The top 10 Google Ads PPC optimisation strategies

Wondering how to master your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in Google Ads? The key is using a strategic mix of advanced techniques and Artificial Intelligence (AI) features.

In this article, we reveal the top ten strategies to optimise your Google Ads PPC campaigns, from precise targeting to leveraging Google AI tools.

What are PPC campaigns?

PPC campaigns are a form of digital advertising where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked. These campaigns allow you and other businesses to bid for ad placement in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) when someone searches for a certain keyword.

As the digital landscape becomes more crowded, competition for consumer attention is intensifying. Businesses must ensure their PPC ads reach the right audience to maximise return on investment (ROI) and drive conversions effectively in this competitive environment.

Campaign types

Why PPC campaigns (sometimes) fail

Despite their potential, PPC campaigns can sometimes fail to deliver the results you want. The main culprit, more often than not, is poor optimisation. This leads to wasted ad spend and missed opportunities. Some common reasons for PPC campaign failures include:

1. Generic copy: Copy should be specific, compelling, and emphasise user benefit. The call-to-action (CTA) should be focused on a single, clear goal which is tailored to the search query.
2. Not selecting strategic keyword match types: This can limit ad reach and relevance to the user. Keyword match types should align with your bidding strategy. Use broach match for extending reach, phrase match for more control, and exact match for precision (e.g. specific product or brand names). You can streamline campaign management by consolidating keywords to ensure ads are highly relevant to the target audience.
3. Neglecting negative keywords: Negative keywords help to minimise low-quality leads and maximise ROI. You should include these in the planning stage and regularly review the search terms report to identify and exclude irrelevant queries that trigger your ads.
4. Lack of powerful tools: Without the right software to track, analyse, and optimise your PPC campaigns, you essentially have one hand tied behind your back. For instance, Mediahawk offers PPC call tracking as a way to optimise your strategies and campaigns.
5. Not using enough assets: This includes ad extensions, which should be maximised to increase ad visibility and click-through rate (CTR). When using responsive ads, you should provide as many assets as possible, including headlines and descriptions, to make the most of Google AI features and reach the right users.
6. Missing remarketing opportunities: Advanced remarketing strategies, such as segmentation and dynamic remarketing, allow you to deliver personalised ads to users who have already shown interest. This can boost relevance and conversions.

Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing at Mediahawk says: “With the right data from the right platform to back your strategies, marketers can make more data-driven decisions in Google Ads PPC campaigns. This can significantly help with reaching conversion or sales targets more efficiently.”

“With the right data from the right platform to back your strategies, marketers can make more data-driven decisions in Google Ads PPC campaigns. This can significantly help with reaching conversion or sales targets more efficiently.” Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing, Mediahawk

If you want to avoid these pitfalls and maximise the effectiveness of your campaigns, it’s crucial that you implement solid PPC optimisation strategies.

1. Keyword research and management

Keyword research is the backbone of any successful PPC strategy. You need to identify the relevant terms and phrases your target audience are searching for, and ensure keywords match user intent. Equally, it’s important to identify irrelevant keywords so that you can exclude these to reduce low-quality leads.

With your search terms report, you want to identify high-performing keywords that drive conversions. Regularly reviewing this will show you which terms your ads are appearing for, and you can evaluate these to add or remove as necessary. Make sure to focus on user intent with search queries so that your keywords match your objectives.

It’s also wise to utilise long-tail keywords for more specific targeting of prospect needs, queries, or pain points.

For example, refining a keyword from “best care homes” to something like “best residential care homes in Milton Keynes” can target a more specific intent – offering a more valuable ad conversion.

By focusing on the right keywords, you can improve ad relevance and increase click-through-rate (CTR) for your campaigns.

2. Ad copy optimisation

Compelling ad copy is essential for grabbing prospects’ attention and encouraging clicks. To optimise your ad copy, some useful tips are:

• Use responsive ads and provide as close to the maximum number of assets as possible to make the most of AI to test different combinations based on user interaction.
• Align the ad copy with the target keywords and landing page content.
• Craft clear and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) that align with the search query to drive conversions.
• Use Google ad variations and experiments features. Use variations when you want to test a single change across an entire account or several campaigns, and custom experiments for several changes at one time.
• Highlight unique selling propositions (USPs) and benefits in the copy.

Regularly review and refine your ad copy based on performance data to continuously improve its effectiveness at boosting leads and conversions.

3. Landing page optimisation

The landing page is where conversions happen, and it’s a pivotal point in the user journey. A successful PPC strategy involves a landing page that seamlessly transitions users from the ad, to the landing page, and then to the desired action – such as a call.

Mediahawk’s platform can seamlessly integrate with Optimizely to provide performance data on things like form fills vs. call conversions from your landing pages, for example. The more data to back up your testing, the more clarity you’ll have on what drives conversions.

Ensure your landing page:

• Is relevant to the ad content so users have a clear journey laid out for them based on their intent.
• Features persuasive copy that aligns with the ad message.
• Provides clear and compelling CTAs designed to drive the right conversions for your campaign.

Be aware that things such as page load speeds can be vital in producing a better user experience and avoiding drop-offs. The same goes for creating mobile-friendly designs for seamless browsing across devices. Also, use custom landing page URLs per keyword where relevant, so that users land on a page directly related to the keyword they searched for – creating a better user experience.

The trick is to balance design creativity with functionality. A well-designed landing page can make all the difference in whether the click you just paid for becomes profitable.

4. Bid management

Effective bid management is another crucial strategy for PPC optimisation, helping control costs and maximise your ROI.

Automated bidding is focused on driving as many clicks as possible within your budget, which can be beneficial for reaching your target return on ad spend (ROAS). You can adjust bids based on device, time of day, location, and more to better suit your campaign’s target audience.

Make sure you monitor competitor bids using insights tools as well, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly to ensure visibility.

You should also align your bid strategy with your campaign goal. For example, consider value-based bidding if you want to focus on high-value conversions, or consider portfolio bidding for achieving a specific goal with a range of campaigns – such as increasing website traffic or conversions.

By fine-tuning your bidding strategy, you can ensure you’re targeting the right audience at the right time and price.

5. Effective audience targeting

Understanding and targeting the right audience is key to PPC optimisation and campaign success.

Create remarketing campaigns to target users who have previously interacted with your site but didn’t convert. Platforms like Mediahawk’s call tracking software enables detailed analytics to be fed into Google Ads to more accurately target prospects based on their journeys.

Set up custom audiences in GA4 based on demographics, interests, and behaviours, so you can target specific user segments to maximise conversions. A user at a certain point in their journey with a specific search intent will need a tailored ad strategy to best convert them.

Also, a great tip – selecting “All languages” in campaign targeting settings is a quick win for increasing reach.

Effective audience targeting ensures your ads reach the most relevant and likely-to-convert users, improving campaign performance and ROI.

6. Ad extensions

Using ad extensions provides additional information and increases ad visibility. This makes your ads more compelling and informative. Implement as many relevant extensions as possible to improve quality score, relevance, and engagement:

• Sitelink extensions to showcase additional pages, products, or services
• Callout extensions to highlight key benefits and features
• Structured snippet extensions to provide specific information about your offerings
• Location extensions to drive local traffic
• Call extensions to encourage phone calls and increase conversions

You should also consider Google automated extensions. Use automated rules and filters to optimise extensions, such as removing underperforming extensions. This can create a more efficient way of refining your PPC activity.

Make sure you regularly review and adjust your ad extensions to ensure they’re contributing positively to your campaign performance.

7. Quality Score improvement

Quality Score is Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages. The higher you score, the better ad positions and lower costs you receive, as well as an improved CTR.

For a higher score, ensure your ads are highly relevant to the keywords you’re bidding on, and refine your ad and landing page copy to align with the search intent. Also, you can optimise your landing page experience for users and regularly monitor ad performance with tools like call tracking.

Another ideal strategy is to monitor competitor ads regularly using Google Ads Transparency Centre, to discover trends and areas for improvement in your own campaigns.

8. Conversion tracking and attribution

Implementing a robust conversion tracking tool is another ideal PPC optimisation strategy. This lets you understand which ads and keywords are driving results.

Google Ads and Google Analytics (GA or GA4) are two examples of tools that can be used to monitor ad conversions. However, they severely lack in several key areas, from accuracy and visibility to available features.

Use Mediahawk’s call tracking software for a comprehensive view of all your PPC ad conversions. You’ll be able to track which of your ads are performing best, as well as which paid keywords are delivering the most user interactions, including calls.

The detailed reports from the software will let you explore different attribution models to understand how various touchpoints contribute to conversions.

This level of conversion tracking and attribution leads to more data-driven decisions, better budget allocation for PPC ads, and improved ROI.

9. Ad scheduling

Ad scheduling lets you automatically display your ads at certain times for the best result, i.e. when your target audience is most active and likely to convert.

To know when these times are, you need an effective lead tracking tool like Mediahawk’s call tracking software. This provides crucial performance data for you to identify high-performing days and times for your ads.

Effective ad scheduling ensures your budget is spent when it’s most likely to generate results. Some key things to remember are:

• Adjust your ad schedule to focus on peak conversion periods.
• Implement bid adjustments for specific days and times.
• Consider time zone differences if targeting multiple geographical areas.
• Regularly review and refine your ad scheduling based on performance and trends.

10. Continuous monitoring

By staying vigilant and responsive to campaign performance, you can ensure your PPC efforts remain effective and efficient over time.

It’s also important to monitor competitor activity alongside auditing your own campaigns, so that you can monitor impression share (IS), changes in strategy, etc.

Mediahawk’s call tracking software provides you with actionable metrics for a consistent approach to reviewing and refining your strategies.

Visitor to call ratio (VCR), for example, shows the number of web visitors against the number of phone calls generated by your landing page. If a higher ratio of visitors are calling from your page, then this indicates a strong intent, with visitors actively seeking information or assistance.

If you have a lower VCR, you can readjust your PPC ads to ensure they align with search intent, so the landing page delivers what the user needs and encourages a call. This can be through optimising the ad copy to match user intent or refining your negative keywords to reduce poor quality leads.

Tracking ROI on your PPC campaigns is essential, and this is another metric you can monitor with call tracking.

If you find that much of your spend is wasted on ads that don’t convert, you can re-evaluate your bidding strategy to possibly target different demographics, device users, or keywords, to boost ad profitability.

Bamboo Nine, a strategic digital agency, recognised the need to better monitor their offline responses as a way of improving their PPC ad targeting. They implemented Mediahawk’s call tracking software to drive keyword-driven call data into their bid management platform, resulting in a 98% retention rate.

Software and tools to support your PPC optimisation

There are several tools that can help you streamline and enhance your PPC optimisation efforts. Some examples are:

• Google Ads Editor: For bulk campaign management and offline editing
• Google Analytics: For in-depth website and user behaviour analysis
• SEMrush or Ahrefs: For keyword research and competitor analysis
• Mediahawk: For comprehensive call tracking and marketing attribution

Among these tools, Mediahawk’s call tracking software stands out as a powerful solution. This analytics tool will significantly improve your ability to manage, analyse, and optimise your PPC campaigns, making all 10 of these strategies as impactful as possible.

Some of the many ways Mediahawk can help with PPC optimisation are:

• Feeding call tracking data – such as conversions and conversion value metrics – into Google Ads for improved bidding and remarketing.
• Speech Analytics and Speech Insights – send keyword data from call conversations into GA4 to build custom audiences to send into Google Ads. This is used as audience signals to optimise your PPC campaigns.
• Mediahawk’s call tracking can smoothly integrate with tools like Optimizely for A/B testing, so you have a more efficient and effective way of optimising ad copy from real-time insights.

This blog was first published in July 2022 and updated in August 2024.