Have you ever been in a rush?
Does the thought of optimizing your Google Ads account terrify you?
If you answered yes to either of those questions then I’ve got good news for you.
This is the quickest, most effective Google Ads optimization routine on the internet.
If you want to:
- Prevent wasted ad spend
- Lower your cost per click (CPC)
- Increase conversion volume
- Make more money and get a better ROI
- Not spend hours in Google Ads
… then this routine will be your new best friend.
This article is going to walk you through Google Ads optimization in five easy steps. The best part is, it’s only going to take you 10 minutes.
Okay so without further ado, let’s get started!
Adding Negative Keywords (3 Minutes)
First things first, let’s get rid of those keywords that are wasting your ad spend.
Head over to your search terms report and sort keywords by impressions in descending order.
Next, use the Command + F function to hunt down search terms that don’t match your root keywords. This makes it easier to find negative keywords and reduce wasteful spending.
You’ll be able to catch most negative keywords with the previously mentioned tactic, but some will still slip through. To catch these tiny budget drainers you’ll need to do a deep dive through your search terms report once every two or three months.
Pausing Bad Ads (1 Minute)
Assuming you have at least two ads per ad group, you’re bound to have one ad that’s performing better than the other.
To find these misbehaving ads, sort your ad groups in descending order of clicks. Next, find all of the ads that underperform and pause them, just be sure to leave the best ads running.
Click-through rates can fluctuate drastically from one ad to the next. So this simple change can make a huge impact on your click-through rate, quality score, and overall account performance.
As a side note, make sure you don’t have too many ads in one ad group. More than two or three ads per ad group will dilute your data and make it harder to test ad performance. Â
Creating New Ads (3 Minutes)
Now that you’ve cleaned house and only your best ads are active, it’s cloning time.
Yep, you read that right. You’re going to clone your best ads (the ones you didn’t pause). Then you’ll change one section of the new ads (like the description text).
Next, label the new ads so you can easily find them later.
Now you have new ads to compare with the winning ads. Then just repeat the previous two steps every two or three weeks. If you do this consistently you can expect steady improvements in your ads performance.
Bonus Tip: Take a few seconds to create ad extensions and add them to your campaigns. Ad extensions make your ads take up more space and help to improve your click-through rate.
Lower Bidding For Bad Keywords (1.5 Minutes)
Start by sorting your keywords in descending order of cost. Then slowly lower bids for any keyword that exceeds your target cost per conversion. This will reduce your overall cost per conversion and free up your budget, allowing you to get more conversions.
You can also add bid modifiers to lower bids on the following elements:
- Locations
- Day of Week
- Time of Day
- Device
- Demographics
- Audience
- And more…
If you see any of these elements performing much worse than you’d like then drop the bid.
However, some keywords never shape up regardless of lower bids. At this point, you should consider pausing them all together. Additionally, I recommend pausing keywords that have cost you money but produced zero conversions over the past ninety days.
Increase Bidding For Good Keywords (1.5 Minutes)
This is similar to the previous step, but rather than lowering bids, you’ll be increasing them.
Start by creating a filter to find any keyword with a cost per conversion that’s lower than your target. Then slowly raise bids to get more conversions from your best-performing keywords.
The same bid modifiers mentioned in the previous section can be used to raise bids too. If you see that a device, location, or audience is performing much better than others then increase bids to get more conversions.
Eventually, you’ll hit a ceiling where increased bids no longer result in improved performance. At this point, you’ll want to consider expanding your account by adding new keywords.
Conclusion
Optimizing your Google Ads account is a never-ending job, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Simple routines like this will help you maximize your time and improve your Google Ads performance if you stick with them.
In fact, you can make things even easier by saving all of the filters mentioned in this article for later use.
Happy optimizing!
