4 Actionable Tips to Instantly Cut Your Google AdWords Spend by 30%
With increasing Google Ads prices, you’re probably looking for ways to cut your Google AdWords spend. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
Google AdWords isn’t just for large corporations. About half of all small businesses have found value in running AdWords campaigns of their own. But with smaller budgets at their disposal, how do they contend with big enterprises?\
It all comes down to running an efficient Google Ads campaign. Even a small budget can lead to huge results so long as you know how to make the most of your small budget.
Think you’re running a great ad campaign? You can always make it better. Here are 4 actionable ways to cut your Google AdWords spend by 30%.
1. Optimize Ad Scheduling
You only pay the cost of Google AdWords when someone clicks on your advertisements. Of course, that’s why it’s called “cost-per-click” advertising. So why wouldn’t you leave your campaign running in perpetuity?
Each time someone clicks on your link and hits the landing page, you want them to make a purchase or sign up for your newsletter to enter the email marketing funnel. Otherwise, that’s money down the drain. And as it turns out, different times of day experience different customer conversion rates.
Let’s say you receive a good deal of click-throughs during the overnight hours. When you look at the conversion rate for that period, you discover none of those clicks resulted in a conversion. This is a common experience for businesses across many industries.
Tighten up your ad schedules and disable your campaign during these low-conversion hours. It’s an easy way to save 20 percent to 30 percent of your Google spend, depending on its prevalence.
2. Improve Google Ads Quality Score
Google encourages its advertisers and marketers to create relevant, high-quality content. After gauging the quality of your campaigns, Google’s algorithm will bestow them with a quality score. As a reward, ad campaigns with higher quality scores will enjoy lower prices and have an easier time achieving better positions.
But what kind of savings are we talking about here? Improving a campaign’s quality score from 5 to 10 will result in a 50% discount. Those are some serious CPC savings.
Google’s pricing mechanism has diminishing returns, so you stand to save even more if your current quality score is on the lower end of the bell curve. You’ll reduce your CPC costs to a quarter of their current level by bumping a quality score of 1 up to a score of 3.
In short: Quality score is important. Really important. So how do you improve yours?
The Google quality score algorithm judges your campaign on three factors. Those are the ad relevance, estimated click-through rate, and what Google calls the “landing page experience.”
The click-through rate (CTR) judges the content of your advertisement’s text. If the text doesn’t contain campaign keywords then Google will assume it will receive fewer clicks. Slip a few keywords into the ad text or use fewer keywords across a larger ad group to improve the estimated CTR.
When it comes to ad relevance, the content of your ads needs to be associated with your chosen keywords. It’s generally best to be as specific as possible.
For the landing page experience, Google wants a quick-loading, well-organized page that presents information relevant to the ad.
For more information, here’s the official Google blurb on improving your quality score.
3. Implement Manual Bidding
It’s true that Google has an automated bidding feature. You can implement predefined strategies and manage your Google AdWords spend according to your parameters. But automated systems aren’t perfect, and many marketers can trim CPC expenses off the top without harming their campaign results.
As long as your advertisement is visible in one of the top three rankings, you’re in a position to lower your CPC bids. Make the jump to manual CPC control and take a close look at what you’re paying — and how much you really need to.
Start reducing your bids little by little, keeping a constant eye on the results. You should be able to find a sweet spot between maintaining a relevant rank and cutting your Google AdWords spend.
Just keep in mind that your reduced CPC costs should never interfere with your ad volume. That’s a sign you’re cutting too much. Take it too far and you may ultimately reduce the cost-efficiency of the entire campaign.
4. Enhance Keyword Management
At the end of the day, the success (and cost) of any Google AdWords campaign is all about the keywords. Even if a keyword method is getting results, there’s always room for improvement. Changing your campaign’s keyword setup can improve your conversion rate and lower costs.
Rather than focusing on high-cost generic keywords, take the long-tail approach. These keywords are highly specified, which makes it easier to target high-conversion customers. The Google algorithm also prefers them when it comes to the quality score.
The match type you select also determines your average CPC price. While broad match catches the most traffic, you certainly pay for it. Be sure to implement a large list of negative keywords if you use the broad match approach.
Adversely, you can keep things even more specific with exact matches. This ensures customers only see your advertisement if they search for the exact phrase. Not only is it cheaper, but it usually results in a much higher conversion rate.
Cut Your Google AdWords Spend
Many companies rely on PPC management services to take their ad campaigns to the next level. There are still ways to cut your Google AdWords spend even if you’re outsourcing the work. For example, have you wondered if you’re paying too much for these services?
If you’re thinking about hiring a PPC management service or want to switch services, then it’s time to compare prices. We offer quotes from pre-screened vendors to help you land the best price possible. Get a quote from our list of PPC management services and start saving.
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