Module 3.2: Optimize your Search network campaign (PART 1)

Question 1

What are Google’s 4 best practices for creating effective text ads?

Answer 1

1. Write compelling, genuine ad copy
2. Create ad text that appeals to users across devices
3. Set up your ads for success
4. Test and optimize creatives

Question 2

According to Google’s best practices for creating effective text ads, how do you write compelling, genuine ad copy?

Answer 2

• Craft messaging that focuses on user benefits.
  Why: Users respond to ads that speak to their needs.
• Tie creatives to your keywords.
  Why: Users tend to engage with ads that appear most relevant to their search.
• Avoid generic language in your ads. Use specific calls to action.
  Why: Generic calls to action often show decreased engagement with ads.
• Give people answers and avoid questions in text ads.
  ​Why: People come to Google to find answers. Ad copy with a question in the headline often underperforms.

Question 3

According to Google’s best practices for creating effective text ads, how do you create ad text that appeals to users across devices?

Answer 3

• Take full advantage of your character limits.
  Why: Longer headlines increase the clickable space of your ads, communicate more to someone who’s searching, and further qualify the clicks that you receive.
• Focus on your headlines.
  Why: The content and quality of your headlines matters and will determine how well your ads perform.

Question 4

According to Google’s best practices for creating effective text ads, how do you set up your ads for success?

Answer 4

• Implement all ad extensions that make sense for your business, trying for at least four.
  Why: Ads with multiple extensions often perform better than ads with only one extension. They add useful info for searchers and help your message get noticed.
• Use keyword insertion and ad customizers if you have a lot of ads to maintain.
  Why: You can tailor your creative to a user’s search while reducing your management overhead, including in your URL navigation fields.

Question 5

According to Google’s best practices for creating effective text ads, how do you test and optimize creatives?

Answer 5

• Test and iterate your ad creative.
  Why: You can learn about your users’ preferences and improve your performance by honing ad text, especially your headlines.
• Add 3-5 ads per ad group.
  Why: Multiple versions give you more options to succeed in each auction.
• Focus your testing efforts on high-value campaigns.
  Why: Prioritizing your testing efforts on the places that matter most will help you see the biggest improvements from testing.
• Rotate your ads to optimize for clicks or conversions.
  Why: Ads optimized to drive clicks or conversions can improve your competitiveness in auctions.

Question 6

What are Google’s 5 best practices for choosing the right keywords?

Answer 6

1. Align keywords with business goals
2. Manage match types for growth and control
3. Find new targeting opportunities in AdWords
4. Expand the reach of existing keywords
5. Refine your traffic with negative keywords

Question 7

According to Google’s best practices for choosing the right keywords, how do you align keywords with business goals?

Answer 7

• Think holistically about how customers could reach you.
  Why: Your keywords should reflect all of the different types of user queries that could help someone find you when they’re looking for something you offer.
• Align your keywords and their management with your overall business goals.
  Why: Different keywords have different purposes, and they should be held accountable to the goal that most aligns with their purpose.
• Analyze your keyword list and delete low search volume keywords.
  Why: Reduce clutter. If keywords aren’t going to drive any traffic for you, there’s no need to keep them around.

Question 8

According to Google’s best practices for choosing the right keywords, how do you manage match types for growth and control?

Answer 8

• Use broad match to capture long tail queries, reserve exact match for your primary volume and value drivers.
  Why: Maximize coverage on queries relevant to your business while keeping account management reasonable.
• Don’t create minute variations of phrase/exact match keywords.
  Why: Phrase and exact match types expand to cover close keyword variations, so you don’t need to worry about creating additional keyword clutter in your AdWords account.

Question 9

According to Google’s best practices for choosing the right keywords, how do you find new targeting opportunities in AdWords?

Answer 9

• Use Dynamic Search Ads to streamline account management.

Why: Avoid the need for continual updates to your keyword lists every time you make a change to your site.

Question 10

According to Google’s best practices for choosing the right keywords, how do you expand the reach of existing keywords?

Answer 10

• Maximize the presence of your keywords by improving their Ad Rank.
  Why: Adding new targeting options isn’t the only way to grow volume. A more aggressive bid coupled with higher quality ads can drive volume on existing
• Extend your reach to users that aren’t on Google.com by targeting search partners.
  Why: Get more volume from the same set of keywords in your account.

Question 11

According to Google’s best practices for choosing the right keywords, how do you refine your traffic with negative keywords?

Answer 11

• Make negative keyword additions a regular part of AdWords account maintenance.
  Why: Save money by avoiding clicks from people that aren’t going to become customers.
• Just like your main keywords, focus negative keyword management on the places that will do the most good.
  Why: Your account’s health depends on adding impactful, not exhaustive, negative keywords.

Question 12

According to Google’s best practices: A Guide to Bid Adjustments, how do you understand your goals and current performance?

Answer 12

• Define your business goals and use those to set appropriate bid adjustments.
  Why: The specifics of your business are the clearest way for you to determine how you optimize your bid adjustments.
• Factor in the total value, both online and offline, of different campaigns and devices.
  Why: Attribution across channels and devices is still evolving. Don’t limit your potential because of technical limitations in measuring value.
• Understand your performance across different segments.
  Why: Performance can vary across devices, locations, audiences and times. Significant performance differences should dictate your adjustments.

Question 13

According to Google’s best practices: A Guide to Bid Adjustments, how do you automate your bidding in AdWords?

Answer 13

• Automate bids using Smart Bidding.
  Why: Target CPA or Target ROAS automated bid strategies optimize by device, time, location and audience on an auction-by-auction basis.
• Tailor your automated bidding to your own account’s needs.
  Why: The strategies that work for you can be further customized to connect directly with what you know about your business.

Question 14

According to Google’s best practices: A Guide to Bid Adjustments, how do you create a system for managing your bids?

Answer 14

• Use base bids to hit your overall portfolio goals, and use bid adjustments to account for segment-level performance differences (by device type, time, location and audience).
  Why: Bid adjustments are intended to bring your performance in line with your goals. They’re dependent on properly set base bids.
• Wait for enough data to make the right decision about your bid adjustments.
  Why: You can miss out on opportunities if you neglect to account for conversion delays or have limited conversion data.
• Develop a strategy for overlap across different bid adjustments.
  Why: The intersection of location, time of day, audiences and more can all have an effect on what a potential user could be worth to you.

Question 15

According to Google’s best practices: A Guide to Bid Adjustments, how do you manage your bid adjustments for efficiency?

Answer 15

• Plan to use campaign-level adjustments. Save ad group modifiers for any significant performance differences within your campaigns.
  Why: Campaign-level adjustments are typically based on more data, so you can make decisions more quickly and be more confident in those changes.
• Consolidate your campaign management and use bid adjustments to manage performance between segments within those campaigns.
  Why: More control usually translates to more overhead. Increasing the number of campaigns you manage adds to your workload and opens the door for mistakes.

Question 16

What are Google’s 4 best practices for bid adjustments?

Answer 16

1. Understand your goals and current performance
2. Automate your bidding in AdWords
3. Create a system for managing your bids
4. Manage your bid adjustments for efficiency