AdWords & Facebook Ads, Advice

Optimizing Google Ads campaign costs in a few steps

Google Ads campaigns are an integral part of the marketing strategy of many companies, allowing them to reach potential customers on the Internet. However, the effectiveness of these campaigns is often associated with appropriate cost optimization.

Today we'll take a look at some simple techniques that can help you optimize your Google Ads advertising spend.

Choosing the right campaign model

The first step to optimizing your Google Ads campaign costs is choosing the right model. For search engine campaigns, the two most common are maximizing conversions and maximizing conversions with a target cost per conversion (tCPA). 
 
Although Google is very quick to recommend switching to a tCPA model, it is worth starting with a maximizing conversions model first and collecting about 20 of them to get data. Then, based on that, change the setting to tCPA, setting the initial target cost to the one that results from those 20 conversions, and only then start lowering it.
 
It's important to let each target cost setting work for 1-2 weeks before making the next change, and not to make any drastic changes. Our recommendation is to lower the target cost per conversion by a maximum of 10% at a time and give the campaign 1-2 weeks to adjust. When conversions drop and don't pick up in that time, it's a sign that we've set the tCPA too low.
 
There are campaigns in which there are very few conversions - e.g. lead campaigns in an extremely narrow market, with a high lead value at the same time, where one conversion per month is a success. In such cases, it is difficult to wait for 20 conversions, but you can use indirect conversions. For example, such a conversion could be spending some time on the website - this is not the implementation of the campaign goal (use from the contact form), but it is an indicator that the user is interested in the topic.
 
By adding these types of conversions we can get more of them and thus switch to the tCPA model.

tCPA and budget size

Before we go any further, it’s worth reminding that the target cost-per-conversion model requires a sufficient budget to work well.
 
The ideal daily budget according to Google is 10 x target cost per conversion. So if we want to achieve the goal for a maximum of PLN 100, then theoretically the budget should be PLN 1,000 per day.
In reality, the minimum is a multiplier of 2 or 3 – i.e. for a target conversion cost of PLN 100, it is worth reserving a daily budget of PLN 200-300.
 
Below this value, your campaign may optimize less well, and we definitely don't recommend using the tCPA model if your daily budget is lower than your target cost-per-conversion.

Campaign Quality Assessment

Another important aspect that affects the cost of a Google Ads campaign is the quality of the campaign itself and the ads. Google evaluates the quality of our ads based on various factors, such as met recommendations, keyword or landing page rating.
 
When entering our account or a specific campaign, we enter the recommendation section where we should see the percentage rating of our account/campaign. Generally, it is good to aim to keep the campaign above 90% - this can reduce costs and improve ad placement.
Case study of advertising campaigns

Ad and keyword optimization

Another key element is the optimization of the ads themselves and keywords. The ads should be tailored to the themes of the ad groups, and the headlines should contain keywords related to the group. The landing page should also be relevant to the keywords, and its quality, especially on mobile devices, is important.
 
For clarity, we recommend an approach where one ad group corresponds to one specific topic. So, if we sell clothes, we create a separate group for jackets, a separate one for underwear, a separate one for t-shirts, etc. This makes it easier to tailor the ad to keywords.
 
Responsive search ads allow you to dynamically adjust your headlines to match search phrases. There are many ways to improve your ad rating, including using Google's headline suggestions, using the keyword insertion mechanism in your ad text, and avoiding pinning headlines to a specific location, which can reduce ad quality. (Why? You'll have to ask Google for that.)

Keyword exclusion

Still on the subject of keywords, it is worth remembering to regularly review those that you will find in the tab "searched passwords".. at least that's what it was called until recently, but Google likes to change its interface, so don't attach too much importance to this name. In any case, it's a place where we can find all the keywords that Google uses for our campaign - not only the ones we chose ourselves, but also those that result from phrase match or broad match keywords. 
 
The suggestions will not always be accurate - it may be that our keyword is "roofs", and Google will give us the expression "roof to the dog house."
It is worth regularly reviewing this list and excluding keywords that do not fit our campaign, so that Google does not waste our resources on directing ads to the wrong target group.

Adding Performance Max campaigns

Finally, if you are using a search engine campaign, it is worth trying to add Performance Max campaigns to it. In our experience, they complement each other very well, and can ultimately lead to lower costs of achieving your goal.
 
That's all the tips for today :) 

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