A Google Ads management service is the solution to poor performing campaigns that are wasting money.

Many advertisers run ads for months and years and the results are consistently poor. Although some may have a decent return, they’re often not performing at their best and may need a lot of management work to improve them.

So, if you find that you’ve worked on your campaigns and the performance is still poor, then a Google Ads management service may be the answer.

This is one of the most important services that a Google Ads specialist provides. And it includes improving the campaigns, keywords, ads and much more to boost sales, leads, downloads, subscriptions, and other important actions on your website.

Here are 9 key actions that are part of a Google Ads management service


1. Campaign & Ad Group Optimization

Before managing existing campaigns, first you need to make sure that they are setup correctly. So, they should be reviewed by a Google Ads specialist with knowledge on what a successful campaign setup looks like.

Then, it should be decided whether new campaigns are required, or existing ones should be updated instead. This is the initial optimization which will determine future work and results that will be attained. And it will precede the ongoing campaign management. Almost always, campaign optimization will be required before management commences.

This optimization includes updating the campaign structure, budgets, locations, bid strategies, keywords and more, making sure these settings are the best to reach your audiences.

If setup is required first, then there will be charges for this. Setup costs vary and are dependent on things like the campaign types to be setup and how many campaigns will be required. I’ve written a full article about Google Ads setup and management charges that you can read to find out more.

If it’s just optimization of existing campaigns initially, then there will be a charge for that, and it will be included in the proposal you receive.

2. Ongoing Keyword Research

First, you’ll do some initial keyword research to setup the ads effectively. Then you’ll need to do this regularly to find new opportunities to improve your campaigns.

An effective Google Ads management service includes regular keyword research to find new keywords. And this is especially true as you add new products or services that you want to promote.

You may want to create new campaigns if you are adding new products or services. But sometimes it’s best to add the keywords to the same campaigns and ad groups if they’re closely related. But make sure each ad group has between 5 to 15 keywords to keep it tightly themed.

There are many keyword research tools to use for this research. And a good Google Ads consultant will use two or more to conduct the research.

Google provides the free Keyword Planner tool which you’ll find in your account under Tools & Settings. This is a powerful tool that provides a good list of keywords that you can bid on, and other closely related keywords too.


Other tools are provided by platforms such as SEMrush and SERanking. And they provide a good list of features for both Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

But, these tools aren’t free like the Keyword Planner tool in Google Ads. And SEMrush plans start from $100 per month, which can be expensive for small businesses.

However, if you’re working with a Google Ads freelancer or agency, they’ll be able to advise the best tools for you. And they are likely to be already using some of these, so you won’t have to pay anything.


3. Negative Keyword Research

If you’re running Search campaigns, then you’ll need to add negative keywords.  These help to block any searches that are not relevant for your business and are sending people to your site that will never convert.

A good Google Ads management service will include this as part of the weekly and monthly work. In fact, many new campaigns require regular updates in the negative keyword list, and this should be an ongoing part of the work.

So, whether you’ve hired a Google Ads expert or are managing the ads yourself, this is an important part of the work. And you should always aim to get your search accuracy as close to 100% as possible.

The search terms report in your campaign is where you’ll identify irrelevant searches to block. And for your Search and Shopping campaigns, this is the most important report, because it shows you what searches you’re getting.

You can also find potential negative keywords to add in your campaigns as you do your keyword research. The keyword tools will bring up some words that should be blocked because they won’t be relevant and could use up your budget for no results.

So, the Google Ads management service provider you hire should explain this to you and include it in the proposal and quote that they send to you.

4. Ad Testing

Testing ads and landing pages and selecting the best performing ones is a key part of a Google Ads management service. This is possible in the Google Ads platform with the ‘Experiments’ feature that helps you to quickly setup experiments.

A Google Advertising expert will setup experiments in your account to increase the performance of your campaigns. But first you’ll need to decide what needs testing and what results you’re expecting.

This could include testing your bid strategies. This feature is one of the most difficult to set, as part of campaign management and it’s not always easy to know which bid strategy to start with.

But with a campaign experiment, you can test this for a period like two weeks and then assess the results to see which one is best for your campaign. The experiment will divide the test between a split campaign and base campaign, and you’ll be able to easily see the results yourself.

My advice is to run at least one experiment per month. And the Google Ads management service should include this and outline suggestions for what should be tested.

The great thing is, running experiments and tests in Google Ads is free and you’re not charged extra for this. You only pay when people click through to your website.

There are other experiments you can run outside of Google, and there are third-party tools that can help with this. Check with your Google Ads management service if this is included in the cost. Often, this will be a separate cost, so you’ll need to discuss it first with your Google Ads agency or freelancer.

5. Landing Page Review

Another feature that needs testing is the landing page. This is to ensure that any visitors coming from the paid traffic converts well on the page.

However, this should first start with a full review to ensure that the page is well optimized for the traffic you’ll be getting from your ads. An expert should carry out this review and then list some issues that should be fixed. The testing will come later when you want to test one feature against another, for example.

This review should look at things like:

– how headings are being used and if they are keyword optimized
– if the most important content is visible ‘above the fold’
– whether a call to action has been added and how many are on the page
– what the text says and if it speaks directly to the targeted customers
– if benefits and features are highlighted prominently and unnecessary text is removed
– whether images are relevant and have been tagged effectively with keywords
– if pages load fast and don’t keep visitors waiting for them to appear
– how the page navigation is consistent across the site
– if good site structure has been used that helps visitors know where they are on the website
– and much more

The Google Analytics platform will also help to advise you on engagement and performance and what changes to make. If visitors are arriving and then bouncing without viewing other pages, then this will need to be addressed.

The landing page review is an important part of the Google Ads management service. It’s not enough to just drive quality traffic to the website. The website and landing pages should be well optimized to keep visitors engaged and completing actions like buying, subscribing, downloading, contacting or any other relevant one.

6. Quality Score Improvement

Quality Score is a keyword metric that shows you how your ads are performing. It’s a score from 1 to 10 for each of your keywords and it is determined by factors such as landing page experience, expected click through rate and ad relevance.


Each of these factors will be rated Below Average, Average or Above Average. And the calculation of these determines the Quality Score of the keyword.

So, improving these factors helps to increase the score and gives your ads a better chance of performing well.

As part of the Google Ads management service, regular monitoring of the quality scores is important. And if you find any that are low, usually below 6, then action should be taken to improve them.

If the ad relevance is below average for example, the ads should be updated to make them relevant to the keywords in the campaign. This includes adding the primary keywords in the ads and mentioning key product or service benefits, to encourage visitors to click through.

And the management should also include improving the landing page experience as mentioned in point 5 above.

However, sometimes you’ll see keywords without a quality score. Instead of a score, you’ll a “-” symbol, signifying that the score has not been calculated. This can be due to low traffic volumes for that keyword or if you’ve just recently added it and it has not had sufficient time to be calculated. But with time, you’ll see this change if traffic volumes are significant.

7. Conversion Rate Improvement

conversion rate optimization is one of the most important actions included in a Google Ads management service. That’s because without sales or leads or any other important conversion type, then there is no point in advertising.

The goal for your campaigns should be for visitors to turn into customers, clients, subscribers, or others. So, the management of the campaigns should primarily focus on this.

First, conversion tracking will need to be set up if that hasn’t been done yet. If it has, then you need to ensure that it is set up correctly in Google Ads, and Google Analytics 4 if you’ve created conversions there.

And then the management should focus on metrics like Conversion rate, Conversions and Cost per conversion.

A Google Ads specialist will help you to understand each of these and send you reports explaining how your campaigns are performing for these metrics and how they should be improved.

And the management service should have specific goals that state what you want to achieve for these. For example, you may choose to achieve a conversion rate of 8% across the campaigns. So, all account management and optimization should focus on this goal and others you’ve set.

8. Reducing CPC Rate

Cost Per Click (CPC) rates affect how much you spend and what budget you should set for your campaigns. An important part of the Google Ads management service is to reduce your CPC rates, so you can get more clicks to your website.

There are a number of ways CPC rates can be reduced during the management including:

– manually reducing the bids at the ad group or keyword level
– using Maximize Clicks bid strategy and put a bid cap limit
– using a Smart bidding strategy that sets the right bid and ensures you’re not overbidding
– testing bid strategies through experiments to find the lowest cost bids
– reducing your average page position by using the Target Impression bid strategy

All this should be done during the management of the Google Ads campaigns.

The Google Ads expert you hire should update you as often as is practical on what budgets to assign. There may be times, for example, when searches for your keywords have increased, so you can take advantage of that by increasing your budget to get more clicks and then more sales or enquiries.

9. Google Analytics Reporting & Optimization

Tracking and reporting is a key part of a Google Ads management service. There are many tools that can help you with this, and one of the best in the industry is Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

GA4 is a free tool used by many small and medium-sized sized businesses to track their traffic from Google Ads and other sources. So, you can create a GA4 account easily if you haven’t already and add the tracking code on the website.

Then you’ll link it to your Google Ads account so the two accounts can share data.

This will track all your pay per click (PPC) traffic from your Google Ads account. And you can also import the metrics and data from your GA4 account into Google Ads, so you can create your reports.

The Google Ads expert you work with will provide these reports and advise you on how the ads are performing. They’ll send you weekly and monthly reports and you’ll be able to discuss this and ask questions about how your ads are performing.

Another effective tool for reporting is Looker Studio. This is another free tool from Google that you can link to your Google Ads account and create great reports that reveal insights into your metrics.


Conclusion

I’ve outlined here some of the main features of a Google Ads management service. The actual work that will be done will depend on the campaign types you’re running and the nature of your business.

A Google Ads specialist will be able to help you with this and create an effective management strategy for you.

My name is Mike Ncube and I work as a Google Ads specialist. Contact me to find out more about my Google Ads management service and to get a quote.