When trying to drive traffic to your website from Google one of the easiest strategies is to use Google advertising. This helps make sure that your product or service comes up when someone does a relevant Google search. However, it is not enough to create a Google advertisement, you must also make sure you are optimizing your ad for the best ROI. We have put together a list of eight of the most useful settings Google AdWord has to offer:

1. Location Targeting

When you are spending money on advertising you want to make sure your ads are targeting the right people.  Try restricting your ads to geographical regions to focus the ads on the right customers. This is a great way to optimize your advertising efforts to increase your ROI and get the attention of potential customers.

2. Budget

Google advertising offers the option to set a budget on advertising for the month.  When using AdWords you can set a daily budget and at the end of the month you will be charged to total amount spent throughout the month.  This allows you to implement an advertising campaign while preventing you from spending more than you want.

3. Create a New Group Ad

Ad groups are perfect to use when you want to sort your ad into different categories.  Through Ad groups you can set groups of keywords to be associated with each group of advertisements.  This will make it easier when creating a new ad within the same category because the keywords can be added automatically rather than manually.

4. Implement Expanded Text Ads

Google’s new ad format gives the advertiser 50% more ad copy.  This styled ad is designed for mobile browsers and helps maximize your presence on search results.  The new design for this ad features a bolder and bigger headline and more space for you to describe your product or service in the extra copy provided.

5. Maximize Clicks

Maximizing clicks works hand in hand with budgeting.  With this options you get to the most amount of clicks possible within the budget you set.  When you set your ad with “maximize clicks,” your advertisement is displayed on certain days and times optimized for click through.

6. Add Keywords

Adding keywords to your ad is a great way to make sure your ad is showing up for relevant searches. The keywords that you include should be words potential customers would use when looking for a product or service like yours. It is recommended that you use 5-20 keywords per ad group, but remember, the more keywords you add the more likely your advertisement will come up in the search results.

7. Keyword Match Types

When setting your keyword match type you have five options: broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match, exact match and negative match. These varying options allow you to choose how often, or how little, your ads show up.  Choosing to make your ads show for broad searches will make sure they appear all the time, but choosing to make them show for only very specific searches will help make sure you ad is more likely to be related to the Google search.

8. Take Advantage of Ad Extension

When using Google Ads there is no additional charge for adding extra information such as a phone number, additional text or additional links. Using ad extensions are likely to upgrade your click through rate by 10%, which can be beneficial for every business.

It’s extremely important to take advantage of all the many advertising settings Google offers to make sure you are getting the most for your money. If you need help making sure your advertising campaign is reaching its goal feel free to reach out, we’re always happy to help!

Danielle Foley, President
Foley Marketing Advisors
dfoley@foleymarketingadvisors.com