More than 50% of surveyed shoppers say they use Google search to discover or find new brands.
Clearly, Google Ads stands out as the most effective tool for attracting your target audience and increasing traffic to your brand’s web pages.
However, studies show that a typical small business wastes about 25% of its annual paid advertising quota. That’s an enormous drain considering most SMBs run on tight marketing budgets.
So how do you optimize your Google Ads on a smaller budget and make every dollar count? We have nine expert tips for you.
Expert optimization tips for maximizing Google Ads ROI when running on a budget
Let’s go over nine actionable tips for creating effective Google Ads with a limited budget:
1. Use long-tail keywords
Adding longer search terms or phrases containing long-tail keywords with intent is the best optimization trick when you're on a smaller budget.
Long-tail keywords are more specific and let you target your audience’s search queries accurately. They also have lower search volumes but higher search intent, making them ideal for brands to beat potential competition.
Say you’re a beauty eCommerce brand. Using a generic keyword like “makeup products” would have a higher competition rate than terms like “best makeup products for Zoom meetings.” So, by using the latter, you can bid lower, have a lesser competition rate, and write more specific ads targeting a particular audience segment.
Pro tip: You can research long-tail keywords for free through the Keyword Planner under your Google Ads account. Find search queries with the potential to garner the highest clicks and have lower competition.
2. Ditch vanity metrics and focus on what matters
Vanity metrics are great talking points for meetings. But in reality, vanity metrics distract you from focusing on numbers that truly matter.
Too many vanity metrics can lead to inefficient use of the marketing budget and the wrong assumption of measuring ad performance based on just ad clicks or impressions.
So what can you do?
Be extra focused on what you measure. Get rid of data columns that set unrealistic expectations. For example, delete a column like “the total number of ad impressions.” Having thousands of impressions won’t matter if you’re not converting users.
Instead, you can focus on metrics, such as:
- Conversion rate
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Cost per conversion
- Quality score
- ROAS - return on ad spend
These metrics better align with your current business goal – running high-performing, cost-effective Google Ads.
Pro tip: Review and delete data columns you don’t use daily or barely add value to your daily optimizations.
3. Add negative keywords
Negative keywords are as important as short or long-tail keywords. They are words or phrases you wish to exclude from your Google Ads campaign.
These keywords are vital in fine-tuning your ad targeting and preventing ads from showing up on irrelevant or inappropriate searches. This reduces ad spending and safeguards ad behavior.
For example, if you’re an ultra-luxury watch brand, you wouldn't want your ads to show up for search terms involving “cheap,” “budget,” or “affordable.”
Pro tip: Explore your Google search terms report to understand how your ads performed in real time when triggered by searches. Filter out irrelevant keywords and add them to your negative keyword list.
4. Include as many extensions as possible
Most people tend to downplay ad extensions (now referred to as assets) and stick to adding just the ad title and description. But when you’re running on a tight budget, you must use every asset to give users more and more reasons to engage with your ad.
So use every possible ad extension from your Google Ads dashboard to provide your potential customers with as much information as possible.
Ad extensions, aka assets, can be site links, phone numbers, store locations, product prices, callouts, messaging links, lead forms, and many more. Doing so can accurately guide potential customers to the next steps, such as sending an inquiry email or signing up for a demo.
Pro tip: Monitor your ads to analyze how your ad extensions perform. For instance, analyze which ad extension combination generates the most conversions and use this data to optimize your future Google Ad extensions.
5. Use creative AI to optimize your ad’s visual appeal
Did you know visuals are processed about 60k times faster in the brain than text? That’s how vital visuals are for your search ads, too.
So it only makes sense not to base your ad visuals on guesswork alone. The solution? Creative AI.
With creative AI tools like Eacel.ai, you can auto-monitor your ad performance by analyzing the smallest of elements in your creatives - visuals, colors, font, logo and more. The tool offers suggestions for improving or replacing ad visuals and can also generate high-quality creative ads in minutes.
Creative AI tools allow you to maintain a high ad campaign ROI and efficient ad spending as they help you escape the creative rut when it comes to ad visuals.
6. Do not overlook the Quality Score
Quality Score is a critical metric that gives you a sense of how well your ad quality compares to other competitors.
It’s measured on a scale of 1 to 10. A higher score can mean your ads and landing pages are more relevant to a target user searching with a keyword than other advertisers’ creatives.
As per Google, your Quality Score can depend on:
- Landing page quality and experience
- Ad relevance for keywords
- The expected click-through rate (CTR)
- Historical performance of your Google Ads
So this calls for optimizing ad relevance. Quality Score can have a huge impact on the cost and effectiveness of your paid search campaigns.
Pro tip: Carefully select keywords and segment them based on the search intent—the closer you get, the better. Also, get more specific ad copies ready for each ad group to test relevance and potential change in Quality Scores.
7. Set up a strategic bidding approach
A smaller budget can mean less use of automation and more manual work. So make sure to work smarter, especially when setting up bids.
Set up a strategic manual CPC (cost per click) bidding approach for adjusting bids and keeping your ad costs as low as possible while having complete control of your ad spending. Manual bidding lets you make changes and allocate budget as and when necessary.
For example, focusing on the most profitable keywords or a particular ad segment lets you add or remove money accordingly.
Pro tip: Start by setting up a maximum CPC bid for your preferred ad group. Alternatively, you can set separate bids for individual keywords or placements if you find them more profitable.
8. Set up geo-targeting for effective Google Ads
Geo-targeting involves targeting a specific location to ensure your ads appear only to users in a certain physical space or set of places. This is a brilliant way to plan your ad spending and maximize local ad performance.
Say you’re a home service business. It’s best to set up geo-targeting only to target and reach specific neighborhoods you serve instead of the entire city or district.
Geo-targeting in Google Ads also lets you exclude locations with high competition.
Pro tip: Add some regional terms to your keyword list to make geo-targeting extra potent. For example, include phrases like “best car dealers in San Jose” in your ad copy since most users tend to use the location when running searches.
9. Optimize your landing page
We saw how a landing page plays a major role in increasing your ad’s Quality Score. So having a landing page that matches the ad copy and the user’s search intent can decrease bounce rates and boost overall conversions.
More ad clicks do not mean quality ad spend. The idea is not just to generate ad clicks. It’s also to ensure potential customers find the exact information they’re looking for once they land on your landing page.
For example, clicking on a product ad should lead them to the product’s landing page with the product’s specification, description, and a link to finish the purchase.
Pro tip: Always check if your ad copy and landing page’s intent match. Understanding visitors' specific needs and challenges can help create a personalized landing page experience that feels more exclusive.
Wrapping up
Remember, Google Ads can be updated at any time. So, the only way to stay on track is to continuously monitor every minute aspect of your ad using our suggested tips.
However, suppose you’re tracking your Google Ad campaign’s effectiveness solely based on its reach or clicks generated. In that case, you may overlook some crucial metrics offering deeper insights into your campaign’s true ROI.
Your ad creative is one such asset.
As we’ve previously discussed, ad creatives have a direct impact on how your target audience engages with your campaigns. With visual information processed way faster than what your ad copy has to say, ad creatives can impact the overall returns on the campaign budget.
But deep diving into such subjective details can be tough.
This is where AI-powered tools like Eacel can do the heavy lifting for you. Right from monitoring how your ad creatives perform to generating high-performing ad creatives in minutes, this performance marketing platform does it all.
So if you’re running Google ads on a budget, we recommend you get started today.
