5 Tips to Boosting Your Google Ads (Including one Google don’t want you to know about!)
At HookedOnMedia, we’re dedicated to delivering excellence – whether it’s supercharging your SEO, skyrocketing your rankings, or crafting stand-out social and powerful PPC campaigns that make a lasting impact.
But there’s one area of digital marketing where chasing perfection can prove costly – and “good enough” actually outperforms excellent.
Curious? Keep reading to uncover a little-known tip to turboboosting your Google Ads – and why, sometimes, the best results come from breaking free from Google’s own advice…
Decoding Google Ads: What You Need to Know
Google Ads is a highly powerful form of digital advertising that we use to create and display ads across Google Search, YouTube, and other google-owned websites for our clients.
It works on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, meaning advertisers pay only when someone clicks their ad.
They can help you appear at the top of search results when potential clients are looking for your services.
Is Ad Strength Important in Google Ads?
Ad Strength is Google’s metric for assessing the quality, relevance, and variety of your ad content. It offers feedback to help advertisers optimise their ads based on Google’s best practices, ensuring stronger performance and engagement.
Ads are rated on a scale from Poor to Excellent, with Google encouraging advertisers to make tweaks to improve their score such as adding more compelling headlines and descriptions.
While a higher Ad Strength rating can indicate a well-optimised ad, some marketers argue that chasing an “Excellent” rating may not always lead to better performance.
5 Tips to Fine-Tuning Your Google ads, Without Over-Tuning
1. Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion
Dynamic keyword insertion or ‘DKI’ is a feature in Google Ads that automatically updates your ad text to match a user’s search query. By automatically swapping out keywords based on what users are searching for, this tactic makes your ads feel highly personalised and increases their likelihood of being clicked. It also helps improve Quality Score, which can lead to lower costs and better placement in search results.
2. Implement Location Insertion
Similarly, Location Insertion in Google Ads will dynamically update your ad text to include a user’s location, making ads more relevant and personalised.
For example, if you’re running a campaign for a Cornish holiday letting company, you could set up a headline like:
“Traditional Cornish Cottages in {LOCATION (Town)} – Book Your Stay!”
If a user in Padstow sees the ad, it would automatically display:
“Traditional Cornish Cottages in Padstow – Book Your Stay!”
It’s especially powerful for businesses who serve a large area of the county, as it encourages users to engage with offerings relevant to their location.
3. Avoid Poor Ad Strength
A poor ad strength rating can indicate that your ad lacks variety, relevance, or quality – potentially leading to lower engagement and conversions. By focusing on strong, well-structured ad content, you can avoid poor Ad Strength and create ads that engage users, drive conversions, and maximise your return on investment.
4. Don’t Strive for Excellence
Chasing excellent ad strength in Google Ads can sometimes come at the cost of ad relevance and performance. Many marketers find that strategically crafted, Average-rated ads actually perform better, driving higher engagement and maintaining brand consistency.
5. Pin Headlines for Relevance
Now here’s the interesting thing: Google actually encourages unpinning headlines to boost ad strength – an approach they follow in their own ads. In fact, achieving an “Excellent” rating requires fully unpinned ads. However, many advertisers (and major brands) find that pinning key headlines actually improves clarity and performance, even if it means settling for an “Average” rating.
So, before blindly following Google’s recommendations – it’s worth remembering that strategic pinning and relevance often outperform chasing an excellent ad strength score.
It’s all about finding the right balance between Google’s recommendations with real-world performance insights.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Think of it like seasoning a meal – too little, and the dish is bland; too much, and it overpowers the flavour. Striking the right balance creates the best result. In the same way, chasing “Excellent” ad strength might overwhelm relevance, while an “Average” score finds the perfect blend of effectiveness and clarity.
We Can Help
If you’re feeling lost in the slightly bewildering world of digital marketing you’re not alone – it’s a constantly evolving landscape that can be overwhelming. But don’t worry, navigating it gets easier with the right strategies and guidance!
As Google Partners with over 40 years experience, our team, know the ins and outs of the industry – including the lesser-known quirks that can make all the difference.
We get it – most business owners don’t have the time to fine-tune their PPC campaigns. That’s why we take care of everything for you. In just a couple of weeks, our PPC specialists can have your campaign up and running, delivering measurable, data-driven results.
But we don’t stop there. We continuously refine and optimise your campaign to drive down your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), ensuring maximum efficiency.
So, while your company focuses on delivering excellence, we make sure your ad strategy is performing precisely as it should – nothing less, nothing more, just perfectly ‘average’!
Get in touch for a free PPC Review today.
