For online stores looking to maximize their online visibility, Google Ads offers a powerful opportunity to secure a position at the top of Google search results.
With 63% of people having clicked on a Google ad and an average conversion rate of 4.4%, it seems like a no-brainer – especially since businesses are estimated to earn $8 in profits from every $1 spent.
Although many businesses see huge returns from their paid advertising, it is not as easy as it may appear. Getting clicks is only the first step, and if these don’t result in conversions, it’s time to reflect on what is missing from your ad strategy.
In this article, we share seven proven tactics that can help turn your clicks into conversions so you can start to see an improved return from your paid advertising.
7 Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate
Here are seven strategies which you can implement to optimize your ads and improve the quality of your leads.
Target long-tail keywords
Many online stores fall into the trap of setting up an ad campaign that uses broad keywords relevant to their general product or service offering. Although these keywords have a high search volume, they are incredibly competitive, and therefore incredibly expensive.
Instead, finding highly relevant long-tail keywords will help build a more tailored campaign with a higher chance of success. Finding specific phrases that include a higher level of detail means the user knows exactly what they are looking for, and if your ad offers them exactly that, they’re much more likely to convert.
In addition to allowing you to improve the quality of your leads, the CPC (cost per click) will be lower for long-tail keywords since competition is reduced.
Utilize ad extensions
Unbeknown to many, Google AdSense offers the opportunity to add extensions to an ad – and best of all, they’re completely free!
Extensions sit below the ad to provide extra information to the user. These may include sitelinks that link to relevant website pages, call extensions that allow users to contact your business, or ratings that display your Google star rating. These extra snippets make your business stand out more in search results as they increase the size of your ad.
The image below is an example of a Google ad from a cruise holiday provider. As you can see below, their ad copy includes their five-star rating and a range of sitelinks that allow users to go directly to the most relevant landing page.
(Image source: Google search)
Setup ad scheduling
For small businesses that are working with tight resources, having ads running 24/7 can mean the budget gets swallowed up with little to show for it.
To make your budget stretch further, schedule your ads to display only during peak times of the day. These can be established by analyzing the data in your Google Ads account to determine when your audience is most engaged with your ads – look for any correlation between the time of day and conversions.
For best results, align your ads with your opening hours. For example, if you’re a restaurant, schedule your ads to display during the lunch rush or at weekends when people are on the hunt for a good local restaurant to try out, or if you have a corporate business, advertising during opening hours will ensure users can get in touch if they wish to talk to your team.
Optimize your landing page
Once a user clicks on your ad, this is only the beginning! The landing page should be highly relevant to the nature of the ad, providing the user with an immediate answer to their question.
To make the most out of your paid advertising and get the best value from your budget, ensure that your ads link to the most suitable landing page. The messaging should align with the ad’s messaging, alongside a clear CTA (call-to-action) button that allows users to easily convert if they are ready to do so.
As well as ensuring the contents of the landing pages are up to scratch, it is important that the website health does not deter users. If the page has a slow loading speed or is not optimized for mobile devices, you could be losing conversions left, right, and center. Using a small business website builder will help you create a high-quality website without the need for an experienced developer.
Add negative keywords
Especially for those in the early stages of paid advertising, there is a lot of trial and error, which can inevitably result in a wasted budget. Teething issues commonly see business ads displaying search terms that are not relevant to their business offering, minimizing the number of conversions they get for their budget.
An example of this would be a men’s clothing store offering tailored suits for formal occasions. In their ad campaign, they would add negative keywords related to terms such as “women’s”, “cheap,” and “rent.” This would focus the campaign on relevant search terms that get the ads displayed to the people most likely to convert.
Google’s guidance on negative keywords explains the three types: negative broad match, negative phrase match, and negative exact match. These define whether you choose to define the exact phrases that you do not wish to show or whether you want to remove all related terms. As shown in the example below, a negative broad match keyword would also prevent an ad from triggering different variations of the term.
(Image source: Google Ads Help)
Finetune ad copy
If your ads are managing to get clicks but not conversions, this is a big indication that your ad copy is not performing well. Whether the ad does not reflect what is seen on the landing page or contains misleading content, this results in a wasted budget since the user is going to end up clicking straight off your website.
Your ad copy should be short and snappy, instantly offering a solution to the readers’ pain points so they are drawn into what you have to offer. Since you don’t have many characters to work with, your ad copy needs to instantly highlight what you do, what the USP (unique selling point) is, and a CTA to steer the user in the right direction.
To further optimize your copy, consider running A/B tests. By creating multiple ad variations that each lead to the same landing page, you can trial different tones and features to see which performs the best.
Keep on top of maintenance
If you decide to use Google Ads as part of your marketing strategy, you need to ensure that you can commit enough time to it. Many small businesses set up their campaigns and then leave them to run in the background, but that can turn out to be a costly mistake.
Ongoing maintenance is essential for improving your conversion rate. Keep an eye on which keywords are converting, look out for any ads that are underperforming, adjust your bids accordingly, and add negative keywords to prevent budget wastage.
By keeping on top of your ad campaigns, you will be able to spot any teething issues and optimize your ads accordingly. This will mean your budget is used more efficiently, in turn maximizing conversions.
Making the Most of Your Paid Advertising Budget
When you delve into paid advertising, seeing your clicks skyrocket can feel like a great win – but it’s not enough! Although this is a good indicator that your ad copy is enticing enough to generate interest, something must be going wrong if you do not see conversions follow.
Ensuring that your paid advertising strategy is well-optimized will not only help you start to notice a rise in conversion rates, but also allow your budget to be stretched further.
By taking a step back to analyze your strategy and establish what may be preventing users from taking action, you can improve your campaign. From adding long-tail keywords and setting up negative keywords to adding ad extensions and optimizing your landing pages, trialing new tactics can help you find the ones that make the difference.
