Level Up Your Lead Generation: Google Ads

April 2, 2020

Google Ads are the lead generation bread to a Facebook ad strategy’s butter. Where Facebook Ads are good at bringing in potentially interested visitors, Google Ads are phenomenal at finding people who are actively looking to buy. Imagine being the first result when someone searches for a new home in your area. Or, what about better utilizing their display ad network, which reaches 90% of internet users worldwide? We’re walking you through how to take full advantage of Google’s amazing ad platform so you can have a cut of the best for yourself.

Develop an Audience

We’ve talked about building a target audience before, but it bears repeating. The audience you choose must be interested, engaged, and ready for your product. First, identify your target audience – what are their demographics? Create a character profile of an ideal customer. Then, advertise directly to that person. When you’ve considered who they are, what their life is like, and what they’re interested in, you can really connect with them.

Craft Your Message

The most important tip you can take away from an article on building lead generation ads for Google is this: ensure there is message-to-market match. You’re not just advertising to someone who may be interested in signing up for a newsletter. Your ads will reach people who are actively searching for a product like yours. Determine the specific pain points you’re addressing, or the value that the user is looking for, and use razor sharp creative to show exactly how your product meets those needs.

Bidding and Placement

Once you’ve determined an audience and built some stellar copy for them, all that’s left is to get your ad out there. A text ad is straightforward – it goes in the search results. If your ad is a display ad, however, there are more considerations. First, if your ad is automatically being served in the wrong places it can have a huge negative impact on your CPC, or cost per click. That’s why placing your ads via managed placements can be a smart idea to help you fine-tune exactly where your ad will show up. Target your ad with a specific audience in mind, and you’ll hit the mark.

Then, you’ll start bidding. This is where you have the opportunity to drive your cost per ad down. You could use Google’s Smart Bid options, but for better control you’ll want to bid manually. Assigning a professional ads manager can cut costs from the automated options and provide a better return on your ad spend. Your actual bid strategy will vary depending on your business – and will need to evolve to stay competitive and react to any seasonal changes.

The Final Piece

Finally, you’ll want to tie everything together with some solid conversion tracking. Set up conversion tracking for the action you want on your landing page, whether it’s a form fill, phone call, or anything else. All of the data you collect should feed back into how you tweak your ads going forward. If a placement isn’t helping with conversion, you can hop back in and change it. If the lander converts well but the ad isn’t getting many clicks, you can take a second look at your creative and change your approach. The point, and another key takeaway here is that your strategy should always be evolving. Someone should analyze the data and make tweaks at least once a week.

Making the Complex Simple

Google Ads is a deeply complex platform, and regardless of the automated options, there’s no “set it and forget it” solution. You need someone with experience managing Google Ads to effectively spend your budget on this platform. Rearview Advertising makes that simple. Management, strategy, and even the creative is all under our umbrella. We make it easy to get the most out of your Google Ads spend. Contact us today and find out just how simple it can be.