Google Ads is a very wide topic to discuss. Each update brings in new changes and sometimes total revamp of the whole platform. It is absolutely necessary to stay updated with the constant changes in Google Ads.
But there are some factors that are as important right now as they were in the past. I have listed some of these factors in this article.
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Keyword Research
Keyword Research
Image: Keyword research
Keyword research has always been a cornerstone of Google Ads. It always acts as a base for the whole account. Finding relevant keywords has always been the first step in Google Ads.
But the process is only getting more and more complex with the introduction of new techniques and content.
Here is a simplified version of the process that anyone can apply to get started. Start with reviewing the landing page. This is where you will get most of the content you need for your keyword research.
The landing page will provide you the basic outline of the message you want to communicate to your users. Next comes the content on the landing page. Search for keywords and terms that are repeated throughout the landing page.
You can use these terms to form keywords and ad groups.
Another aspect is the search term report. There are two ways that data from search term reports can be used. First is to find negative keywords and second to find opportunity keywords. Negative keywords are those search terms that are not relevant to our website but still lead to our website.
Opportunity keywords are as the name suggests keywords that could be used to mine more keywords and phrases. Competitor’s names are also a type of opportunity keywords that could be used to drive traffic towards your ads.
Ad Copy
Ad Copy
Image: Ad copy
Content is very important especially when it comes to advertising. You need to convince the user to choose your product over everyone else. In the case of Google Ads, this message is conveyed primarily through ad copy.
Ad copy includes the headline of your ad, description and various extensions that you may or may not use. We will discuss extensions under a separate header, for now, let’s discuss headline and description.
For headlines, the idea is simple. You need to grab the attention of the relevant users and then compel them to click on your ad. Quirky one-liners work wonders for headlines. Also, your headlines must have a sense of urgency. For example: Buy Now! Limited Stock.
Description needs more than quirky one-liners. Descriptions should be informative and concise. An ideal description informs the user about your product, your product’s USP, and any offers that may entice the relevant user to click on the ad.
Ad copy should be more focused on the potential target rather than the website or product. The user should be able to connect to the message and see value in your ad. Only then is conversion possible.
Ad Groups
Ad Groups
Image: Ad groups
Ads with similar themes are put together in sets of 6 to 20 words. This set is called the ad group. Creating ad-groups relevant to the ad and product are said to affect the quality score in a very positive manner.
A well-organized ad groups strategy will keep your ads account much cleaner. If you are handling a big account with multiple campaigns but without ad groups, then you may have to check 100-1500 keyword performance individually.
Therefore ad-groups are so necessary. They provide us with clean groups of related keywords and how their ads are performing. Ad-groups review is essential for experimenting within a Google Ads account.
In every ad group, you can add 2 ads and then test it out for a week or a month according to your preference. Then you can go on to remove the ad groups with low performing keywords and add some other keywords under the new ad group to continue the experiment.
SKAG or single keyword ad group is a very different type of ad-group. Here an ad-group consists of only one keyword. These ad-groups are usually created for keywords who share no similarities with other keywords but have high potential to get a conversion.
Landing Pages
Landing Pages
Image: Landing pages
Landing page relevance is very important when it comes to conversion. Your ad and ad copy just get the users to click on the ad and get to the landing page. Despite being of such value for conversions, often landing pages are poorly optimized.
A landing page should be highly relevant to the user’s search intent. If someone is searching for a Gucci handbag with it’s make and model number then they should only end up at that specific product page, not the handbag categories page
Your ad and ad copy should be similar to your landing page. Your primary keyword should be included in the ad copy. If a user clicks on a deodorant ad and is redirected to a soap’s product page then the user may feel cheated.
The content of your landing page is important. This content conveys the answer to the question “why” a user should convert on your site. In content, less is more. Try to keep your content to a minimum unless your goal is to provide information.
Keep your landing page format length low. Minimize text and maximize imagery and whitespace. You should also keep experimenting with your landing pages. Continuous experimentation provides you with valuable insights through changes in various metrics.
A bonus tip is to set the landing page in the preferred language of the target user. If you are targeting a local milkman community in a rural village then you should design the landing in their language.
Similarly, if your targeted users are worldwide then English would be a much smarter choice.
Campaign
Campaign
Image: Campaign
Campaigns are to ad sets what groups are to ads. Campaigns have a specific theme. It can be a specific product/service or a target audience. A campaign brings together different ads, keywords, and bids under one section.
A campaign helps you organize various ad sets and then provide them with shared location targeting, budget, and other settings. Campaigns should be well structured around the various dimensions decided by the webmaster.
Conversion tracking is a very important step on the campaign level. You will need to continuously experiment with your campaigns and conversion tracking will help you observe the effects of these changes.
Extensions
Extensions
Image: Extensions
Extensions are useful in various ways they can be used to provide additional information to the user about your ad. Sitelink, call, location, callout, price, and app to name a few. Different extensions come with different benefits.
Extensions are very useful. First of all, they are free, Google charges the same amount when someone clicks on your extension as it would if someone clicked on your ad. Extensions also provide you free real estate on the SERP with the opportunity to add more to your ad.
Among the best uses of extensions is the call out. A good call-out extension can instantly grab the user’s attention but this aspect is usually overlooked. You should use site extensions whenever it seems appropriate and also keep track of your extensions’ performance.
Extensions should be scheduled according to the time you can provide a specific service. Call extension can be a great example of this statement. You should only use call extension between your business hours when someone is there to answer the user’s call.
Mobile
Image: Mobile
Mobile is currently the big trend in digital marketing scene. Mobile users outnumber desktop users by a sizeable margin and both Google and marketers have taken notice. Mobilegeddon was the very step by Google towards showing its commitment towards its mobile user base.
One of the first things to do for optimizing your mobile site is to create a separate landing page that is optimized for mobile devices. Using the same landing page for both mobile and desktop is a huge mistake in the post mobilegeddon era.
Another crucial step by Google was to introduce separate bidding for mobile devices. You can bid more or less according to your need or choose to opt out completely from a device. This is especially useful for sites which get a major chunk of their traffic from one specific device type.
Conclusion
Google Ads is an ever-changing landscape with frequent updates and changes. No one can come with a permanent strategy to succeed in such a dynamic environment. The only method is to continuously experiment and come up with new hacks.
A thorough landing page analysis forms the bedrock of your campaign by aligning ad content directly with user expectations. This ensures your messaging is consistent from the initial ad click to the final conversion, improving relevance and Quality Score. The process involves identifying the core value proposition and recurring phrases.
Core Message: First, distill the primary message you want to communicate. This becomes the thematic guide for your keyword selection and ad groups.
Keyword Extraction: Systematically scan the page content for repeated terms. These are your initial seed keywords.
Thematic Grouping: Organize these extracted terms into tightly-knit sets of 6 to 20 words to form your ad groups.
This approach of mirroring your landing page ensures that when users click your ad, the destination feels like a natural continuation of their search, a critical factor for campaign success explored further in the full article.
Strategically structuring your account with ad groups is critical because it transforms a chaotic list of keywords into a manageable system for performance tracking and experimentation. It allows you to isolate variables and measure effectiveness, directly impacting your Quality Score. Without them, you might check 100-1500 keyword performances individually, making optimization impossible. By grouping keywords with a similar theme, you can:
Improve Ad Relevance: Write highly specific ad copy that speaks directly to the search queries within that group.
Enable A/B Testing: Easily run two different ads within an ad group to see which headline performs better.
Streamline Reporting: Quickly assess the performance of entire keyword categories instead of single terms.
Systematic organization is the key to unlocking scalable and profitable campaign management, a concept detailed throughout our guide.
Choosing between the search term report and competitive analysis depends on whether your goal is to refine existing targeting or expand into new territory. The search term report provides concrete data on what users are actually searching to trigger your ads, making it ideal for immediate optimization. In contrast, competitive analysis is more speculative but can uncover entirely new market segments.
Search Term Report: Use this to find opportunity keywords that are already generating impressions. This is a low-risk method for capturing proven demand and finding negative keywords.
Competitive Analysis: This involves researching which keywords your competitors are bidding on, including a competitor’s names, to identify gaps in your own strategy.
While the search term report offers validated, internal data for refinement, competitive analysis provides external insights for growth. The full article explains how to blend both for a powerful strategy.
Top-performing advertisers treat the search term report as a goldmine for growth, not just a tool for defensive cost-cutting. They systematically analyze user queries to identify “opportunity keywords,” which are search terms driving traffic that they are not yet explicitly targeting. For example, if a campaign for “running shoes” shows clicks from the search term “trail running shoes for hiking,” it signals a new, related audience. This data-driven insight allows for the creation of a new, highly-relevant ad group specifically for that niche, complete with tailored ad copy and improved Quality Score. This proactive expansion based on user data avoids guesswork and ensures marketing budgets are directed toward proven areas of interest. To learn how to structure this analysis, explore the full post.
High-converting ads excel by combining compelling headlines with informative descriptions that directly address user needs. The key is to grab attention immediately and then provide just enough detail to earn the click. A headline like “Buy Now! Limited Stock” creates urgency by suggesting scarcity. The description then builds on this by clearly outlining the product’s value. An ideal description for a Google Ads campaign would:
Inform the user about the product's core function.
Highlight its unique selling proposition (USP), such as free shipping.
Include any offers or discounts that entice a click.
The most effective ad copy focuses on the potential customer, making them feel the message connects with their specific problem or desire. Crafting user-centric copy is a central theme explored in greater detail within the article.
To build a high-performing campaign from a new landing page, you must systematically translate its content into a structured Google Ads account. This ensures perfect alignment between what users search for, your ad, and your page, boosting your Quality Score. 1. Review the Landing Page: Understand the core message, value propositions, and calls to action. 2. Extract Key Terms: Identify repeated keywords and phrases from headings and body text to create a seed list. 3. Create Thematic Ad Groups: Group the extracted keywords into small, tightly-themed sets of 6 to 20 words each. 4. Write Aligned Ad Copy: For each ad group, write two distinct ads whose headlines and descriptions use keywords from that group. This content-first approach creates a clean, relevant campaign structure from day one. Dive deeper into advanced structuring techniques in the full article.
While automation simplifies many tasks, a firm grasp of foundational principles like manual keyword research and ad group structure is more critical than ever. These fundamentals provide the strategic direction that automation needs to be effective. Relying solely on automated tools without understanding the 'why' leads to generic campaigns. Knowing how to find keywords or structure an ad group allows you to guide the machine, troubleshoot performance issues, and make informed strategic decisions. A well-organized account provides better data for both you and Google's algorithms to learn from. Strategic human oversight ensures that your campaigns are not just running, but are running intelligently and profitably, a concept central to navigating the future of paid search.
Creating oversized, disorganized ad groups with too many unrelated keywords is a frequent error that severely harms campaign performance. This practice dilutes the relevance between a user's search query, your ad copy, and your landing page, which directly lowers your Quality Score. A lower score means you pay more per click. The solution is to implement a strategy of creating small, tightly-themed ad groups. The recommended practice is to group a concise set of 6 to 20 keywords that share a very specific theme. This allows you to:
Write hyper-relevant ad copy for each group.
Achieve a higher click-through rate.
Improve your Quality Score and lower your costs.
By adopting granular ad group structures, you create a cleaner, more efficient account that is easier to test and optimize. The article provides further details on how to audit your existing ad groups.
An ad group serves as the essential bridge connecting your keywords to your ads, ensuring the message shown to a user is highly relevant to their specific search query. Instead of pointing all keywords to one generic ad, an ad group contains a small set of closely related keywords and ads written specifically for that theme. This tight alignment is a primary factor in how Google calculates your Quality Score. A higher relevance between keyword and ad leads to a higher click-through rate, which in turn boosts your score, resulting in lower costs and better ad positions. A well-organized strategy keeps your account clean and makes it easy to test which messages resonate best for each keyword cluster. Mastering this keyword-to-ad alignment is fundamental for profitable advertising, a topic explored throughout the guide.
To conduct effective A/B tests, you must isolate variables within a controlled environment, and the ad group is the perfect place for this. The best practice is to create at least two distinct ads within every single ad group, changing only one element at a time, such as the headline. By running these two ads concurrently, you gather performance data under the same conditions. After a designated period, you can confidently analyze the results. The process involves:
Creating two ad variations in each ad group.
Running the test for a statistically significant duration.
Reviewing performance metrics like click-through rate.
Pausing the low-performing ad and creating a new challenger.
This iterative testing methodology ensures continuous improvement and is a core principle for optimizing any Google Ads account. The full post provides more tips on structuring these experiments.
Ignoring the search term report is a significant financial mistake because the keywords you bid on are not always the exact phrases users type. This report shows you the actual queries that led to clicks, revealing where your budget is truly going. Without reviewing it, you are likely paying for irrelevant clicks from search terms that are thematically related but commercially useless. The solution is a regular review of this report to identify and add these irrelevant queries as negative keywords. This action immediately stops your ads from showing for those terms, preserving your budget for high-intent searches and improving overall campaign profitability. This disciplined process of refinement is a key differentiator for successful advertisers.
The description field is your prime real estate for convincing a user why your offer is superior, moving beyond what the product is to why they should care. A powerful description in a Google Ads campaign does more than list features; it connects them to benefits. For example, instead of saying “10GB storage,” an ad could say “Never worry about space again with 10GB of secure storage.” To further stand out, it should concisely communicate:
Your USP: What makes you different, like next-day delivery or a lifetime warranty?
Enticing Offers: Mention any current promotions, like “20% Off This Week Only.”
A Clear Call to Action: Tell the user what to do next, such as “Shop Our Collection.”
Focusing on user value in the description is crucial for driving clicks from relevant users, a tactic discussed more extensively in the full article.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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