The benefits of running ad campaigns across the most popular search engine in the world is unquestionable. Not only do Google Ads provide a great short-term marketing solution but, when utilised in conjunction with an effective SEO strategy, they provide the perfect long term strategy for companies looking to grow their digital footprint.
But to be truly effective with your advertising your website must be well equipped, focused on driving the outcome of your advertising. This includes the following considerations:
Website optimisation requirements
While Google Ads are highly effective at driving potential customers to your website, it’s how well your website is optimised for generating an action will determine the conversion rate of your campaigns. This should be measured and continually optimised to help achieve the best possible results for your company. So what inclusions should you consider for your website to help improve conversion rate?
1. Landing page setup
One of the most important factors is to ensure effective landing pages are set up. Each landing page should be directly related to the ad that user clicked on; easy to digest information guiding them to a clear call to action. The importance of the linkage between the landing page and Google Ad also plays a direct role on the Google Ads performance by the measuring of the ads Quality Score. As defined by Google, the quality score is:
“The Quality Score is Google’s rating of the overall user experience that your ads and landing pages provide when users search for your keyword(s). This is represented on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.”
This quality score is determined by a few factors including Landing page experience. To optimise the landing page experience you will need to ensure that the page has text linked to the search term/keyword, it is easy to navigate with clear and concise information and has no issues around loading speed.
2. Google Analytics & Tag Manager Setup
Any marketing strategy undertaken is useless unless it can be measured. The same goes for Google Ads campaigns, to be able to accurately determine their performance and impact for the business.
It is important to see how the ads generate traffic to your website and particular outcomes compared to your other marketing strategies. This is where Google Analytics & Tag Manager come into play, Google Analytics should be directly linked to your website so that effective tracking of all activity (including Google Ads) can be undertaken. While Google Tag Manager allows for tracking of conversions from your Google Ads campaigns without having to fiddle with code or additional plugins to setup conversion tracking on your website. Google Tag Manager setup is important to allow for performance data to feed into Google Analytics.
3. Easy To Navigate & Fast Loading Pages
As we have seen from the Quality Score metric, easy navigation and fast loading pages are vital to a positive user experience. While your landing pages need to be a focus, it is also important other areas of a website are functioning optimally. For example, a user may enter the website clicking on an ad for shoes but then start exploring sock options.
4. Implementation of Call Tracking
Another form of analytics, call tracking is a must for those trying to push potential customers to contact them via phone. Without including tracking on calls, you could not only lose valuable leads for the business but a host of other valuable metrics. Calls can not only come directly from Google Ads (Call Ads) but can also be from the “Contact Us” page, head banner click to call number etc, once a user arrives at your website.
When it comes to running Google Ads for your business, making sure your website is properly optimised and ready to capture campaign data is crucial to success. By providing a positive user experience and being able to effectively measure performance, you can help to improve both your website and ads for better performance. To find out more about the relationship between Google Ads and your website, talk to the ppc specialists at Redline Digital today.