Running ads on Google is a smart decision for any small business owner. After all, paid search ads on Google have an average return of $2 for every $1 spent. However, even though 85% of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses, it’s not uncommon for small business owners and marketers to have trouble seeing results with their search ads–either in the form of ads not generating the leads and revenue they expected, or simply not showing up at all.
With so many factors involved in the performance of any one ad, it can feel overwhelming to try to figure out what you’re doing wrong. The good news is, it’s oftentimes just a matter of making some broader adjustments. In this post, I’m going to provide a wealth of search advertising optimization tips to help you maximize the return on your investment in PPC.
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How to optimize search ads: 9 tips
Ready to optimize your search ads like a pro and get your ad costs under control? Let’s dig into these Google Ads tips.
📣 Are your Google Ads leaving money on the table? Use our 100% free Google Ads Performance Grader to get an instant audit of your Google Ads account.
1. Check your mobile site speed
According to Google’s data, more than half of overall web traffic comes from mobile, yet PPC conversion rates are lower on mobile than on desktop. Why? Because speed is paramount to the optimal user experience, especially on Google. When site speed is slow, a consumer who tapped on your ad is likely to exit the landing page before it even loads. Even worse, Google will still charge you for the click on your ad even though the customer never saw your website!
That being said, the first item of business on your Google Ads optimization checklist is to ensure you have a well-designed website that loads quickly and grabs the customer’s attention. This may mean modifying your landing page or making site-wide adjustments, but it’s worth the time. The more seamless the experience is on your website, the lower the probability of a bounce and the more likely a visitor will be to trust you and become a customer.
To find and fix load-speed issues, start by running a local SEO audit on your website. Then use these Google Ads optimization tools to check your site speed and diagnose what might be causing slow load times:
- Google’s Site Speed Tester
- Google’s PageSpeed Insights
- Lighthouse / Web.dev Full Audit
- Google’s Mobile Speed Scorecard and Impact Calculator
2. Choose relevant keywords
Keywords are arguably the most important component of search ads optimization. If the keywords you’re bidding on aren’t searched frequently or don’t align with your target audience, they’ll get little valuable traction and ultimately waste your ad spend.
Your strategy for choosing keywords is to identify the search terms that consumers are using when their intent is aligned with your business’s content and offerings, and that also have a decent search volume. Make use of keyword research tools to find the best keywords for your Google Ads optimization strategy.
Keyword research will help you find a broad range of initial keywords, but it’s important to expand and refine that list according to your specific offerings. And don’t forget to see what your competitors are targeting with the Google Ads library.
Pro tips on optimizing your search ad keyword research:
- Make sure to bid on keywords with different levels of intent so you can strengthen various stages of your marketing funnel.
- Select negative keywords–they help to reduce irrelevant traffic to your website and prevent you from paying for clicks on your ads that don’t lead to customers.
- Regularly comb through your search queries 1-2 times per week to find opportunities for new keywords and help to find negatives.
3. Try Performance Max campaigns
If you’re unsure where to start with keywords, ad targeting, and more, Performance Max (PMax) campaigns might be what you need to optimize your Google Ads performance.
Performance Max campaigns automatically place your ads across Google’s network. Plus, after all the Performance Max updates recently, it’s easier than ever to build and scale ads with this automated campaign type.
4. Revisit your bidding strategy
If you feel like your site speed and keyword groups are in a good place, another area of optimization to focus on with your Google Ads is bidding. Your bid is the amount you’re willing to spend to get a click. It’s important to be aware of your bid strategy and budget because if your bids are too low, they won’t be competitive enough and will limit your ad’s visibility at the top of the search results page. On the other hand, bidding too aggressively can drive up your costs without guaranteeing better results.
With Google Ads, you have two options when it comes to bidding: Set your own bids or use Google’s Smart Bidding so it’s done for you. There are benefits and drawbacks to both.
When you set your own bids, you can manually set bids for individual keywords, ad groups, or campaigns. Alternatively, you can leverage Google’s Smart Bidding instead to determine how much you are willing to pay for a click. Smart bidding strategies help to optimize bids for your ads based on your ultimate goal for your campaign and also save you lots of time from having to bid manually.
There’s always a healthy debate about which smart bidding strategy is best and how it compares to manual bidding. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here–your bidding strategy is in your hands. To optimize your Google Ads performance, take the time to understand the pros and cons of automated bidding to learn whether it’s best for your business goals.
🛑 Are you paying more than other companies in your industry for Google Ads? Download our Search Ads Benchmarks Guide and find out.
5. Target the right audience
When optimizing your Google Ads for maximum ROI, it’s important to use audiences and location targeting so you can reach certain demographics or online behaviors that are typical of your ideal customers. This way, you can reduce irrelevant traffic and low-quality clicks. Different audiences can be set up to build awareness, influence consideration, or drive action.
For more help with audience targeting, check out these posts:
6. Use retargeting
Equally, if not more important than targeting, is retargeting, which too many advertisers neglect to do even when they are eligible. Google says that only 2-4% of site visits result in a transaction, so it’s important to retarget those who visited your site to drive them back to your page to hopefully make a conversion.
7. Diversify your networks
Although Google receives a high volume of traffic, it’s best not to put your eggs in one basket. Make sure to diversify your networks, such as by advertising on Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and more. This is an overall PPC optimization strategy that will help to increase your audience size, get more impressions on your advertisement, and ultimately reach more customers.
Pro tip for optimizing search ads even further: Don’t forget about smaller social networks such as LinkedIn, Reddit, and Pinterest. These networks house millions of users within specific demographics and niche types. In addition, since your audience behaves differently on different platforms, you’ll be able to get a more holistic idea of your buyer personas. Plus, as the number of users on these social networks increases, you’ll have more opportunities to take advantage of.
8. Consider AI-powered optimizations for search ads
There are tons of other ways you can optimize your search ads with the help of AI. For example, you can use AI tools, or Google’s AI capabilities directly in its ad editor, to create lines of ad copy, generate product images, and so on.
Additionally, you can use AI in tandem with a customer relationship management software, or CRM, to organize your business’s first-party data to create or expand audience targeting lists. You can check out more ways to use AI to optimize search ads here, but be sure to give any AI outputs a final lookover to catch any mistakes. Machine learning isn’t perfect, so you’ll want to ensure your AI-powered ads are still maintaining that “human touch” and adhering to your brand goals and guidelines.
💡 Use our free AI copy tool to instantly get copy-and-paste headlines and descriptions for your search ads!
9. Make your landing pages conversion-friendly
Optimizing your search ads is only half the battle when it comes to converting prospective customers. Once a user clicks on your ad, you’ll want to consider their experience on your landing page. Aside from site speed, you’ll also want to ensure your search ads landing pages are easy to navigate and use clear calls to action to help visitors move through your sales funnel.
Use this checklist to optimize your search ads and increase ROI
If you follow the tips in this guide, you’ll take a huge step towards more efficient and effective Google Ads. And don’t forget you can also replicate your Google Ads on Bing for more ROI.
We’ve created a handy Google Ads optimization tips checklist to make the whole thing easier. For more help optimizing your search ads, see how our solutions can assist in managing and maximizing your campaigns across platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and more!
