Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools to drive direct bookings and boost revenue for your brand – however, it’s easy to waste money on this platform if you cut corners.
It’s a tool we see great results with for our clients and while we would always recommend hiring an expert, we wanted to share a clear, easy to read guide on growing your revenue with Google Ads.
WHAT IS GOOGLE ADS?
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that falls under an advertising model known as pay-per-click (PPC). This means that you pay a fee to have your website displayed on the search engine results page (SERP) when someone types in specific keywords or phrases.
The SERP will display your ad to those who search for keywords or phrases that align with those that you have chosen and the amount you pay is usually based on the either the number of clicks on or views these ads have received. This way, you reach your potential guests when they are actively searching for terms related to what you offer.
TYPES OF GOOGLE ADS
Being displayed at the top of the search results for keyword phrases that are relevant your brand is a great way of boosting your visibility to potential customers, driving web traffic and converting this traffic to direct bookings.
CAMPAIGNS
You can select from one of three campaign types on Google Ads: search, display, or video.
- Search ads are text ads that are displayed on Google results pages – ads are triggered by a search query made by a user who is proactively looking for related information
- Display ads are typically image-based and are shown on web pages within the Google Display Network – ads are triggered when matched to relevant content or specifically targeted by advertisers (aka you) but users will not be proactively looking for related information
- Video ads are displayed before, during or after YouTube videos
Google Ads also allows you to run remarketing ads which allow you to retarget users who have already visited your website. Your display retargeting ads will be shown on sites that your potential customers are browsing.
Want to boost bookings and revenue using Google Ads campaigns? Click here to drop us a message and let’s chat about how we can help you.
BIDDING
To get your ad in front of your target audiences, you have to set a budget and a bid. The bid sets how much you are willing to pay for each individual click.
If all bidders have the same quality score (we explain more on that later in the guide), Google will show the ad from the company who has bid the highest amount for that keyword or phrase.
While Google want to maximise their revenue, they won’t simply show people ads from the highest bidder. They want both the user receiving the ad and the user creating the ad to have a positive experience. This means they can actually show a more relevant ad by someone who pays less. That’s why paying attention to your Quality Score is vital (scroll down for more info).
Whatever you set your maximum bid at, it doesn’t mean that you will end up only paying this amount per click – if people are generally bidding less for the keyword or phrase you are targeting, Google won’t spend your maximum bid. We always recommend starting small across a wider range of keywords and phrases then refining when you see results.
THE IMPORTANCE OF KEYWORDS
Taking the time to find the relevant keywords that your target market are searching for is key. That’s because Google matches your ad with search queries based on the keywords you selected. Match Types give you some flexibility when it comes to the keywords you opt for — they inform Google whether you want to match to a search query exactly or to a search query that is simply related.
You have four match types to choose from:
- Broad Match – default setting that uses any word within your keyword phrase in any order. For example, “hybrid hotels London” will match “hybrid hotels” or “hotels London”.
- Modified Broad Match – locks in certain words within a keyword phrase by denoting them with a + sign. Your matches will include that locked-in word at the very least. For example, “+staycation deals in London” could be shown to search queries including “staycation” “staycation deals,” or “staycation in Brighton”.
- Phrase Match – matches with queries that include your keyword phrase in the exact order but may include additional words before or after it. For example, “coliving spaces in London’ can yield “central coliving spaces in London”.
- Exact Match – maintains your keyword phrase as it is written in the exact order. For example, “coworking spaces in London” will not show up if someone types “coworking spaces” or “coworking in London”.
If you are new to Google Ads or aren’t totally confident using the platform, we recommend keeping your keyword list to between 5-10. You should also add these keywords to your campaign as ‘broad match keywords’ to maximise the potential to show your ads on relevant searches. It’s extremely important to closely monitor your ads when you set your keywords to broad match as a high level of traffic doesn’t necessarily mean the ad is performing well.
A good keyword strategy when you are starting out is to use broad match and phrase match to drive traffic and then use the Search Terms report that you can find on your Google Ads portal to figure out what is performing – and converting – well.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR QUALITY SCORE
If you want to master Google Ads, you will need a solid understanding of your Quality Score. In the same way that your credit rating can affect your ability to quality for a loan, your Google Quality Score influences the ability of your ads to perform well and how much you pay.
So, what is it? The Quality Score is basically Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your ads. It’s used to determine your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad bidding process.
It depends on multiple factors such as click-through rate (CTR), relevance of keywords to its ad group, landing page quality and relevance, relevance of your ad text and your historical Google Ads account performance.
Based on a 1-10 scale, the more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll achieve higher Quality Scores.
No one outside of Google knows the level to which each factor is influential in the Quality Score algorithm. However, we do know that click-through rate is the most important component. When people who see your ad click it, Google like it as it indicates your ads are relevant and helpful to users – this means you will be rewarded with higher ad rankings and lower cost per click and conversions.
To work on improving your Quality Score, you should look at:
- Researching keywords – Find new keywords to add to your campaigns that are relevant to your target audience(s) and will contribute to overall traffic
- Switching up your ad copy – Review your ad text and edit to ensure it is as relevant as possible to the people you want to reach
- Organising keywords – Split your keywords into more organised groups that can be effectively tied to individual ad campaigns to boost relevance
- Optimising your landing page(s) – Check that your landing page is providing a seamless experience for visitors to avoid drop offs and improve your conversion rate
- Removing negative keywords – On a regular basis, research, identify, and exclude irrelevant search terms that are wasting your budget
Quality Score is basically a measure of relevance therefore better keyword research and organisation will naturally improve the quality and specificity of your ads. This will allow you to reach your exact target audience when they are searching for what you offer and boost bookings.
GOOGLE HOTEL ADS
We know that research for a trip involves people searching on Google – but how do you become visible to your target audience and convert this interest into bookings? We recommend exploring the potential of Google Hotel ads.
Google Hotel Ads show your hotel availability and rates across Google Search (on the right hand side of the screen), Maps and the Assistant.
The platform works by presenting information about hotels and their room availability to users who enter relevant search queries. One of the best features is that it displays real-time rates and availability for your property – this means on dates when you are fully booked, your ad will not show and you won’t be charged.
For each hotel ad displayed, Google Hotel Ads allows users to perform easy room rate comparisons and offers links to different booking platforms, enabling customers to find the best price.
The platform is an effective way of boosting visibility on Google search engine results pages, but be aware that the Hotel Ads service is different from the main Google Ads service. On the Google Ads platform, you need to bid on relevant keywords and your ads are shown to users who search for those phrases, regardless of availability. As we’ve mentioned above, using Google Hotel Ads mean your property won’t be shown on dates that you fully booked.
Another one of the main benefits is that Google Hotel Ads allows you to compete with OTAs in Google search results and boost direct bookings. It also allows you to completely own the guest experience, starting with the confirmation email once the person has booked, to pre-stay emails prior to check-in (giving you the opportunity to upsell) as well as post-stay communications. It allows you to manage your own relationship with your guest and gives you access to data, such as their email address, so you can keep in touch and ultimately, encourage return visits.
You can manage your Google Hotel Ads via the Google Hotel Centre.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
There are a variety of components that must work together in order for your Google Ads campaign(s) to be a success and boost both bookings and revenue.
CREATING LANDING PAGES
Using landing pages is one of the best ways to improve your ad conversion rate. To do this, you must ensure that it is relevant – Google Ads expect your landing page to provide a good experience to your target audience. So, just as your ad text should be relevant to your keyword, your landing page should be relevant to your Google ad.
The landing page you direct your potential customers is vital to your success in converting. If you miss the mark and your content fails to resonate, you risk a potential customer leaving the page and therefore you will have wasted your money.
SPLIT TEST YOUR ADS
When you’ve got to grips with the platform, it’s time to up the tempo and begin optimising your ads to achieve the best ROI. That’s where Google Ads split-testing comes in – it’s ideal for determining which of your ads are delivering the best results which is important to avoid missing out on converting interest into revenue.
Split testing your ads is basically showing one ad to your audience half the time and a different ad the other half. It allows you to figure out which option is delivering the best results, which is ultimately the best click-through and conversion rates.
Continuing to compare, test and fine tune your ad campaigns ensures you are putting the right ads in front of the right potential customers at the right time. It also reduces the risk of wasting money and receiving little ROI.
You could test aspects of your ad such as the headline, body copy, link and the keywords the ads display for. We recommend only testing one aspect of your ad at once so you are able to pinpoint what is affecting the success of your ads.
MEASURING SUCCESS
Focusing on vanity metrics can cause you to make poor business decisions that don’t impact your bottom line. Your Google Ads dashboard will provide a variety of metrics and while it’s worth keeping an eye on areas such as impressions, clicks and click-through rate, it means very little if your ads are not converting.
Thankfully, the platform makes it very easy to keep track of your results and analyse the data – we recommend you do this daily basis using our checklist template which you can find below. This helps you gain valuable insights into what is performing well – and what isn’t – so that you can tweak, change and fine tune over time.
We recommend keeping a particular eye on the cost per acquisition or conversion metric – this is the amount of money you have spent to acquire a customer.
The good thing about Google Ads is that you can test things out and experiment with different keywords for a relatively low cost until you find a strategy that works best for you and the goals you are trying to achieve.
If you are managing your brand’s Google Ads and feel like there is something missing, be sure to make use of Google’s Recommendations tool. It provides personalised suggestions to help improve your campaigns’ performance.
Our Google Ads checklists outlines daily, weekly and monthly tasks on setting up, managing and monitoring your Google Ads campaigns.
