Optimization is the art of analyzing metrics and understanding signals, allowing you to tweak your campaigns so they perform to their full potential. When you optimize, you are basically trying to get the most out of your Google ads or other paid ads by removing what is not working and testing new possibilities.
Successful optimization means keeping a close eye on many aspects of your campaign’s performance and thinking of creative ways in which metrics can be improved. Let’s dive in and learn how we can do just that!
Why Bother Optimizing Campaigns?
This is the question you’re probably asking yourself and wondering if you should continue reading this article. Don’t worry, we’re going to explain exactly why focusing on optimization is the right move.
Optimization is the key when it comes to the success of your campaign. How many brands do you think are reaching out to the exact same audience you are? Hundreds? Thousands? What will make you stand out from the crowd?
When you optimize your ads, you’re making sure that the way you communicate is relevant to your audience, making it much more likely that they will click on your ads when given the opportunity.
Optimization also helps you reduce waste, bid efficiently, and ensure your efforts are aligned with your objectives. The more you tweak the less you spend on useless, underperforming ads.
The bottom line is, you should bother because your business exists in an environment of constant change, and optimization is your opportunity to adapt to those changes. Digital advertising is a dynamic, not static, scenario and we face increasingly challenging customers, who expect personalized messages and treatment. The advertiser that isn’t able to roll with the punches will be left behind. When optimization is done correctly, you will see an increase in CTR, see a decrease in CPA, increase your ROI, and improve your conversion rates.
How Does Optimization Work?
At this point, we’ve made it clear that you have to get the most out of our ads, but how?
Analyze: You will look for signals and observe metrics. You are kind of like a detective, whose case is figuring out aspects that are not working, opportunities to improve performance, and how to use these insights to tweak your ads.
There’s a midpoint between analyzing and testing that requires creativity and making decisions. Once you have detected that metric that could be improved, you will need to determine how you will make that improvement a reality. Why is that keyword spending and not converting? Why is it not working? Which search queries is it pulling? Are they relevant enough? What can I do to improve its performance? Should I pause it? Should I test it in a new KW match? There are no wrong answers and that is why it is so difficult to make the decision. Once this step is done, you can officially move on to the Test Phase.
Test: Here is where you implement changes. After analyzing all of your options, you choose which ones to move forward with. These may be made at campaign level or Ad group level. You can optimize by KWs, or ad copy. Luckily (or not) there are many settings where you can test optimizations. You can also check gender performance and increase or decrease demographic bid strategies. You can also add or remove negative lists, audience segments, and even targeted locations. There are countless possibilities when it comes to optimizing.
Tip: Although there are infinite options, try not to implement a huge amount of changes at the same time. You probably have a ton of ideas from the Analysis phase, just pick a few and save the rest for the future, believe us, you will need it. If you make a lot of changes at the same time, you won’t be able to determine which of them was the one that really made the difference.
Control: The changes you make will have a noticeable impact on your performance.
At this point you need to check if those decisions were good and improved your results or if they had the opposite effect.
Some important tips to keep in mind:
- Give your tweaks time. It takes a while for the platform to learn and start showing results, so leave yourself a note as a reminder to check the optimizations after a few weeks. If you, like most of us, suffer from anxiety issues, you can possibly check after 6 or 7 days. In any case, you need to know that you probably won’t see improvements from one day to another, so keep calm and wait for it.
- You will see that not all of your changes gave you the results you expected. You can always go back to the previous stage or try another move from where you left it. Think of it like a chess game but yours pawns here can move backwards.
Repeat: Ready to do this all over again? Remember what we said, we live in constant movement. Changes that worked today may not work tomorrow. Competitors may launch a similar product to yours, users may start looking for something different. You need to always be ready to make a move and not stay in your comfort zone, as you may be losing opportunities to learn and grow your business.
Inspiration for Optimization
Try A/B Testing. This means changing just one aspect of your ad and comparing results. You can test landing pages, calls to action, or different headlines. A/B testing will help you determine which combination is the strongest for your ads.
Analyze: You will look for signals and observe metrics. You are kind of like a detective, whose case is figuring out aspects that are not working, opportunities to improve performance, and how to use these insights to tweak your ads.
Take a look at all aspects of your Campaigns. This may include the bid strategy you are using, the targeted locations of your ads, and the audience segments that are performing better.
If possible, rely on data coming from other sources, such as the backend of your E-commerce, your web analytics service, or CRM. Sometimes you need to double check data in order to make sure you are making the right moves. Also, this will sometimes provide useful data that gives you new insights to optimize your campaigns.
Keep up to date with new releases, features, and scripts. These are all powerful tools that will give you insights and visibility, especially for the most automated campaigns like Pmax.
Some Final Thoughts
Always remember, optimization is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process. You need to take care of your campaigns as you take care of a plant, you water it, you see it grow, and you also cut the dried leaves when needed. Hold on to this way of thinking and not only will your campaign become successful, but it will stay that way!
If you still need more tools to improve your performance, reach out! Our experienced team is always happy to help.
