At Neptune Design we see a lot of clients, we have clients from America, Singapore and the UK. Most of the time our clients come to us with the same problem, why am I paying so much per click with my Google ads and how can I reduce this ad words cost while still having good conversions on my website.
I’ve decided to put together a few cost saving tips that will help you optimize your Google ads campaign and of course if you would like a 1:1 consultation feel free to contact us.
1.Use Google keyword planner to measure CPC cost.
Google keyword planner is a free tool from Google that allows you to correctly asses how much you need to pay per click to get to the top of the search results. You can even view the search trends to see how high the competition is for a certain keyword and how many searches that keyword gets in a particular location. Use this to decide if your not over paying for a certain keywords or search terms when there are similar keywords available with a far lower cost per click.
2. Use negative keywords
Using negative keywords can exclude your ads from showing up when someone types in free as a search term. For example if you are a web designer you don’t want your ads to show up when some types in FREE WEBSITES on Google as their intent was to pay nothing for the free in the first place. The negative keywords section can be found in your Google ads dashboard just make sure you you’re using Google ads in expert mode, if your not go to the settings tab at the top of your screen and select expert mode.
3. Start your campaigns off with the Manual CPC bidding strategy.
Manual CPC is a bidding strategy that allows you to manually limit how much you pay per click in Google ads. Yes! you read correctly, you can now accurately predict how much traffic you will get for your budget. I usually recommend clients start off with this setting then transition to Enhanced CPC setting. Because Google ads uses an auction system to determine how much you pay per click your CPC can wildly vary from day to day which makes it extremely hard to control costs.This strategy will put you back in control.
4. Understand the difference between Broad match, Phrase match and Exact match keywords.
When someone searches Google for your product or service you want to show up, we all want that. What you don’t want to do is show up when someone types in something completely different. I currently have a client who sells privacy glass and window tinting yet when someone types in curtains or drapes his ads would still show. This is because when you use your keywords on broad match your ads will show up for things at are broadly matched to your keyword. This can sometimes bring you expensive clicks for people who aren’t even interested in what you are selling.
Always make sure you are using the correct setting for the correct type of keyword and always monitor the search phrases in the Google ads dashboard panel to make sure your ads are showing in the correct searches.
5. Stay away from the maximize conversions bidding strategy initially.
The biggest culprit of overspending budgets or paying way too much for is without a doubt the maximize conversions setting. When you are starting the campaign it selects by default and at face value there is nothing wrong with maximize conversions it sounds like the kind of setting you want to be on. However what maximize conversions setting means that if Google thinks based on historical data that a person will have a high chance of converting it will spend as much as possible to get the click from that person. This will often result in extremely high CPC without any conversions either. You should only activate this setting once you have an extremely good set of conversion data (example 30 conversions in the past 30 days at minimum) and keep a close eye on it.
Conclusion
Using these methods will be a step in the right direction for cost saving, always make sure you are keeping your marketing profitable. If you need any further assistance with your campaigns contact us here or on our contact us page.
