Google Ads are not just about sending out the right message but doing so with visible results. With so many competitors in your niche vying for the same objective – catching the customer’s eye – the challenge is to get your ad to consistently rank higher.
The aforementioned requires you to adopt a multi-pronged strategy that revolves around key competitor insights and re-evaluating the PPC landscape. This is where this PPC Agency London comes to the rescue.
But first, let us dwell on some basics.
The Fundamentals of Google Search Ads
The average Google search result page is about 1077 pixels wide on a desktop. This screen is enough for accommodating 9 paid search ads along with one organic search result, though the ratio ultimately depends on the search query entered.
On average, however, the Google SERP above the scroll-down fold includes the following:
- 6 Shopping Ad Results from eCommerce platforms
- 3 PPC Google AdWords Ads from Google My Businesses
- 1 or 2 organic search results from high-ranking websites
This means, either as an eCommerce platform or a business, you need to rank in the top 3-6 ads to be able to appear on the first page. The stress is on the first page because 0.78% of Google searchers click on results from the second page at all.
If you have tried searching for the keywords that you wish to rank for, you must have noticed some of your competitors consistently making it to the top. How do you outrank them and take their place? How can you leverage the same features available to all businesses to your advantage and rank higher in the Google SERP space?
We have six proven tips that can help you meet this objective.
Spying on Your Competitor’s Insights
The first step, when you want to outrank your competitors, is to have all the relevant information about them and their campaigns. Right from how much they are spending to what keywords they are advertising on – every such little detail can go a long way in helping prepare a strategy to beat them at their own game.
So, how do you do that? Start by simple Google searches for the most relevant keywords and see which advertisers show up. Remember that these search ad results depend on geography, language and keywords.
Besides, you must repeat the search at different times of the day and days of the week, for most advertisers configure their ads to display only at certain times. Next, use online tools to get information about their organic and paid search traffic, and so on.
Alternatively, you can directly use Google Ads Auction Insights to acquire detailed information on other advertisers for accounts, specific campaigns or specific ad groups. Getting and studying such insights can help you understand how impactful your competitor’s ads are, and why.
Writing Better Ad Copies
The position or rank of your Google search ad primarily depends on two factors – Quality Score and Bid.
The first parameter, Quality Score, is made up of myriad smaller factors, all of which revolve around the idea of creating great ads. That said, one of the most important ingredients to a great ad, which is sure to get more clicks, is an attractive ad copy.
Therefore, you must make sure that you write better ad copies than your competitors if you wish to outrank them. Think of it as making an impression in just a few seconds.
Some handy tips to do this include writing meaningful yet catchy headlines – ask a question, fix a problem or use the keywords directly. Next, focus on adding value by speaking to the target customer. Think of their questions, pain points and content preferences.
Display an Effective Call to Action
A strong Call-to-Action is bound to get more clicks. You have to assume that people have to be told what you want them to do.
Use simple, straightforward language to guide them through this. It could be asking them to visit your website, purchasing your product, booking a hotel or downloading your content.
The best CTAs are the ones that use strong action verbs: Get Started Today, Join 60,000+ Fellow Marketers, Sign Up for Free, Enter Your URL, Claim Your Free Trial, and so on.
Using Expanded Text Ads
Expanded Text Ads or ETAs allow you to create three headlines (up to 30 characters each), two descriptions (up to 90 characters each) and a display URL. ETAs have the potential to achieve greater click-throughs and conversions than standard ads because of more information.
At the same time, ETAs grant you a higher level of control. You can use the most relevant headline and description combinations as per the needs of your specific campaign. Besides, adding multiple headlines and descriptions is optional.
Some best practices to abide by would be to use each headline with a purpose. If the first headline is asking a question, use the second to address a pain point and the third for a strong CTA. Similarly, use the descriptions to offer relevant information to the customer, or tell them what they are missing out on.
Always make sure that your most important messages are in the headlines, and the information the customer is looking for is in the description. Headline 1 is far more important than the rest, therefore, making your message quite clear in the first headline is important.
Using Ad Extensions
Surveys suggest that an ad’s CTR (click-through rate) can potentially improve by 10-15% per ad extension. Therefore, this is one key to greater ad clicks that you can swear by.
Ad extensions offer the relevant information and direction to potential customers, guiding them to take direct action from the search results. Extensions also help make your ad more prominent, and considerably improve valuable user interactions, such as messages and calls.
However, you must make sure that your ad extension is in line with your CTA for maximum impact. Search ad extensions can help increase engagement and boost ad quality and must be used judicially if you want to outrank your competitors.
Set up Target Outranking Share
Since you already have competitors in mind and have also researched them in some depth, you can use an automated bidding strategy to outrank them. Target Outranking Share feature helps you achieve exactly this.
The feature automatically modifies your bids daily, either increasing or decreasing them based on what it takes to outrank your competitor’s ads.
All you need to do is enter the target domain of your competitor and the % of auctions you want to outrank. There is a maximum bid limit in the bidding strategy which you have to adhere to. The setup could even be placed against a specific campaign or ad group.
Summary
The success of your digital store or service depends on your visibility in internet results. Appearing on the third or fourth page is as good as not appearing at all. Your competitors are sure to take away all the limelight and the customers.
Therefore, having an effective strategy in place for outranking your competitors is a must. Even if your end goal is not just to outrank your competition – which it never is – the idea is to be on the top for more clicks, retention and thus traffic.
The good news is that there are only two factors to take care of – quality and bidding. Our six tips focus on these two parameters and help you chalk out the right Google Search Ads strategy for better results.
