Let’s cut to the chase. The current landscape, marked by both evolving marketing strategies and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has positioned PPC as a critical element in most companies’ marketing plans. Paradoxically, this surge in importance coincides with significant reductions in marketing budgets, at least for the time being. This necessitates a strategic shift in how businesses manage their Google Ads campaigns in this unprecedented era.

For the latest COVID-19 trend data, click here. The most pressing priority is to minimize expenses without compromising the effectiveness of your campaigns. This post will outline four key methods to optimize your Google Ads performance amidst budget limitations:

1. Eliminate superficial metrics.
2. Implement an “Impression to Conversion” (ITC) column.
3. Prioritize exact keywords and temporarily suspend phrase match keywords.
4. Leverage In-Market Segments within Google Analytics.

Additionally, make sure to read until the end for a valuable bonus tip.

Optimizing Your Google Ads Account Under Budget Constraints

For each optimization strategy discussed below, we’ll explore the implementation process and how it can either maximize your current budget, enhance your ads’ performance, or reduce costs.

1. Discarding Irrelevant Vanity Metrics

Reduced PPC budgets demand maximum efficiency with both time and resources. This efficiency is crucial for navigating this challenging period and eventually restoring budgets to pre-pandemic levels. To achieve optimal cost-effectiveness, a focused approach is essential. Therefore, it’s crucial to:

Remove data columns that are not used daily and/or do not provide actionable insights for your daily optimizations.

While customized column sets with various data points can be helpful for tracking and optimization, excessive data can obscure truly critical information. For instance, consider eliminating columns like “Search Imp. share.” With a limited budget, the ability to influence this metric is limited, especially if competitors continue to outbid you. Instead, concentrate on controllable metrics such as CTR. Crafting improved ads with compelling copy can effectively boost your CTR without increasing bids.

Streamline your columns to display only essential information, allowing for a laser focus on actionable data points.

2. Implementing an “Impression to Conversion” (ITC) Column

After decluttering your data columns, the next step in optimizing Google Ads performance within a constrained budget is to create new columns for faster data analysis. This enables comprehensive optimization of your search campaigns.

One such column is the ITC, or Impression to Conversion. This custom column simplifies optimization significantly. ITC % = Conversions/Impressions

Creating the ITC Column in Google Ads:

• Within your Google Ads account, click “Columns” in the dashboard’s upper ribbon.
• Proceed to click “Modify columns,” scroll to the bottom of the screen, and select “Custom columns.”

• Input the conversions/impressions calculation as depicted in the following image:

• You’re all set! Incorporate the column into your dashboard and save your changes.

The Value of Adding Another Data Set

You might be wondering why we’re introducing a new data set after recommending the removal of others. The answer is straightforward: ITC provides a comprehensive view of your ads’ performance in a single column. Typically, click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CVR) are assessed separately in distinct columns. However, some high-CVR ads may have a low CTR, while others may exhibit the reverse. This begs the question: should you prioritize high CVR or high CTR ads when optimizing your Google Ads campaigns?

ITC helps pinpoint the top-performing ads within your Google Ads campaign.

This focused approach streamlines decision-making for improved Google Ads performance.

3. Prioritizing Exact Keywords and Suspending Phrase Match

The third strategy for optimizing Google Ads performance on a reduced budget involves incorporating more exact keywords. While this is a recommended practice for all paid search campaigns, it becomes particularly crucial when budget constraints arise.

The key principle here is not only to include more exact keywords but also to seek out longer search terms (long-tail keywords). Longer exact match keywords offer several advantages:

• Reduced competition
• Lower bidding costs
• Enhanced ad relevance and accuracy (consider exploring SKAGs if you’re unfamiliar with the term)

For a deeper understanding of long-tail keywords, refer to this resource.

Determining the Optimal Length for Exact Match Keywords

The ideal length of exact match keywords can vary but generally falls within the range of 2-5 words for most advertisers. One-word keywords tend to be expensive and yield low conversion rates, while keywords exceeding five words may suffer from low search volume and minimal traffic.

For example, if you’re promoting hiking shoes:

• The keyword [shoes] is overly broad and expensive.
• The keyword [hiking shoes] offers more precision. Your ad and landing page will have higher relevance, avoiding competition from advertisers targeting broader terms like “shoes,” “shoes,” or +shoes.
• Further refinement is possible with [hiking shoes online], [red hiking shoes online], and [online sale on hiking shoes]

These longer keywords enable highly targeted ad groups and landing pages, resulting in more accurate and effective ads.

Enhanced targeting translates to higher CTR (and ITC), leading to improved quality scores and lower bids.

This underscores why this strategy is universally beneficial but becomes paramount when tightening your Google Ads budget. Larger budgets might allow for broader targeting to increase brand awareness or conversions, even at a premium cost. However, with limited resources, the focus shifts to maximizing conversions while minimizing expenses.

Identifying Suitable Keywords

It’s crucial to note where not to source your keywords: the Google Keyword Planner tool. Two primary reasons for this are:

1. The widespread use of the Google Keyword Planner tool, particularly among competitors, leads to increased competition for the same keywords.
2. The Google Keyword Planner often includes irrelevant or less relevant keywords (depending on your search settings), which can be distracting and time-consuming to filter manually.

Fortunately, several excellent free keyword research tools are available. Two noteworthy options include:

1. Ubersuggest: This tool excels at identifying precise search terms along with valuable data such as volume, CPC, and trend.

   

2. Google Search Console: Explore your Google Search Console account to pinpoint keywords already driving organic traffic to your website. Incorporate these keywords into your search campaigns.

While it might seem counterintuitive to pay for keywords already generating organic traffic, consider this: it’s akin to bidding on your brand name (a highly recommended practice). Including additional keywords in your campaigns, even those driving organic traffic, allows you to capitalize on existing traffic and exert greater control over visitor experience and messaging.

Ultimately, increased relevant traffic and tailored messaging lead to higher conversion rates.

However, the most compelling aspect lies in the ability to uncover search terms where your website appears in search results but ranks poorly and receives minimal traffic.

Incorporating these search terms as exact match keywords within your campaigns is highly recommended, seamlessly leading us to our final tip.

4. Utilizing In-Market Segments in Google Analytics

Before delving into this section, ensure that your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked. If not, prioritize this crucial connection before proceeding (and don’t forget to return afterward)! Connecting these accounts is a simple yet essential step!

With the accounts linked, let’s explore how to use Google Analytics for insights beyond standard metrics like bounce rate and time on site.

Within your Google Analytics account, navigate to the “Audience” tab and select “In-Market Segments.” This section houses a treasure trove of data. Google segments your website visitors based on their active interests in the market. While the specific numbers are hidden in the example below, this tab reveals the precise results for each audience segment.

How to Leverage In-Market Segments

Create a goal that aligns with the desired conversion for your Google Ads campaigns and integrate it into this report. Identify the audiences with the highest conversion rates. Once identified, proceed to your Google Ads account and incorporate these audiences into your campaigns (under the “Audience” tab) with a higher bid adjustment.

For instance, you might discover that individuals interested in “Financial Services” exhibit significantly higher conversion rates compared to the overall average. Add this audience to your campaigns and apply a higher bid adjustment, such as +20%. This signals to Google to increase your bids by 20% when a user is identified as part of this audience.

In-Market Segments ensure higher bids for audiences more likely to convert.

Even if you’re employing CPA bidding, incorporating these audiences remains beneficial. Gathering additional data is always advantageous, potentially revealing audiences to prioritize or exclude.

For more insights on leveraging Google Analytics to uncover larger and more relevant audiences, refer to our dedicated post.

Replicate these steps for demographics and affinity categories as well.

Bonus Tip: Refining Your Search Strategy

In challenging economic times when most digital marketers are compelled to reduce ad spending, a robust search strategy becomes paramount. The rationale is simple: The needs of nearly everyone have shifted in recent months, prompting a search for solutions to navigate their own versions of the “new normal.”

By adapting your search strategy, you can effectively reach your target audience precisely when they’re actively seeking solutions.

Time-Saving and Cost-Effective Google Ads Optimizations

Whether you’re facing bandwidth limitations, budget cuts, or simply seeking ways to maximize ad spend, these tips can help reduce Google Ads costs without compromising performance. Let’s recap the key takeaways:

1. Eliminate distracting vanity metrics to maintain focus on crucial aspects.
2. Utilize the custom “Impression to Conversion” (ITC) column to quickly identify top-performing ads.
3. Incorporate more long-tail exact match keywords to boost conversion rates.
4. Leverage In-Market Segments in Google Analytics to pinpoint audiences with the highest conversion potential. For assistance with your Google Ads, explore our digital marketing solutions.