6 tips to really improve your ads on Google Ads today

Google Ads is without a doubt one of the most effective and economical advertising channels for promoting your business on the internet today. Any company, regardless of size or segment, can advertise today from a minimum investment of R$1/Day.

But advertising with Google Ads doesn't always mean having good results.

With the increase in competition and the complexity of the tool itself, today it is extremely common to find companies wasting their valuable resources on ads that do not bring profit or, at the very least, qualified contacts for the sales team.

If you find yourself in this situation, where your investments in the Google advertising platform do not seem to bring any results, we have put together some tips that can help you.

But first, as we like to emphasize here, there is no magic formula and the best way to know if these tips are good for your case is to apply them, analyze the results and make the necessary adjustments over time.

Now, let’s get to the tips for improving your Google ads once and for all.

1. Be careful with the Copy

It's impossible to express how copywriting influences Google ads. If you still don't know what copywriting is, we'll explain.

Copywriting is a style of writing whose objective is always to influence a decision. In Marketing, this means producing clear and persuasive texts to sell more – or at least influence decision-making, such as subscribing to an email list, making a donation, purchasing a course, etc.

Especially in search results ads, where you can't use images or videos, the text you use will determine where people click. Remembering that depending on the competition in your segment, you will compete with three different ads.

Copywriting can be considered a separate science within Digital Marketing and we do not intend to delve too deeply into the techniques – we even have a review of the best Brazilian book on copywriting.

But a good start, which despite being simple, can immediately influence the results of your ads today, is to make a list of common objections that prevent people from purchasing your products or services.

In other words, you need to know your personas very well.

Then, create at least 10 ad variations (the more the better) following the structure of PRODUCT OR SERVICE NAME + OBJECTION BREAK + MARKET DIFFERENTIAL.

Wait for a considerable volume of clicks on your ads and, after identifying the most attractive one (i.e., with the highest Click Through Rate or CTR), allocate your resources to it.

2. Create responsive ads

Gone are the days of needing to create dozens of ads, in different formats, to ensure good visibility on different devices. Today, with considerable advances in algorithms, Google Ads itself does this for you.

Responsive ads automatically adjust (size, appearance and format) according to the device. In other words, a single responsive ad can appear as a large banner if the person is on desktop or just small text if they are on mobile.

In terms of performance, responsive ads allow you to experiment with a much wider variety of placements and, consequently, be able to find one that is cost-effective.

3. Set up your conversions

Let's make one thing clear: if you don't have your website's conversions well configured in your Google Ads account, you can't complain that your ads aren't working.

Like this?

If you don't tell Google which are the most valuable actions on your website by creating conversions, (getting in touch, requesting a quote, downloading an eBook…) it won't know exactly which audience to show your ads to.

To understand better, let's imagine that you are selling a personalized Flamengo t-shirt. So you create a beautiful website and decide to create ads for everyone who searches for the word “flamingo t-shirts” on Google.

In the first few days you notice that your ad is generating a lot of clicks to your website, but no one has yet bought your t-shirt. As Google charges per click, you are basically paying a lot for all those clicks that haven't brought any sales yet.

You then decide to analyze people's behavior on your website and realize that 90% of clicks are to Flamengo's social networks, which you decided to include on the website.

The other 10% of clicks are to enlarge the size of the t-shirt, which suggests an interest in it.

You want Google to show your ads to people who are more likely to be in the second case, so you should have a conversion that tells Google this. Because you didn't do this, Google is showing your ads to anyone who searches for the keyword.

Setting up conversions can be challenging if you don't have much technical knowledge, but it's nothing that a good tutorial can't solve. In the end, the improvement in your results will be worth all the work.

4. Focus on conversions and forget about CPC

One of the most talked about concepts in Google Ads is Cost Per Click (CPC), which as the name suggests means how much you are paying when a person clicks on your ad.

As Google ads work on an auction system, the CPC will vary according to numerous factors and it is not possible to explain them in this text (to go deeper, I recommend this article from Google itself).

For now, it is important to understand the following: paying more for a click is not always bad. This is because in most cases an expensive CPC suggests that that keyword brings more results and, therefore, deserves your attention.

What's expensive is paying cheaply for a bunch of keywords that don't generate conversions and, consequently, sales.

A classic example occurs in the general services market, such as hydraulic firefighters, mechanics, etc.

Many people are scared by the CPC of these keywords, which can reach tens of reais per click at peak times. But anyone searching for a plumber at 6pm on a Tuesday in São Paulo is probably ready to hire the first available person who appears in front of them.

In other words, it's worth advertising for this keyword, even though it's absurdly expensive.

Obviously, as we always reinforce here, everything is subject to experimentation and what works for the majority may not work in your case. But remember, focus on how many conversions (contacts, registrations, calls, etc.) certain keywords and ads bring, regardless of CPC.

In fact, if you managed to configure your conversions as we recommended in the last point, you can use the “Cost Per Conversion” (or CPA) indicator – that is, how much you invest to attract a conversion on your website.

5. Create automatic rules

Automatic rules are ignored by 99% of Google advertisers because they seem like advanced and complex features to use, but this is not always the case.

Some automatic Google Ads rules, such as pausing ads on weekends, scheduling campaign starts and ends in advance (very useful for commemorative dates), pausing a campaign if it does not reach a specific goal, among others, are simple and can be configured by anyone.

This article (in English) has a compilation of automatic rules that you can apply to your Google Ads ads today.

6. Try eliminating Search and Display Network

When you create search ads on Google, the platform automatically selects two placements that go beyond the search results you see on Google's website: the Search Network and Display Network.

This is a strategy that Google uses to explore other positions that, because they are not as efficient, are rarely explored by more experienced advertisers. In other words, it is up to the unsuspecting to waste resources on these positions.

Talking to consultants and companies that invest in Google Ads, we have never found a success story with the Search Network and Display Network.

Therefore, try disabling these placements in your search ads and compare results after at least a 20-day period. This is the minimum time we recommend to draw any conclusions.

Experimenting is the way to improve your ads on Google Ads

There are many more tips but, for now, these are enough for you to see the results of your Google ads improve today.

Remember, no business is the same and many things can vary depending on your product, service, market differential, demographics, geography and budget. Therefore, the best tip we can give you is: try each of the tips and draw your own conclusions.

There is no magic formula in Google Ads, but we hope these tips can help you achieve better results than your current ones.