Google Ads Training: Profit with Pay Per Click

Lola

Hello✨

I just started a Google Ads course on Udemy, diving into Pay-Per-Click (PPC), keyword strategies, and ad optimization. I’ll be sharing a weekly rundown of what I have learnt for the week, both to stay motivated and to help anyone else looking to master paid ads!

If you are into digital marketing or just curious about how Google Ads real work, come along! Lets grow together. 🦾

thanni

Awesome, I'm also looking to learn Google ads. I'll be looking forward to your updates.

Lola

Week 1: Welcome To Google Ads Masterclass

First, I had an introduction into Google and how much searches google gets in a day. Based on statistics google has 3.5 million searches and about 40 - 50% of these 3.5 million people end with an ad click.

Google allows us to advertise to people just as they search, its capitalises on the search intent of active users and thereby delivering the most relevant result to them. This makes it different from other ads platform that recommend based on what they think the user might like. Another great google ads feature is it doesn’t pay to show off your ads, you only get charged when your advert gets clicked.

Google shows up in different ways like Search Ads; for example if you search “women’s boot” Ads related to women’s boot show up. Then display ads, shopping ads, video ads and many more.

Lola

Week 2: Key Metrics In Google Ads

CPC (Cost per Click): This is how much pay per click. It is how much you tell google you are willing to pay for a click. You could pay $4 to google but actual click could be 3.95, it is often confused with Max bid.
Conversion: It’s any action a person takes on your website. It could be call, visit, add to cart or even purchase. It is any meaningful and significant action or value that can be tracked. This is often confused with conversion rates, it’s the percentage of the conversion. Eg: Add to cart had 7% conversion rate.
Average order value: This is specific to e-commerce business, it’s a bit different for a service based company. It helps check if your CPC is too high or too low, cause no campaign is worth success if it’s not generations money. Your AOV helps create budget planing.

Different things determine CPC (Cost per click)

We have 3 important factors that influences CPC:

Bid: How much you are willing to pay from clicks
Quality Score: This measures the quality and relevance of your landing page & keyword. This is how your landing page is experienced. This quality score affects how your ads will fly, and the affect expected CTR (click through way)
Ads Rank: Ad Rank values are calculated , including your competition, the context of the person's search, and your ad quality at that moment.

Lola

Week 3: Key Pillars of Google Ads

1. Understanding User Search Queries

• Focus on audience targeting, size, and messaging.

2. Managing Costs

• Consider bid amounts (CPC & CPA), competitor market, and conversion rates.

3. Leveraging Machine Learning

• Use data, budget automation, tracking setup, and conversion optimization.

Keywords & Search Terms

• Understand the user funnel: Search queries don’t always match exact keywords, so selecting relevant ones is crucial.

• Audience Targeting: Target users based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.

• Messaging & Creative: Ensure ad copy is engaging and relevant.

User Funnel in Google Ads

• Top of Funnel: Focus on awareness messaging.

• Bottom of Funnel: Conversion-driven ads for decision-making users.

Keywords & Match Types

1. Keywords:

• Target specific searches to trigger ads (e.g., “linen blouse,” “women’s shirt”).

• Use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant searches (e.g., “kids,” “children’s hat”).

2. Match Types:

• Broad Match (e.g., women’s hat): Covers related searches & misspellings.

• Phrase Match (“women’s hat”): Ensures meaning remains intact.

• Exact Match ([women’s hat]): Matches only exact or close variations.

• Negative Match (-women’s hat): Prevents ads from showing for unwanted terms.

Call outs for Match types

• Use separate ad groups for different match types.

• Regularly update negative keywords to refine targeting.

• Include 10-20 relevant keywords per ad group to improve performance.

• Ensure ad copy aligns with user intent and selected keywords.

Lola

Week 4 : Art of Audience Targeting

Audience Targeting Strategies:

1. Affinity Audience:

• Based on broad interests, hobbies, and long-term passions and are useful for brand awareness campaigns.

2. Custom Affinity Audience:

• More specific than Affinity Audience, they use keywords, visited websites, and app usage to define the audience.

3. In-Market Audience:

• Targets people actively researching and planning a purchase and uses Performance-driven campaigns.

4. Custom Intent Audience:

• Focuses on users based on recent search and purchase intent and helps in deeper audience segmentation.

5. Life Events Targeting:

• Targets users going through major life changes, such as:

• Moving

• Getting married

• Graduating

Search Terms Report & Optimization:

• Use search terms report to analyze how searches are modifying over time.

• Weekly review is essential to update negative keywords.

• Fix misspelled search terms to optimize campaigns.

• Analyze keyword mismatches in high-conversion cases and adjust targeting.

Negative Keywords & Exclusions:

• Brand exclusion lists help filter out irrelevant traffic.

• Negative keyword sculpting refines ad targeting by removing unwanted traffic.

• Grouping negative keywords under exclusion lists prevents inefficiencies.

• Analyze at both ad group and campaign levels to ensure proper filtering.

Keyword Structuring Example (Bike Campaign):

Search Query: “Bikes for kids under $125”

Ad groups based on categories:

• Adult Bikes

• Kids Bikes

• Electric Bikes

• Mountain Bikes

Negative keywords per category:

• Kids: Excludes adult-related terms.

• Electric: Excludes non-electric keywords.

• Mountain: Excludes unrelated types.