Since their introduction in early 2018, Responsive Search Ads have received a mixed reception.

Being the new kid on the ad format block, many advertisers were wary of incorporating RSA into their ad groups.

However, heading into 2020, it is clear that Responsive Search Ads are not going anywhere; and if anything, they’re taking over.

So here’s why you need to be using RSA in 2020, along with some considerations for attaining the best performance with this ad format.

Click-Through-Rates Are Generally Higher with Responsive Search Ads

Google has stated that Responsive Search Ads on average have a 5 to 15% proportionally better click-through-rate (CTR) when compared to their Expanded Text Ad counterpart.

Initially when RSA were used, many advertisers complained that they were seeing a lower CTR with RSA versus ETA.

However as time has gone on, the algorithm being used for the RSA seems to have improved drastically, and CTR’s seem to have improved dramatically for RSA.

You Can Test A Lot More!

With Responsive Search Ads, you can test up to 15 different headlines and up to four different descriptions within a single ad.

These headlines and descriptions will be combined to form a multitude of unique variants which would have otherwise required dozens and dozens of Expanded Text Ads in order to test.

This underpins the power of Responsive Search Ads, and why they’re an improvement on Expanded Text Ads.

Responsive Search Ads May Replace Expanded Text Ads

Google often phase out the old features of their platform, such as the old Standard Text Ads that were phased out by Expanded Text Ads.

It’s not inconceivable, and is actually quite probable, that ETA’s will be phased out by RSA’s.

For this reason it is essential to begin testing RSA’s now, and ensuring that all of your ad groups are utilising RSA’s, in anticipation for the moment when they are removed from the platform.

You Cannot Review All of The Performance Data for Your Responsive Search Ads

One downside of using Responsive Search Ads at the moment, is that we don’t have access to all of the performance data for each of the different combinations of headlines and descriptions being used.

Without this data we cannot ascertain which variants of each ad are helping us to generate more clicks and conversions.

Google is keeping this valuable data hidden, almost like a secret recipe.

RSA Do Not Always Perform Better Than ETA

Responsive Search Ads will not always perform better than Expanded Text Ads.

Testing both ad types is essential to discover which format will deliver the highest click-through-rate, and the highest conversion-per-impression within each of your ad groups.

Tips for Testing Responsive Search Ads and Expanded Text Ads

• When Testing RSA and ETA:
  Ensure that there are no duplicate headlines or descriptions within your RSA ad copy.
• Pin headlines to the headline 1, and description line 1. This helps to ensure that your ad will make sense.
• Use one RSA per ad group.
• Use three ETA per ad group.

Free Responsive Search Ads builder

Gain access to our free Responsive Search Ads builder, which will allow you to quickly and easily create new ads to be imported into your Google Ads campaigns.

>>>> Click Here to Access The Free Google Sheet Template <<<<

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you need help with setting up and getting the best performance from your Responsive Search Ads, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

One of the most important variables which determines the success of a Google Ads campaign, is the landing page.

The campaign settings, targeting and ads generate the traffic; but ultimately that traffic must be converted into a lead or sale by the landing page.

You can have an extremely well set up Google’s Ad campaign that attracts customers who are dying for your product or service, but if you don’t engage those visitors once they’re on your website, and entice them into a sale, then they’ll simply leave and buy from another website.

Through our experience reviewing Google Ads campaigns, we’ve seen which landing pages convert, and which do not, and based on this we’ve compiled a list of 10 Top Tips that you need for a high landing page conversion rate.

1. Fast Page Speed

The speed at which your landing page loads is one of the most important factors for determining its conversion rate.

People these days want everything to load instantly and will have very little patience for a page that’s taking more than two or three seconds to load.

If your page is taking more than three seconds to load for either desktop or mobile, then this is certainly an area you should be committing attention to.

Any time you can shave off of your page load speed is going to translate directly into a higher conversion rate, and ultimately more money in yours or your client’s bank account.

Luckily there are some great tools for assessing your landing page’s load speed and identifying areas where improvements can be made:

GTMetrix
Google Page Speed Insights

2. Strong Call to Action

There needs to be a clear indication of what visitors need to do once they land on your page.

Visitors don’t want to spend time digging around and hunting for the next step they need to take in order to buy your product or service.

If the visitor needs to be fill out a form in order to place their order, this needs to be clearly stated, and this is achieved with a call-to-action. For example a big “Order Now” button on the form, gives a clear indication.

A call-to-action needs to be bold, and stand out by contrasting with the colour scheme of the page so that the visitor’s eyes lock onto it straight away.

3. Responsiveness

Is your page responsive and easy to navigate on mobile and tablet devices? As more and more people are choosing to browse the web on their smartphones, it’s becoming increasingly important for your website to perform well and look good on mobile.

4. Limit Linking to Other Pages

Having links to other pages on your own or other websites can pull visitors away from your landing page, and the specific action you would like them to take.

Limiting the number of links you have on your landing page can help channel visitors towards the action that will ultimately generate revenue for your business.

5. Great Content Above the Fold

Is there valuable information above the fold of your page? Many visitors won’t scroll past the top of your landing page. Again, visitors are impatient, and want quick answers to their queries.

It helps to place information about your product or service’s main features and benefits in bullet-point format above the fold, along with a clear call-to-action to give you the best chance of converting visitors within the first few seconds of them landing on the page.

6. Excellent Brand Messaging

Do you have a strong brand that exudes authority, and integrity within your sector? Visitors pay a lot of attention to the feeling and vibe they get from your website’s branding.

This includes your domain name!

We’ve performed tests with landing pages, where the only change we have made is to the domain name, and we’ve seen a proportional difference of conversion rate of 25%.

7. Credibility & Transparency

It’s important to come across as legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. People want to do business and buy from people that they can trust.

Make sure it’s easy for visitors to access your terms, privacy policy, contact information, and details of how you will secure their information.

8. Unique Product or Service

Is the product or service that you’re offering unique or differentiated from your competitors in any way? And if not, are you presenting service in a different way from your competitors?

If you’re offering the same thing as all of the other advertisers, then why what will make prospective customers choose you?

Without a competitive edge, any marketing campaign being run may struggle to produce results.

9. No Spammy Content and Features

Does your site have any annoying pop-ups? Is it full of ads? Are there multiple email optin forms. These types of features can reduce your page’s overall conversion rate.

10. A/B Testing

No landing page is perfect, and you can always find ways of squeezing more conversions out of your visitors.

Split or A/B testing, gives you experiment with new ideas and to identify new layouts, content, and call-to-actions which generate higher conversion rates.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you think your landing page conversion rates are not as high as they should be, and would like an expert to review your page, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

The Google Ads landing page experience is an important component of each of your keyword’s Quality Scores.

Why Does Google Place an Importance On Your Landing Page Experience?

One of Google’s main objectives is to ensure that their users are served with the best possible results for their search query.

If people were consistently linked with content that they do not find useful, or a website that gave them a bad experience, then they would eventually stop using Google search.

For this reason, use a ranking system to compare the websites of the various advertisers bidding on a given keyword.

How Is Landing Page Experience Assessed

Your landing page will be assessed by both bots that automatically crawl your site, and staff who will carry out a manual review.

Together these assessments will be used to categorise your landing page as either

• Above Average: The experience on your landing page is excellent compared to other advertisers for the keyword in question.
• Average: The experience on your landing page is OK, but it has room for improvement.
• Below Average: The experience on your landing page doesn’t meet the standard, and needs improvement.

How to Review Your Keyword’s Landing Page Experience

To view the Landing Page Experience for your keywords:

1. Navigate to the Keywords section of your account
2. Select ‘Columns’ and ensure that the ‘Landing Page Experience’ column has been added
3. Review the rating, which will be either “Below Average”, “Average”, “Above Average”, or “-” if there is not yet sufficient data
4. If your rating is “Average” or “Below Average” – then there’s room for improvement

How to Improve Your ‘Landing Page Experience’

When it comes to ‘Landing Page Experience, there is a set criteria Google users to categorise pages as either above or below average.

The more of these criteria you meet, compared to your competitors, the better your rating will be.

It’s important to understand however, that some of these criteria are quite vague, or subjective.

Whether you meet the criteria or not will be down to the opinion of the individual manul reviewer reviewing your page.

Here is a full break-down of the criteria offered by Google.

Well-Defined Criteria

• Speed: Does it load quickly, or does it keep the user waiting around for 3 or more seconds? Test your site’s mobile speed here.
• Information: Does your page offer an adequate level of information for visitors to make a decision? We’ve found that having at least 500-1000 words is a good amount to aim for.
• Responsive: Is your page responsive and easy to navigate on mobile and tablet devices? Google places heavy emphasis on how well your website performs on mobile.
• Above the fold: Is there valuable information above the fold? We’ve found that pages that have limited content, or just a form or an image above the fold, tend to find it harder to get a good rating.

Intuitive Criteria

• Brand Meets Expectations: Do you have a strong brand that exudes authority, and integrity within your sector? Of course this is very subjective, and this will mean something different for each industry. A tattoo parlour’s website is going to require a completely different colour scheme and brand in order to appear authentic, compared to a law firm.
• Transparency: It’s important to come across as legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. Make sure it’s easy for visitors to access your terms, privacy policy, contact information, and details of how you will secure their information.
• Unique Content: Are you offering something new that allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors, or are you offering the same thing as all of the other advertisers?
• Spammy Content and Features: Does your site have any annoying pop-ups? Is it full of ads? Are there multiple email optin forms. These can be viewed as detrimental to the overall user experience.

An Above Average ‘Landing Page Experience’ Can Be Elusive, But Keep Trying!

Achieving an ‘Above Average’ rating can at times, seem to be very elusive.

But the important thing is to ensure that you meet as many of the criteria possible, to give your page the best chance of getting an above average rating.

A side effect of doing this is that the experience for your visitors should improve by doing this, which should improve your retention of those visitors, and possibly increase the percentage of visitors who become customers.

So there is no down-side to improving your landing page. Even if you don’t see an above average rating, it’s still worth making the adjustments.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you’re struggling to achieve an Above Average rating for your keyword’s Landing Page Experience, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

Why Are Negative Keywords so Important?

As opposed to the keywords that you bid on, with negative keywords, you select which words you want to prevent your ads from showing for.

Your list of negative keywords should be made up of commonly terms which are not relevant to the purchasing of the product or service that you offer.

For example if you’re advertising your services as a solicitor, you don’t want to be bidding on a term such as “solicitors salary”, as this keyword is being used by someone doing research about solicitor salaries not a customer.

Adding “salary” as a negative keyword would therefore help to prevent wasted ad spend on non-relevant keywords.

Simply put, using a long list of negative keywords will help put more money in yours or your client’s bank account.

Despite this, negative keyword lists are typically under-utilised within the accounts that we review.

For this reason we’ve created a comprehensive list of common negative keywords that you can use to save ad spend, along with a guide to help you get the most from your negative keyword lists:

Quick Links to Negative Keyword Categories

Discount
Education
Jobs
Legal
Financial
Manufacture
Materials
Media
Price
Property
Questions
Research
Social Media
Software
Support
Website
Colours
Numbers
Downloads
DIY
Charity
Languages
Animals
Global Big Brands & Authority Sites
Adult
Male First Names
Female First Names 1/2
Female First Names 2/2

Discount

Download Phrase Match txt file

bargain
cheap
clearance
close out
close outs
closeout
closeouts
discount
discounted
free
inexpensive
liquidation
odd lots
overstock
remainder
remainders

Download Phrase Match txt file

class
classes
college
colleges
course work
course
courses
curriculum
education
essay
essays
learn
manual
material
materials
module
modules
pdf
program
programs
pupil
qualification
qualifications
qualified
report
reports
resource
resources
ringtones
school
schools
seminar
seminars
textbook
textbooks
thesis
training
universities
university
workbook

Download Phrase Match txt file

agencies
agency
association
associations
career
careers
consultants
consulting
curriculum vitae
cv
direct hire
direct placement
employ
employer
employer
employers
employment
employment
firm
firms
freelance
freelancer
freelancers
freelancing
frys
full time
full-time
head hunter
hire
hiring
house
household
independent contractors
intern
interns
internship
internships
job
job
jobs
jobs
occupation
occupations
part time
part-time
pay
personal
recruiter
recruiters
recruiting
recruitment
resume
resumes
salaries
salary
staff
vacancies
vacancy
work

Download Phrase Match txt file

act of
act
compliance
law
laws
legal
legislation
registry
regulation
agent
agreement
allegation
appointeeship
dispute
resolution
arbitration
bankrupt
barrister
beneficiary
claimant
compensation
conciliation
conditions
contract
counsel
courts
court
culpable
damages
disbursment
evidence
fraud
indemnity
intellectual property
appeal
arrest
attorney
solicitor
judge
jury
liable
laundering
scam
scams
scamming

Download Phrase Match txt file

bank
economy
loan
rate
rates
capital
cash
outflow
cash flow
revenue
profit
loss
recession
debt
collateral
mortgage
interest
expenses
expense
credit
overdraft
over draft
shares
stocks
rally
market
markets

Download Phrase Match txt file

antique
consumer
export
exporter
exporters
hobby
import
importer
importers
measurement
model
models
regulations
rent
rental
repair
repairs
rules
specs
store
toy
toys
used
vintage

Download Phrase Match txt file

aluminum
ceramic
cotton
fabric
glass
gold
iron
leather
metal
paper
plastic
rubber
silver
stainless steel
steel
stone
vinyl
wood

Download Phrase Match txt file

advisory
bbc
blog
blogs
bulletin
bulletins
certification
channel
channel
club
clubs
conference
conferences
daily telegraph
FAQ
forums
foundations
head-lines
headlines
image
images
institute
institutes
itv
learn about
logo
logos
meaning of
music video
music
news letter
newsletter
newsletter
newsletters
newsletters
newspaper
newspapers
photograph
photographs
picture
the gaurdian
the independent
the sun
the times
video
videos

Download Phrase Match txt file

afford
charge
charges
cost
costs
estimate
estimates
fee
fees
price
prices
pricing
quote
quotes

Download Phrase Match txt file

abandoned
apartment
architecture
condo
disused
homes
real estate
buy to let
btl
conveyancing
conveyancer
deposit
equity
freehold
leasehold
gazumping
rent
landlord
land lord
tenant
lease

Download Phrase Match txt file

How
What
When
Where
Who

Download Phrase Match txt file

&
about
address
advantage
advantages
analysis
article
articles
avatar
avatars
become a
become
book
books
calculator
case studies
case study
chart
check list
checker
checklist
code
compare
comparison
cons
contact number
could
critique
critiques
define
definition
diagram
difference
differences
disadvantage
disadvantages
estimate
example
examples
expectation
expectations
explain
explained
graph
guide
guides
history
hours
how do i
how to
icon
icons
incentives
index
info
information
instruction
instructions
instructions
itinerary
journal
journals
magazine
magazines
map
maps
mean
meaning
means
metrics
news
number
opening
opinion
opinions
phone number
phone
photo
photos
pics
picture
pictures
post code
postcode
process
processes
profile
profiles
pros
question
question
questionnaire
questions
questions
rating
ratings
reason
reasons
recommend
recommended
research
resource
resources
results
review
reviews
risk
risks
safety
sample
samples
should
specifications
standards
statistics
stats
success stories
success story
survey
surveys
test
tests
theories
theory
trend
trends
tutorial
tutorials
type
types
typical
what are
what i
what is
what’s
whats
white paper
white papers
would
zip

Download Phrase Match txt file

face book
facebook
instagram
linked in
linkedin
my space
pinterest
twitter
whatsapp
wechat
qzone
tumblr
skype
viber
snapchat
telegram
reddit
myspace

Download Phrase Match txt file

burn
burner
cd
code
community
desktop
developer
developers
disk
download
downloads
dvd
error
file
files
forum
freeware
game
games
gnu
hack
hacks
libraries
library
microsoft
open source
public domain
retail
retailer
retailers
shareware
shortcut
shortcuts
template
templates
video
windows

Download Phrase Match txt file

advice
compainer
complain
complaining
complaints
dispute
disputes
help
tip
tips
workshop
workshops

Download Phrase Match txt file

check out
checkout
contact
contacts
credentials
log in
logging in
logi n
login
login
online
pass word
password
user name
user
web
back end
front end
www
http
https
url
server
hosting
html
css
php
javascript
code
developer

Download Phrase Match txt file

White
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
Black
Brown
Azure
Ivory
Teal
Silver
Purple
Navy blue
Pea green
Gray
Orange
Maroon
Charcoal
Aquamarine
Coral
Fuchsia
Wheat
Lime
Crimson
Khaki
Hot pink
Magenta
Olden
Plum
Olive
Cyan

Download Phrase Match txt file

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Download Phrase Match txt file

download
down load
downloading
downloads
torrent
torrents
torrentz
file sharing

Download Phrase Match txt file

crafts
create
creating
hand made
handmade
home
homemade
how can
how does
make
making

Download Phrase Match txt file

charities
charity
charitable
volunteer
volunteers
donate
donations
donating

Download Phrase Match txt file

Abkhaz
Adyghe
Afrikaans
Akan
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Aragonese
Aramaic
Armenian
Assamese
Aymara
Balinese
Basque
Betawi
Bosnian
Breton
Bulgarian
Cantonese
Catalan
Cherokee
Chickasaw
Chinese
Coptic
Cornish
Corsican
Crimean Tatar
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Dawro
Esperanto
Estonian
Ewe
Fiji Hindi
Filipino
Finnish
French
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Ancient Greek
Greenlandic
Haitian Creole
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian
Inuktitut
Interlingua
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kabardian
Kalasha
Kannada
Kashubian
Khmer
Kinyarwanda
Korean
Kurdish/Kurdî
Ladin
Latgalian
Latin
Lingala
Livonian
Lojban
Sorbian
Macedonian
Malay
Malayalam
Mandarin
Manx
Maori
Mauritian Creole
Min Nan
Mongolian
Norwegian
Oriya
Pangasinan
Papiamentu
Pashto
Persian
Pitjantjatjara
Polish
Portuguese
Proto-Slavic
Quenya
Rajasthani
Rapa Nui
Romanian
Russian
Sanskrit
Scots
Scottish Gaelic
Semai
Serbian
Serbo-Croatian
Slovak
Slovene
Spanish
Sinhalese
Swahili
Swedish
Tagalog
Tajik
Tamil
Tarantino
Telugu
Thai
Tok Pisin
Turkish
Twi
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uyghur
Uzbek
Venetian
Vietnamese
Vilamovian
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Zazaki
Zulu

Download Phrase Match txt file

alligator
ant
bear
bee
bird
camel
cat
cheetah
chicken
chimpanzee
cow
crocodile
deer
dog
dolphin
duck
eagle
elephant
fish
fly
fox
frog
giraffe
goat
goldfish
hamster
hippopotamus
horse
kangaroo
kitten
lion
lobster
monkey
octopus
owl
panda
pig
puppy
rabbit
rat
scorpion
seal
shark
sheep
snail
snake
spider
squirrel
tiger
turtle
wolf
zebra

Download list of global brands.

Download adult terms.

Download 4709 most common male first names.

Download list 1/2 of the most common female first names (5000 names).

Download list 2/2 of the most common female first names (2834 names).

How to Get The Most from Your Negative Keywords Lists

Doing Your Own Research

Using Google’s free Keyword Research Tool can be a great way to find non-relevant terms to negative match for your specific product or service.

You can start by entering words related to your service and then browsing through the results.

Try to think about what the intent of the searcher using each of the queries, are they looking to buy your product or service? If not, then you’ve likely found a good candidate for a negative keyword.

Negative Keyword Match Types

The same match types that can be used for normal keywords can also be used for negative keywords.

All of the negative keywords within the lists provided on this page, by default are using the Phrase Match Type (indicated by the quotes), as opposed to Exact, or Broad Match.

This is because we recommend using Phrase Match almost exclusively for your negative keywords, and is to save you time when copying and pasting these negative keywords into your account.

Phrase Match is recommended because it gives you the best of both worlds: it allows you to block all of the search terms that could possibly contain that negative keyword; while also allowing you to retain control over how wide the spectrum of terms you’ll be blocking will be.

Take Care When Adding Negative Keywords

When adding in negative keyword lists, you should always take care to ensure that the keywords you are negative matching are not keywords that you would want to target for your product or service.

Google Ads will automatically detect when keywords that are targeted directly within your campaigns are unable to serve due to a negative keyword, however this issue will often only be flagged after a number of hours or days.

For this reason it is important to eye-ball every negative keyword that you add within your account.

Be sure to manually check every negative keyword that you add within yours or a client’s account. It is your responsibility to ensure that the negative keywords that you add will not be blocking any of your targeted keywords, or have an adverse effect on the performance of your campaigns.

Negative Keyword Limits

• 20 shared negative keyword lists per account
• 5,000 keywords per negative keyword list
• 10,000 negative keywords per campaign

So the maximum number of negative keywords you can assign within a given campaign is 110,000

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372658?hl=en-GB

Account Level Negative Keyword Lists

This is a bit of a hack, allowing to create list within your MCC account once and apply it to campaigns in multiple accounts.

To do this, when logged into your Google Ads MCC account (not a client’s child account) click on ‘Tools & Settings’ in the top right hand corner and select “Negative Keyword Lists”.

Any lists that you create within this section can be used across all the client accounts managed within your MCC.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

Do your keywords have low Quality Scores?

If so, then this is likely to be negatively affecting the performance of you campaign, and having a negative impact on your bottom line.

But what is Quality Score? What effect does it have on campaigns? And how do we change it?

Within this article each of these questions is answered, and a 4 simple steps are given, which if followed can help to improve your keyword’s Quality Score.

What is Quality Score?

Quality Score is a grading system from 1 through to 10, that Google uses to assess how relevant and useful your ads and landing pages are.

Google ‘s aim is to serve web users with content that matches their query as accurately as possible, and therefore your Quality Score will help to determine where your ad will show for each search query, based on its relevance.

A keyword Quality Score of 10 is the most desirable, as this will help your ad to rank high in the search results; while a Quality Score of 1 will decrease the likelihood of your ad achieving a high rank.

How Does Quality Score Affect Your Ad Rank

Google calculates the position of your ad, or it’s ‘Ad Rank’ by multiplying your CPC bid by your Quality Score.

Note: In cases where two advertisers have an equal Ad Rank, another factor is used as a tie-breaker: their use of Ad Extensions.

Confused? Well Let’s Simplify Things

With Quality Score, there’s really only a couple of things you need to understand:

1. You want to have a Quality Score of 6 or above, because this entitles you to a discount
2. You want to avoid a Quality Score of 4 or below, because this will result in you paying an increased CPC

Here’s an image that illustrates the percentage change in CPC price that you can expect compared to a neutral Quality Score of 5.

So you can see here that Quality Score has a huge impact on the amount you pay, and ultimately the profitability of your campaign.

For this reason, your Quality Scores for the keywords you are targeting will to a large extent determine the success or failure of your campaign.

How is Quality Score Determined?

Google determines the Quality Score of each of the keywords within your account based on three main attributes:

Expected CTR

Google generates its revenue primarily from clicks made on ads within its ad network.

The higher your ad’s click-through-rate (CTR) is, the more clicks it will generate, and the more revenue it will generate for Google.

Additionally a high CTR is an indicator that users find your ad to be highly relevant to their search query.

For these reasons, Google favors the ads that have the highest CTR, and CTR is the most important factor in determining Quality Score.

Ad Relevance

As mentioned above, Google’s aim is to deliver the most relevant results to users based on their query/the keyword they have used.

In order to accomplish this, Google reviews ads in order to gauge how well the content matches each keyword that the ad appears for.

Landing Page Experience

Google also wants to deliver the best possible user experience, helping to ensure that each person that makes a search is matched with the information or service that they are looking for.

For this reason, both bots and manual reviewers will assess your landing page/website to ensure it is delivering a positive experience to users.

Use of Ad Extensions

Ad Extensions, such as ‘Callouts’ and ‘Sitelinks’ offer additional information that web users may find useful. These Extensions increases the overall size of ads, and larger ads generally garner a higher CTR.

For this reason Google wants to incentivise you to use the different Ad Extensions available, and doing so can help to increase your Quality Score.

How to Check Your Keyword’s Quality Score

To view the Quality Score for your keywords and how Google has assessed each of the attributes that contribute toward your Quality Score:

1. Navigate to the Keywords section of your account
2. Ensure that the ‘Quality Score’, ‘Exp. CTR’, ‘Ad Relevance, and ‘Landing Page Exp.’ columns have been added
3. Review the rating, which will be either “Below Average”, “Average”, “Above Average”, or “-” if there is not yet sufficient data
4. If your rating is “Average” or “Below Average” – then there’s room for improvement

How Can I Improve My Quality Score? 4 Simple Steps:

The Quality Score for a given keyword can potentially be improved by following the four steps below.

Each step relates to one of the four factors that contribute towards a keyword’s Quality Score, listed in order of importance.

Step 1: Improve Your Ads ‘Expected Click Through Rate’

To improve your ‘Expected CTR’ it’s important to split-test different ads within each of your ad groups, with varying headlines and descriptions to find out what is really enticing users to click.

Understanding the psychology and intent of your target market will give you an advantage here, helping you to predict what will resonate with potential client, and grab their attention.

However the key here is to test, test, test.

We recommend testing three Expanded Text Ads, along with one Responsive Search Ad within each ad group..

Step 2: Improve Your ‘Ad Relevance’

Including the keyword within the first headline if possible, and also in the first description, can help to improve the relevance of your ad. As a knock-on effect, it can also help to improve the engagement and CTR of your ad.

Additionally. organising your keywords into small well-defined ad groups based on their relevance, can help ensure that the most appropriate ad is served for each search term.

If you’re targeting Phrase, Broad, or Broad Match Modified keywords, then can also improve the relevance by using a comprehensive list of negative keywords. By preventing your ads from showing for potential non-relevant search terms that may be targeted by a given keyword, you can increase that keyword’s rating for relevance.

Step 3: Improve Your ‘Landing Page Experience’

When it comes to the ‘Landing Page Experience, there are some areas which are extremely clear cut, and there are other areas which are highly subjective.
The rating for your page may well hinge on the opinion of the person who has manually reviewed your page.

For this reason, attaining an ‘Above Average’ rating can at times appear very elusive, and other times very easy.

But that’s part of the challenge!

Here are some of the most important considerations for achieving an ‘Above Average’ rating for ‘Landing Page Experience’:

Clear Cut

• Speed: Does it load quickly, or does it keep the user waiting around for 3 or more seconds? Test your site’s mobile speed here.
• Information: Does your page offer an adequate level of information for visitors to make a decision? We’ve found that having at least 500-1000 words is a good amount to aim for.
• Responsive: Is your page responsive and easy to navigate on mobile and tablet devices? Google places heavy emphasis on how well your website performs on mobile.
• Above the fold: Is there valuable information above the fold? We’ve found that pages that have limited content, or just a form or an image above the fold, tend to find it harder to get a good rating.

Subjective

• Branding: Do you have a strong brand that exudes authority, and integrity within your sector? Of course this is very subjective, and this will mean something different for each industry. A tattoo parlour’s website is going to require a completely different colour scheme and brand in order to appear authentic, compared to a law firm.
• Transparent: It’s important to come across as legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. Make sure it’s easy for visitors to access your terms, privacy policy, contact information, and details of how you will secure their information.
• Unique: Are you offering something unique that allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors, or are you offering the same thing as all of the other advertisers?
• Spammy: Does your site have this annoying pop-ups? Is it full of ads? Are there multiple email optin forms. These can be viewed as detrimental to the overall user experience.

Step 4: Improve Your Use of Ad Extensions

Fortunately this area is very easy to conquer, you simply need to use the available ad extensions which are relevant to your business and your potential customers.

The following Ad Extensions will be applicable to the majority of businesses and therefore we recommend using these as a minimum in order to remain competitive:

Sitelink Extensions

These link visitors to other useful pages of your website, besides the primary landing page of your ad.

We recommend creating 4-6 Sitelink Extensions.

If you have a single stand-alone landing page you’re using, and would prefer not to direct visitors to your main website; we have seen examples of advertisers using a single page for all of their Sitelink Extensions; however this is not the way in which they are intended to be used.

Callout Extensions

Callouts offer additional bite-size features and benefits of your product or service.

We recommend creating 8-10 Callouts for testing.

Call Extensions

Displaying your phone number, these allow users to instantly call your business without even needing to visit your website.

If generating phone calls from prospective customers is not one of your objectives however, you can miss this one out.

Structured Snippet Extensions

These snippets allow you to display lists of things such as product or service ‘types’, ‘brands’, etc.

If none of the options are applicable to your business however, you can leave these out.

Location Extensions

Location extensions requires a Google My Business page that displays your company’s venue/s, and are certainly worth including if this is an option for you.

Conclusion

Improving your keyword’s Quality Score can be a lengthy and at times challenging endeavor. However with the potential savings in max CPC’s that are available when higher Quality Scores are achieved, it is clear that it is an endeavor that is well-worth taking.

And by using the simple no-nonsense guide above, we hope we can help make the process of achieving those high Quality Scores a little easier.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

Are your campaigns being plagued by the dreaded ‘Limited by Budget’ status issue?

What does this mean? And how do you get rid of it?

One obvious way of resolving this that may have occurred to you of course is to increase your budget.

But what if you don’t want to spend more? What if you don’t want to increase your campaign budget?

Well then there are a number of other options for resolving this, and getting closer towards optimal performance for your campaigns.

What Does ‘Limited by Budget’ Actually Mean?

Well, this question actually has a very simple answer, which is that the number of clicks your campaign can possibly generate within a day is being limited, or constrained, by your budget being set too low.

For this reason your ads may stop serving early in the day, for example at 5pm instead of midnight, due to the budget become exhausted.

Is My Campaign Being ‘Limited by Budget’ a Problem?

Whether your campaign being limited by budget is a problem or not, really depends on your objectives. What is very likely however, is that the campaign is not set up optimally.

That is to say, your campaign could be generating additional impressions, clicks, and conversions, if your campaign’s settings were optimised.

Are you OK with leaving money on the table, figuratively speaking? If you’re not OK with that, then having a campaign that is being limited by budget is a problem.

The next question is, how do you fix it?

Would You Like to Increase Your Budget?

As mentioned above, a simple fix for this issue is to increase your budget. Part of the reason that these status alerts show within your account is to encourage you to maximise the spend of your campaigns.

To assist with this Google offer recommendations which you can view by Selecting the chart icon next to the campaign that is marked “Limited by budget”. A pop-up with daily budget options will then appear, and you can get a rough idea of how many additional clicks and impressions you can generate with various budget increases.

But what if you don’t want to increase your budget? Well in that case, there are other options that can allow you to generate more clicks and conversions while keeping your campaign budget the same.

Optimising Your Bids to Get More Within Your Budget

If you want to get more clicks, but increasing your budget isn’t an option, what other options are there? The simple answer here is to decrease your bids.

Decreasing your average cost per click, will effectively allow you to fit more clicks within your current budget.

To illustrate this, we’ll look at two hypothetical examples using small numbers:

Example 1: £100 Budget / £2 CPC = 50 clicks
Example 2: £100 Budget / £1 CPC = 100 clicks

Notice how in the second example, twice as many clicks have been generated by halving the CPC.

Of course in reality we need to consider other factors, such as whether or not our ads will show with a lower, and therefore we may not necessarily be able to half our bids.

But the logic still follows that if we reduce our average CPC, then we will be able to generate more clicks within our budget.

By making small incremental changes, you can observe the effect of your bid adjustments, and the impact on the number of clicks that you are receiving.

What If You’re Using a Smart Bidding Strategy

If you’re using a smart/automated bidding strategy such as Target CPA, and your campaign is being limited by budget, then you can look to make incremental adjustments to your goals.

In this example, you may choose to make decreases to your Target CPA, and observe if this allows you to generate conversions at a lower average CPA, thereby generating more conversions within your target CPA.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

For something to be a Google Ads “hack”, it should be an optimisation that can potentially have a profound effect on the performance of a campaign, and at the same time be an adjustment that is quick and easy to make.

It should act as a shortcut, allowing you to impart a high degree of positive change in the performance of a campaign, within a matter of moments.

Based on this, I describe 3 of my Google Ads hacks to help unlock a campaign’s potential.

1. Negative Keywords Bulk Lists

If you’re not familiar with negative keywords, these allow you to block non-relevant phrases from being targeted by your ads. This can help to improve your campaign’s Quality Score and more importantly, help to avoid wasted ad spend.

For a campaign that is not using an adequate amount of negative keywords, using negative keyword lists could certainly help to unlock that campaign’s potential.

When reviewing accounts, I often see a lack of negative keywords being used, especially with newly set up campaigns, which in some cases have zero negative keywords. This is not only a missed opportunity, but can result in a percentage of the budget being flushed down the drain on non-relevant search terms.

To help speed up the process of adding negative keywords I’ve created the following:

Negative Keywords Cheat Sheet

This sheet contains various lists of common non-relevant terms that can easily be set up within Negative Keyword Lists and applied to your campaign.

This is a massive time saver, especially when setting up new campaigns.

If you manage multiple Google Ads accounts, you can also create Negative Keyword Lists at the MCC level, allowing you to use lists across multiple accounts.

2. Excluded Locations Bulk Lists

Another missed opportunity I commonly see within Google Ads accounts is the use of excluded locations, along with correctly set up location targeting settings.

As a result of this, these accounts end up wasting a percentage of their budget serving ads within locations outside of their target market.

This potential waste of budget can be avoided by choosing to “Target people who are in, or who are often in my target location” within the advanced location settings, rather than the default setting of “Target people who are in, and who show an interest in my target location”.

Additionally for good measure, you can also exclude locations/countries outside of your chosen targeting. However excluding each country manually can be a lengthy and cumbersome process, so to speed up the process I’ve created the following:

Excluded Locations Cheat Sheet

The tabs within this sheet contains a list of all countries to be excluded, with the target country absent from the list.

For example, the “All – Except USA” tab contains all countries, except the USA, so this would be the ideal list to use for a campaign that aims to serve ads to people within the USA only.

These lists can be used to bulk exclude a large number of locations within seconds, using Google Ads Editor.

3. Smart Bidding Strategies

Smart Bidding Strategies allow you to outsource the management of your keyword bids directly to Google’s automated systems,harnessing the power of machine learning.

This is a time saver, as Google’s algorithms automatically calculate the optimal bid in real-time for each and every auction your ad is placed in, without you ever needing to lift a finger.

But the real benefit is the improvement that you can potentially see in performance. The Smart Bidding Strategies are ‘smart’ because they factor in a wide range of contextual signals, at a scale that would not be impossible for a human account manager.

For this reason campaigns that make use of a Smart Bidding Strategy such as Target CPA, can unlock significant improvements in performance with the simple click of a button.

Smart Bidding Strategies do not improve performance for all campaigns, so it is important to test and keep a close eye on the results.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

Get Our Responsive Search Ads Template

>>> Click Here to Access The Free Google Sheet Template <<<

Responsive Search Ads Format

Responsive Search Ads (RSA) differ from Expanded Text Ads (ETA) in that the ad format includes a much larger number of headlines and descriptions.

You can define up to 12 separate headlines and four descriptions for each ad, and for this reason it’s useful to have a Responsive Ads Template to hand in order to quickly build ads for your campaign using the new format.

Ad Testing and Headline Positions

Although you can add up to 12 headlines, only up to three of these headlines can show at any one time. Google’s algorithm will cycle the headlines in order to find the combination with the best performance.

For each headline, and description, you can define the intended position within the ad. For example if a specific headline is intended to go in the first line of the ad only, you can attribute a position of 1 to that headline.

If the position for that headline is not important however, you can leave the position blank, and Google will test that headline in all positions.
Google does not supply advertisers with the performance data for each of the ad attributes, taking all control of the testing out of the advertisers hands. For this reason I recommend testing RSA alongside a number of ETA’s that you continue to control the testing of.

Responsive Search Ads Tips

When creating RSA for the first time:

• Ensure that there are no duplicate headlines or descriptions within your ad
• Use one RSA per ad group
• Test Responsive Search Ads against Expanded Text Ads within ad groups.
• We recommend having three ETA in each ad group.
• Pin headlines to the headline 1, and description line 1. This helps to ensure that your ad will read well.

Do Responsive Search Ads Perform Better Than Expanded Text Ads?

The short answer to this, is that sometimes RSA perform better, and sometimes ETA perform better.

It’s important to test both ad types against each other within ad groups in order to identify which ad type performs better within a given campaign.

Test different headlines and descriptions, making tweaks and adjusments based the results in order to continually improve the performance of your ads.

Do You Need Help With Creating Responsive Search Ads for Your Google Ads Account?

If you’d like assistance with setting up Responsive Search Ads within your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists assist you.