A good example of a significant trend change in the digital advertising world was when Google introduced expanded text ads to AdWords. Many advertisers worldwide were so caught up in the craze, desperately seeking the immense profits they thought were waiting for them; and in that frenzy, they forgot about the importance of standard text ads. In turn, those advertisers that clamoured to join the new trend were the first to fall into the abyss of irrelevance.
This is why it is so important to remember that even though present-day trends are constantly shaping the industry, old practices still remain the building blocks of what we do. Those that constantly complain about their revenue and conversions but refuse to work using older techniques will find no success. This is because in rejecting older techniques, one is disregarding industry basics as well. Therefore, we’ve decided to help shed a little light on the situation and, hopefully, rectify whatever errors have been made so far.
In the content below, we will be talking about some mainstays of the digital marketing industry that have persisted till today. By using these old but efficient methods, you may just be providing your campaigns with the breath of fresh air they’ve desperately needed.
- It is beneficial to test multiple expanded text ads in just about any ad group
Ad testing is the core of every good advertising campaign. By running your ads through a series of tests, you will guarantee a successful tryout for just about any of your ideas. With that being said, the driver’s seat of every testing campaign should be reserved primarily for expanded text ads (ETAs) in every single ad group.
However, despite the importance of placing ETAs efficiently, most advertisers remain very modest with their resources. In fact, they are hesitant to create more than one ETA for every ad group. Why are they doing this?
We don’t exactly have a definite answer. Nonetheless, what we can tell you is that testing ads are more important than actually publishing them. It is during the testing process that you get an estimate for your potential revenue and conversions.
So, if the results for your latest ad campaign are underwhelming, think about the way you’re testing your ads. If you’re not investing enough effort into testing, then you should consider changing the way you’re doing things. Research shows that ad groups which include multiple ETAs are more likely to succeed and, on average, achieve a CTR that is 29% higher than normal. The best choice would be having 3-5 ETAs in every ad group so that you find the ideal balance between effort and information.
- Make sure your ad rotations are set to optimize
We’ve already mentioned the significance of ETAs, but creating them and testing them is not necessarily all there is to every campaign. So, your ads have performed well and proven to be the ideal candidates for your next campaign – what should you do next? What you should worry about is which ad could serve different searchers best. But what keywords will trigger which ad? And how will people respond to them?
The simple answer to these tricky questions lies in toggling your ad rotations settings to optimise. Many refuse to do this. For them, it’s most important to spread and rotate all ads evenly just so that they can see how each one performs.
However, on setting the rotation to optimize, Google automatically digs deeper into your clients’ backgrounds. As such, your clients will be shown ads that have been optimised for them based on their query, device, demographic details and search histories.
- Use all the different ad extensions
This was the most obvious and logical thing to do for advertisers a while back. People would add all sorts of extensions to their ads, including site link, call, location, and even app extensions. These were the basic bundle of extensions that advertisers used to boost their brand, but this changed when Google decided to mix things up.
How did they mix things up, you ask? Well, they did so by adding new extensions every few months, which didn’t exactly help with standardising the system of ad publishing. Because there were too many of them, people often skipped including multiple extensions when crafting ads.
This information may seem irrelevant considering that 89% of all clicks were on the ad’s headlines with only 7% of clicks coming from site link extensions. On the surface, it seems as though extensions have little value to the add to the process of ad creation. However, it’s important to remember that what you see on the surface may not necessarily be true.
This is because of a little something advertisers like to call ad fullness. Ad fullness refers to the way ads furnished with extensions look more complete. Even though the customer may not click on the ad itself, he will most certainly be attracted by the plethora of information provided. Moreover, making an abundance of information available often gives the customer a sense of security which could prove beneficial for your brand.
Because of this, it’s important to have all the extensions. Even though conversions are made through the headlines, fully-equipped ads are 10 times more likely to attract clicks than those with a lack of extensions. This is because the latter appears more “empty” in terms of aesthetics and functionality.
Plus, according to estimates, Google’s algorithms favour extension-equipped ads over other ones when it comes to showing them to potential customers. So not only will you increase your revenue with more clicks, you will get an ‘extra push’ from Google as well. Don’t listen to those who aren’t doing this. Try it for yourself and enjoy the extra revenue that ad extensions will bestow upon you.
