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PPC Landing Page Best Practices: Tips for Better Conversion Rates

by Paid Search

With PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, every click carries a cost. It is imperative to convert those hard-earned visitors into customers to maximise the return on investment (ROI) of your ad spend. In this blog post, we will explore essential strategies for conversion rate optimisation (CRO) in the context of PPC advertising. We will cover overall optimisation techniques, desktop-specific tactics, and mobile-specific approaches. By implementing these recommendations, you can enhance user experience, increase trust, and amplify the impact of your PPC campaigns.

 

Overall Optimisation:

💡Ease of Navigation: Simplify your website’s navigation structure and ensure that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for without having to click through to different pages and get lost in the website.

 

💡Streamlined Conversion Funnel: Optimise the conversion process by reducing friction and eliminating unnecessary steps. Make it easy for visitors to convert by simplifying forms, minimising data entry requirements, and providing clear instructions.

 

💡Trust Signals from Third-Party Reviewers: Incorporate testimonials, ratings, and reviews from reputable third-party sources. Positive feedback and social proof enhance trust in your brand, ultimately influencing purchase decisions.

 

💡Unique Selling Propositions (USPs): Clearly communicate your company’s unique value propositions to visitors. Highlight what sets your business apart from the competition and why customers should choose your products or services.

 

💡Address Pain Points: Identify common pain points or challenges faced by your target audience and emphasise how your offerings provide effective solutions. Focus on addressing customer needs to increase the likelihood of conversion.

 

💡Landing Page Relevance: Ensure your landing pages directly related to the keywords and messaging used in your PPC ads. Consistency between your ad and landing page creates a seamless user experience, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Users should find what they expect to see, fostering trust and minimising bounce rates. 

 

💡Speed and Performance: Mobile users expect fast-loading pages. Optimise your mobile landing pages to load quickly, keeping visitors engaged and reducing the chances of abandonment.

 

Desktop Optimisation:

💻Design-Driven Content: Desktop users often desire more comprehensive information before making a purchasing decision. Create visually appealing landing pages that incorporate detailed content, including product features, benefits, and customer testimonials.

 

💻Clear CTAs: Use visually appealing, attention-grabbing Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons that stand out from the surrounding content. Ensure that they are strategically placed to drive conversions and guide users towards desired actions.

 

💻A/B Testing: Continuously test different elements, such as headlines, images, colours, and CTAs, on your desktop landing pages. This iterative approach helps identify the most effective combinations that yield the highest conversion rates.

 

Mobile Optimisation:

📱Responsive Design: Ensure your landing pages are fully optimised for mobile devices, providing a seamless browsing experience. Responsive design guarantees that your PPC ads drive mobile users to mobile-friendly landing pages, reducing friction and improving conversion rates.

 

📱Thumb-Friendly CTAs: Optimise mobile CTAs by aligning them with users’ natural thumb placement. Placing important buttons within easy reach improves user experience and encourages conversions.

 

📱Visible Contact Information: Make sure that essential information like phone numbers and contact details are clearly visible on mobile devices. This enables users to quickly reach out and establishes trust and accessibility.

 

📱Minimise Scrolling and Text: Mobile users have limited screen space and attention spans. Reduce the amount of scrolling required and keep the text concise, ensuring key information and CTAs are visible without excessive scrolling.

 

📱Prominent CTAs: Place CTAs near the top of the mobile screen to capture users’ attention without the need for excessive scrolling. Make them highly visible and intuitive for quick and effortless conversions.

 

Conclusion:

PPC advertising requires a strategic approach to ensure that your investment translates into tangible business results. Conversion rate optimisation is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, testing, and refinement. By implementing these conversion rate optimisation strategies, you can increase the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns, boost user engagement, and ultimately improve ROI. Remember to tailor your optimisations to both desktop and mobile users, leveraging the unique advantages and challenges each platform presents. Stay proactive, continuously monitor performance, and refine your campaigns based on user behaviour to unlock the full potential of your PPC advertising efforts.

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Challenging Digital KPI Metrics in PPC Advertising: Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics

by Paid Search

In the realm of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, businesses often rely on key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and drive their digital marketing strategies. However, it is crucial to recognize that not all metrics are created equal, and some may not directly translate into real, tangible business value. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the shortcomings of certain KPIs, especially in lead generation industries, and discuss how to approach challenging KPIs internally with clients to focus on metrics that truly drive value for the business.

 

The Pitfalls of Vanity Metrics

 

👎Lead Generation: Quantity ≠ Quality

Lead generation is a popular KPI in PPC advertising, as it reflects the number of potential customers expressing interest in a product or service. However, the quantity of leads alone does not guarantee revenue generation. It is essential to consider the quality of leads, i.e., how likely they are to convert into paying customers/clients that will drive revenue for your business. Simply increasing the number of leads without considering their qualification may result in wasted resources and inefficient marketing efforts.

👎Form Submissions: Beyond Surface-Level Engagement

Form submissions are often seen as an indicator of customer engagement. While they demonstrate an initial interest, they do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the lead’s intent or potential value to the business. For example, someone who submits a form for a free e-book might have different intentions than someone who requests a personalised demo. Relying solely on form submissions as a KPI can lead to skewed insights and misguided decision-making.

 

Approaching Challenging KPIs with Clients

 

➡️Educate on the Limitations

When working with clients, it is crucial to educate them about the limitations of vanity metrics and the importance of focusing on metrics that align with the business’s bottom line. Explain that not all leads are created equal and emphasise the need to assess the quality and conversion potential of leads to drive actual revenue. 

➡️Shift Focus to Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs)

Instead of fixating on increasing the overall number of leads, shift the emphasis to identifying and nurturing sales-qualified leads (SQLs). An SQL is a lead that has been vetted and determined to have a higher likelihood of converting into a paying customer/client. By focusing on increasing the percentage of SQLs within the lead pool, businesses can drive more effective marketing campaigns and maximise their return on investment (ROI).

➡️Cost-Effectiveness over Quantity

Highlight the cost-effectiveness of focusing on increasing the percentage of SQLs instead of simply aiming for higher lead numbers. Share examples to demonstrate how an increase in SQLs from, say, 20% to 40%, can result in a higher conversion rate and a more significant impact on the bottom line. This approach ensures that marketing efforts are optimised to generate revenue, rather than being diluted by a high volume of unqualified leads which can overload the internal teams. This becomes even more important when growing an account – as costs increase you want to ensure that the budget is being spent as effectively as possible to drive the best ROI. 

 

The Benefits of SQL’s for Agencies

 

👍Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

By challenging traditional KPIs and focusing on metrics that drive real business value, agencies can establish a unique selling proposition in a crowded market. Positioning themselves as partners who prioritise the client’s bottom line sets them apart from competitors who may solely focus on vanity metrics. This USP showcases the agency’s commitment to delivering results that directly contribute to the client’s success.

👍Client Respect and Trust

Shifting the focus to metrics that align with the client’s business goals demonstrates a deep understanding of their needs and objectives. It showcases the agency’s dedication to the client’s success and long-term growth. When clients see that their agency is actively working towards maximising revenue and ROI, they develop a higher level of trust and respect for the agency’s expertise and strategic guidance.

👍Enhanced Collaboration

Challenging KPIs and aligning marketing efforts with true business value fosters a collaborative relationship between the agency and the client. It encourages open and constructive conversations about the most effective strategies, target audiences, and campaign optimisation. The agency becomes a trusted advisor, collaborating closely with the client to identify the metrics that truly matter and tailoring campaigns accordingly.

👍Long-Term Partnerships

By focusing on metrics that directly impact the client’s revenue and business growth, agencies are more likely to forge long-term partnerships. As the agency consistently delivers value-driven results, the client recognises their expertise and commitment to success. This increases the likelihood of repeat business, referrals, and the opportunity for the agency to become an integral part of the client’s marketing strategy for the long haul.

👍Increased ROI for Clients

Ultimately, by challenging KPIs and prioritising metrics that drive real business value, agencies help their clients achieve a higher return on investment (ROI). By focusing resources on attracting and nurturing sales-qualified leads, marketing efforts become more efficient and cost-effective. This, in turn, leads to increased revenue generation and a higher ROI for the client, solidifying the agency’s reputation as a valuable partner.

 

Conclusion

 

While lead generation and form submissions are popular metrics in PPC advertising, they often fail to equate to true business value. To effectively challenge and overcome these vanity metrics, it is crucial to shift the focus towards metrics that directly impact the bottom line. By educating clients about the limitations of vanity metrics, emphasising the importance of sales-qualified leads, and prioritising cost-effectiveness over quantity, businesses can drive meaningful results and ensure that their PPC advertising efforts contribute to tangible revenue generation. Challenging KPIs and focusing on driving real business value not only benefits clients but also provides unique advantages for agencies. By positioning themselves as partners who prioritise the client’s bottom line, agencies can earn respect, trust, and long-term partnerships.

Remember, in digital marketing, true success lies not in the number of leads generated but in the quality of leads and their conversion potential.

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Maximising ROI: Importing Phone Call Vetted Leads into Google Ads

by Paid Search

In the digital age, businesses rely on various online marketing channels to generate leads and drive conversions. However, for certain industries, phone calls remain a vital source of qualified leads. To ensure a holistic view of lead generation and optimise marketing efforts, it’s crucial to import phone call vetted leads back into the Google Ads interface. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of this approach and outline the steps to successfully import phone call vetted leads into Google Ads.

Benefits of Importing Phone Call Vetted Leads:

⚡Comprehensive Lead Tracking: Importing phone calls of leads that turned out to be qualified back into Google Ads allows you to consolidate your lead tracking efforts. By capturing and analysing both online and offline conversions, you gain a more comprehensive view of your marketing campaign’s effectiveness.

⚡Enhanced Conversion Attribution: Phone call conversions often represent high-value engagements. Importing these leads into Google Ads helps attribute conversions accurately, giving you insights into the true impact of your ad spend and optimising your return on investment (ROI).

⚡Refining Targeting and Optimisation: Incorporating phone call data enables you to identify patterns and trends related to high-converting leads. You can leverage this information to refine your audience targeting, ad messaging, and bidding strategies, leading to more effective campaigns.

⚡Closed-Loop Reporting: You can bridge the gap between offline and online activities, enabling closed-loop reporting. This allows you to assess the entire customer journey, from the initial ad impression to the phone call conversion, gaining valuable insights into your marketing funnel.

Steps to Import Phone Call Vetted Leads into Google Ads:

➡️Step 1: Set Up Conversion Tracking:

Ensure that you have conversion tracking set up in your Google Ads account. Create a conversion action specifically for phone call leads.

➡️Step 2: Track Phone Call Conversions:

Use call tracking software or a call analytics platform to track and record phone call conversions. Assign a unique phone number to each marketing campaign or channel to accurately attribute leads as well as record the GCLID.

➡️Step 3: Define Conversion Parameters:

Identify the parameters that determine a qualified phone call lead for your business. This could include call duration, intention to proceed or other relevant criteria.

➡️Step 4: Export Call Data:

Export the call data from your call tracking software or call analytics platform in a compatible format, such as a CSV file.

➡️Step 5: Prepare Import File:

Format the exported call data into a CSV file that aligns with Google Ads’ import requirements. Include details such as the GCLID, date and time to allow Google to map this back to specific campaigns.

➡️Step 6: Import Call Data into Google Ads:

Access the Google Ads interface and navigate to the Tools & Settings menu. Select “Conversions” and click on the “+” button to create a new conversion. Choose the “Import” option and upload the CSV file containing your call data.

➡️Step 7: Map Data Fields:

Map the fields in your CSV file to the appropriate conversion tracking fields in Google Ads. Ensure accurate data mapping to facilitate seamless integration and reporting.

➡️Step 8: Verify and Save:

Review the imported call data to ensure accuracy. Save the settings, and Google Ads will begin attributing imported phone call leads to your campaigns.

Conclusion 

Importing phone call vetted leads into the Google Ads interface provides invaluable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. By consolidating online and offline conversions, you gain a comprehensive view of lead generation and can optimise your advertising efforts accordingly. Follow the outlined steps to seamlessly import phone call leads into Google Ads, enabling more accurate conversion tracking, refined targeting, and closed-loop reporting. Embrace this holistic approach to maximise your ROI and make data-driven decisions that drive business growth.

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Targeting Shopping Ads Only with Performance Max Campaigns

by Paid Search

Targeting Shopping Ads Only with Performance Max Campaigns

In the ever-evolving world of digital advertising, advertisers are often faced with the challenge of meeting the demands set by platforms like Google. With Google’s push to expand targeting options across various channels, advertisers are compelled to broaden their reach beyond traditional avenues. However, there is a workaround with Performance Max campaigns whereby advertisers can strategically focus their efforts solely on shopping ads while excluding other channels like Maps, YouTube, Discover & Display. In this blog post, we will explore how to set up Performance Max campaigns exclusively for shopping ads, highlighting the benefits and considerations of this approach.

 

Setting Up Performance Max Campaigns for Shopping Ads Only:

 

1️⃣ Campaign Creation: Start by creating a new Performance Max campaign within Google Ads.

2️⃣ Campaign Goals: Define your campaign goals, such as maximising sales or conversions, aligning with the specific objectives of your shopping ads.

3️⃣ Campaign Settings: Ensure that any “Automatically Created Assets” are unticked.

4️⃣ Bidding Strategy: Utilise a bidding strategy that aligns with your shopping goals and budget, ensuring it reflects your intention to serve ads exclusively on shopping platforms.

5️⃣ Asset Group: Ensure that all images, videos, logos headlines and descriptions are left empty. This is crucial as it makes sure that Google doesn’t have the correct assets to utilise on the other channels we want to exclude.

 

Benefits of Exclusively Targeting Shopping Ads with Performance Max Campaigns:

 

👍Precise Targeting: By setting up Performance Max campaigns solely for shopping ads, you can precisely target customers who are specifically interested in the products you offer. 

👍Simplified Campaign Management: Excluding other channels streamlines campaign management, allowing advertisers to focus their attention and efforts on optimising shopping ad performance.

👍Cost Efficiency: Since Performance Max campaigns are not serving on other channels, advertisers can allocate their budget more efficiently, ensuring maximum return on ad spend (ROAS) for shopping campaigns.

👍Increased Relevance: By exclusively targeting shopping platforms, your ads can be shown to users who are actively searching for or browsing products, thereby enhancing the relevance of your ads.

 

Considerations and Drawbacks:

 

👎Limited Reach: Excluding other channels narrows the reach of your ads, potentially reducing the overall impressions and exposure for your brand. This can be a drawback if you aim to maximise visibility beyond shopping platforms.

👎Reduced Inventory: By excluding non-shopping channels, you may miss out on potential conversions from users who may discover your products outside of dedicated shopping platforms.

👎Competitive Landscape: Since other advertisers may be utilising Performance Max campaigns for multiple channels, focusing exclusively on shopping ads may result in increased competition for limited shopping ad placements.

 

Conclusion:

 

The workaround for Performance Max campaigns offer advertisers the flexibility to focus their efforts exclusively on shopping ads, allowing for precise targeting and streamlined campaign management. By excluding non-shopping channels, advertisers can optimise their budget, increase ad relevance, and enhance conversions on dedicated shopping platforms. However, it’s essential to carefully consider the potential drawbacks, such as limited reach and increased competition within the shopping ad landscape. By weighing the benefits against the drawbacks and aligning them with your specific advertising goals, you can leverage Performance Max campaigns to effectively serve and optimise your shopping ads.

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Leveraging Google Ads and SEO for Enhanced Online Visibility

by Paid SearchSEO

Leveraging Google Ads and SEO for Enhanced Online Visibility.

 

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, gaining organic visibility for your brand can be a challenging endeavour. However, with the right strategies, such as utilising Google Ads and optimising for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can bridge gaps where organic visibility may be lacking. In this blog post, we will explore how leveraging Google Ads can enhance short-term visibility, especially against dominant competitors in the organic SERPs. Additionally, we will discuss how SEO can save costs for high-cost-per-click (CPC) keywords. By combining both PPC and SEO, businesses can establish a powerful and cost-effective marketing strategy.

 

Part 1: Using Google Ads to Cover Organic Visibility Gaps

 

1.1 Filling Organic Visibility Gaps:

When there are certain keywords or search queries where your client’s website lacks organic visibility, Google Ads can come to the rescue. By targeting these specific keywords through pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, you can ensure that your client’s ads appear prominently on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). This allows you to reach a wider audience and gain immediate visibility, driving more traffic to your client’s website.

 

1.2 Overcoming Dominant Competitors:

In highly competitive industries where larger competitors with high domain authority dominate the organic SERPs, it can be difficult for smaller businesses to break through. However, Google Ads can provide a level playing field by enabling you to bid on keywords that your competitors are targeting organically. By strategically outbidding them, you can position your client’s ads above their organic listings, gaining increased visibility and effectively challenging their dominance.

 

Part 2: Harnessing SEO to Save Costs for High CPC Keywords

 

2.1 Utilising Organic Visibility for High CPC Keywords:

If your client has strong organic visibility for high-cost-per-click keywords, they can save significant advertising costs. By leveraging their existing organic visibility through SEO efforts, they can capitalise on the traffic they are already receiving without having to pay for every click. This strategic approach enables your client to allocate their budget to other marketing initiatives or expand their online presence without incurring additional expenses.

 

2.2 Maximising Long-Term Growth:

SEO plays a crucial role in building sustainable organic visibility over time. By investing in optimising your website’s content, architecture, and backlink profile, you can improve organic rankings and drive continuous organic traffic. As a result, your reliance on paid advertising for high CPC keywords decreases, resulting in substantial cost savings in the long run. SEO acts as a foundation for consistent visibility and ongoing growth without solely depending on PPC campaigns.

 

Conclusion:

 

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, it’s essential to adapt and utilise the available tools to maximise your client’s visibility. By leveraging Google Ads to cover organic visibility gaps and utilising SEO to save costs for high CPC keywords, businesses can establish a comprehensive and cost-effective marketing strategy. Google Ads helps overcome organic limitations and effectively compete against dominant competitors in the digital landscape. On the other hand, SEO offers a sustainable approach, minimising dependence on paid advertising for high-cost keywords. Integrating both PPC and SEO ensures enhanced online visibility, targeted traffic, and optimised marketing budgets, leading to long-term success in a competitive market.

 
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GA4: Lost Cookie Consent Data

by Paid Search

With the implementation of cookie consent policies, many businesses have faced challenges in accurately reporting their website performance. However, GA4 has introduced a new feature that addresses this issue and allows for more accurate reporting figures. In this blog, we will explore how GA4’s modelled data to estimate figures that can help you optimise your reporting process.

The Challenges Of Lost Cookie Consent Data

Since the introduction of the cookie consent policy, which had the aim of protecting the users’ privacy and providing more control of their data, you may have noticed skewed reporting figures. Without the proper consent, tracking codes or cookies will not be executed properly, leading to incomplete reporting data. This can affect your ability to accurately measure website performance and make data-driven decisions.

GA4’s Modelled Data

To address this challenge, GA4 has introduced a feature that uses modelled data to estimate figures based on historical data and intent signals, which are higher than those in Universal Analytics. This allows businesses to have more insights into the performance of different channels and optimise their strategies accordingly. By using the modelled data you can get a better understanding of your website’s performance even with the limited or lost cookie consent data.

This is particularly useful if you’ve experienced a drop-off and want more insight into the performance of different channels, making optimisation easier. It can also help to streamline your process and reduce the amount of time and effort required to manually adjust figures. 

Benefits of GA4 Modelled Data:

⚡Improved reporting accuracy: With modelled data, you can get a more accurate picture of your website’s performance, even when cookie consent data is lost or limited. This can allow for more informed decision-making and optimisation strategies.

⚡Streamlined Reporting Process: Modelled data can help streamline the reporting process by reducing the time and effect required to manually adjust figures. This can save you time and valuable resources and allow you to focus on more important tasks.

⚡Insight into the performance of different channels: Modelled data can provide businesses with insights into the performance of different marketing channels, helping them understand which channels are driving results and which ones may need optimisation.

Considerations and best practices

While GA4’s modelled data feature can be very useful, it’s important to keep in mind the following considerations:

💡Check accuracy with clients: Modelled data is an estimate and may not be 100% accurate. It is important to check figures with your clients to ensure the accuracy of the estimated data before making any significant changes to your reporting optimisation strategies.

💡Continue monitoring and adjusting: Modelled data should be used as a tool to aid decision-making, but it is important to continue monitoring and adjusting your reporting as necessary. Regularly reviewing and comparing estimated data with actual data can help identify any discrepancies and ensure data accuracy.

💡Use as a complementary tool: Modelled data should not replace observed data completely. But rather be used as a complementary tool. It’s important to understand the limitations of modelled data and use it in conjunction with other data sources to get a holistic view of website performance.

Reverting back to observed data:

If you prefer to use only observed data you can turn off modelled data in the settings by following these steps.

  1. Go to admin in your GA4 account.
  2. Click on your Property Settings.
  3. Under the Property column, click on Reporting Identity.
  4. Choose the “Use only observed data” option.
  5. Save your changes.

In conclusion, GA4’s new feature for lost cookie consent data provides us with a valuable tool to estimate figures and gain additional insights into website performance. By using the modelled data, businesses can overcome challenges related to cookie consent policies and make more informed data-driven decisions. 

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GA4 Cross-Channel Tracking

by Paid Search

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform, designed to help businesses gain insights into user behaviour across multiple devices and platforms. One of the significant changes in GA4 is the introduction of cross-channel tracking, which enables businesses to track conversions across different channels accurately. This is a significant advancement as it allows you to see precisely which channels influenced a conversion and allocate credit accordingly.


Cross-Channel Tracking

Cross-channel tracking in GA4 is a powerful tool that allows businesses to see how customers interact with their brand across different touchpoints. This, in turn, helps them to better understand the customer journey and optimize their marketing campaigns for maximum effectiveness. This means that you will be able to track your customer’s buying journey more precisely and be able to attribute the correct value to each touchpoint in the customer’s journey.

 

For instance, when it comes to Google Ads, this new feature will change the last non-direct click conversion import to full cross-channel credit, allowing you to see the complete value of your Google Ads campaigns.

 

To better understand the impact of this change, let’s consider a typical buyer journey. Suppose a customer clicks on a shopping ad but does not end up purchasing on day one. On day two, they organically search for the product and brand and complete the purchase. 

 

GA4 Last Non-Direct Click

 

Using the traditional last non-direct click tracking method, organic search would get 100% of the credit for this purchase. In contrast, Google Ads would not receive any credit for the conversion. 

 

GA4 Cross-Channel Credit

However, with the new GA4 cross-channel attribution, organic search would receive 50% of the credit, while Google Ads would get the remaining 50% – giving a 0.5 recording of a conversion in Google Ads. This means you can see which channels and campaigns are working best and making the most impact on your customer’s buying journey.

 

By using cross-channel tracking in GA4, you can now gain more visibility of how your campaigns are actually influencing the customer’s purchase journey. This provides more comprehensive data that can help you optimize your marketing campaigns better. It’s now possible to see how different channels work together to convert a customer, which can help identify areas for improvement in your marketing strategy. This allows you to make data-driven decisions about where to allocate marketing resources, ensuring that you get the best possible return on investment.

 

To set up conversion tracking in GA4, businesses need to define the specific events that they want to track as conversions. These events can be defined using the built-in events that are available in GA4 or you can create your own custom events. Once these conversion events are defined, you can use cross-channel tracking to track conversions across different platforms and devices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the upcoming changes to GA4 conversion tracking using cross-channel tracking will provide businesses with a more comprehensive view of their customer journey, enabling them to optimize their marketing campaigns for maximum effectiveness. By attributing the correct value to each touchpoint in the customer’s journey, businesses can make better-informed decisions on their marketing strategies and drive more value from their campaigns.

 

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PMax Vs. Shopping Campaigns: Which Is Right For You?

by Paid Search

PMax Vs. Shopping Campaigns

Performance Max has been a buzzword among digital marketers since its release. It is Google’s newest advertising solution that utilises machine learning to optimise ad performance across multiple Google networks. 

 

Many advertisers have claimed that Performance Max campaigns have delivered significant results, but is it always the best solution for every scenario – what happens when the latest and greatest technology fails to deliver the desired results? That’s what we recently experienced with a client who was going through a rough patch of low search volume and low purchase intent. Despite the sophisticated algorithms in Performance Max, the campaigns were struggling to deliver results. Daily budgets were not being hit, CPCs were rising, and revenue was not being generated at the required volume.

 

After much frustration, we made a bold move and switched back to traditional shopping campaigns. After just a few days of optimization, we saw a substantial increase in volume, leading to a remarkable 184% increase in revenue compared to the previous period. The return on ad spend also increased, so they weren’t sacrificing profitability for volume.

 

The experience was a reminder that sometimes the latest and greatest technology isn’t always the best solution for every scenario. It’s important to stay flexible and adaptable in our approach to advertising and be willing to switch back to tried and true methods when the situation calls for it.

 

While Performance Max campaigns are undoubtedly effective at delivering results, they can sometimes lack the human understanding of the need to drive volume, especially in times of low intent. Standard shopping campaigns, on the other hand, are designed to capture users who are actively searching for products, regardless of their level of intent. By targeting these users with a more volume-driven approach, the agency was able to generate impressive results despite the challenging search environment.

 

So while Performance Max campaigns can be a great tool for certain situations, it’s important to recognize their limitations and be willing to experiment with other approaches when the situation demands it. Sometimes, the best ideas are the ones that go against the grain. Being willing to challenge the status quo, experiment with new ideas, and take calculated risks in our advertising campaigns is key to unlocking untapped potential.

 

With this in mind, let’s dig into the pros and cons of each campaign type to help you decide what would work best for your accounts.

Performance Max

Benefits: 

➡️ Advanced targeting capabilities: Performance Max leverages machine learning algorithms to automatically target relevant audiences across multiple channels and platforms, making it easier to reach potential customers.

➡️ Increased efficiency: Performance Max automates many of the tedious tasks involved in managing advertising campaigns, such as bid adjustments, ad placements, and audience targeting, freeing up time for marketers to focus on higher-level strategic initiatives.

➡️ Enhanced visibility: Performance Max allows advertisers to show their ads across a variety of Google networks, including search, display, and YouTube, providing greater visibility and exposure to potential customers.

 

Drawbacks:

➡️ Limited control over ad placement: While Performance Max automates many aspects of campaign management, it also limits control over where ads are placed and how they are displayed, which can be problematic for some advertisers.

➡️ High minimum spend requirements: Performance Max campaigns often have high minimum spend requirements, which can be a barrier to entry for smaller businesses and advertisers with limited budgets.

➡️ Limited transparency and insights: Performance Max provides limited visibility into the performance of individual ads, which can make it difficult for advertisers to identify and address issues or optimise their campaigns.

Standard Shopping

Benefits:

➡️ More granular campaign management: With Standard Shopping campaigns, advertisers have more granular control over the campaign structure, including the ability to create specific product groups, set bids at the product level, and tailor ad copy and landing pages to individual products or categories.

➡️ Easy to get started: Standard Shopping campaigns are relatively easy to set up and manage, making them a good option for advertisers who are new to Google Ads or who don’t have a lot of experience with advanced targeting capabilities.

➡️ Better suited for specific goals: Standard Shopping campaigns may be better suited for specific advertising goals, such as driving sales of a specific product or category, while Performance Max campaigns may be better suited for broader awareness campaigns.

 

Drawbacks:

➡️ Limited automation: Standard Shopping campaigns offer limited automation capabilities compared to Performance Max, which can make campaign management more time-consuming and labour-intensive.

➡️ More limited targeting capabilities: Standard Shopping campaigns do not offer the same advanced targeting capabilities as Performance Max, which can make it more challenging to reach specific audiences or optimise campaigns for specific goals.

➡️ Limited visibility across multiple platforms: Standard Shopping campaigns are typically limited to Google’s Shopping network, which may limit visibility and exposure compared to Performance Max campaigns, which can show ads across multiple platforms and networks.

Key Takeaways

So, what can we learn from this experience? Here are some takeaways:

💡Be flexible and adaptable in your approach to advertising. Just because a particular campaign type or technology is popular doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for every situation.

💡Don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas and take calculated risks. You never know what might work until you try it.

💡Measure and analyse your results regardless of what approach you take. It’s important to measure and analyse your results to identify what’s working and what’s not based on what you are trying to achieve.

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Using the Page Feed Feature with Dynamic Search Ads

by Paid Search

If you work for an ecommerce business that has thousands of products to advertise, you might think, “where do I even start?”

Obviously, Google Shopping is the go-to for ecommerce but how can we enable growth through text ads without spending time making hundreds of ads for each product? You could use expensive software that does this for you but most businesses would rather save money. So what’s the solution?

The answer is in Dynamic Search Ads and their Page Feed feature. 

What are Dynamic Search Ads and how do they work?

Dynamic Search Ads have been around for a long time now. They step away from the traditional ‘keyword’ targeting of text ads and use the website’s content to return ads for relevant search queries. This helps advertisers find longer-tail keywords and search terms that they may not have previously considered, and that users are actively searching for in real time. Google scans the information on your webpage, understands the content and then matches this to relevant user searches, giving more visibility across a wider range of terms. You can set these up in different ways, either by using all webpages on your site, specific pages or ‘categories’ that Google thinks your website is related to. It then automatically chooses a relevant landing page and a dynamically generated headline to match the user’s query the best it can.

How does the page feed feature work?

The page feed feature allows you to upload a feed of data, full of different URLs, and tells Google to only use these URLs within Dynamic Search Ads. For example, uploading your shopping feed will supply Google with a list of product specific URLs all in one go, ensuring that users are only sent to these landing pages. This then gives Google the opportunity to understand each product and match it to relevant queries dynamically. In essence, this means that Google can automatically create ads related to each product you upload and return relevant ads for said product, without you having to manually create and adjust bids for each one.

How do I set up Dynamic Search Ads with Page Feed?

Setting this up is really simple. Firstly, you need to upload a page feed with the products you want to include, their URLs and any custom labels attached to them. 

You then need to go into campaign view and set up a standard DSA campaign. Once you get to the Dynamic Search Ad part of settings you want to select ‘Use only URLs from page feeds,’ and click the feed you want to use. It’s as easy as that!

Best results

For best results, there are a few things to consider when setting up a DSA with page feed. Firstly, you want to make sure that the product pages have as much information about the product as possible. Google is using this to find relevant search queries, so, the better the content, the better quality searches they will appear for. Secondly, as the descriptions will appear for all products, you want to make this as generic as possible so that it makes sense across all ranges. Think generic USPs like delivery and returns information, any warranties and current offers, or even just company information. Finally, there are many ways to set up DSAs with page feeds and you can make more than one at any time. Therefore, you may want to consider splitting these out across different brands or different product types for better segmentation and reporting. 

All in all, using Dynamic Search Ads with page feeds is a great way to advertise a huge number of products quickly and effectively. Like anything, there will always need to be time for learning and optimisation to ensure any irrelevant terms are excluded and to make sure that things are running efficiently, but this should be a quick way to get extra visibility for your store.

If you’re looking to ramp up your Google Shopping ads and campaigns, get in touch with us today.

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Applying Offline Conversions to Drive Value

by Paid Search

Google Ads is great for lead generation, allowing us to track certain actions that could lead to an offline sale through phone calls and form submissions. However, as industries get more competitive and users browse around more before committing, how can we ever really understand the true value of advertising when these leads may or may not turn into actual qualified leads that have high deal closure? 

Here, I  explain how utilising Offline Conversions within your Google Ads account can drive real monetary value for your business and spending budget, on leads that actually turn into sales.

What are offline conversions?

We all know that just because someone fills in a form on a website, it doesn’t necessarily equate to custom or income for your business. A lot of the time it simply indicates interest from a user without the commitment to buy. Yet when we are tracking conversions in Google Ads, measuring this commitment to buy is likely one of your goals, and so, although it’s great that we are able to attract users who are engaging with the site, this doesn’t generate monetary value. 

So how can we start to bring in and track users who are actually generating revenue and completing the sales at the end of the conversion journey? With basic Google Ad accounts, the tracking stops at the form fill – but it doesn’t have to be that way. Offline conversions allows you to track that form fill right to the end of the sales funnel even though this isn’t being tracked online.

How do I set up offline conversions?

In Google Ads, we need to set up new conversion actions for each of the offline actions we want to track. This can be pulled from Salesforce or other data sources and CRMs.

Using the Google Click ID (GCLID) and the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), we can follow each conversion to see whether they ended up making a purchase with your business. When a user fills in a form on your site, you can capture the GCLID which stays in the CRM with each open lead. As the user works their way through the sales process, we can track each stage up until the deal is closed. We can then upload these clicks and the ‘offline conversions’ that they completed. 

How do offline conversions work?

Completing the set up as above allows Google to take the GCLID and map it back to the click that converted. This will add in these extra offline conversions and you will be able to see in the interface which of the campaigns are driving leads that generate actual value. You can then take this a step further by looking at each step of the conversion journey and applying different CPAs to each stage of the funnel. This will give a new level of data to Google, highlighting how much you are willing to spend for each type of conversion.

Google will firstly try to drive as many ‘Closed Deals’ as it can, before moving down to ‘Sales Qualified Leads,’ then down to ‘Marketing Qualified Leads.’ Finally, if it can’t find any of the above, Google will try to drive ‘Lead.’ This means that Google is now using this data to push for as many of the higher quality conversions as possible.

What are the next steps for growth? 

By importing offline conversions you will hopefully be able to analyse the data more effectively. Alongside the actual sales data this should then help to drive better quality leads for your account. But how can we use this to grow? The next step to help drive growth and give Google as much information as possible is to attach revenue figures to the leads. This means that Google can take each conversion and the value it generated to understand the different types of users, their search behaviour, and buying signals, to effectively target more users and drive higher revenue. You can then start to utilise more monetary based bidding, maximise conversion value or Target ROAS to drive as many high value leads as possible.

Yes, I know it may sound weird using ‘e-commerce’ targets for lead generation but, at the end of the day, you want to drive value for the business, not just pretty digital metrics that end up falling off in the conversion funnel.

Final thoughts about Offline conversions

Offline conversion tracking is the next big thing in Google Ads; your competitors are probably doing it so you should definitely make a start. Try to implement it sooner rather than later to generate better quality data within your Google Ads account and start to drive better conversions. You can then showcase the true value of your PPC campaigns, not only driving leads but driving leads that actually matter.

Contact us to find out how we apply a range of Google Shopping practises to drive real value for your business

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What Is A CSS Provider And Do I Need One?

by Paid Search

Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) have been around for a while now, allowing ecommerce retailers to showcase ads on Google Shopping. This came about in 2017 when Google was hit with a record fine of 2.42€ for promoting its own shopping comparison service within the SERPS. Off the back of this ruling, Google decided to allow other companies to promote products via their own comparison shopping services to compete alongside Google. 

What are the benefits of a CSS provider?

The main benefits of choosing a CSS provider is the financial discount that you, as an advertiser, can gain. A CSS provider receives a 20% discount in CPC in order to compete against Google’s own service. An advertiser can expect to see this discount directly in their ad’s accounts, through a reduction in CPC that is needed to match the position of a listing from Google. For example, if a product using Google’s CSS costs £1.00 per click then a competitor CSS provider could expect to see the same impression share for just £0.80. This can have a huge impact if media spend is high & these discounts start to add up.

CSS providers are only available for products being sold in the following countries:

  • Austria
  • Netherlands
  • Belgium
  • Norway
  • Czech Republic
  • Poland
  • Denmark
  • Portugal
  • Finland
  • Romania
  • France
  • Slovakia
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • Greece
  • Sweden
  • Hungary
  • Switzerland
  • Ireland
  • United Kingdom
  • Italy

What do I need to do?

In order to get set up with a CSS provider, you just need to make sure that you have a Merchant Centre account set up that only includes the allowed countries as above. This can then be switched over to the CSS provider & their implementation team should be able to take the reins from there. After this process, you should be good to go with your campaigns in Google Ads.

How do I know which CSS provider to pick? 

There are multiple CSS providers that you can choose offering a range of different benefits, from experience and service models to their own way of billing. The main thing to think about is what you want to get from the CSS provider; if it is solely to manage the shopping ads & get a discount then the primary factors to consider are:

  • The name of the CSS provider – this will appear alongside your ads so there will be a semblance of association between the two brands
  • The billing strategy of the provider – some providers have a monthly subscription fee, some use a percentage of spend, and some base it on CPA so only charge when you actually make a sale.

As online retail continues to grow there’s never been a better time to make savings in such a competitive market. Making the change now means that even the smallest of savings can start building up & be reapportioned into ad spend, thus increasing growth opportunities & market share. If you’re interested in making the jump, Google has provided a tool to get you started which shows all of the available CSS providers & their specialisms to help you pick the right one for your business.

We can also guide you towards the right shopping ads for your campaign. Speak to us today

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Combining Supplemental Feeds and Scripts for Better Performing Campaigns

by Paid Search

In today’s world of automation, it can be hard to know the best ways to optimise campaigns when Google gives us less and less data each day. With the launch of Performance Max with no search term, channel split or ads data, it can feel frustrating as an advertiser trying to understand performance. 

With PMax, as with Smart Shopping previously, there is a lack of control in that we can’t push specific products, we just have to let the algorithm take the lead. For ecommerce businesses with a lot of SKUs this can seem counterintuitive, as we may need to ensure visibility of certain products or ensure that the best sellers aren’t taking all of the budget. Now you could split these out into separate campaigns, but what if we want to segment this out due to performance – something that can change on a regular basis? It would take so much time looking through thousands of products pulling them out of one campaign and adding them back into another multiple times a week. If only there was a way to do this automatically…

Script

By using a script, we can automatically apply custom labels within a Google Sheet to products that don’t meet certain criteria, whether that be an amount of clicks, impressions or conversions. This will allow us to segment out products that aren’t getting as much visibility as we would like through the use of custom labels. Once that specific product surpasses this threshold, the custom label is removed so that it can once again run in the primary campaign now that Google has more data on it.

Supplemental Feed

By using a supplemental feed you can add new information in an overlaid feed to the one that gets uploaded. This makes it easier for segmentation purposes, using custom labels or changing product attributes without having to alter the actual feed that is pulled into the Merchant Centre. We can then use Google Sheets, provided by the Script, to upload into a new Supplemental Feed which will override the primary feed data, populating those custom label fields with the updated version. From here you can launch ‘low clicks,’ ‘low impressions’ or ‘low conversions’ campaigns by segmenting the products out by these new labels.

And there you have it; easy segmentation based on actual performance within your Google Ads account ensuring that all products get as much visibility as possible.

If you’re interested in finding out how this could work for your campaigns, get in touch with us.