Google AdWords campaigns, known as Google Ads, have the potential to catapult businesses to the big time.  However, it is not a silver bullet. In order to take advantage of the incredible benefits of Google Ads, it’s crucial to move with the times and to ensure that your campaign remains relevant. Google accounts for a staggering 73% of the paid search market, and over 60% of consumers have clicked on a Google ad. Compare running a campaign to a car or an electrical appliance. Is it now easier to understand the importance of regular checks and ongoing maintenance? No error light will suddenly appear when something goes wrong with your strategy. It is essential for campaign managers and business owners to be wary of common flaws and to be able to spot signs that indicate an update is required. 

4 signs you need to update your Google AdWords campaigns

You won’t be greeted with flashing lights, suspicious odors, or alarming noises when your Google Adwords campaign isn’t firing on all cylinders, but there are some tell-tale signs. Here are 4 indicators to look out for:

1. Your keyword list

The first step of troubleshooting should involve checking your keyword list. If you’re struggling to attract attention or generate high-quality leads, there are several common causes, including:

• Your keywords focus on broad match words: modify your list to target phrases and exact matches. If you use only broad match words, this reduces the quality of the advert and it can lower your ranking, attract irrelevant attention, and impact ROI.
• You’re using broad match words without using negative keywords to streamline your campaign and eliminate keywords that are not relevant to your target buyer. Improved targeting will boost the quality of your leads, increasing ROI. 
• Your keywords are grouped together: Don’t group all of your keywords together in a single Ad group. This impacts click-through rates and reduces the quality of the ad. Modifying your groups can help you ensure that your ads are relevant to the keywords within the specified Ad group. 

2. Your ad content

The next step is to check the copy of your ads. The most common problems include:

• Single ads in a group: to enhance your campaign, it’s best to split test a number of adverts to determine which are most effective. 
• Missing out on ad extensions: it’s beneficial to utilize ad extensions whenever possible. This will increase response rates and eliminate the risk of losing traction due to poor quality scores. 
• Irrelevant keywords: if you have groups that contain keywords that don’t match the Ad group, this can affect your score and lower click-through rates. Always ensure that the copy matches the keywords in the group. 

3. Your landing pages

Landing pages can make or break you when it comes to attracting customers and encouraging them to move through the funnel. Check your landing pages for the following issues:

• Homepages as landing pages: your landing page should not be your homepage. The most effective landing pages are targeted at specific products or services that are related to the ad keyword. Statistics suggest that over 75% of landing pages are homepages. 
• Using landing pages to cover more than one product or service: each landing page should be specific and relevant to the keyword. Don’t use a single page to promote a host of products or services. This will affect lead conversion, as the message becomes diluted and visitors will lose interest. Unique, targeted landing pages will boost results. 
• A lack of relevance and congruence: if your landing pages don’t match your ads, conversion rates will drop. The user must always experience a landing page relevant to the ad they clicked. 

4. Tracking and monitoring

Finally, check your tracking and make use of tools and resources that enable you to monitor your progress. If you’re struggling, these issues could be to blame:

• Conversion tracking is not set up: if conversion tracking is not up and running for webforms or shopping carts, you are missing valuable data, which is used to optimize your bids, improve ROI, and increase lead conversions. Utilize these features to track when users fill in web forms and pass revenue data on to Google.
• You’re not using web call tracking: web call tracking enables you to determine how many people are calling the business after spotting and clicking on your ad. Setting this feature up will help you optimize the bid to attract more calls. 
• Call extension tracking is not set up: call extension tracking allows you to see how many people call after seeing your number on the ad. You can use this feature to improve your bid to generate more calls of this kind. 
• Offline sales conversion tracking is not currently in use: if you don’t have this tracking feature up and running, you’re missing out. It provides the ability to see how many visitors are converting to customers after clicking on the ad. This includes completing the web form, converting via phone, or face-to-face meetings.

To find out more about conversion tracking, watch this clip from Google:

To find out more about conversion tracking, watch this clip from Google:

Summary

Not getting results with your Google AdWords campaigns? Looking to improve results? It is always beneficial to keep a close eye on key metrics and to carry out checks to highlight and address potential obstacles.