Improving your paid search campaigns

Is your ad copy relevant?

It’s often difficult to condense your products/services into the short character limit, but your copy has to be relevant to search terms. If a user is looking for a luxury holiday package and your ad talks about a cheap and cheerful holiday, then it will not be relevant to the user’s search criteria. However, highlighting positives on the holiday such as location or luxurious amenities users are likely to click through. Google will reward you with a higher quality score if your ad is extremely relevant to search criteria.

Is your landing page containing the right content?

Although your ad drives users to your landing page, it is the content on that landing page that persuades them to stay. If users quickly exist your landing page and return back to the search criteria, Google will assume the content provided on that landing page does not match with the criteria searched. If users are searching for a luxury holiday package, and the landing page they are directed to discusses a camping holiday in the south of England, users will quickly return back to searching.

Are you keywords refined?

Refine your keywords and fit your ads around these. Talk to your digital marketing agency about the keywords that should be used in your ad, as including the search terms within the ad copy will help provide users with what they are looking for. Make sure the ad content isn’t “awkward” though and purely focussing on the keywords. It still has to be natural and flow, or Google will see this as spamming users. Use the keywords as the main body, and provide additional details that support the keywords.

You want the best results from your paid search campaigns, and if you’re using a digital agency make sure you ask all the right questions:

• What factors drive quality score? You’re spending the money; you need to know the factors that go into driving a quality score and the techniques behind helping your business to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace.
• What tools are used to manage my search campaign? This will depend on the needs of your business, but these have to match your budget and goals. Make sure your agency listens to your needs and matches the technology accordingly.
• What are the guarantees? The bottom line is, there aren’t any as it isn’t an exact science – be wary of any agency that says differently! Do you have an existing campaign? Ask your agency to do an evaluation on it. See what works, and what needs improvements – this is likely to steer you in the right direction for future campaigns!