Every business dreams of reaching a bigger audience and growing its customer base or clientele. The hard part is figuring out exactly how to do so.
Google Ads is one of the best digital marketing platforms available for businesses of any size, location, or service. Google Ads helps with B2C and B2B marketing, remarketing, and digital advertising.
It can be difficult to understand the ins and outs of a Google Ads account, but there are plenty of tools to help create and improve your ads. Whether you’ve had a Google Ads account for a while or you know nothing about Google Ads at all, the tools explained in this article can help bring your Google Ads campaigns to the next level.
Keyword Research
First, you must do extensive research on search terms and keywords prior to launching any Google Ads campaign. Selecting the best keywords and determining the lowest Cost Per Conversion (CPC) is essential to a successful Google Ads account. There are two excellent, free tools you can use to research keywords.
Google Trends
Before curating a keyword list, use Google Trends to gain some ideas for keywords. Google Trends calculates interest shown in a search term over time and interest by region.
If you are unsure whether a search term is relevant enough to be a keyword or if people in your city are searching for that term, Google Trends can help you find an answer.
Google Trends also has a feature that allows you to compare multiple search terms. You can see analyses of the search terms’ popularity and determine which keywords should have higher or lower bids.
Google Keyword Planner
While there isn’t a method that can tell you exactly how a keyword will perform for your business, Google Keyword Planner is the closest tool you can get. Once you have some ideas for keywords, this tool tells you the number of times per month that keyword was searched.
By knowing the volume of searches for a keyword, you can gauge what match type and bid it should be. If a keyword has a very low search volume but is still relevant, you can bid low on it as the competitiveness is low. It still generates traffic, but it saves you money on your cost per sale.
The saved marketing dollars can be spent on keywords with higher search volumes, as they will generate the most traffic, clicks, and conversions.
Evaluating Competitors
In the competitive world of digital marketing, it’s difficult to find a way to come out on top. If there were a way to spy on your competitors’ marketing strategies, you’d be able to use that knowledge to your advantage and rank higher in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
There are two tools Pay Per Click (PPC), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts love using to do just that. Third-Party Tools are not free, but they can help you get a leg up on your competitors by revealing which keywords they’re bidding on and more.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer’s Content Gap Tool detects which keywords your competitors rank for organically that you don’t, and vice versa. To conduct what is known as a Content Gap Analysis, you pay for the software and then enter your competitors’ domains.
The tool will curate a list of keywords your competitor uses and ranks for. You can also calculate the keywords you’re already bidding on that they are not.
After running a Content Gap Analysis, you will have new keywords that you should be targeting. You can either lower the bids or remove the keywords your competitors aren’t bidding on because the competition levels for those keywords are low.
Spyfu
Spyfu is another PPC competitor research tool. They have features that allow you to download a competitors’ PPC Keywords, see the number of clicks their ads receive and their bids.
Spyfu also has a Google Ads Advisor tool that analyzes your website and determines your top competitors. The tool then finds their bids and keywords and suggests ones you do not have.
If your Google Ads account seems to be spending a lot of money without earning a big profit, Spyfu can help with PPC negative match recommendations. It will analyze competitors’ past bids and keywords to see which have been unsuccessful. This way, you will know which keywords are not worth bidding on, as they do not perform well.
Monitoring Data and Metrics
Regularly tracking your Google Ads account’s metrics is one of the most important actions you must take for success. Monitoring metrics helps you determine how to improve your ads and website and discover issues and shortages in your campaigns.
Google has two tools that can help monitor metrics such as CPC, conversion rates, and Click-Through Rate (CTR) simpler.
Google Analytics
Connect your Google Ads account to Google Analytics for free. This tool tracks metrics such as average time spent on your website and the average of web pages visited, goal conversion rates, number of new visits, and the keywords that generated each of these visits.
Use Google Analytics to analyze the performance of your keywords after launching your campaign. You can use this data to see which keywords result in more conversions, new visits, and longer time spent on the website. You should raise the bids on these keywords and lower bids on keywords with low conversions and fewer clicks.
Google Search Console
This tool helps more with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but still helps to improve your ads’ performance.
Google Search Console tracks organic traffic and shows you which web pages are receiving backlinks. This knowledge can help you improve your web pages’ content and increase your Quality Score, which helps boost your advertisements’ rankings in the SERP. You can also use this data to help in your Google Ads campaigns.
Creating and Editing Campaigns
A Google AdWords agency or consultant can help you create and manage your campaigns, but if you’re doing it all on your own, there are still tools and tips for a successful Google Ads Account a PPC expert would recommend.
Google Ads Editor
Another free tool provided by Google, Google Ads Editor, helps you easily create, monitor, and edit your account and campaigns.
You can download it and work offline, which is great if you need to make a quick change in the case of an emergency or problem with your ads.
Google Ads Editor allows you to make changes to more than one account or campaign at once. You can also make changes to more than one aspect of campaigns with one edit. This helps save time and makes the editing and management process more straightforward.
Microsoft Excel
Google Ads accounts require organization, as there is tons of data to keep track of. Microsoft Excel is a simple and easy way to organize keywords and metrics for your personal use.
Make a draft of the account structure in Microsoft Excel. Include the campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords to make it easier to track the keywords and negative keywords for each campaign.
Reviewing Ads
The appearance of your ads, especially if they’re Shopping or Display ads, is highly important. You want to ensure your ad’s layout is organized, the headline readable, and the images are attention-grabbing.
You should always review what your ads look like before they go live for all the internet to see.
Google Ad Preview
This tool lets you see a live preview of what your advertisement looks like on Google. After seeing the appearance of the ad, you can decide whether to make any additional edits or go ahead and make it live.
Click Fraud Protection
Whether you’re trying to buy concert tickets or advertising on Google, bots always seem to try and ruin everything. Click fraud is when a computer program/code or human repetitively clicks on a PPC ad to increase the business’ marketing spends and has wasted 20% of PPC advertisers’ budgets so far in 2021.
This is an illegal practice but still occurs. Fortunately, there are tools out there to prevent click fraud.
Clickcease
Clickcease is a Third Party Software all Google Ads accounts should add to their marketing strategy. It prevents fraudulent clicks by blocking invalid IPs and fake clicks. It helps protect your campaign and saves you money on clicks that will not lead to conversions.
Final Thoughts
Your business can generate more traffic and profits with the help of Google Ads. Many digital marketing platforms can be tricky and a big waste of money if done poorly. As great as Google Ads is, there is always the possibility of losing money.
As long as you do your research, stay diligent with managing your Google Ads account, and utilize all the tools outlined above, your campaigns have the potential to grow your business and produce a high Return of Investment (ROI).
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- The Best Tools to Use to Improve Your Google Ads - August 11, 2021
Hi Sue-Ann & Lior
This is a very helpful overview of how to use Google Ads, and especially the tools to help.
Managing any PPC ads is always a trip, but this clarifies the process considerably.
-Donna
Thanks, Donna!
You’re so funny…but so happy you found some nuggets here from Lior!
Have a great weekend, Donna, and thank you so much for reading, sharing, and commenting!
Appreciate it, Sue-Ann
Hi Lior,
To optimize my Google Ads, I check competitor’s websites and work on improving on-page structure using Google free tools called Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools. Sometimes Ads seem good but don’t perform well because most people forget to filter their ads by adding negative KW’s. I also remove and add Keywords based on their performance.
To go more in-depth of ads I use a tool called SEM rush to get a competitor’s overview. I believe to run the best Google Ads we need to keep watching our Ads performance and based on the data and research implement the right strategy.
Anoop;
Thank you so much for adding your insights! I’m sure Lior will want to review them.
Have a great day and weekend and thanks for taking time to add to the discussion!
Thanks,
Sue-Ann
Absolutely, Gupta.
Fundamentally you need to control where and how you are investing your budget…. and ultimately its done best with working systematically and putting the time! Great stuff, thank you.
Hey Lior,
Thanks for writing this awesome toolset which definitely helps me to boost up my productivity and word efficiency using some this tools which you mention, lots of I already using but some are new for me, I Definitely Try this.
Yogesh:
Thanks for reading and commenting and sorry I was on deadline and just getting to you but I’m so glad you found Lior’s post useful.
Take care and thank you, again!
Truly,
Sue-Ann
Thank you for the feedback, Yogesh! I’m glad it helps 🙂
– Lior
Hi Lior, do you know if Google ads work better for some industries vs. others? I know it has been years since I’ve used them and it was difficult to do and did not bring in results for ROI. I can see why you have suggested using excel to track it all.
I’ve wondered if they have become easier since and more effective. Thank you!
Thanks for reading and sharing this, Lisa. I’ll let Lior know you have questions!
Take care and thank you again, Sue-Ann
Hey Lisa,
I believe Google Ads can work in any industry for a viable business. The way to structure and manage the advertising could be very different – but its a question of “how it can work” vs. “if”.
Google Ads is only getting harder to manage, as Google is adding tricky features, that usually increase competition in the auction – benefits Google, not the advertiser.
I’d be more than happy to share ideas and thoughts for any business you are wondering about. Feel free to contact me directly 🙂
– Lior
All look like solid tools to me, Lior. Using a few good tools meeting your personal needs makes your life easier. Understanding how Google Ads works becomes easier by using the right tools. We all know Google’s policies and algorithms can be a bit confusing!
Ryan
Hi Ryan:
Thanks for your take. I love the way Lior breaks down not only the tools to use but how they work and what to look for as well.
P.S. I got my laptop out to look at your comment last night after my tornado little girl visitor left…and fell asleep…10 tabs open! lol
Thanks again and take care,
Sue-Ann
Absolutely, Ryan! Often, sticking to the fundamentals of how Google Ads works, keeps our eye on the ball and allows us to be effective. Too often, I see advertisers lose a lot of money by using features, with fancy names, but don’t work as expected. Best, Lior