When promoting your products or services, you may have ventured into using Google Ads. However, are you wondering why you aren’t receiving the results you’d like?
You’d think you’d get some leads with Google’s whopping 4.3 billion users. Unfortunately, without a solid strategy in place, that’s not always the case. So, what could help you boost your ads and make them more effective? A Google Ad account audit is a great place to start.
This term may sound daunting but let’s dive into what it is, what to expect, how it pays off, and more.
Getting Started with Google Ads
After learning about the benefits of Google Ads, you started a Google Ads account and a campaign. Great! But don’t expect your portion of the job to be done. That’s not the case at all; it’s crucial to regularly perform a Google Ad account audit for a high return.
Before we go into how performing a Google Ad account audit can pay off, we need to learn what it is.
What is a Google Ad Account Audit?
A Google Ads account audit is the process of closely reviewing your current Google campaigns and ads and evaluating how effective their performance is. This is also a great time to review your business and account goals to ensure that your marketing efforts are aligned with your overall company’s efforts and goals – especially your sales team.
Ideally, you should periodically perform an audit to see if the latest adjustments are working well. A standard interval is every month. However, changing it too frequently is frowned upon since there isn’t enough time to see any results. In fact, most Google Ads don’t pick up momentum until 2-4 weeks. From there, you may not have hard results for several months! So patience is key, but don’t wait too long.
During the ad account audit, you’ll check to see where your money is being spent, where the results are coming from, how people are searching for and finding your ads, if any hidden issues need to be addressed, and how to optimize your ads for the best results.
To further help you receive data, you can also connect Google Ads with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Rather than using multiple programs and comparing the data, Google does it for you. This combined information helps you get the best data set to form decisions. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan stated, “everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.” We may want to trust our own gut, but following the data is one source of truth that will grow your business.
Furthermore, the ad account audit is designed to uncover better performance opportunities and identify areas of success (if it’s not broken, don’t fix it). In this case, no rock goes unturned. We’ll be separating the areas into key sections: the account structure, tracking, keywords targeting, creative copy and design, landing page experience, reporting, conversion actions, and more. By breaking it down into sections, you’ll dive deeper and stay organized.
Some questions that you may ask yourself are:
Is your key audience finding the ads on their feed?
If not, then you may be targeting the wrong keywords, or you may be tackling the wrong clientele. So this is prime time to check if you’re targeting the right audience with the right message at the right time.
How come we’re not seeing ANY conversions?
Don’t worry. This doesn’t always mean that people are avoiding your ad. Instead, this could mean that your account isn’t correctly registering your conversions. In fact, 58% of accounts had only one conversion registered. Fortunately, Google Ads helps make this setup easy, so be sure to check its features.
These are just several concerns about why it’s essential to check your ad accounts consistently.
Why do you need a Google Ad Account Audit?
Knowing how your ads stand can help save time and money. For example, a common issue that businesses have is “spend bleed,” where they essentially spend large amounts of money that don’t yield results. They’ll just bleed until their budget is empty. So you wouldn’t want to keep running ads that aren’t showing any results, right?
Not only that, but this ad account audit can raise your company’s rapport. We want to continuously check that all the ad’s links and landing pages are operating correctly. A click that leads to the wrong or broken page can cause a potential customer a lot of confusion. This can cause people to view your company as unprofessional and untrustworthy, which is the opposite of what an ad campaign should be doing!
Remember, if the ads aren’t generating quality leads or portraying your company in a positive light, then you’re flushing money down the toilet.
What do you get out of a Google Ad Account Audit?
Now that you’ve planned out your action items, scheduled them, and put them into motion, you may be wondering how this will all pay off.
The main benefits of this audit include:
- Minimizing wasteful ad spending that promotes better results at a better price point.
- Eliminating inefficiencies.
- Teaching Google who your ideal potential customer is and a better understanding who to target and who not to target.
- Identifying new opportunities that you can expand—an account with a strong foundation helps you build up to your goals.
- Improving your current management processes.
- Obtaining further insights about your audience that could be used for your other marketing channels.
- Validate the impact of your messaging and design.
Ultimately, an ad account audit brings high value to your company. It can help with lead generation and the continuation of your other marketing efforts. It’s a win-win.
How Much Does a Google Ad Account Audit Cost?
There’s not a straightforward answer for how much a Google Ad account audit costs, but specific factors can affect it. The most common factors are which industries and keywords you are targeting. Bigger industries and more specific keywords will cost more than smaller industries or broad keywords.
To go into more detail, the pricing can also vary based on the intent of your Google Ads. What kind of outcomes are you looking for? Are you looking for more brand awareness, or are you challenging your competitors? In this case, brand awareness will be cheaper than obtaining customers from a competitor.
The most expensive factor of an ad account audit is when you’re targeting very specific keywords. These specifications don’t just include the word or phrase itself but also the particular time in which you’re targeting your client. You want your ad campaign to be seen by as many people in your target audience as possible.
If you were to think of the spectrum of the buyer’s journey, the higher you are in the process, the more expensive it becomes. However, as you continue on your path of auditing, you can start utilizing your funds more cost-effectively through retargeting. Keep in mind that the average return on Google Ads spent is roughly 200% for most industries—or approximately two dollars for every dollar spent.
Hungry for Results?
Implementing a Google Ad account audit strategy can be challenging to start. It also takes a lot of research to understand what works best to improve outcomes.
The great news is that you don’t have to search for an expert because you’ve already found one. The Marketing Refresh team is here to help. So reach out to us today to see how we can maximize your ad results.
