Google Ads is one of the most popular digital advertising platforms. It’s often a significant portion of a business’s marketing budget, along with social media campaigns like Facebook Ads.
But how do you know if Google Ads really work? Business owners want to know that the money they spend on online advertising leads to a tangible result.
It can be challenging for business owners to interpret the plethora of data from their Google Ads campaigns. This article will help you understand the different metrics used to track ad performance and ensure you’re getting your money’s worth.
Before You Track Google Ad Performance, Define Your Goals
Before you can begin to measure the performance of your Google Ads, you need to define your campaign goals. Do you want to boost traffic to your website? Do you want to increase sales? Or maybe you want to run a robust brand awareness campaign.
Whatever your goals, be sure to take the time to research the performance average for your industry. Doing so will help you manage expectations and set realistic goals, budgets, and more.
Let’s look at some of the ways you can measure Google Ads performance.
How to Measure Return on Investment
Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most common Google Ads metrics our clients have questions about. People want to know whether the money spent on Google Ads leads to results for their business. By calculating the ROI on your Google Ads campaign, you can determine how much your business makes by advertising on Google.
To accurately calculate your ROI, you need to define your campaign goals. According to Google Ads data, one way to determine your ROI is with the following formula:
(Revenue Gained – Cost of Goods Sold) / Cost of Goods Sold
The cost of your online advertising will be factored into the “Cost of Goods Sold” variable in your formula.
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How to Measure Website Traffic from Your Google Ads
Sometimes businesses want to increase website traffic through a Google Ads campaign. To measure web traffic, you’ll want to pay attention to the following metrics:
Clicks & Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
When you evaluate clicks and clickthrough rate in your ads, you can sort data from the entire campaign down to the specific keywords that trigger your ad to appear in the search engine results page (SERP). Be sure to set attainable goals for your clicks and CTR according to industry averages, which can vary. According to Google Ads data, a good target for CTR is 1% or higher on Search Ads.
Keywords
You can dive deep into your ads data to see which keywords perform well on your campaign. Be sure to measure individual keywords’ CTR against your campaign goals and industry averages. Remember, you’ll want to bid on keywords that are popular search queries, are relevant to your ad, and contribute to your campaign goals. You can also set negative keywords to ensure your ad doesn’t appear for search queries that are irrelevant to your specific campaign.
You can also compare the Quality Score, which measures your keywords, landing pages, and more. According to Google Ads, you’ll want to aim for a quality score of 5 or higher.
How to Measure Brand Awareness on Google Ads
When you want to track how effective your campaign has been in raising brand awareness, evaluate the following data points:
Impressions
Impressions are an essential key performance indicator (KPI) for any Google Ads campaign, and they are especially useful when running a brand awareness campaign. Impressions represent how many users were served your ad. It doesn’t mean they engaged or clicked on your ad, but they were served your ad copy, brand name, and other messaging.
If you want to prioritize impressions, you can set up your Google Ads to pay based on the number of impressions received rather than the clicks your ads receive.
Frequency
Frequency is similar to impressions in that it tracks how often a user is served your ad. According to Google Ads, frequency is the average number of times a visitor was exposed to an ad over a set time frame.
How to Track Conversions on Google Ads
A conversion can be different for each campaign, as it’s an action that your business chooses as valuable. Conversions could be phone calls, form submissions, or a purchase. Google Ads data allows you to track conversions and see what keywords or campaigns drive the most action.
This conversion data is essential to optimize your campaign, maximize your ROI, and create informed bidding strategies.
Get Started with Google Ads! Chat With M&R Marketing’s Digital Experts.
Our in-house digital team is experienced in creating successful Google Ads strategies and providing easy-to-understand ad data for businesses. If you’re ready to get started, give us a call at 478-621-4491.