Managing Google Ads is about relevancy, control, and ultimately, results. Although creating and managing Google Ads can seem daunting, understanding how the platform works and creating your first engaging ad is the starting point to a successful campaign.
Getting started with Google Ads involves an understanding of three main components:
the structure of the account as a whole
the individual components that make up an ad
the criteria Google uses to determine ad quality and position
Google Ads Account Structure
The structure of Google Ads accounts are similar to a pyramid, with campaigns at the top, then ad groups, then ads, and the keywords that the individual ad groups are built around.
Campaigns are the overarching groups that house your ad groups and individual ads and keywords. These are the broadest categories used to separate ads. For example, having separate campaigns for ads based on blog posts and events. Settings, such as location and budget are set at the campaign level.
Ad groups contain one or more ads that share similar targets. Each of your campaigns is made up of at least two ad groups, which help organize your ads by a common theme. For example, an ad group that encourages searchers to volunteer and an ad group focused on increasing participants in a particular program.
Within these are ads, which point to one landing page related to the ad group topic and are shown based on the relevant keywords within the group.
Anatomy of an Ad
Ads at their core are comprised of headlines, descriptions, and ad extensions. Google recommends using responsive search ads, which require:
A minimum of 5 headlines and a maximum of 15 for each ad, both of which can have up to 30 characters.
Up to 4 descriptions to further describe the landing page and purpose of the ad up to 90 characters
And at least 2 ad extensions, which give searchers more information and context about the landing page and the organization as a whole. These include, among others:
Sitelinks, which are text extensions used for linking important pages
Call outs, shorter text only calls-to-action that appear after the ad
Images
Call, a link or display of the organization’s phone number
Compliance & Best Practices
To have your account stay in good standing as well as to get the most out of the grant, there are best practices to help guide your work, in addition to Google Ad Grant policies that you need to follow to keep the grant.
Each ad group should have between five and twenty five keywords. No one-word or generic keywords can be used. In addition, keywords need to have a quality score greater than 2, which is a measurement of how well Google thinks your ads and the landing page are targeted toward a particular keyword.
Each campaign is required to have at least two ad groups, and each ad group is required to have at least two responsive search ads.
Google Ad Grant accounts are also required to maintain an account-wide click-through rate of at least 5% each month.
Creating Ads
When creating ads, the key is to write high quality headlines that will give searchers more information on what your organization and the specific landing page is about, as well as including high traffic keywords to entice them to click on the ads.
Using relevant keywords with high volumes that are used both in the ad and on the landing page, ads that are engaging and unique and accurately describe the landing page and what users can expect once they click on the ad.
You should also ensure that the landing page you use in the ad meets the expectations behind the ad and the searcher’s intent to increase conversions from ad visitors once they land on your site.
Practices to avoid:
Having too many ad groups for the same idea/same landing page
Using the same keywords in multiple ad groups
Sending visitors to a poorly optimized landing page
Ad Rank & Quality Score
The last main points to understanding Google Ads are ad rank and quality score, which determine the position your ads show or if they’re eligible to show, and the overall estimated quality of the ad, respectively. Google determines these by:
Looking at the context of the searcher’s query including their location, type of device, other signals, and how well your ad matches up with these factors
Ad extensions and whether those are relevant to that particular person
How relevant and useful your ad and the landing page are to that particular searcher
And the ad landing experience itself. Google takes into account if the page has appropriate and original content, is easily navigable, and other signals that show that your site is trustworthy and will match the searcher’s intent.
All of these lead to higher quality scores, which in turn leads to increased engagement and better qualified leads on your landing pages.
Measuring Success
How do you know if your Google Ads are successful? The main key performance indicators (KPIs) for Google Ads are:
Impressions, how many times searchers have seen an ad
Clicks, the amount of times searches have clicked on an ad they’ve seen
Click-through rate, clicks over impressions, or the percentage of times that searchers who see an ad click on it
Conversions, the amount of completed actions that come from a searcher clicking on your ad
Bounce, the amount of times searchers clicked away or closed a landing page after clicking on an ad
Spend, the amount spent per ad
All of these are factors in the quality of your ads, ad groups, and account as a whole. These measurement metrics will help you keep track of your ads and how well they’re doing, as well as any that need extra attention.