We’re going to improve AdWords so you pay less for each click with a few tips that are easy to apply. You’ll be able to save a bit of money that will be noticeable by the end of the year and you’ll increase the ROI.

First of all, you should take a moment to review how to determine how much you pay for each click on Google AdWords.

On one hand, we have the CPC (cost per click), the most we’re willing to pay, and on the other hand, but just as important, the Quality Score that Google gives your ad for that search. By multiplying this level of quality by Google’s maximum CPC, you get an Ad Rank which, among other things, is what determines how much you pay.

How to improve your AdWords Quality Score

Since we’re clear that what we’re looking for is to lower the CPC, which would be the other way to improve Ad Rank, and we have no room to maneuver around what the competitors decide to pay, we’ll focus on improving the Quality Score.

If you’re able to optimize the quality of your ads, not only will you pay less for the clicks on your AdWords, you’ll also increase their position and how often they appear.

You can easily check the quality of your keywords in the AdWords tool. The values range from 0 (minimum) to 10 (maximum) and are assigned at the keyword level.

It’s important to emphasize that this is a value that can only be looked at at the keyword level and not through ads or ad groups. Let’s look at the tips:

#1 Take care of the CTR

If you can make your ad more relevant than that of your competitors, in Google’s eyes this translates to generating more clicks (and therefore more money).

You have to keep in mind that if your ads have a low CTR that means your fans aren’t interested in them and your Quality Score and the Ad Rank will fall abruptly.

Monitor your campaigns and make sure none are below 1.5% (2% is better) for Click Through. Don’t have a heart attack when you have to stop groups or ads that don’t work.

#2 Improve your ads

The better you make them, the less you’ll pay per click so:

• Have different campaigns for different sites. If you design a search campaign with display selection, the lower CTR of the second campaign will be hitting the second site.
• Watch out for search partners that often don’t launch. If you want to make your profit from them and you have it activated, deactivate it for a while and check to see if it affects the CTR.
• Make sure you’re arranging the terms correctly and that they’re closely related.
• The most important keywords and their variations need to be very present when creating the text (in the first line, the URL, range, etc.)
• Evaluate using dynamic keyword insertion. Basically, what you’ll get is that the user sees exactly the term that he’s searching for, which usually has an effect on raising the CTR. But be careful, what happens with the conversation is something different because maybe you’re not taking those users to the best landing page.
• Introduce calls to action in the text and try to close your ads with a phrase that prompts a purchase or a click.
• Customize the URL display. This is a good trick because as long as you use the same domain that the ad is actually linked to, you can “invent” the structure of the URL display, which means you can enter keywords in the fictional URL but you will still be leading customers to a real page.
• Use the whole possible range: links to sites, to calls, location, highlighted text, etc. because they all add the possibility of receiving clicks. Of course, to have these possibilities shown, you need to be ranked in the top three.

If you have multiple ideas in rotation, we’ll start creating ads with the ones that have the best CTR and test them.

#3 Optimize keywords

Take advantage because here you have the possibility to see the quality level and act on them.

Those with values that are too low (below 5), would be hard to recover, so remove them if you don’t want them to damage the overall Quality Score of the ad group or the campaign.

For keywords that can be enhanced, you can try different, more restrictive matches to see if they go up and if not, perhaps you need to take them out of this group and create new, more focused groups with those terms.

#4 Optimize the landing page

Believe it or not, if you want to improve AdWords and pay less you have to optimize the landing page that your campaigns lead to.

There’s a concept called “landing page experience” in AdWords. Let’s say it can be lower, higher or in the middle of the competitors. It raises the quality level of the page and your Ad Rank will go up with it.

• Try to focus the ads precisely. If you want to sell a product, send the clients to that page and never the homepage. For them to “see the light”, make it easy; it’s a basic tip to make a sale.
• Content must be useful, detailed, exclusive if possible, and always consistent with the product advertised on Google.
• Work on usability, accessibility and, of course, make sure everything works at all times and on all devices (especially mobile phones)

I hope that with these tips you’re able to improve your AdWords and sell more paying less.