things about Google Ads is that you can track your results in real-time. You can see how many people are clicking on your ads, how many are converting, and how much you’re spending. This information is valuable as it allows you to make changes and improvements to your ads to get better results. - Make Adjustments
Google Ads is a constantly evolving platform, so it’s important to make adjustments to your campaigns as needed. This might mean changing your keywords, improving your ad copy, or adjusting your budget. The more you test and make changes, the better your results will be. Even if you are only advertising 1 product or service you should be running at least 2 ads. Let them run and then at a predetermined interval check them and dump the lower performing ad and create a new one. This is commonly referred to as A/B testing. Just make sure you are not being impatient and that you are allowing enough time to get enough data to make a GOOD decision. At a minimum I recommend a week. As time goes on you can even extend this when you start to get a handle on what’s working and what isn’t. - Be Patient
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when managing Google Ads is giving up too soon. It takes time to see results and make changes to improve your campaigns. Be patient and stick with it. The results will come! I can’t count how many people I’ve talked to that have completely screwed up their campaigns simply because they have shiny object syndrome.
In conclusion, managing Google Ads can be a fun and exciting experience when you have the right strategies in place. With the tips and tricks I’ve shared, you’ll be on your way to managing your Google Ads like a boss and growing your business to new heights. So go ahead and give it a try, and remember to have fun and enjoy the process! Your business should be bringing your joy not headaches!
Now get out there, Hustle & Repeat! – Jason Thomas “JT”
