Knowing how to improve your ad relevance is absolutely essential for increasing your paid search ranking, thus, making the most out of your advertising budget.
Do you know which factor determines your website’s position in paid search results? It’s your Google AdWords Quality Score.
The higher your score, the more traffic you get – and the less you pay for each click!
Focusing on ad relevance is the most effective way to improve your Quality Score and boost the amount of traffic you get from paid ads. Here’s how to do it!
What is Ad Relevance?
Ad relevance measures how closely your ads relate to your keyword.
When someone searches for your chosen keyword, the text they see should be relevant to that keyword.
If it is not, your ad relevance, and by extension, your Quality Score, is going to go down.
How to Check Your Ad Relevance
If you already have an existing ad campaign, go to the Keywords tab in Google AdWords and hover over the “Status” column.
You’ll see three Quality Score ratings: the expected clickthrough rate, landing page experience, and ad relevance.
Each rating will be marked as “average,” “above average,” or “below average.”
The first two options indicate that there are no major problems with your ad relevance.
However, if you see a “below average” rating anywhere, there is room for improvement.
10 Ways to Improve Ad Relevance
1. Set benchmarks.
If you haven’t yet, go to the Keywords tab in Google AdWords and check your current ad relevance status.
Knowing where you stand will help you develop a better game plan for improving your Google AdWords position. Plus, it will help you avoid wasting too much time on keywords that are not well-suited for your business.
2. Utilize your keywords fully.
It’s not enough to mention the main keyword in your ad title.
Make sure the keyword is present in the body text of your copy as well as the URL.
3. Check your ad copy (again).
Make sure your ad copy contains the main keyword of each ad group – and that this keyword is actually showing up in the searcher’s display instead of getting cut off.
Also consider hiring a professional copywriter who knows how to keep your copy short and sweet while highlighting your company’s unique value proposition.
4. Keep your creativity in check.
Creative ads are great, but using fancy catchphrases in your titles can backfire.
When it comes to ad relevance, try to keep it simple to avoid confusing your target customer and the search engine.
5. Create themed ad groups.
Pull your keywords together in tightly-themed add groups to make sure your ads are closely related to a smaller group of keywords.
6. Include negative keywords.
Using negative keywords will improve your ad relevance and lower your website’s bounce rate.
Negative keywords tell Google AdWords to not show your ad if certain words or phrases are used.
For example, if you sell luxury phone accessories, you do not want users looking for a “cheap iPhone cover” to land on your page.
7. Make sure your landing page matches your ad.
Your landing page needs to be relevant to your ad, period.
Do not simply send your visitors to your website’s homepage or the About Us page.
You should create a separate landing page for each ad group.
You also need to assure your prospect (and Google) they have landed on the right page by continuously using the target keyword through the page.
8. Give your visitors clear instructions.
A cluttered landing page will have a similar effect on your ad relevance rating as an irrelevant one.
If a user cannot easily read your page or figure out where to go next, they will leave your page.
This will increase your bounce rate and let Google know they didn’t find what they were looking for.
Lead the user where you want them to go with clear headings and strong calls-to-action.
Save the retelling of your business’s history for later and show the user how you can help them solve their problems instead.
9. Optimize your landing page for performance.
A slow landing page will increase your bounce rate, signaling to Google that the user did not find what they were looking for on your page.
Make sure the technical aspects of your website, like page speed, are properly optimized to avoid a decrease in ad relevance ratings.
10. Give keyword insertion a try.
Keyword insertion refers to showing customers different ads based on what they type into the search box.
This strategy should not be used by inexperienced Google AdWords users as you can end up wasting a lot of time and money on ineffective ads.
If you want to try keyword insertion to improve your AdWords performance, consider hiring an SEO specialist to handle this for you.
How Handmade SEO Can Help
Ad relevance plays a large role in determining how much traffic your website will get from your Google AdWords ads – and how much you will pay for it!
Want to see how you can maximize other aspects of your marketing?
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