Sneak, stalk, repeat

Effective management takes the role as protagonist in the story known as your Google Ads. In an ideal world, you could set up your ad campaign, sit back and watch the leads roll in. But in reality, it is not that simple. Your ad campaign requires a lot of ongoing effort, evaluation and optimisation. Which can seem quite daunting as a novice.

If you are embarking on your campaign management journey, here are some things to keep in mind.

Are You The Invisible Man?

Once your campaign has been set up, it is natural to want to see your ads live in action. But what if you search for them and you can't find them? If you are unable to see them, surely your target audience won't be able to either. Right?

Wrong.

When it comes to paid advertising, there are many different reasons why you may not be seeing your ads. Consider the following before going on a witch hunt:

Location Targeting: If you are not in the geographic area that has been targeted by your ads, you won't be able to see them.

Ad Scheduling: If your ads are scheduled to run on certain days or at specific times, your ads won't show up outside of that schedule.

Self-Search: While you want to see your ads in action, don't search for them. When you regularly search for your ads but never click on them - Google will recognise your IP and stop showing them to you. Without action, it does not seem that you are interested in the ads. Self-search is a quick way to rack up "fake" impressions which without action will increase your expected cost per click.

Daily Budget: Your ads will be shown to your audience as many times as possible - without going over the daily budget. When the budget has reached its limit, your ads won't show for the rest of that day.

Account Review: Another possibility is that your account is under review. For security reasons or to verify billing information.

Become The Stalker

Now that your campaign is live and you have established that your ads are not hidden, what is the next step you should take?

Well, do you ever wish that you could follow prospective clients around after they have visited your office and make them buy a property? If your answer is yes, you're in luck. Remarketing is an online advertising technique that allows you to do just that.

Think Jason Vorhees and Freddy Kruger, stalking their victims before making themselves known (just not as creepy). When a potential client visits your website, you can follow them around the internet and display your ads to them on websites and platforms they are using at that particular point in time. Digitally stalking past visitors is a hugely successful way to convince and convert.

Why Remarketing?

Awareness: Frequently seeing your ads online will help to persuade visitors of your authority and build awareness around your brand. This authority will help to draw visitors back to your website when they are ready to become customers.

Conversions: Remarketing shows your ads to past visitors on other websites, reminding them of your service - increasing the likelihood of converting them into customers.

Engagement: The majority of website visitors will leave your site without taking any action. Remarketing helps to re-engage them, leading them back to your website and services.

Action Plan

• Tag website visitors with a code that tells Google they have been to your site.
• Select your remarketing target audience based on the action they took or page they visited on your website.
• Create an attention-grabbing ad with a specific objective or goal.
• Choose where you would like your ads to be displayed.
• Track the campaign results.

Plot The Sequel

Remarketing should be an ongoing process. As more and more people flock to your website, your 'stalking' pool grows. However, it is important to note that while your campaign strategy might work well today, it could need some adjustments down the line.

If your ads are no longer performing in the same way or if you would like to change your objective - you can fine tune your campaign using the performance data from previous months.

The trick is to treat each month's results as a learning curve. After a campaign has run for a certain amount of time, it will start to gather insights and analytical data. And for these statistics to be useful, they have to be measured, watched and tracked.

Take a look at how your campaign has performed over the last month, quarter or year. Can you notice any interesting trends developing? From here you will be able to predict the best move forward - making adjustments to optimise your campaign's performance.

What To Do

Relevant Data: Establish what you would like to measure. Are you concerned about social engagement, conversions or general website traffic?

Set Goals: Once you have determined what to track, the next step should be outlining specific goals. Double your amount of impressions on an ad or collect more lead information.

Stay Informed: Stay up to date with what is happening in your campaign. Check in on a weekly or monthly basis to ensure that you are reaching your targets.

What's Trending: Notice any trends? Are they negative or positive? If a negative trend appears, consider making small adjustments to your campaign and keep track.

Track Progress: Set a regular time frame in which you can review the changes you have made and measure how your campaign is performing. Once you have met your goals, you should re-evaluate your progress and start again.

If you still have some questions about how to manage your campaigns give us a call. We are happy to help with any queries.