I have good news and bad news. Let’s begin with the bad news, as is customary. Data reveals that businesses with large budgets consistently outperform smaller businesses in Google Ads (previously AdWords) across virtually every metric. This might not be shocking, but it stings nonetheless. While the wealthy prosper, we, the little guys, are left behind. How do we know this? We examined 18,037 reports from our Google Ads Performance Grader, comparing the performance of advertisers with monthly expenditures exceeding $50,000 to that of all other advertisers. The results clearly favored big spenders. But hold on! Don’t give up hope just yet. The good news is that you can replicate many strategies employed by these larger advertisers with deeper pockets without increasing your spending. The key to success in Google Ads often lies in being more proactive and actively implementing more strategies within your account! Big spenders understand this because with so much money at stake, they can’t afford to be complacent. They can’t afford to be negligent or leave their accounts unattended for extended periods. Instead, they prioritize performance monitoring and make weekly optimizations. You can adopt the same approach and achieve significantly better outcomes without simply pouring more money into your account. This article will reveal the top nine tactics employed by high-spending AdWords advertisers that you’re not using, enabling you to compete effectively even with a limited budget.

#1. Conversion Tracking is Non-Negotiable for Big Spenders

It’s baffling that any Google Ads advertiser would neglect conversion tracking, yet it occurs. However, this is not the case with big spenders. Every single advertiser (100%) spending over $50,000 per month has conversion tracking enabled. And why wouldn’t they? Without tracking your conversion volume’s upward trend, how can you possibly optimize for success? A 75% CTR might seem impressive, but if those clicks don’t translate into conversions, you’re essentially burning money.

Thankfully, our data shows that most advertisers recognize the importance of conversion tracking in some capacity. Only 7% of lower spenders don’t have it enabled. However, there’s no reason why both figures can’t reach 100%. Regardless of whether your Google Ads budget is comparable to Coca-Cola’s or not, ROI should be a primary concern. Setting up conversion tracking on your website is relatively straightforward and free (unless you require developer assistance, which incurs a cost but is still worthwhile). The $500, $10,000, or any amount you invest in AdWords ads monthly can have a substantial impact on your business. Understanding how and why is crucial for your Google Ads success, and it all starts with conversion tracking.

#2. Big Spenders Utilize Multiple Landing Pages

Even with conversion tracking and a well-structured account, an external factor significantly impacting performance is the destination of your paid traffic – your landing pages. High-budget advertisers understand that multiple ads and offers necessitate multiple landing pages. This is because prospects respond better to specific, personalized messaging that aligns closely with the ad they clicked. Sending all traffic to a generic landing page (or worse, your homepage) will lead to confusion and a high bounce rate.

Over 26% of lower-budget Google Ads accounts have only one active landing page, compared to a mere 4% of top-spending accounts. This needs to change! We recognize the challenge, especially for smaller businesses lacking a dedicated team of designers and developers to create landing pages on demand. However, at a minimum, you can duplicate your existing design and experiment with images and copy. If your Google Ads campaigns are structured logically and use a single landing page, create a duplicate for each campaign. This allows you to tailor each page’s language to the specific keywords you’re bidding on, enhancing relevance for both users and the Quality Score algorithm (ideally, this should be done at the ad group level, but we understand time constraints). Whichever landing page testing approach you choose, ensure you have more than one! If you need further proof that this is essential for competing with larger players, our next graph provides compelling evidence…

#3. Big Spenders Achieve 17% Higher Conversion Rates on Average

The average click-to-conversion rate for our top-spender accounts is 10.5%, while lower-spending accounts average 9.0%. While this may seem insignificant, it translates to a 17% increase in conversions from the same number of clicks for these high-spending businesses, all without having to pay more for clicks. How do they accomplish this? Refer to the previous point. One reason big spenders have more landing pages is their emphasis on conversion rate optimization (CRO). When considering CRO, it’s tempting to jump straight to landing page tweaks, experimenting with button colors and graphics. Resist that urge, or at least postpone it. Instead, start at the foundation. Ensure the keywords you’re bidding on are relevant to your business. Broad terms might attract traffic, but paying for irrelevant clicks wastes your budget. We recommend allocating over half your budget to high-intent, high-converting keywords. Equally important is ensuring your offers are genuinely compelling. A stronger offer can significantly impact conversion rates compared to a better button. When addressing landing pages, prioritize a positive, valuable, and efficient user experience. This can be achieved by:

• Crafting compelling headlines (similar to your ads!)
• Using concise, targeted body copy
• Testing to identify the most captivating CTA for your offer
• Designing a user-friendly form (minimizing friction in the purchase journey)
• Ensuring a fast-loading, mobile-friendly design
• Advanced tip: Aim to evoke an emotional response from your audience. It’s no surprise that the elements mentioned throughout this post all contribute to boosting conversion rates. A focused subset of account activities yields the highest return on your time and investment. Who would have guessed? Remember, before conversions even come into play, users need to click on your ads. And guess what? Big spenders excel in that area as well…

#4. Top Spenders Boast 38% Higher Click-Through Rates

We’ve often emphasized the importance of optimizing for clickability. A high CTR indicates your ads resonate with your target audience, which Google appreciates. Enticing strangers to click on your ads is both an art and a science. As you might have guessed, top spenders excel in both aspects of CTR optimization.

Top-spending Google Ads accounts achieve an average CTR of nearly 7%, while lower spenders lag behind at 5%. That’s a significant 38% difference in a realm where even a few percentage points can make or break profitability. So, what’s their secret? The answer is not simply bidding higher. Ads at the top of the SERP typically have the highest Quality Scores, reflecting their relevance and above-average CTR. If your ads genuinely resonate with users, you can achieve high CTRs even with lower bids than bigger competitors. Even without a massive Google Ads budget, you can compete by focusing on compelling ad copy and embracing creativity. Explore these helpful guides for crafting effective, click-worthy PPC ads:

• 7 Best Practices for Expanded Text Ads
• How to Create Expanded Text Ads [Guide + Free Template]
• Our 8 Best Ad Copywriting Tips EVER!
• The 4 Emotions that Make the Best Emotional Ads
• 4 Simple but Powerful Tactics for Writing Compelling Ad Copy Remember, most people don’t venture beyond the headline. With expanded text ads, you now have two headlines to work with. By enhancing relevance (using your target keyword) and incorporating a call to action in one headline, you can improve CTRs without breaking the bank.

#5. Big Spenders Embrace Ad Extensions (4,631% More)

Imagine a simple, free strategy to boost your ad CTR without needing exceptional creativity. Enter ad extensions.

While top spenders utilize an average of 31 ad extensions per text ad, lower spenders typically maintain a one-to-one ratio. To put it into perspective, the 450 top-spending accounts we analyzed contained 4,631% more ad extensions than the 17,587 lower-spending accounts.

Furthermore, top spenders enable extensions on approximately 48% of their ads, while lower spenders only utilize them for 17%, leaving a staggering 83% of their ads extensionless. Yikes! In the realm of PPC ads, size matters, and these high spenders leverage every available ad extension to make their Expanded Text Ads dominate the SERP. Assuming your ads rank within the top three positions, there are numerous extensions to enhance both value and ad space (excluding automated extensions Google might implement on a whim). We understand that for smaller businesses, managing routine optimization and ad copywriting is time-consuming enough; adding ad extensions might seem like an unnecessary burden. However, we assure you it’s not. Depending on the specific extension, they have the potential to increase your CTR six-fold. This is because, in addition to providing valuable information to prospects, ad extensions push competitors’ ads and organic listings further down the SERP. If you’re inspired to implement more ad extensions in your Google Ads account after reading this, do yourself a favor: apply them to all campaigns!

According to nexus-security’s Mark Irvine, 13.5% of Google Ads accounts don’t apply sitelink extensions to every campaign. If this applies to the highly valuable sitelink extension, one can only imagine the situation with others. Ad extensions grab attention faster, and even without direct clicks, you’ll likely notice increased clicks on the main headline when an extension is present. Take a page from the playbook of successful advertisers and implement them today!

#6. Big Spenders Leverage Negative Keywords Extensively

Negative keywords are the unsung heroes of a successful Google Ads account: their presence is known but often overlooked unless something goes wrong. If you’re bidding on the right keywords (high intent! relevant! significant search volume!) but struggling to generate conversions, it’s probably not because your audience isn’t interested. Assuming you’re tracking conversions, the issue might be:

• Insufficient negative keywords leading to an influx of irrelevant impressions, consuming budget that could be allocated to interested prospects.
• Excessively restrictive negative keywords preventing you from entering auctions for relevant search queries. If you’re working with a limited marketing budget, the former is more likely. Why?

Because 8% of lower-spending Google Ads accounts completely lack negative keywords, and 62% utilize less than 250. In contrast, 98% of top-spending accounts have over 250 negative keywords. For instance, if you sell crocodile loafers and bid on the keyword +men’s +shoes, how many of these terms do you actually want your ads to appear for?

Many terms are simply too broad to justify the cost (“shoes,” for example). Others might be off-brand (“sneakers” or “cheap shoes”). Considering the high monthly search volume for some of these terms, your budget would be depleted before you know it. Large advertisers understand this and dedicate time each week to reviewing their search query reports, identifying and adding negative keywords regularly to maximize ad spend and save money in Google Ads. (Pro tip: Modifying this process to specifically target converting search queries can uncover new keywords for your account.)

#7. Big Spenders Have 1,448% More Expanded Text Ads

According to the insightful Mark Irvine (once again), 71% of Google Ads accounts (regardless of size or budget) have adopted expanded text ads (ETAs). Only a mere 5% still rely solely on the inferior standard text ad format. Advertisers, rejoice!

But wait, there’s more. Our recent research reveals a significant disparity in ETA adoption between high-spend and low-spend accounts. In fact, top-spending accounts had 1,448% more Expanded Text Ads than their lower-spending counterparts.

When ETAs were introduced, completely replacing standard text ads was considered premature. Many advertisers opted to rotate their top-performing standard ad against a new ETA. When the standard ad inevitably outperformed the ETA (thanks to historical data), the larger, newer ETA was often paused to avoid wasting ad spend. We even did this in our own account! However, these tests were misleading. Extremely misleading. Ultimately, advertisers clinging to shorter ads will be left behind. If maximizing SERP real estate with ad extensions is recommended, doing so with your ad copy should be mandatory. As usual, the disparity likely stems from larger advertisers having more resources to continuously test new ads, while smaller advertisers might not have that luxury. While top spenders have spent the past year replacing older ads with new ones and removing even top-performing standard ads from their rotation, smaller advertisers are lagging behind. The solution is simple. Utilize everything you’ve learned from this article to create a wave of compelling Expanded Text Ads. Like most of our advice, it requires effort but not necessarily more money. Your larger competitors won’t know what hit them.

#8. High Spenders Achieve Higher Quality Scores

Our founder’s fascination with Quality Score is understandable. It’s a crucial metric that, despite numerous discussions, remains somewhat enigmatic. What we do know is its significant impact on CPC.

As evident, Quality Score can drastically influence your average CPC. A perfect Quality Score can reduce your CPC by approximately 50%, while a poor Quality Score can increase costs by 400%. In such cases, you’re either targeting the wrong keywords or need significant improvements to your ads and landing pages. Moving on… Impression-weighted Quality Score is a variation available in Google Ads that adjusts for impression count, providing valuable context. While not a KPI in itself, it serves as a health indicator for your Google Ads account.

Our research indicates that top spenders have an average impression-weighted Quality Score of 6.3, while lower spenders average 5.6. That 12% difference might seem small, but it represents budget inefficiency that small businesses can’t afford. With a limited budget, every dollar counts, and maximizing efficiency is crucial. To calculate the impression-weighted Quality Score for a specific ad group or campaign, use this formula: (Impressions * Quality Score) / Impressions Once you understand your impression-weighted Quality Score, focus on improving it. The most influential factors are:

• The all-important CTR
• Ad relevance
• Landing page experience These should all sound familiar by now. Improving ad copy and landing page quality are the most effective ways to bridge the gap between smaller businesses and large corporations in the Google Ads landscape.

#9. Big Spenders Are More Proactive in Their Accounts

For those unfamiliar with the Google Ads Performance Grader, here’s a quick overview: It’s a free tool that audits your Google Ads account, assessing best practices (Quality Score, negative keywords, account activity, etc.) and assigning an overall grade based on your performance. The Grader also analyzes account activity because, in our experience, strong performance correlates with taking action – logging in regularly and making necessary adjustments. Neglecting your account for weeks hinders any chance of improvement. Unsurprisingly, our findings reveal that the high-spending group doesn’t just spend more money; they also dedicate more time to their accounts. Take a look:

The big spenders are significantly more active – 1196% more active, to be precise. They actively implement the strategies we’ve discussed throughout this article.

What Does This All Mean?

Money can’t buy happiness, nor can it guarantee a flawless Google Ads account. However, with substantial budgets comes significant responsibility. Businesses investing heavily in online advertising prioritize account performance by dedicating time and attention, not just money. Even without a massive budget increase, you can emulate the behavior of successful advertisers by being more proactive in your account: add new keywords and negative keywords, experiment with ad variations, create dedicated landing pages, and utilize all available ad extensions. We guarantee that by dedicating a month or two to diligently optimizing your account without increasing spending, you’ll witness a noticeable improvement in your Google Ads Grader score.

Data Sources

This analysis utilizes data collected from Google Ads Performance Grader reports during Q2 2017, excluding duplicate reports and users with $0 ad spend. We separately analyzed accounts with monthly expenditures of $50,000 or more and those spending between $1 and $49,999. Only advertisers bidding in USD, AUD, CAD, EUR, and ZAR were included. Special thanks to Meg Lister, Kate Lindsay, and Elisa Gabbert for their contributions to this collaborative effort.