Get Set Up to Soar – Guide to Google Ads #3

Post #2 of our Google Ads series concentrated on Campaign Planning. This third instalment moves our journey along to…

Stage 3: Campaign Set-up & Targets

Google – and Bing’s – roster of ad types offers advertisers opportunities to create highly targeted, cost-effective and measurable ads.

We discussed last time that these can range from relatively simple text-led Search Ads all the way to Video Ads: those media-rich movers and shakers we encounter on YouTube and all across the online landscape.

Different ad types are suited to different campaigns, budgets, audiences and objectives. But one thing uniting all of Google’s, and Bing’s, ad stable is the need for a solid campaign set-up stage. This is where time is devoted to a more detailed examination of the marketing objectives we encountered at the Campaign Planning stage. This set-up stage greatly influences ROI, so for an effective (and cost-effective) campaign, it’s time well spent.

Unlocking Key Performance Indicators

At Hookson, our tailored, thorough Campaign Set-up activities are guided by KPIs – Key Performance Indicators. At the outset of your campaign – and all of the information in our series applies to both Google and Bing ads – it’s crucial to agree on KPIs that invite and stand up to monitoring, analysis and scrutiny.

To begin with, your KPIs should be:

• Realistic – You know your market, your customers and sector. So you know what constitutes aiming too high (you can build Rome – but not by next Tuesday) – or too low.
• Measurable – Fortunately, both Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster offer a dashboard-ful of analytical tools to help you keep tabs on all the major metrics. Third-party analysis tools abound too, of course. These include SE Ranking, Woopra and Gauges. A quick search will bring up lots of others too.

Agreeing on KPIs that invite and stand up to monitoring, analysis and scrutiny is crucial for campaign success

KPIs vary from organisation to organisation, campaign to campaign, however tried and trusted metrics include:

Spend and Cost Per Click (CPC) – translation: your budget, and how many clicks this is likely to deliver

Target Conversions – you’ve agreed on what action – a call directly from your ad, for example – you want your clickers to take. This stage is about working out the ideal number of conversions you’re looking for.

Target Cost Per Acquisition – here, you’re analysing the spend it took to snag that all-important conversion

As well as these major KPIs, it’s a snap also to drill into indicators like Quality Score, number of impressions and average position.

But let’s look at these three key metrics in a little more detail.

Spend and Cost Per Click

This KPI measures how much you’ve paid for each click. The lower the cost, the better your ad is performing.

Keeping CPC to a minimum is aided by use of relevant keywords, a landing page that delivers on the ad’s promise, and a healthy Click Through Rate (CTR) – the metric aligned with the number of people who, on seeing your ad, clicked and visited. These factors make for a high Google Quality Score. And that leads to a lower CPC figure.

Target Conversions

A highly individual KPI, this indicator tracks actions you’ve told Google are valuable to your business or organisation.

These actions could be purchases or sign-ups, downloads or app installs. They could even be impressing a visitor so well that they spend X amount of time on your site. Whatever these actions, when they’re fulfilled – bang – that’s a conversion, and the measurable data that conversions give rise to is invaluable in refining and planning your Google Ads activities.

Target Cost Per Acquisition

Another KPI connected with Quality Score. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is the figure your business pays for each conversion.

Sounds a bit like CPC (above)? They are closely related, however your CPA figure will always be naturally higher than CPC – simply because, despite your best efforts, not every click burgeons into a conversion.

Easily tracked, measured, iced, sliced and diced, CPA gives you the opportunity to lower costs, fine-tune and improve ROI. The key to a lower figure? Better, more relevant, more incisive ads. And that’s something that at Hookson we’ll be happy to help you achieve.

So, with Campaign Set-up & Targets shining brightly in the rear-view, ensure you catch destination #4: On-site Optimisation.

The key to lower costs and improved ROI? Better, more relevant, more incisive ads.

Can Hookson help me get set for a targeted Google Ads campaign?

You know it. The world of Google Ads, Bing and PPC can look daunting at first, but with our expert help we’ll soon have your organisation clicking into gear. So give us a shout. We’re raring to go.

Speak with us today.