"My Google Ads aren't performing well. Can you tell me why?"
That's exactly what this client said when she booked a Google Ads coaching call with me. Let's call her Lily.
When we dove into her account, the culprit quickly became clear: keyword optimization (or lack thereof).
How did I know this was the problem?
After reviewing topline metrics, and checking her campaign settings, we went to the "Keywords" tab. I walked her through how to add some additional columns to the report, and the first thing that caught my eye was Quality Score. Specifically, very low Quality Scores.
Quality Score is a tool Google uses to evaluate the relevance and usefulness of your ads. A higher score generally means more visibility, lower costs, and better results. But Lily's low scores meant her keywords, ads, and landing page weren't aligned.
Lily's keywords were all in Broad Match, so I had an inkling that, given her campaign's modest budget, she might be serving ads on a ton of irrelevant searches.
We checked the search terms report, and my inkling became fact. We saw what her audience was actually typing into Google, and it was a whole bunch of tangentially-related stuff that was not relevant to her business.
Armed with this knowledge, we headed over to Keyword Planner and picked out new, relevant keywords. We swapped out the generic Broad Match keywords for these new ones, and put them in Exact Match. This would help her ads to show up for more relevant searches, which in turn, would help improve her Quality Score and lower her CPCs.
The keyword portion of our call took about 15 minutes, and we covered a lot of other bases, too. The result? Lily's ads got fewer clicks, but more relevant clicks, and her campaigns started finally delivering the results she needed.
Here's what you can do to evaluate and improve your keyword performance, like Lily:
- Use Keyword Planner. Don't worry too much about competition or search volume, just focus on the keywords that are more specific to and relevant for your business.
- Watch your keyword match types. Try Exact Match for more targeted results, or Broad Match for wider reach. Smaller businesses should usually skip Broad and focus on Exact.
- Check your search terms report. Your keyword report only tells you so much. To find out what searches you're actually advertising on, and optimize accordingly, you need to look at your search terms. It's under "Insights and Reports" in Google Ads.
- Monitor Quality Score monthly. Make sure your ads and landing page are relevant to your keywords. The easiest component of Quality Score to ace is "Ad relevance," so ensure you're mostly "Above Average" on at least that metric.
💎 A Gem from Jyll
If you have poor Quality Score, focus on improving Ad relevance first. It's the only one of the three components that's 100% within your control.
Want to see results like Lily's? Let's chat about your Google Ads strategy. Book a call with me.
One more thing...
Check out my recent segment on Today in Digital Marketing. Tod Maffin and I discuss new Google Ads features like WhatsApp message assets, Google engaged audiences and PMax asset group reporting, and what you can do now that Call-only ads are going away. Watch now on YouTube
