Advertising on Google is a never-ending complex process. You need to invest time, money, and a lot of effort to continue making it work. What you need is to create a Google Ads optimization daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly routine to achieve your end goal.
Surprisingly, many PPC advertisers don't have an exact process for their Google Ads optimizations. Still, they merely depend on notes or daily run of the mill management.
It is challenging to track the things you have done without a Google Ads optimization routine if you have a big account and more than 50 campaigns.
You can focus on the most immediate areas of improvement before working on medium impact areas and then a lesser impact. Consider applying The Pareto principle - 80/20 rule to analyze areas of development better.
With that said, here are Google Ads optimization routines that you should perform daily, weekly, and monthly to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Daily Google Ads Optimization
It's essential to perform a daily Google Ads optimization routine to know if anything in your ad needs an immediate fix.
Here are the Google Ads indicators you need to track daily:
Fluctuations
If you see daily fluctuations between 15% to 25%, ignore it. You need to set the alarm if a keyword jumps from spending $50 per day to $500 per day and if a keyword moves from $500 to only $50 in daily ad spend.
Follow these steps to set up a basic alert or rule in Google Ads:
- Step 1: Select Tools on the main Google Ads dashboard.
- Step 2: Hover your mouse to Bulk Actions and select Rules.
- Step 3: To add a new rule, click the Add New Rule button.
- Step 4: Select Keyword Rules.
- Step 5: Under Type Of Rule, select Send Email and then set the frequency to Daily.
- Step 6: Click Save Rule.
Google will track the essential elements of your account once your rules are set. Doing so will free up your time so you can focus on more critical tasks.
Budget Trends
I recommend setting up a personal budget pacing sheet to make sure you are on target and don't run out of cash when the month ends.
To pace my budget, I use this equation:
Speaking of budget, always check the Search Lost IS (budget) column in Google Ads to analyze possible impressions percentage and lost impressions due to low budget. You might need to increase your ad budget a little more if you're losing impressions.
Finally, find out what time of day you are losing money and impressions.
Switch from the default "Optimize for clicks" to the "Rotate indefinitely" option for ad rotation once you are past the beginner level.
Bidding
Your Google Ads bidding strategy should maximize volume for strong performers, improve efficiency for so-so performers, and eliminate poor performers.
Go for automated bidding and never waste time and effort overthinking, especially if you have a complicated strategy.
Always check the Average Position on the following to perform bid optimization accordingly:
- Ad campaign
- Ad group
- Keyword levels
If the cost per acquisition (CPA) is higher than the target, lower your bids, and allocate your ad budget toward those that are more valuable.
Weekly Google Ads Optimization
Weekly Google Ads optimization is conducted once a week on the same day to maintain consistent performance improvements. Set your date range to the Last 7 days and make sure that the dates don't overlap with previous weekly optimizations.
Once Google has collected enough data, follow the steps in this section, apply some changes, and wait for at least a week before you follow up.
Prioritizing
It isn't easy to start if your Google Ads account has several campaigns that need attention. My tip is, to begin with, a descending approach to find the most costly ad campaign.
Head over to the Campaigns tab and select the cost column. Doing so will sort every campaign in a descending order based on cost.
So what happens when you optimize the campaigns with the highest cost? It will increase the overall account performance. Optimize the highest cost campaigns first and then move down the list.
Improve Campaigns or Ad Groups Performance
To improve your Google Ads campaigns or ad groups, you must start by defining your key performance metrics (KPMs) like increase CTR, conversion rate, average position, etc.
Next is to set an automated email for each KPI. For example, on Monday, you should receive an email about campaigns or ad groups with low CTR. On Tuesday, you should receive an email about a low conversion rate.
Search Term Reports
You need to evaluate search term reports as frequently as possible as part of your weekly Google Ads optimization routine. However, don't overdo it because you will get confused.
You can perform a weekly light evaluation of search term reports to collect high-level negative keywords.
Set a threshold to make sure your time is spent efficiently. I would not worry too much about anything with a few clicks or less, but that depends on your account's size.
Negative Keywords
Google Ads optimization requires you to watch out for negative keywords.
Negative keywords can drain your budget and ruin your performance. If you find negative keywords in a previous step, add the low performing ones to your list to stop them from triggering your ads again.
When you do your keyword research, add negative keywords as a broad match. However, if you are working with a short search term with 1 or 2 words or if it's closely related to other terms, use an exact match negative keyword.
Next, add all the terms you choose to exclude as an exact match negative keyword, even if you have already added one of the words as a broad negative match. Doing this will ensure that the term is labeled as excluded within the Google Ads platform to prevent confusion later.
I suggest checking if Campaign or Ad Group's CTR is lower than average with +/-5% of total impression.
Keyword Expansion
Keyword Expansion is the method of adding new keywords that you are yet to get impressions for. Doing so guarantees you to get more ad impressions, higher budget spends, and more conversions.
Here are a few options to help you with keyword expansion:
- Use your creativity.
- Use keyword research tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner.
- Use spy tools like Ubersuggest.
Ad Test Review
Your weekly Google Ads optimization routine must include reviews of your tests to monitor current trends and overall performance.
One week’s data will show you how things are going and what decisions need to be made.
Use a simple A/B Testing tool like this one from Neil Patel.
Using this tool will show that your data is not just a fluctuation. A 90% significance is good, but I am confident that I've made the right decision when I reach 95%.
There are a lot of other ad elements you can test like:
- Prices vs. Discounts
- Call to Action vs. Benefits
- Geography vs. Non-Geography
Bid Adjustments
Bidding and Google Ads have the same goal - TO MAKE MORE MONEY! So, forget about bidding first or any of those unnecessary metrics. Focus on scoring your target cost per conversion (CPC) instead.
Use percentage bid adjustments relevant to your desired cost per conversion goal.
For example, if your CPC goal is $25 and your current CPC is $50, drop your bids by 50%. The same idea works for increasing bids just in reverse.
Placement Reviews
Regardless of running ads on the Google Display Network or other networks, you need to regularly review your placements to ensure your ads only appear to relevant audiences in relevant placements.
Failure to regularly review ad placements can change the direction of your campaign the wrong way.
Monthly Google Ads Optimization
Having a monthly Google Ads optimization routine helps you discover issues that you missed during your daily or weekly reviews.
Super Search Term Reports
Examine the search term report for anything that converted with unusually more impressions.
Add these terms or keywords to your campaigns for an exact match. Don't bother adding the ones that converted, especially if the impression and click are equal to one another.
Those keywords will possibly be tagged Low Search Volume and will never be seen agaiṇ.
Audience Exclusions
Industry, product, and service may or may not mean repeat customers. Still, a monthly Google Ads optimization requires you to keep an eye on how previous converters behave before making adjustments.
Don't forget to add all your audiences every time you create a new campaign because you can only apply them at the campaign and ad group levels.
Negative Keywords Exclusions
This one is the same as the weekly Google Ads optimization review, except you need to do it monthly.
Geographic Exclusions
You need to do a monthly check on your User Locations Report to see your ads' performance in different geo-locations.
As soon as you discover a low performing location, then immediately add it to your excluded areas.
Time Of Day Or Day Of Week Exclusion
Exclude Times of Day or Days of Week with high costs but zero conversions to save money.
First, set up a filter that will show you Times of Day or Days of Week with a cost higher than $1 and conversion lower than 1 in the past 90 days. Next, remove those Times of Day or Days of Week from your Google ad schedule.
Device Exclusion
The devices report tab shows the performance of your Google Ads across mobile phones, computers, tablets, TV screens, and other devices.
Take note that not all of your ads will perform on all types of devices. Some perform better on desktop computers, some on tablets, and some on mobile phones.
Regardless of the device, you can optimize the devices that perform best using the devices report.
Network Exclusions
Network partners include Google Search, Search Partners, Google Display Network, etc. where your ad is shown.
Add network partners when creating new Google Ads campaigns, but keep an eye on your network’s monthly report to make sure it's performing well.
Quarterly Google Ads Optimization
Here's a bonus tip for you!
Quarterly Google Ads optimizations are essential to break through plateaus and keep things moving forward.
Every 90 days or so, you need to reexamine your overall Google Ads strategy and discover new areas of opportunities. It involves monitoring the Search Lost IS or budget tab to see impressions that you're missing out on.
If you're missing out on a lot of impressions, then consider increasing your budget. You can also take a more in-depth analysis of your top and bottom performing campaigns, ad groups, and keywords. Some of them might benefit from having a more substantial budget, while some should be stopped altogether.
And those are the Google Ads optimizations that you can do daily, weekly, monthly, and even quarterly!
These routines may not apply to you all the time because optimization depends on how you run your Google Ads campaign. The bottom line is, you need an optimization routine.
Check out the recommended resources section below to know more about how to optimize Google Ads. Don't hesitate to TALK TO US TODAY if you need more assistance.
Recommended Google Ads Optimization Resources
Google's Best Practices for Improving Your Google Ads Optimization Score
8 Google Ads Hacks That'll Double Your Conversion Rate
How to properly perform a Google Ads Optimization of your campaigns
So what do you think about this article? Are you ready to perform a Google Ads Optimization routine?
Leave a comment below and let's discuss.
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