mizing your Google Ads Account: 10 advanced Strategies

Google Ads remains one of the most popular platforms for all types of businesses. With constant updates, increased automation, and the loss many “traditional” controls, finding the balance between investment, and return, can be extremely difficult.

At SMX Advance, Sam Tomlinson, executive vice-president at marketing communications agency Warschawski explained that marketers must figure out how they can work with AI to help them perform better, “because fundamentally, we will not be able to outtrade a computer.”

Here are 10 advanced Google Ads strategies that helped Tomlinson achieve great results.

1. Help the machine to learn by providing data.

The best data is vital to feeding machines. Google can benefit from four useful tools.

Conversion Action Set

Tomlinson explained that this underutilized feature allows you to “group the conversions of a similar stage” in the funnel and “allows you to have different objectives…so you can actually optimize the relevant campaign toward a relevant objective without having other data come in and confuse the mix.”

Conversion Enhanced

Tomlinson said that his company uses enhanced conversion to convert every client, as it allows them to link any CRM with Google Ads directly and set up primary optimization events. Tomlinson stated:

• This means that you are giving machines the data they need to make better bids and decisions. You’ll get fewer and less junk leads. One of the best ways to prevent junk leads is by using enhanced conversions…we saw a 75% decrease in junk leads after 45 days following implementation of an MQL based primary conversion action. That’s fantastic!”

Smart Business Data

Marketers can import data from Google Analytics, and by extension Google Ads.

• I highly recommend that you do this. Tomlinson said that the more data machines have, the better they will be able to optimize.

Offline Conversion Import

The first step is enhanced conversion, then conversion adjustment. You can then restate the value of conversion to adjust it upwards or downwards.

Tomlinson added: “You can remove data to ensure that you are not optimizing flawed information.”

• Google will treat every bit of information you provide as incremental unless you explicitly tell them otherwise. If there’s a discrepancy in what you initially told Google versus what happened, then use conversion adjustments.

2. Focus your engines using data

This approach is powerful for B2B as well as B2C companies because it allows marketers to make small adjustments in how algorithms bid based on the unique data of their businesses – something they can control.

• Every business has a different value structure. “Every business has different value structures.”
• It’s estimated that less than 10% of Google Ads accounts use value rules. Tomlinson stated that “they’re powerful but they’re underutilized.”

3. Add audience and business insights to a foundation built on data.

Google will be able to better optimize your content if you give it the information needed. This will ultimately lead to better results for marketers.

This can be done by layering information on how your customers purchase your products. For example, product type, price and buyer type.

• It is important to combine data from your business and data about your target audience in order to provide the machine with a framework within which it can work. He said that when you combine information on how your customers buy your products and how you make money from your products, you get a matrix. You can then prioritize what you should bid for.

4. CPA or ROAS can be used as the steering wheel for your campaign

Tomlinson believes that too many advertisers use automation and automated bid strategies incorrectly. Tomlinson said that Google Ads places a higher priority on achieving high ROAS or a low CPA goal than it does for campaigns.

• The lowest possible target CPA for your highest priority campaigns is the best option, as it reduces the threshold that you are willing to tolerate in terms of your unique business cost structure and value structure. This structure will only work if you are confident in your numbers and trust them.

He added:

• Google’s Budget Simulator can be a great tool when you are thinking about how best to set CPAs and ROAS targets. It’s great. It’s an amazing tool. But remember that anything above the optimal level of spending will lead to inefficiency and losses. The gains you have made start to disappear. It is important to choose the right CPA target. You can use the budget simulator to find out where this is.

5. Ad accounts can be ruined by CPCs that are too high

Avoid runaway CPCs that can destroy your advertising account.

This can be done by setting the minimum and maximum bids for each automated strategy in your portfolio.

• “It is free insurance, because Google can make mistakes – which creates a downside protection. You could end up with a conversion rate that is outlier or a runaway success. But how will you manage that risk? You’ll be fine if you eliminate the bad cards.

6. Modern structures can minimize the time spent on learning

The more data you divide, the harder it will be for machines to understand it. Tomlinson says that marketers should focus on segmenting and fragmenting data only where necessary and providing a marginal return to justify it.

• It’s a tough pill for many old-school SEMers to swallow, but you must. “And start consolidating.”

Tomlinson recommended consolidating 20 keyword-only ad groups to one ad group. He recommended that audience targeting, data targeting and keyword targeting be combined.

• This will combine passive and active targeting. This is what will get you better results.”

PPC experts are also being urged to stop competing against AI and take on more strategic tasks which will benefit machines. Tomlinson explained that by writing a good ad, you could help machines better understand your content.

• It is also important to create unique, highly relevant, and highly informative landing page. Broad Match now uses the content of landing pages as a way to determine what type of user and what type of search might be relevant.

He added:

• “Finally make automation your friend. This can be done by setting negative goals. Turn off the campaign if the performance of a campaign is significantly different from what you expected. If something isn’t working as it should, then stop the bleeding before it gets worse. You can then adjust, restructure and move keywords and product. Teach the machine to better perform its task by teaching it what it should be looking for.

7. Add audiences, even if they are just referred to as ‘observe.’

Marketing professionals must always remember that they’re targeting people, not keywords. This is why it’s so important to use audience tools effectively. You can do this by using predictive audiences in GA4.

• Tomlinson said, “This feature is incredible.” Brands have spent billions trying to figure out this feature – but here it is, for free!

GA4 will tell you which audiences are most likely to interact with your marketing, and which are less likely to return to your site in the coming seven days.

Marketers can create custom segments by analyzing what audiences are searching for on Google. They can also identify the audience that uses certain apps or websites.

• Tomlinson added, “It is incredible.” You can research people searching for solutions to problems we solve or people using alternatives to our service.

8. What you exclude is important more than what you include

Your exclusions are becoming increasingly important as machines become more broad and match types continue to evolve.

• Tomlinson said, “Please, please, think about what you could cut out.” “Can I remove the garbage and still include all I need? The machines will automatically find what you want to include. You must remove the material that should not be included.

9. Test RSAs using variants

Tomlinson says that the best way to test RSAs is to use variant testing.

• He explained that he would recommend one of three tests to look at the composition. “Say you want to compare a brand-differentiator call to actions with proving point. I will test each structure against the other, and I’ll use multiple headlines and pinning for each. The pin makes sure that each headline in every position matches the structure that I’m testing. Multiple headlines give me some flexibility, so that Google isn’t totally against me.
• You can use this as inspiration for testing. “You can test offers, value props, or a seed, then iterate. Just put in some headlines and see what happens. See which combinations work the best. All of these approaches are fine.

Tomlinson was added to the list

• It hurts to see variant testing done so infrequently. It hurts when you go into ad accounts and find RSAs without variant testing.

10. Make sure you are testing multiple ad groups

It is important for advertisers to have RSA test structures, especially those who work on smaller accounts. Use variants to find patterns in your headlines and description.

Tomlinson explained that “you’re testing messages across your entire account, rather than just one adgroup.”

• This allows you to apply your learnings across all of your accounts and achieve statistical significance much faster. It’s a shame that multi-ad groups testing is not being done. You want to know which assets, and which combinations of them, lead to the best performance.

Remember labels for brownie points!

Tomlinson encouraged PPC marketers, when implementing changes, to better monitor the labels.

• “Most people don’t know what happened the week before, much less why you changed something seven months ago.
• “Whenever you make a change, add something or do something, always label it and use standard labels so you can group the changes, pull data and understand what is happening.”

The article Optimizing Google Ads: 10 advanced strategies first appeared on Search Engineland.