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Google Ads, when handled correctly, can be one of the most useful advertising platforms for your business. But without a set strategy, it’s unlikely that your Google ad campaigns will drive desired results. Crafting a strategy in Google Ads can get quite complex- as they offer a wide range of options at every level. Sticking to the basics with specific goals in mind is the key to building a strategy that  gets you results.

In this article, we’ll be discussing how to create a Google Ads strategy that gets you results.

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How to Create a Google Ads Strategy Plan That Drives Results

1. Determine Target Market

Knowing your audience is the first and most important aspect of advertising, especially in somewhere as competitive as Google Ads.

Creating a consumer profile can help in determining your target.

Base these consumer profiles on real data. Use their demographics and online interactions.

Make informed guesses about consumer motivations and concerns on the consumer profiles.

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2. Laser-focus on What Your Business Offers

Develop your campaigns with a sharp focus on what you are offering. 

Set clear campaign goals and objectives.

Have a clear idea whether you are aiming for promoting certain products/services, or if it’s brand awareness you’re seeking. Tailor your campaigns based on that.  

Whatever tweaks you make, make sure the focus stays on what you’re offering.

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3. Find Out What Your Customers Are Searching For

Knowing what your customers are looking for helps tailor your campaigns for maximum results. 

Supplement the consumer profiles with a clear idea of customer demand, and your campaigns will become much stronger. 

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4. Select The Type Of Campaign That Suits Your Goals

There are multiple types of ad campaigns in Google ads.

• -Search ads are text ads that are displayed among search results on a Google results page.
• -Display ads are typically image-based and are shown on web pages within the Google Display Network.
• -Video ads are between six and 15 seconds and appear on YouTube.
• -Shopping campaigns appear on search results and the Google shopping tab.
• -App campaigns use information from your app to optimize ads across websites.
• -Smart campaigns have Google finding the best targeting to get you the most bang for your buck.
• -Performance Max is a new campaign type that lets advertisers access all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign.

Check out these types carefully, and make an informed decision based on your goals.

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5. Determine What You Want Your Customers to do When They See Your Ad

Choose carefully what you want from your customers upon interacting with your ads. 

To clarify with an example- Suppose your goal is conversion. If you set the conversion goal as Purchase, it has a lesser chance to convert than goals such as Add To Cart. So carefully determine what you want the customers to do when they see your ads 

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6. Think How You Want Your Customer to Take Action

Being specific about the action you’d like customers to complete is key. Call-To-Actions or CTA buttons are crafted for this purpose.

Your primary CTA should be placed above the fold, and contain wording that conveys urgency, for example- “Now!” or  “Before Too Late!” 

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7. Research on What Your Competitors Are Doing

Competition research is something all seasoned marketers do.

This gives you an idea of what your competitors are doing, in turn giving you an edge over them in planning your strategy. 

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8. Create A Time Frame for Your Ad

Carefully pick the start and end days for your campaigns. Focus on the timeframes that are most likely to gain the best results from your campaigns.

A common example of this is- selecting specific holidays for ads containing promotional offers and discounts.

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9. Plan a Budget

Another critical element of your strategy is budget planning. As Google Ads is highly competitive, you cannot squeeze down your budgets and expect good results.

You have the option to set an average daily budget or a Shared budget for a campaign in Google Ads.

Carefully pinpoint your budget constraints, with average industry conversion rates and CPC in mind. This will help you decide on an optimal budget.

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10. Find the Right Keywords

Finding the right keywords for you is often the most difficult bit of strategic planning. You have to seek out the right keywords with the right volume and competition. Using keyword research tools can help regarding this. Don’t just blindly choose keywords based on their volume, you might end up paying a huge sum for a single click.

With enough keyword research, you will likely find good focused keywords with low volume, thus low competition and low cost. 

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11. Create Focused Ad Groups

When you have a limited budget, you will be limited in the number of ad groups. 

So these ad groups need to be highly focused in order to perform well.

Narrowing down your keyword lists or using single keyword ad groups will help in this regard. Having many vastly different keywords makes copies highly unspecified.

Choosing a combination of long tail keywords with low volume and head terms with high volumes will help in driving results within your limited budget. 

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12. Develop Intent-Based Ad Copy and Landing Pages

Since the days of Madison Avenue in the ‘60s, ad copies and creatives have been the most important part of ad campaigns.

Make sure your ad copies match the intent of target keywords while keeping a sharp focus on the benefits and call-to-action.

For the landing pages, make sure they match the message of the ad copies. Matching target keywords and call-to-action will help ensure that.

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13. Select Your Bidding Model

Google gives you a whole bunch of bidding strategies to choose from, so picking one is surely going to be a headache. Here we have listed some bidding strategies based on different goals to help you decide-

Goal: Conversion

• Maximize conversions
• Target CPA
• Target ROAS

Goal: Website Visit

• Maximize clicks
• Target SERP location
• Manual CPC bidding

Goal: Brand Building

• CPM
• vCPM
• Target Impression Share Bidding

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14. Run Your Ad

Once all the above steps are done, the final step is to launch your ads. Repeat this strategy for all your campaigns to see maximum performance. 

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How Am I Going To Measure My Ad Results?

The best ways to measure how your campaign is performing are listed below-

• Measuring ROI
• Conversion tracking monitoring
• Checking quality score
• Using reports and analytics (MarTech solutions like markopolo.ai can help)

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Final Thoughts on Google Ads Plan

Success of Google Ads campaigns depend on your planning and strategies. To survive in a highly competitive platform like Google Ads, jumping in without proper planning and strategy will bleed your pockets dry. Hopefully, this article will help prevent that. 

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