1. Google Search
Campaign Results
Melina Miller
4/20/20

2. Ad 1: Ad 2:
@ user name
Ads run
Web Format
Mobile Format
Variant:
Ad 2 varied from Ad 1 in that the ad’s title was
“Brand Awareness | A Digital-First Approach |
Read Now” rather than “Brand Marketing | A
Digital-First Approach | Read Now,” which was
used for Ad 1. All other qualities remained the
same as Ad 1.
Web Format
Mobile Format
• Dates run: 4/17/20 through 4/21/20
• Budget per day: $5.00 per day then updated to $15.00 per day
• Goal set for campaign: Website Traffic
• Campaign type: Search network
• How you targeted: Audiences were targeted for this campaign using an
observation method.
• Location: United States (country)
• Audience Criteria:
• In-market Audiences:
 Business services > Advertising & Marketing
services > SEO & SEM Services
 Business Services > Business Technology > Web
services > Web Design & Development
 Business Services > Advertising & marketing
Services > email marketing services
 Business Services > Advertising & Marketing
Services
• Affinity
 Lifestyles & Hobbies > Business Professionals
 Technology > Social Media Enthusiasts
• Bid Strategy
• My ads focused on clicks
• I set a maximum CPC bid limit of $0.01. The maximum click bid
strategy was used to help get the most clicks at a cost per click
at or below my bid limit.
• Extensions chosen
o I chose to include two sitelink extensions.
1. Contact Me
Rethink your marketing with us
Book a consultation
2. Maximize your marketing
Use automation to optimize your
marketing strategy
• Destination URL: https://www.melinakmiller.com/brand-marketing-a-
digital-first-approach/
• Ad Group Keywords: listed on the next slide
• I hypothesis that ad 1 will perform better than ad 2 because the title,
“Brand Marketing” is a more commonly searched term than ad 2,
“Brand Awareness.”
For my search campaign, I ran two ads under one ad group. I chose to run my A/B test by running two ads, both with a slightly
different title. All other qualities remained the same, such as dates run, budget per day, campaign goal and type, the audience
targeted, the bid strategy, and the ad keywords. The networks I targeted were search networks and display networks.
Brand Marketing | A Digital-First Approach | Read
Now
MelinaKMiller.com/BrandMarketing/DigitalFirst
Six experts discuss the topic of why a digital-first
brand marketing strategy is essential. Check out our
marketing blog to see what they had to say.
Brand Awareness | A Digital-First Approach | Read
Now
MelinaKMiller.com/BrandMarketing/DigitalFirst
Six experts discuss the topic of why a digital-first
brand marketing strategy is essential. Check out our
marketing blog to see what they had to say.
Variant:
Ad 1 varied from Ad 2 in that the ad’s title was
“Brand Marketing | A Digital-First Approach |
Read Now” rather than “Brand Awareness | A
Digital-First Approach | Read Now,” which was
used for Ad 2. All other qualities remained the
same as Ad 2.

3. While Google Ad’s provided an auto-population option for keywords, I chose to conduct my own keyword research utilizing
the SEM Rush keywords suggestion and research tool. I decided to take this route in to select keywords that were relevant to
my co-brand article to enrich my ad copy with the best keywords that would increase my web presence. The keywords I
chose were words that were present in my co-brand article or very similar to the topic of my article.
digital marketing, digital media marketing, brand marketing, online digital marketing, digital marketing websites, online
marketing, marketing digital, digital marketing agency, online marketing courses, marketing online, digital branding, digital
marketing ideas, digital marketing manager, email marketing tools, digital marketing strategy, digital marketing company,
branding and marketing, digital marketing business, online marketing strategies, online marketing companies, social media
marketing tools, digital strategy, online marketing tools, digital and social media marketing, marketing strategy, brand
marketing, branding and marketing, brand marketing strategy, brand marketing agency, brand marketing companies,
branding vs marketing, digital first content strategy, digital first strategy definition, what is digital first strategy, digital first
marketing strategy, digital first strategy
Ad Group Keywords:

4. Analytics
AD 1 AD 2
From the data collected, I can conclude that ad 2, the brand awareness ad, performed better than ad 1, the brand marketing ad. Despite
ad 1 having a higher impression rate, which resulted in more clicks than ad 2, ad 2 had a higher click-through-rate of 3.90% while ad 1 had
a lower click-through-rate of 3.65%. The click-through-rate tells me the percentage of people who clicked on my ad after seeing it, meaning
ad 2 performed better than ad 1 and was more successful in attracting people to click on my ad.
Ad 2 also had a lower cost-per-click with the average click costing $0.50, whereas ad 1’s average click cost was about $0.55. Additionally,
the total spend for ad 1 was $12.70, while ad 2 resulting in a higher click-through-rate and had a total spend cost of only $6.53.
I had predicted that ad 1 would perform better than ad 2 because the title, “Brand Marketing” is a more commonly searched term than ad
2, “Brand Awareness.” However, I predicted wrong as Ad 2 performed better than ad 1 and would likely continue to perform better based
on the better CTR despite the lower amount of impressions. The better performance of ad 2 is likely attributed to the title, brand awareness,
having a closer relation to the common search terms that matched my ads and triggered them to appear in search results.

5. Visualize in Tableau
This graph displays the relationship between the clicks and
impressions of the two ads run in my campaign.
Here we can clearly see that despite the many (630) opportunities
viewers had to click on ad 1, only 23 did. This resulted in a low CTR
of 3.65%. Ad 2 may have had less (333) opportunities and (13) clicks
than ad 1. However, ad 2 had a higher CTR than ad 1 with 3.90%.
This tells us that moving forward, we should use the title from ad 2 as
opposed to ad 1 because it will result in a higher CTR and more
website traffic. We can analyze the metrics from this A/B test to
optimize ad 2 for better performance.
Marketing visualizations are helpful to marketers because they
combine marketing data to create visual reports that enable
marketers to make data-driven decisions and act with confidence
while demonstrating their impact to other decision-makers. Visual
charts allow marketers to uncover critical insights into performance
analytics and accurately represent the results of an A/B test clearly
and understandably.

6. Wrap Up
Google Ads required more time and effort than I initially expected. This is due to the unexpected setbacks faced as a result of the ongoing pandemic. I found
that I spent a sufficient amount of time in the planning phase, to ensure that my ads would be engaging, grammatically correct, and also fit into the minimal
character limit. While I had the option of entering a link to my website to auto-populate keywords, I chose to conduct my own research utilizing the SEM Rush
keyword suggestion and research tool. The entire process of getting my ads up and running took about two and a half hours. While running my Google Search
Ads, I observed that they made the process quite easy for someone who may not be familiar with the marketing process. Additionally, Google Ads provided
many recommendations and assistance along the way.
I was surprised by the setbacks faced due to the ongoing pandemic. Google delaying their ad review process contributed to a rise in stress levels as my ads
were listed as “Approved,” but for the first three days, my ads received no activity. While Google offered “recommendations” to “improve ad performance,” the
recommendations were not clear, and upon finally adjusting the ads to meet Google’s guidance, my ads still received little to no activity for another day or so. I
found that my ads performed best in the last few hours of my campaign.
The easiest part of the Google Search Ad’s process was the campaign creation. Despite spending a significant amount of time on this step, the process itself
was clear, easy, and manageable. Google Ad’s offered many tools, tricks, tips, and recommendations throughout the process, which made the process very
easy.
The hardest part of the Google Search Ad’s process was navigating the suggestions offered by Google on my ads after they were approved. This is due to the
unclear delivery of their recommendations. Google suggested I “update my campaign’s average daily budget” to enhance the number of times my ad would be
shown, but this process did not result in my ads being shown more. Additionally, their recommendations needed to be exported to an excel document to be
viewed, but when I completed this step, the excel document provided no additional information.
I chose my target audience based on the likelihood of interest in my co-brand article’s topic. Additionally, I targeted audiences who spoke English because my
article was written in English, and I chose to target the United States in hopes that my ad would attract readers in search of a freelance marketer. My audience
criteria contained in-market audiences with an interest in digital marketing categories and business services. Additionally, I targeted affinity audiences with
interests in technology and digital marketing as I felt these targets would be more likely to click the advertisement and possibly be in search of my services.
Ad 2 performed better than ad 1 as it had better CTR results. While ad 1 received more impressions and clicks, the CTR of 3.65% was less than the 3.90%
CTR of ad 2, which only received 333 impressions and 13 clicks compared to the 630 impressions and 23 clicks received by ad 1. Ad 2 not only resulted in a
better CTR, but it also had a lower ad spend of $6.53 compared to the $12.70 ad 1 spent. The average cost per click for ad 2 was also less than that of ad 1
by $0.05.
For the analytics slide, I felt the most relevant data to share was the clicks, impressions, costs, and click-through-rates for both ad 1 and ad 2. For my
visualization on slide five, I chose to display the relationship between the clicks and impressions. These analytics are most relevant to report because they can
be used to determine which of the two ads performed better. From these metrics, I was able to determine that ad 2 performed better than ad 1 and conclude
why it performed better.
If I were to conduct another A/B test campaign for these ads, I would opt for a larger daily budget and a maximize clicks bidding strategy. This likely would
have resulted in one or both of my ads receiving more clicks because Google would have automatically set my bids within my budget. Having a daily budget of
$5.00 was very limiting to my campaign when the average CPC was around $0.55 each.