Running an effective Ads campaign requires intelligent work. You can’t simply throw KSh 500,000 at an ad and expect results. Instead, you need to do your homework and leverage the targeting (and other) tools the Ads platform puts at your disposal. To get you started, here are some of the key steps you should take if you want to maximize your ROI on your next Google Ads campaign.

  1. Do you know what ads are for? Before investing money in an ad it’s important to understand its strengths and weaknesses. Ads is excellent for highly targeted, measurable and rapid results that lend well to lead and sales generation. When designing your campaign, keep the platform’s strengths and weaknesses in mind, and save brand awareness for your other marketing efforts.
  2. Who is your target market? You need to invest the time and resources to fully understand your audience. Look at the types of sites your target audience spends time on: What style of language do those sites use? What do they look and sound like? Which competitors are running effective ad campaigns? You can use the Ads platform to research many of these elements, all without spending a single shilling. Thanks Google!
  3. Have a specific goal for each campaign It’s easy to get overly ambitious with an Ads campaign, particularly if you’re planning to spend a significant portion of your marketing budget. However, it’s imperative that you choose one specific goal for each campaign. Doing so will dramatically improve the ROI of the campaign.
  4. Create a targeted landing page Perhaps the biggest and most common mistake companies new to Ads make is directing traffic from their paid ads to the home pages of their sites. Many times, these companies invest in ads, find they aren’t getting results, and write off Ads as a waste of money. Click here to learn more.
  5. Create different version of the ad copy Before you start your campaign, you’ll want to create a lot of versions of the ad copy — as many as you can realistically produce, but at least 10. Slight changes in ad copy can have a significant impact on conversion rates. By testing lots of variations at the same time, you can quickly determine which versions convert best. Simply break your ad budget into smaller segments, and assign the budgets to each version of the ad. Be prepared to spend a relatively large amount upfront. The data you gather at the beginning allows you to focus your campaign (and your budget) on the versions of your ad that work best.
  6. Verify positive ROI When you started your campaign, you set specific goals. Once the campaign is up and running, verify that you are, in fact, generating the positive ROI you projected. Calculating this is simple enough: Take the amount you are paying per click and multiply it by the percentage of clicks that convert. Compare that cost to whatever profit model you want — anything from the profit margin on a single product to your estimated lifetime value of a customer.