Imagine you are a chef trying to cook a delicious meal. You have all the ingredients you need, but if you don’t follow the recipe correctly, your dish is likely to turn out subpar. The same is true with Google Ads. Even if you have a great product or service to offer, if you don’t set up your campaigns correctly, you’re not going to get the results you want.

After auditing literally 1000s of Google ad accounts at my agency Digital Street, even the top-spending ad accounts have one or more of these costly mistakes.

The numero uno on the list is:

1. Conversion Tracking Not Set-up Properly: The Blindfolded Marketer

Imagine walking into a labyrinth without a map or any sense of direction. That’s exactly what happens when you neglect to set up conversion tracking. Without conversion tracking, you’re merely guessing which campaigns, keywords, or ads are generating actual results. It’s like wandering in the dark, hoping for the best.

 Let’s say you’re running an e-commerce business, and your goal is to drive online sales. By implementing conversion tracking, you can track and attribute sales to specific ads or keywords. Without it, you’re left unaware of which campaigns contribute to your revenue, making optimization an uphill battle.

2. Irrelevant or Excessive Keywords: The Scatterbrained Advertiser

When it comes to keyword selection, quality trumps quantity. Overloading your campaigns with irrelevant or excessive keywords will not only drain your budget but also dilute your targeting efforts. Remember, relevance is the key to capturing the attention of potential customers.

Suppose you’re promoting a luxury travel agency specializing in exotic destinations. Using keywords like “cheap flights” or “budget accommodations” would attract budget-conscious travelers, not your desired high-end clientele. Instead, focus on terms like “luxury travel packages” or “exclusive resorts” to target the right audience.

 Studies indicate that narrowing down your keyword list to 10-20 highly relevant keywords can increase click-through rates by up to 200%. Quality beats quantity every time!

3. Neglecting Negative Keywords: The Wasted Impressions

Imagine if your ads were shown to people searching for something entirely different from what you offer. That’s where negative keywords come in. Failure to utilize negative keywords can result in wasted impressions, clicks, and ultimately, wasted budget.

Let’s say you’re selling premium dog food and want to target dog owners looking for healthy options. By adding “cat” as a negative keyword, you prevent your ads from showing to people searching for cat-related products. This way, you ensure your ads are displayed only to those genuinely interested in your dog food.

Including negative keywords can decrease your cost-per-click (CPC) by up to 50%, maximizing your ad spend and filtering out irrelevant clicks. Don’t let your budget go to waste!

4. Search Copy: The Bland & Boring Approach

Your ad copy is the hook that reels in potential customers. However, if it fails to engage or lacks relevance to the search query, it becomes a missed opportunity. Remember, you have a limited number of characters to captivate your audience, so make sure every word counts!

Suppose you’re running a digital marketing agency offering SEO services. Instead of a generic headline like “Best SEO Services,” try something more compelling and relevant, such as “Unlock Your Website’s Potential with Expert SEO Strategies.” This way, you immediately address the searcher’s needs and stand out from the competition.

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Ads with a high relevance score (based on click-through rate and engagement) can lead to a 50-100% increase in ad visibility and a significant decrease in cost-per-click. Engage, captivate, and conquer!

5. Ignoring Location Settings: The Disconnected Advertiser

Picture this: You’re running a local business catering to a specific geographical area, but your ads are being displayed to people thousands of miles away. Ignoring location settings is like casting a wide net without considering the waters you’re fishing in. It’s crucial to optimize your ads to reach the right audience in the right place.

 Let’s say you own a boutique coffee shop in New York City. If you neglect to set your ads to target users within a reasonable radius of your location, your ads may be shown to people in Los Angeles, London, or even Tokyo! This wasted exposure not only drains your budget but also fails to attract customers who are actually within reach of your establishment.

Studies have shown that ads with localized targeting have a 200% higher click-through rate compared to campaigns with broader targeting. By narrowing down your audience to specific locations, you ensure that your ads are seen by those who are most likely to convert into loyal customers.

The post Money Down the Drain: 5 Google Ad Mistakes You Need to Fix appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

As I was auditing yet another Google ad account at my agency Digital Street, one of the biggest and most common mistakes that popped up once again was no negative keyword list or negative keywords added to any of the campaigns.

The ad account in question is spending $1500 a day i.e., around $45000 per month. I’ve audited 1000s of Google ad accounts and this one mistake annoys me to the hilt.

You Must Be Wondering, Why? What’s the Big Deal?

Let me explain.

First things first, let’s define what negative keywords are. Simply put, they’re words or phrases that you add to your Google Ads campaign to tell Google which search terms you don’t want your ads to appear for.

By excluding these keywords, you can save money, improve your click-through rate, and increase your conversion rate. 

For example, let’s say you own an online shoe store that sells high-end designer shoes. You might want to bid on keywords like “designer shoes,” “luxury shoes,” and “high-end shoes” to attract potential customers who are specifically looking for your products.

However, you probably don’t want your ads to show up for search terms like “cheap shoes” or “discount shoes,” since those searchers are unlikely to be interested in your expensive products. In this case, you would add “cheap” and “discount” as negative keywords to your campaign.

Now, Why Are Negative Keywords So Important?

Well, let me break it down for you.

By eliminating irrelevant clicks and focusing on high-intent searchers, you’re likely to see a higher click-through rate (CTR), a lower cost per click (CPC), and a higher conversion rate. That means you get more bang for your buck and achieve better results from your Google Ads campaigns.

And who doesn’t want that?

So, How Do You Create An Effective Negative Keyword List?

Here are some steps to follow:

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• Step 1: Start with a brainstorming session. Think about the types of search terms that would be irrelevant or low-intent for your business. There are certain words such as ‘free’, ‘reviews’, ‘cheap’ that we always exclude across all our accounts.
• Step 2: Use Google Ads’ Search Terms Report to see which search terms are triggering your ads. This report shows you the actual search terms that people are using to find your ads and can help you identify any irrelevant or low-intent search terms that you might have missed. At my agency Digital Street AU, we mine search terms every 48 hours. It’s part of our optimizing the ad campaigns process.
• Step 3: Add Negative Keywords to Your Campaign. Once you have your list of negative keywords, you can add them to your campaign by going to the “Negative keywords” tab in your Google Ads account.
• Step 4: Refine Your List Over Time. Remember, creating an effective negative keyword list is an ongoing process. Keep track of your campaign’s performance and adjust your negative keyword list accordingly.

In conclusion, negative keywords are a powerful tool that can help you save money, improve your ad performance, and achieve better results from your Google Ads campaigns. So, don’t neglect them!

Take the time to create an effective negative keyword list and watch your Return on ad spend (ROAS) soar.

Until next time, keep optimizing!

The post Don’t Waste Your Google Ad Spend: How Negative Keyword Lists Can Improve Your Google Ads Campaigns appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Next month (October 2022), Google is updating the Destination requirements policy requiring that ad experiences on destinations (i.e. blogs and landing pages) follow the Coalition for Better Ads Standards. The impact on publishers and advertisers could be significant, as they’re used to having more control over their ad placements.

To help you get ready for the new advertising policy requirements, we’ve put together a list of resources that includes information on what to expect and how best practices can be used.

What are the updated requirements?

The updated requirements are that ad experiences on landing pages must conform to the Coalition for Better Ads Standards. This means that ads must be less intrusive and more user-friendly. Google will consider a number of factors when determining whether an ad experience is annoying. These include the number of ads on the page, their layout, and placement, as well as how intrusive they are. 

According to Google, ads that do not comply with the better ads standards are as follows:

On Desktop

• Pop-up Ads
• Auto-Playing Video Ads with Sound
• Prestitial Ads with Countdown
• Large Sticky Ads

On Mobile

• Pop-up Ads
• Prestitial Ads (Ads that show on a mobile page before the content has loaded)
• Ad Density Higher Than 30%
• Flashing Animated Ads
• Auto-playing Video Ads with Sound
• Prestitial Ads with Countdown 
• Full-screen Scrollover Ads
• Large Sticky Ads

Google will let you know if your landing pages aren’t up to standards through the Ad Experience Report and any ads that lead to a violating destination will be disapproved immediately.

Why is Google doing this?

Our answer: ad blockers. 

Google’s answer: To improve user experience. A bad ad experience can ruin the whole online experience for a user, and Google wants to avoid that. After all, happy users are good for business.

Google has decided on these changes with help from the Coalition For Better Ads. As stated on their site, “The Coalition’s Better Ads Standards identify the ad experiences that fall beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability and are most likely to drive consumers to install ad blockers. More than 150,000 consumers have participated to date in the Coalition’s research to develop its set of Better Ads Standards.”¹

According to the Coalition For Better Ads:

• Advertisers can use the Better Ads Standards to inform campaign development and execution
• Publishers and app developers can use the Better Ads Standards to develop improved experiences for their audiences
• Ad technology platforms can use the Better Ads Standards in the development process for new ad experiences
• Providers of measurement technologies can use the Better Ads Standards to develop new ways to assess marketplace prevalence of the ad experiences preferred by consumers

What does this mean for you?

This new policy put into place by Google will result in a better user experience for internet users, and also help to increase revenue for website owners who are displaying ads. In order to comply with the updated requirements, website owners should avoid using any of the above-listed ad types on their pages. 

By doing so, they can ensure that their ads will not be considered annoying or intrusive, and will therefore not be penalized by Google. Additionally, they can also take steps to improve the overall layout and design of their ads, in order to make them more user-friendly.

If you’re a website owner, it’s important to take the necessary steps to prepare for Google’s updated destination requirements policy. By doing so, you can avoid any potential penalties, and ensure that your ads are compliant with the new standards. Additionally, you can also help to improve the overall user experience on your site by creating better ad experiences for your visitors.

How can you prepare?

Here are some steps on how to prepare for Google’s updated destination requirements policy:

• Review the updated Destination requirements policy: Familiarize yourself with the updated policy requirements so that you can ensure your ad experiences will be compliant. You can find more information on the Coalition for Better Ads Standards website.
• Create better ad experiences: Take steps to improve the overall user experience on your website by creating better ad experiences. This includes avoiding intrusive ad formats and placing ads in strategic locations.
• Monitor your site’s performance: Keep an eye on your website’s performance to ensure that it is meeting Google’s standards. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to help you identify potential issues.
• Monitor your ad’s performance: Keep an eye on your ad account to make sure that all of your ad experiences are compliant with the new policy requirements. You can use Google’s Ad Experience Report to help you identify any potential issues.

By following these steps, you can help to ensure that your site is compliant with Google’s updated destination requirements policy, and that your users have a positive experience on your site.

Tips for creating better ad experiences

Keep these tips in mind to create better ad experiences for your users and avoid getting slapped by Google’s updated destination requirements policy.

1. Make sure that the ads on your site are relevant to the content on your site. Irrelevant ads can be intrusive and annoying to users.

2. Keep ad placements consistent throughout your site. Ads that are placed in unexpected places can be disruptive to users.

3. Pay attention to the placement of your ads, and make sure that they are not in locations where they will interrupt or interfere with the user’s experience on your site.

4. Make sure that the ads on your site are not excessive in number. Too many ads can be overwhelming and intrusive for users.

Or follow our general guideline: If an ad experience annoys you on other websites (we’re looking at you clickbait spammers), it will annoy your users on your website. 

What happens if you violate the policies?

If you violate the updated Destination Requirements policy, your ads may be disapproved and your account may be at risk of suspension. So it’s important to make sure that your ads are in compliance with the new policy before it goes into effect.

Conclusion

Google’s updated Destination requirements policy is just another example of how the company is cracking down on bad ads. While this may be frustrating for publishers & advertisers who are used to having more control over their ad placements, it’s important to remember that these changes are meant to improve the user experience. 

By following the tips in this article, you can make sure that your ad experiences conform to the new standards and avoid any penalties from Google.

TL;DR – Ads that interrupt a user’s browsing experience are not in line with the better ads standards and will be disapproved by Google. 

The post The Next Google Slap? How to Prepare for Google’s Updated Destination Requirements Policy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

In my last article, we talked about whether or not Google Ads was the right move for your ecommerce business. 

Now, if Google Ads is indeed in the cards for your store (or you have successfully run Google Ads already), this article is going to walk you through the prerequisites you need before you can hit the ground running.

Ecommerce Business Planning: 

Must-Haves Before Building a Google Ads Campaign

You are hereby (lovingly) forbidden from building a Google Ads campaign until you have the following six items:

1. Reasonable Monthly Spend
2. 90 Days to Prove Concept
3. An Ecommerce Enabled Website With a Product Feed
4. Enough Margins to Support a Traffic Campaign
5. Unique Selling Proposition
6. No One-Off Products

Let’s explain:

1. Reasonable Monthly Spend
   

Think of your monthly budget early on as an investment. 

You are buying data you need to understand what works in your campaign, what doesn’t, and where to make changes—in a reasonable amount of time. 

With that investment, Google will start to build an audience specifically for you that you will capitalize on later. And it will be worth it! You *must* have enough monthly ad spend to accumulate enough accurate data for testing and optimizing down the road.

For context, at Solutions 8, we won’t take a client whose budget is under $2000/month. 

Budget under $2000 per month? Maybe you want to hold off until it’s more feasible. 

Google is a learning algorithm. The first three months are going to be the most “painful” part of your campaigns. Which brings us to our next requirement:

2. 90 Days to Prove Concept

It bears repeating that Google is a learning machine. And learning takes time.

In fact, we’re asking Google to do some pretty spectacular behavioral analysis.

After you set up your Smart Shopping campaign, Google learns: 

• When customers interact with your ads
• How many times users click on your ads
• What channel those ads are clicked
• How long it takes for the prospect to come back
• What channels they come back to
• Which other products they view

Once Google has all that data, it determines how many other customers follow through the same pattern or similar cycle.  

So, for a 15-day sales cycle (meaning it took 15 days from when a customer first clicked your ad to when they made a purchase), you might have to wait a full month for sales to start coming in. Meaning it will take a full month for Google to begin to gather data for testing and optimizing.

Again, those early days are tough. But by day 90, you should have enough data to tell whether or not the campaign will work long term. 

3. An Ecommerce Enabled Website With a Product Feed

This one may sound obvious, but here goes:

Your ads will send prospective customers to your site. Therefore, you need an appealing, easy-to-navigate ecommerce website complete with a product feed tool. 

Remember, your “product feed” is much more than a CSV file of product titles, descriptions, GTIN codes, and prices.

For ecommerce businesses, the product feed will make or break your campaign.

When it comes to ecommerce platforms, particularly ones that integrate beautifully with Google Ads, Shopify is our fave.

4. Enough Margins to Support a Traffic Campaign

Running ads takes money. Can your profit margins support these campaigns? 

See, you can have a 100% profit margin—but if you’re selling $2 items, your campaigns still might not be profitable. 

Unless you have a higher cart value than the original price.

In other words, your products need to be priced highly enough (with the profit margin to support it); otherwise, you’ll rely on customers adding more to their cart than the single advertised product alone (i.e. more bang for your advertising buck).

5. Unique Selling Proposition

The more heavily saturated your market, the harder it’s going to be to turn a profit from Google Ads. So, what makes you different? 

And *ahem* being the cheapest option isn’t the answer. 

Think about your favorite products: what makes them your favorite? Is it the company’s dependable return policy? The quality of the product? The materials used? 

Your unique selling proposition is key for the success of your campaigns—specifically longevity and return traffic. After all, it’s six times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than a new one.

6. No One-Off Products

If you have customizable products (think products that are personalized with engravings, birthstone colors, or photos), this isn’t directed at you.

But when it comes to one-offs, Google Ads will not work.

To reiterate, one-offs are products that you can only sell once (like a unique, one-of-a-kind painting). 

And therein lies the problem: 

When you make a sale through Google Ads, it is Google’s job to try to recreate that cycle. It’s a learning machine!

But because single products can only sell once, Google has no way to recreate that process. 

So, Google uses GTINs to identify and categorize products. But when you sell a one-off product (a single GTIN), that code disappears forever (bye, bye, valuable data).

Do you produce handmade products? 

Consider creating multiples of the same product-type (ceramic bowls, for example) and simply acknowledge that they might vary slightly in design due to the nature of handmade products.

Your first sale is always your most expensive in Google Ads. You don’t want every sale to be your first.

Ecommerce Business Planning: Nice-to-Haves

Now, assuming you have all six must-haves in order, here are five important—but not imperative—items to consider:

1. Multiple SKUs
2.  Product Financing
3. Strong Lifetime Value
4. Lifestyle Imagery
5. Existing Purchase Traffic

Let’s explain:

1. Multiple SKUs

Multiple SKUs for “like” products are ideal.

Here’s what we mean:

If a customer says, I need Product A.

And you not only have Product A—but you have 10,000 versions of it (different colors or designs), your customer is much more likely to purchase more than one; thus your average cart value will increase. 

2.  Product Financing

New product financing payment options, like Affirm and QuadPay, have made it so customers can make smaller payments over several weeks as opposed to one large payment up front. 

These options have led to a big jump in purchases and cart value, particularly among higher-priced product sellers. The best part? You get paid the full amount upfront!

Add product financing options to your site if you can.

3. Strong Lifetime Value

Knowing what your real-time value is per customer and how many purchases they make within a year on average allows you to set lower targets for your ROAS goal and higher targets for your CPAs. This means you can scale quickly and grow your business faster. 

For example, if you have an average cart value of $100 but customers generally purchase three times over 12 months, your average cart value becomes $300.

4. Lifestyle Imagery

We’ll touch on this more soon, but lifestyle imagery (i.e. images of your product “in action” and being used by real-life people) allows your customers to really visualize themselves using your product.

5. Existing Purchase Traffic

If you have existing traffic (from social media or email lists, for example), Google uses this information to identify what those people look like and find matches in their own ecosystem/user base. 

In other words, instead of starting from scratch, existing traffic gives Google some notes to get going.

Ecommerce Business Planning: Offer Design

Who’s your customer? 

Can you describe your product to a stranger?

…Did I lose you for a minute there? 

Look, this is the part where we make you backtrack a little bit (in order to launch full speed ahead). 

And it’s easy for most businesses to skip this “offer design” section because they assume this box has been done and dusted for a long time.

But before spending precious dollars on advertising online, let’s make sure you can define: 

1. Your target audience
2. How your product makes customers feel 
3. And what makes your unique brand stand out amongst the competition

Here’s how:

Define Your Customer Avatar 

Use this worksheet to identify your customer avatar (and who is NOT your customer avatar). The questions in the worksheet help you get in the mind of the customer. 

  DigitalMarketer’s “Before and After Grid”
Once you’ve defined your customer avatar(s), it’s time to consider the transformation they make when purchasing your product. After all, customers don’t buy products—they buy feelings, results, and solutions.  

DigitalMarketer has a phenomenal “before and after” worksheet that you can download here. 

Make a copy and fill it out with your customers in mind, including: 

• What your customer has (or doesn’t have) before buying your product—and what they gain once they do.
• How they feel before your product—and how they feel after
• What an average day looks like before your product—and an average day after  

Brand Development

How does your company make people feel? 

If marketing is what makes people buy, brand is what makes people stay–even if there are other products available.

And if you do all the things above, you’ll have the perfect foundation for a strong brand. 

Next, Optimize Your Existing Products

Let’s make sure your products and offers are as value-driven as possible. There are three ways to achieve this:

1. Increase Actual Value

We’re not talking about raising the price of your products here.

Instead, we’re talking about how you can get customers to buy more from you. There are several ways to achieve this:

Bundles! If you have two products that usually go together, offer a bundle for a discounted price. You increase the value the customer receives but you also increase your profitability.

Sure, the price is “discounted,” but you’re saving money on shipping and fulfillment while increasing your cart value. 

Subscriptions! For consumable products (or any other products that can be purchased consistently) consider offering a subscription-based model, which ensures recurring purchases. 

We have seen first-hand that some subscription models have the same cost-per-acquisition as a one-off purchase.

One-click upsell!

When a customer is checking out, offer products that can be easily added to their cart with one click.

2. Increase Perceived Value

Don’t underestimate the power of descriptions and images. 

Here’s the thing: online shoppers are at a disadvantage because they can’t tangibly see and feel products like they would in a physical store. However, this can be a big opportunity for you to stand out.

Give your viewer a full virtual experience of your product: describe the benefits of your products, not just the features. Show your product in action with lifestyle imagery, so users can visualize themselves using it. Explanation of the product in a clear, easy to understand way.

Perceived value is more valuable than the actual value. 

The perceived value is the reason they buy.

3.  Fringe Benefits

Similarly, consider any additional creative ways you can add value (and perceived value) to your products. This can be in the form of additional content (think product demos, how-to videos, and tutorials), building a community around your product via social media and forum, or early access.

Ascension Models and Value Optimization

Once you start pulling in more customers and sales, here are a few ways to optimize your growth:

Never stop selling
It has been proven (with science!) that humans are in a different state of mind when they make a purchase than when they evaluate whether they want to purchase.

Customers are likely to buy another product immediately after purchasing something else because they are in a “buying” state. 

Take advantage of that buying window!

Give customers multiple opportunities to ascend and add products based off of their initial purchase.

Order bumps

This is along the same vein, but it bears repeating:

Order bumps are options to add additional products to your cart and they work.

A great way to do this is through the Frequently Bought Together app on Shopify

Build your email list / email marketing
When it comes to eCommerce, email has the potential to bring in more money than any other marketing channel. 

Truthfully, you don’t want to spend a lot on paid traffic forever (a la Google Ads)! And email marketing is one of the most affordable marketing channels available.

Need to pull in more email addresses from your audience?

Capture contact details using value-driven content that is applicable to your offer (e.g. how-tos, guides, checklists).

Check out Digital Marketer’s Guide to Email Marketing (for ecommerce)

  Repeat and/or recurring customers
It is more expensive to acquire new customers than to sell to current customers. Capitalize on this.

Build social proof
Customers buy from brands they trust. Social proof has the power to bring in new customers—so be sure to continue building social proof and showcase it on your site.
Don’t be afraid to ask your customers for testimonials and reviews.

Finally: Choosing a Product / Niche

As a precursor, we want to make this clear: be true to your brand. Protect your brand. Don’t change lanes simply because of a flimsy trend. 

That said, you can make some pretty savvy and informed decisions by doing some research on the recent market trends—and when possible, use this information to optimize the products you offer to meet these trending needs.  

Here’s how:

Rising Retail Categories
Think with Google’s Rising Retail Categories is one of the industry’s best kept secrets. You can use this interactive tool to “understand fast-rising retail categories in Google Search, the locations where they’re growing, and the queries associated with them.”

  Google Trends
Make use of Google Trends; this is a great way to identify trends from a volume/search perspective.

Got Your Prerequisites Locked In? 

Impressive.

Next time I pop in, we’ll talk about setting up your foundation (i.e. your website!) to ensure the highest likelihood of success with your campaigns.

This will include website CRO best practices, product preparation, media, and live chat features. 

But if you’re feeling eager, you can check out this Google Ads Mastery Workshop that has you covered.

Or, you can check out my entire step-by-step guide to Google Ads for eCommerce here.

Kasim Aslam

Kasim Aslam is the founder and CEO of Solutions 8, one of the world’s top ranked Google Ads agencies.

Recipient of the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association’s 2017 TIM Award for Person of the Year, Kasim was also named one of the Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders in the United States by The University of Missouri in 2020.

Kasim was hand-selected as the Traffic Coach for DigitalMarketer.com’s ELITE coaching program by their executive team. He is also the co-host of the long-running podcast, Perpetual Traffic.

His book, The 7 Critical Principles of Effective Digital Marketing, was featured as one of the Top 100 Digital Marketing Books of All Time by Book Authority.

Kasim helped launch the National Association of Child Helplines (NAACH) and worked with the United States Army, Intel, as well as a Gates Foundation-funded nonprofit, a 54,000 member PPO, the largest privately owned bank in the United States, and an Academy Award-contending documentary.

He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife and two sons.

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