Google is constantly improving their various platforms in order to improve the user experience and recently Google Ads (formally known as Google AdWords) was the next to receive a mini-makeover. If you have ever worked in Google Ads, you know that taking all of the various steps within the platform to make sure that your business or your client’s business is gaining the best bang for their buck with their Pay-per-Click campaigns can be slightly tedious. Google recognized this fact and has now simplified this process.
From the moment you select “+ New Campaign” Google is requiring you as the user to take a moment and plan – what is the intention in this PPC campaign? Is there specific inventory that you need to move? Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Are you looking to generate more leads for your sales department?
All of these questions are asked and answered at the start of creating a new campaign. Below are three simple steps to get your business’ PPC campaign headed in the right direction.
STEP ONE: Select the intention of your campaign.
What do you need to accomplish with these marketing dollars? More often than not in the automotive industry, we are looking to drive sales, generate leads, and potentially engage new traffic (i.e. brand awareness) to our websites.
STEP TWO: Specify the ad that is going to work best for your campaign and generate the optimum results.
When promoting your inventory online display, shopping, and video ads are going to be your best bet! Maybe you are a Subaru dealer and want to showcase the interior of the 2019 Ascent? Video ads can be specifically targeted to shoppers in the market for your brand with specific keywords and can build excitement for the shopper to take a closer look.
Not to get too far down the rabbit hole, but you can also exclude certain keywords so that your PPC dollars are going directly to your target audience and not being poured down the drain, but that is for another blog post on another day.
STEP THREE: Select a sub-type.
A savvy online marketer is going to select the “Standard display campaign” option in order to have more customization options, but if you are fairly new to PPC you may opt into the “Smart display campaign” option to see what traffic and leads are generated by letting Google take the wheel.
The most important thing to remember is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all option when it comes to pay-per-click campaigns. Anyone who is telling you that – well, they probably don’t know how PPC truly works. To create a successful PPC campaign that doesn’t drain your marketing budget requires detailed research and hands-on monitoring. If you are setting it and forgetting it, you are most likely losing money. The key is to make these tools work for your business with intentional well-thought-out campaigns so that you can focus on the most important thing – sales.
