This document discusses 12 ways of wasting money on Google Ads campaigns. It provides tips on properly setting up conversion tracking, optimizing quality score, using ad extensions, leveraging display advertising, targeting audiences, establishing clear campaign goals and structure, managing keywords, optimizing ad copy, and integrating search and display campaigns. The document is authored by Jenya Yankova and Natalia Stoyanova of SoftUni Digital and copyrighted without permission for reproduction.

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on Google Ads
12.5 ways of wasting money
SoftUni Digital
https://digital.softuni.bg/
Jenya Yankova
Natalia Stoyanova
May 2020

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Drop your Questions on sli.do
Event Code #NT01

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Natalia Stoyanova
PPC Specialist in Netpeak Bulgaria Digital
Marketing Agency since 2018.
Planning and executing performance
digital strategies for various companies
and clients is a major part of my day-to
day activities.

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Journey for the Day
#1 Lack of Conversion Tracking
#2 Neglecting Quality Score
#3 Ad Extensions
#4 Underestimating Display advertising
#5 Overlooking Display
and Video Placements
#6 Failing to use Audiences properly
#7 Lack of Clear Purpose
#8 Messy Account Structure
#9 Keywords Neglecting
#10 Display and Search Comparison
#11 Wrong Messages at Ad Copies
#12 Automated Bid Disregarding
#12.5 Account Optimization

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#1 Lack of conversion
tracking
● Why measurement matters
● Conversions and Conversion
sources
● Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Implementation steps
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted;
the trouble is I don’t know which half”.
John Wanamaker

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6
Imagine running an ad for 7 days with no
way to check the profitability of your
campaigns.
Would you invest more money into it?
In short, measuring your conversions is a
must.

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Without conversion tracking
7
Click-centered reports and optimization

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With Conversion tracking implemented
8
● Conversion
based
optimization
● Conversion
based metrics
and reports

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Set up conversion tracking
9

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#2 Neglecting quality
score
● How the Ad Auction works: Ad
Rank
● Quality score factors
● Benefits of Improving Google
Quality Score
● How to improve Quality Score

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Quality Scores have enormous influence over
the cost and effectiveness of your paid
search campaigns
Just as your credit score can affect whether or not you
qualify for a loan and how high your interest rate is,
Google Quality Score affects how your PPC ads perform and
how much you pay for each click
11

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How the Ad auction works: Ad Rank
12

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Quality Score Factors
13
● Your click-through rate (CTR).
● The relevance of each keyword to its ad group.
● Landing page quality and relevance.
● The relevance of your ad text.
● Your historical Google Ads account performance.

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Benefits of Improving Quality Score
14
Higher quality ads typically lead to lower costs, better
ad positions, and more advertising success.

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Benefits of Improving Quality Score
Impact on Cost per Conversion
15

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Quality Score - need of consistency
16
Improving assets in Google ads is not enough. You need
converting landing page as well
A high quality landing page should have:
● Relevant and original content that helps the user complete their task.
● It should be easily navigable and transparent about the nature of the business

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How to improve your Quality Score?
● Keyword Research – Discover new, highly relevant keywords to add to your campaigns,
including long-tail keywords;
● Keyword Organization – Split your keywords into tight, organized groups
● Add Negative Keywords – Continuously research, identify, and exclude irrelevant search
terms that are wasting your budget.
● Refine Ad Text – Test out ad copy that is more targeted to your individual ad groups. More
effective ads get higher CTR, one of the best ways to improve Quality Score.
● Optimize Landing Pages – Follow landing page best practices to create pages that provide a
cohesive experience for visitors, from keyword to conversion;
17

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#3 Ad Extensions
● What difference extensions make
● Mismanaging extensions

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What difference extensions can make
19
10-15% increase in CTR

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Ad extensions performance
20

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Mismanaging extensions
Just having extensions is not enough. Make sure you are:
● Using the right types of extensions
● Updating your extension information regularly
And
● If CTR is fine but your conversion rate is lagging, you could be
sending traffic to the wrong page or setting user expectations
incorrectly with a misleading link
21

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Why extensions are important
22
● They are a factor of Ad rank
● They boosts the average CTR on an ad by 10-20%

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#4 Underestimating
display advertising
● About Google Display Network
● Understanding impact of Display
● Neglecting Display Advertising
Opportunities

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Google Display Network
you have the power to
introduce your brand
to tons of relevant
consumers
you’re also liable to
introduce your brand to
tons of irrelevant
consumers.
24
● Over 2 million websites and apps;
● Reaches around 90% of internet users.
Such an immense potential for reach is the definition of a
double-edged sword.

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Display with Custom intent audiences
25

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Same product - Display vs. Search
26
Using Display campaign with Custom Intent Audience we got more than 250% lower CPC and
142% lower CPA.
Lower CR in Display is compensated by the cheaper traffic we get with this tool.

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Very important information
27
Why it is important to have display alongside your
search campaign?
SERP is a very competitive place. No one has unlimited
budget.
Using Display with Custom Intent Audience is a great
way to outsmart the competition with a limited budget

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Display in the path to a conversion
28

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Frequency
How many ads are too many? Are we wasting
our digital ad budgets on too many
impressions?
29

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#5. Overlooking display
and video placements
● Wasting your budget on toddlers
● How to define bad placements
● How to opt out
● Negative placements exclusion
lists

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Very important information
31
Did you ever think that kids could be the
reason you are wasting a huge chunk of
change on Google Ads?
Well, they could be.

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Monitor where your ads showed
32

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Deep dive in Google Analytics data
33

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Placement exclusion list
34

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#6 Failing to use
Audiences
● Audience expansion in Display
● Lack of Audience exclusions
● Too small or segmented audience
● Not using Remarketing Audiences

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Audience Expansion
36
This feature can be expensive and compromise the quality of your conversions

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Audience Exclusions
Common mistake:
37
● Neglecting to exclude one list
from another
● Creating niche lists that turn
out too small
● Forgetting to exclude
converters

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Not fully utilizing Remarketing Lists
Remarketing audiences
● Site visitors who see a retargeted display ad are 70% more likely
to convert
● Retargeting can boost ad response by up to 400%
● The average click-through rate (CTR) for display ads is 0.07 %, but
it’s 0.7% for retargeted display ads
38

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Jenya Yankova
Digital marketing specialist at Netpeak
For the last four years I have been working on
different types of projects in the field of online
advertising /including Search, Display, and Social
campaigns/ and development of business
strategies growing plan.

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#7 Lack of Clear
Purpose
● Online market possibility?
● Clear purpose
● Budget determination

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Know your market
41

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Profitability
Effective revenue share

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Budget determination
43

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▪ Research the market
▪ Calculate effective revenue share
▪ Prepare a media plan
44
What to have in mind

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#8 Messy Account
Structure
● Clear naming system
● Category of a website >> Campaign
● Sub categories / Filters >> Ad groups
● Potential search terms >> Keywords
● What to say at your potential customer >> Ad
● Compliance with the site structure

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Campaign names
46

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Keywords
47

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Ads in ad group
48
???

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Site structure
www.example.com
https://app.mindmup.com/

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Information
50

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Campaign structure example
51

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▪ Name your campaigns carefully
▪ Prepare your campaign structure
▪ Use your website allocation
52
What to remember

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#9 Keywords Neglecting
● Not using search terms report
● Too many keywords
● Negative keywords

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54
Search terms

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Search terms
55

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How many keywords
56

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Negative keywords
57

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Search terms
58

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▪ Use search terms report at least one time in a
month
▪ Use negative keywords
59
What to remember

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#10 Display and Search
Comparison
● Work together
● Different metrics

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Search is limited
Expanding the audience

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Search Key Metrics
62

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Display Key Metrics
63

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Assited conversions
64

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▪ Don’t underestimate display network power
▪ Give enough time
▪ Make tests with audiences, creatives, pictures,
text.
What to remember
65

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#11 Wrong message to wrong
person
● Know your audience
● Use relevant content
● Use call-to-action correctly

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Who are my users
67

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Call to action
68

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New users message
69

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● Memorable and repeatable – Create a message that can be delivered to an audience through
a variety of channels over an extended period of time.
● Clear – Make sure the audience can clearly identify the issue you are addressing and the
solution you propose.
● Short and concise – Offer a limited number of points.
● Persuasive and relevant – Create a message that the audience will understand and can relate
to.
● Credible – Make sure that your message is being delivered by a source the audience finds
credible.
● Action-oriented – Make sure the audience knows what to do to help further your cause.
An effective message must be:
70

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#12 Automated bid
disregarding
● What is the difference

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Comparison slide Bid Strategies
Manual bidding
▪ Control cost per click
▪ Control cost per
impressions
Automated bidding
▪ Control Return on ad
spend
▪ Control cost per
conversion
72

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Dynamic Remarketing vs Smart Display
73

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Important information
▪ Use automated bidding models
▪ Test all the possibilities suited for your project
▪ Dedicate enough time
74

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#12.5 Account
optimization
● Check your account often
● Have a look at your
recommendations
● Analyse your results

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Change history
76

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Google ads recommendations
77

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What to remember
▪ Check your account at least one in two weeks
▪ Make a development plan
▪ Dedicate enough time
78

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1 Lack of conversion tracking
2 Neglecting quality score
3 Ad Extensions
4 Underestimating display advertising
5 Overlooking display and video placements
6 Failing to use Audiences
7 Lack of clear purpose
8 Messy account structure
9 Keywords neglecting
10 Display and search comparison
11 Wrong messages at ad copies
12 Automated bid disregarding
12.5 Account optimization
Summary
79

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Resources
80
How to setup conversion tracking
https://skillshop.exceedlms.com/uploads/resource_courses/targets/27691/original/index.html#/page/58a276e269cd9762a5f47f91
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6095821
Google Ads Conversion Tracking: All You Need to Learn to Boost Your Results
https://adespresso.com/blog/track-google-ads-conversion/
Най-бързият начин да спрем да показваме реклами в мобилни приложения в Google Ads
https://netpeak.net/bg/blog/nay-barziyat-nachin-da-sprem-da-pokazvame-reklami-v-mobilni-prilozheniya-v-google-ads/
Quality score
https://www.wordstream.com/quality-score
Google Tool for Conversion Tracking test - Tag Assistant
https://get.google.com/tagassistant/
Какво търсят хората: 200 от най-шантавите думи за търсене през годината — Част 1
https://netpeak.net/bg/blog/kakvo-tarsyat-horata-200-ot-nay-shantavite-dumi-za-tarsene-prez-godinata-chast-1/
Маркетинг без медиен план?
https://netpeak.net/bg/blog/marketing-bez-mediyen-plan/
Пример медиен план
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1joY6d2Neux-OgsCgENN7CCgag0ZYgAt46l-xyIzXiwY/edit#gid=935047847

81. Questions
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81

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License
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and Job for Marketing Experts
▪ https://digital.softuni.bg/
SoftUni Digital @ Facebook
▪ https://facebook.com/SoftUniDigital/
SoftUni Digital Forums
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