Whether you're a Google Ads expert (formerly Google AdWords) or just getting started on the platform, you need to account for its complexity and constant updates. That's why we've laid out the 5 most common mistakes to avoid.
1) Having a highly fragmented account structure
For years, the recommended approach was a very granular account structure following a Campaign > Ad Groups > Keywords breakdown. It was common to end up with campaigns that each had only 1 or 2 ad groups, each containing a handful of keywords. This approach encouraged a high Quality Score, given the tight coherence within each campaign.
However, the downside was having very little data available in each campaign, since each one contained very few keywords. This wasn't a problem back when bidding strategies, bid adjustments, and ads were managed manually, but that's no longer the case today.
To feed Google's algorithms and encourage faster learning, the current recommendation is to have fewer campaigns that each group a larger number of ad groups and keywords, generating more data and therefore being optimized automatically at a faster pace. This gives the algorithm the fuel it needs to make your campaigns perform.
That said, you shouldn't consolidate campaigns that cover very different themes. The goal is simply to have a more streamlined and coherent account structure.
2) Not leveraging Google's Machine Learning power
As mentioned above, campaign automation can drive better performance. Google positions itself as an "AI-first" company and integrates automation wherever it can. Using Google's automation also frees up your time to focus on less operational tasks.
You can use Google's algorithms to automatically optimize:
- Your bidding strategies: no need to manually enter CPC (Cost Per Click) bids by keyword. You can instead use automated strategies such as Target CPA (tCPA), Target ROAS (tROAS), Maximize Conversions, eCPC, and more.
- Your bid adjustments: no need to manually update bid adjustments by device, time of day, or location. The algorithm factors all of these into its decisions.
- Your ads: thanks to newer formats like RSA (Responsive Search Ads), Responsive Display ads, and keyword insertion tags, your ads become dynamic and A/B testing becomes much easier.
- Your targeting: you can hand off 100% of your targeting to the algorithm, as with Smart Display campaigns, Universal App Campaigns, or DSA (Dynamic Search Ads) campaigns. Or you can delegate a portion of your targeting by implementing your own audience lists in campaigns, which will feed the algorithm with valuable signals.
3) Not using all available ad extensions
Ad extensions let you display additional information alongside your ads that you couldn't fit within the ad itself (due to character limits, for example). There are only good reasons to use every ad extension available to you: they display supplemental information beyond what's already in your ads, they improve your Quality Score, they let you take up more space on the screen and therefore increase your CTR, and your competitors won't hesitate to use them to showcase their competitive advantages. Ad extensions come in many varieties: sitelink extensions, callout extensions, location extensions, call extensions, app extensions, and more. Set up every extension that makes sense for your business.
4) Not setting up conversion tracking
Conversion tracking lets you monitor goals you define upfront, so you can measure your campaign performance against those goals. A conversion can be a sale on your site, a form submission, a newsletter sign-up, a user spending more than a certain amount of time on a page, or even simply visiting a specific page.
No matter what industry you're in, you can always measure the actions users take on your website. Even if your goal is to drive qualified traffic to your site, it's always useful to know what your visitors do after clicking on your ad. For example, you can use conversion data to determine which keywords, ads, and targeting methods generate more conversions than others (and therefore more qualified traffic). Implementing conversion tracking can sometimes be complex. Don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like support on this.
5) Not running A/B tests
Google Ads is a platform that makes it easy to test many elements. We strongly recommend continuously testing your keywords, ads, targeting options, landing pages, and visuals (for Display campaigns). Over time, this will help you identify the elements that perform best for your campaigns. Just be sure to give the platform enough time to test: for example, if you're testing 10 ads simultaneously, it will take the platform several weeks to rotate all the ads and accumulate enough data for you to draw conclusions.
To run these tests, you can:
- Do it manually: for instance, put multiple similar ads in an ad group that use slightly different wording, and see which variant performs best.
- Use the "campaign experiments" feature directly in Google Ads, which automates the test between campaigns.
- Use Google Optimize to run A/B tests on the structure of your website.
Thinking about getting started with Google Ads? We can help.
Don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like support with your digital marketing strategy.
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