What is Google Ads?
Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) is the most popular pay-per-click ad platform for marketing. When someone uses Google to search for an answer to a question or a new service, Ads delivers relevant paid advertising like this:
The first three results are pay-per-click ads (or PPC), meaning you only have to pay when someone clicks and lands on your website. But to get those spots, you have to bid on the keywords (in this case, “puppy training” + targeted for the geographical area).
Note: We covered the basics of Google Ads call tracking here.
Google determines auction winners based on two factors:
- Bid amount ($)
- Quality Score
There’s a lot of debate around SEO and PPC, with some questioning the necessity of paying for placement on search engine results pages (SERPs). Google found when companies pause their search ads, 89 percent of the traffic generated from those ads were not replaced by organic clicks. And 50 percent of users who click on paid search ads are more likely to buy than those who came from an organic link. So, a strong PPC presence can widen the audience for your business and increase overall traffic to your website.
New to PPC? Use our PPC Budget Calculator for help with figuring out how much your company should be spending on paid ads.
Call tracking + Google Ads
If you’re bidding on keywords, you need to know which ones are driving conversions (AKA revenue for your business). But clicks on your PPC ads are only part of the picture. You might be getting call conversions that you can’t see as clicks in Google Ads.
Pairing your PPC ads with visitor tracking numbers allows you to send call conversionsdirectly to your Google Ads dashboard. Phone call conversions will be included in your total conversions in Google Ads, so you can see a complete picture in conversion reporting.
Adding call tracking gives you insight into which keywords cause customers to call, and which keywords you might be wasting money on. You can use this feedback to refine the language in your ads and website to better attract the customers who are picking up the phone.
Additionally, you need a high Quality Score to continue winning bids for your successful keywords. Finding unique, highly relevant keywords for your campaign copy is the no. 1 way to keep your Quality Score strong. The more targeted your keywords are to your audience, the better performing they’ll be. Don’t forget to look for long-tail keyword opportunities as well. The more specific your bidding, the less likely you’re going to be in a highly competitive arena where you’ll have to bid more money to win.
Listening to call recordings from your tracking numbers is also an effective way to find keywords your customers are using that you might not even know about. Maybe your company refers to your product as “natural,” but your most of your callers are saying “eco.” Match ad copy to your customers’ terminology for better PPC results.
If you choose to focus some of your marketing efforts on PPC advertising, adding call tracking will help you create a smarter, more comprehensive bidding strategy in Google Ads.
Read more about call tracking for agencies in this e-book.
Optimize Google Ads campaigns by dollar amount
Using visitor tracking numbers, you can also add call values to phone call conversions in Ads for even more refined data. Compare the dollar value of calls to strategize your bidding for the highest-value leads.
For example, if one keyword creates 20 callers and a total lead value of $500, and another keyword creates 15 callers with a total lead value of $1,000, you might consider bidding on the one that’s attracting higher-value customers.
We’ve added an optional feature to our integration that lets you send call values directly to Google Ads along with your other call data for visitor tracking numbers.
Ready to see the benefits advanced call tracking and analytics can bring to your PPC initiatives? Start your free 14-day trial of CallRail now, or request a personalized demo.
