Improving Google Ads Conversion Rates: Practical Tips
Are you tired of pouring money into Google Ads campaigns with poor conversion rates? You’re not alone. Many businesses struggle to convert ad clicks into meaningful actions like purchases, sign-ups, or leads. But fear not, because in this article, we’re diving into real-life tips and tactics that can make a tangible difference to your conversion rates. From refining your keyword selection to crafting compelling ad copies and optimizing your landing pages, we’ll explore practical, actionable tips that have proven to help improve Google Ads conversion rates. Read on to understand how these strategies will help you turn your clicks into conversions.
Implement Proper Conversion Tracking
This first one seems like a no-brainer, but it’s often overlooked by many accounts. The only way to understand whether your Google Ads campaigns are performing or not performing is to properly set up conversion tracking. The most common ways Google Ads conversion tracking is implemented is through:
- Website actions.
- Phone calls.
- App downloads.
The other key component to proper conversion tracking is identifying what conversions make sense to track. Oftentimes, brands have one big conversion in mind. For ecommerce, that is likely a purchase or a sale. For B2B companies, it’s likely a lead or a demo signup. But what about all the other available touchpoints before a customer makes that leap? Consider tracking “micro” conversions on your sites to really identify the positive impact your PPC campaigns have. Examples of “micro” conversions to track include:
- Email newsletter signups.
- Free samples.
- Whitepaper download.
- Webinar signup.
- And more.
Optimize Keyword Lists
The second way to help increase Google Ads conversion rates is continuous optimization of keyword lists. The Google Ads search terms report is a perfect tool for this. Not only can you see what users are searching for, in their own words, that leads to conversions, but you can see what is not converting. We’ll get to negative keywords later.
Keep in mind which match types you’re using throughout the keyword optimization process. Broad match keywords have the biggest leniency when it comes to what types of searches will show for your ad. It also has the largest reach because of its flexible nature. Turning some of your top-performing Broad match keywords into Exact match can help increase those Quality Scores, which can lead to lower cost per click (CPCs) and better efficiency for your campaigns.
Match Ad Copy To Landing Pages
Alright, so you’ve gotten a user to click on your ad. Great! But you’re finding that not a lot of people are actually purchasing. What gives? Surely, it must be a problem with the PPC campaigns. Not always. Typically, one of the most common reasons users leave a website right after clicking on an ad has to do with a mismatch of expectations. Simply put, what the user was promised in an ad was not present or prominent on the landing page. A great way to optimize conversion rates is to ensure the landing page copy is tailored to match your PPC ad copy. Doing this ensures a relatively seamless user experience, which can help speed up the purchase process.
Use Clear Call-To-Actions
If a user isn’t performing the actions you’d expect to after clicking on an ad, it may be time to review your ad copy. Since the emergence of responsive search ads (RSAs), I’ve seen many redundant headlines and generic call-to-actions (CTAs). No wonder a user doesn’t know what you want them to do! When creating CTAs either in ad copy or on the landing page, keep these principles in mind:
- Use action-oriented language that clearly communicates what you want them to do.
- For landing pages, make sure the CTA button is visually distinct and easily clickable. It helps if a CTA is shown before a user has to scroll down to find it.
- Test different CTAs to determine what resonates best with users.
Optimize For Mobile
With mobile phones so prevalent in our society, it’s shocking how many websites are still not optimizing their mobile experience! Creating a landing page with desktop top-of-mind should really be revisited, given that mobile traffic has overtaken desktop. So, what can you do to help increase your conversion rates on mobile?
- Use a responsive web design to accommodate different mobile layouts.
- Make sure the site speed has fast loading times.
- Create any mobile-specific features like CTA placement to make sure it’s easily viewable for users.
- Optimize form fills on mobile devices.
Experiment With Ad Copy Testing
Ad copy is one of the biggest levers you can control in your PPC campaigns. Even slight changes or tweaks to a headline or description can have a big impact on CTR and conversion rates. Having multiple ad copy variants is crucial when trying to understand what resonates most with users. Part of the beauty of Google’s Responsive Search ads is the number of headline inputs you can have at once. Google’s algorithm then determines the best-performing ad copy combinations to increase conversion rates.
Google Ads also has tools built into the platform for more controlled testing if that is a route you want to take. You can create ad variants or create an experiment directly in Google Ads for more precise A/B testing. It’s also important to test one element at a time to isolate the impact of each change. Testing too many elements at once can muddy up analysis.
Utilize Ad Assets
Ad assets are a great way to help influence a click to your website, which can help improve conversion rates. Assets like callouts, structured snippets, and sitelinks can provide additional detail that couldn’t be shown in headlines or descriptions. When your Ad Rank is higher, you have a better likelihood of showing ad assets, which helps increase the overall visibility of your ad. Your ad assets can be customized to fit your campaign goals, and can even show specific promotions, special product features, and social proof like seller ratings.
Don’t Be Shy With Negative Keywords
A sound negative keyword strategy is one of the best ways to improve Google Ads conversion rates. You may be wasting your paid search budget on keywords that aren’t producing conversions. You may also notice that some broad keywords have gone rogue and are triggering your ads for terms they definitely shouldn’t be showing up for! As mentioned earlier, the search terms report can help mitigate a lot of these types of keywords.
You can choose to add negative keywords at the following levels: Ad group, Campaign, Negative keyword lists to apply to campaigns. You also have the ability to add negative keywords as Broad, Phrase, or Exact match. Alleviating poor-performing keywords allows your budget to optimize for your core keyword sets that lead to conversions.
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