Top 3 Google Ads Tips for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Google Ads Tips for Small Businesses

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1. Start Small and scale over time

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Starting small when building a Google Ads account and scaling over time offers several advantages:

1. Budget optimization: Starting with a small budget allows you to test and fine-tune your campaign without risking a significant investment upfront. It provides an opportunity to understand which keywords, ads, and targeting strategies yield the best results for your business. By closely monitoring the performance and making data-driven optimizations, you can gradually increase your budget for the top-performing campaigns, keywords, or ad groups, maximizing your return on investment (ROI).
2. Learning and optimization: Google Ads can be complex, and there is a learning curve involved in understanding how to effectively structure campaigns, select keywords, write compelling ad copy, and optimize bidding strategies. By starting small, you can focus on learning and gaining experience without overwhelming yourself. You can test different strategies, experiment with ad variations, and gather valuable insights about your target audience and their behavior. This iterative approach allows you to refine your campaign as you go, improving its performance over time.
3. Better focus and data: Focus on the core services and products to start. If you build too large of an account for your budget, your data will be too spread thin and it will be hard to optimize your account.
4. Refining keywords and messaging: Beginning with a small-scale campaign allows you to fine-tune your targeting parameters and messaging. You can analyze the performance metrics, such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost per acquisition (CPA), to understand which audience segments are most responsive to your ads. Based on this information, you can adjust your targeting options, refine your audience demographics, and optimize your ad copy to resonate better with your target audience. This iterative process helps you reach the most relevant and qualified users, leading to better overall campaign performance.
5. Scalable growth: Starting small and gradually scaling your Google Ads account allows for controlled growth. As you gain confidence in your campaign's performance and understand its profitability, you can increase your budget strategically. Scaling incrementally enables you to maintain a healthy balance between your advertising spend and the revenue generated. It also allows you to assess the impact of each budget increase and make adjustments accordingly, ensuring you are scaling in a sustainable and profitable manner.
6. Risk management: By starting small, you mitigate the risk of overspending or investing heavily in campaigns that may not yield the desired results. It gives you the opportunity to identify any potential issues or challenges early on and address them before committing significant resources. Starting small also allows you to assess the market response, competition, and seasonality factors, helping you make informed decisions when scaling up your Google Ads account.

By starting small and gradually scaling over time, you can optimize your Google Ads campaigns, minimize risks, and build a strong foundation for long-term success. It allows you to learn, test, and refine your strategies while maximizing the impact of your advertising budget.

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2. Monitor the Search-Term Report

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This is one of the most important sections of your account. Advertisers can use the Search Term Report to optimize their ad campaigns, refine their targeting, and improve their account performance. Find this section in the dropdown keyword section of Google Ads.

What is the Search Term Report?

Google Ads search term report is a section in Google Ads that provides advertisers with a list of actual search terms that people have used on Google and triggered their ads. It allows advertisers to see which search terms are generating clicks and conversions, and to identify irrelevant or problematic search terms that may be wasting ad spend.

How to optimize your campaigns using the Search Term Report.

You can use the search term report in several ways to optimize your Google Ads campaigns:

1. Identify negative keywords: Review the search terms that triggered your ads and add irrelevant or low-converting search terms as negative keywords. This will prevent your ads from showing to users searching for those terms.
2. Discover new keywords: Look for search terms that are generating clicks and conversions but are not yet in your keyword list. Add these terms as keywords to expand your reach and improve your targeting.
3. Refine match types: Check which match types are generating the most clicks and conversions and adjust your keyword match types accordingly. This will help you better control which search queries trigger your ads.
4. Improve ad copy: Analyze the search terms that are generating clicks and conversions and tailor your ad copy to better match those search queries. This can help increase your click-through rate and improve your ad relevance.
5. Optimize bids: Use the search term report to identify high-performing keywords and adjust your bids accordingly. This can help you improve your return on investment and maximize your advertising budget.

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3. Use negative keywords

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In addition to targeting specific keywords, you can also exclude certain keywords from your campaigns by using negative keywords. This will help prevent your ads from being shown to people who are not interested in what you have to offer.

What are negative keywords?

Google Ads negative keywords are a type of keyword that advertisers can add to their campaigns to prevent their ads from showing to users searching for specific terms. Negative keywords are the opposite of regular keywords, which are used to target specific search queries.

By adding negative keywords to their campaigns, advertisers can prevent their ads from showing to users searching for irrelevant or low-converting terms. For example, if an advertiser sells only brand new products, they might add "used" as a negative keyword to prevent their ads from showing to users searching for "used products."

Negative keywords can be added at the campaign or ad group level, and can be broad, phrase, or exact match. They can be added manually, or generated automatically by reviewing the search term report to identify irrelevant or problematic search terms.

Using negative keywords can help advertisers save money by preventing their ads from showing to users who are unlikely to convert.

How negative keywords can improve your account performance

Advertisers should use negative keywords in their Google Ads campaigns for several reasons:

1. Prevent wasted ad spend: By using negative keywords, advertisers can prevent their ads from showing to users searching for irrelevant or low-converting terms. This can help them save money by avoiding clicks and impressions that are unlikely to result in conversions.
2. Improve ad relevancy: Negative keywords can help advertisers improve the relevancy of their ads by ensuring that they only show to users who are searching for terms that are relevant to their product or service. This can help increase the click-through rate and conversion rate of their ads.
3. Refine targeting: Negative keywords can help advertisers refine their targeting by preventing their ads from showing to users who are unlikely to be interested in their product or service. This can help them reach a more qualified audience and improve the effectiveness of their ad campaigns.
4. Increase ad performance: By using negative keywords to refine their targeting and improve ad relevancy, advertisers can increase the performance of their ads. This can help them achieve their advertising goals, such as increasing sales or leads, more efficiently.

Overall, using negative keywords can help advertisers optimize their Google Ads campaigns and get better results from their advertising spend.

How to use negative keywords

The best way to use negative keywords in Google Ads campaigns is to regularly review and refine them to ensure that they are preventing ads from showing to irrelevant or low-converting searches. Here are some tips for using negative keywords effectively:

1. Regularly review search term reports: Review your search term reports to identify irrelevant or problematic search terms that triggered your ads. Add these terms as negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing to similar searches in the future.
2. Determine if you should use broad, phrase, or exact match: One of the best ways to use negative keywords is to identify the problem word, and exclude that single word in broad match. This will ensure that all searches are block that include that word.
3. Start with a small list: Start with a small list of negative keywords and gradually add to it as you review your search term reports. This will help you avoid accidentally blocking too many searches and limiting your ad reach.
4. Continuously monitor and refine: Regularly monitor your negative keywords and adjust them as necessary to ensure that your ads are not being blocked from relevant searches. This will help you continuously improve the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

By using negative keywords effectively, you can help optimize your ad campaigns, reduce wasted ad spend, and improve the relevancy and performance of your ads.

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About the PPC Marketing Toolbox

The PPC Marketing Toolbox is a resource that empowers B2B businesses to manage their Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads in-house. Premium courses, coaching, and free resources designed to teach businesses to run their own ads confidently and professionally.

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