1. Do Your Research
Keyword research is essential if you want to build a successful campaign. Each industry is very different and unique when it comes to the digital market. In my experience, I have found that you can never completely rely on your gut in these situations. I always start with what I think, and then check the data to see if my thought process matches what the research tells me. Good keyword research will make it easier to show up where your customers are, not waste money, and even make writing ad copy easier!
2. Choose a Target Location
Whether you are an ecommerce store, a service business, or a restaurant, you should plan ahead of time where you want to show your ads. While setting up your new campaign, you are given the opportunity to choose which locations you want your ads to show in. You can narrow down your target area by city, state, zip code, country, or even by choosing a central point and choosing a radius around that point. Choosing a specific location will help prevent you from spending money in areas you can't service or are less likely to convert into a sale.
3. Build a Stellar Landing Page
This is something that a lot of people do not spend time on. Even if you have the perfect keyword research and the best targeted area, if your landing page isn't optimized for conversions, you might as well just flush money down the toilet. Your landing page needs to have relevant content about the keywords you found while researching, maybe even throw a few of them in there! If your landing page has good content and you have built it in a way that encourages the visitors to purchase your product, you will see much better results.
4. Get Access to Your Company's Google My Business
One really cool feature of Google Ads that a lot of advertisers don't take advantage of is ad extensions. One ad extension in particular that I like to use for local businesses is called a location extension. This allows you to not only show up in the search results, but also show up in the map pack! To get this set up you must have access to, or know someone who has access to, your company's Google My Business. The more places you can show up to a relevant audience, the better!
There are a lot more steps to take to set up a Google Ads campaign ready to convert. But, if you do these 4 things you can begin building a campaign that will reach your customers and turn your ad dollars into paying customers..
