Beating The Competition To The Top Spots On Google Results
"How do I get my ads to appear in the top position on Google searches?"
This is a question I get asked a lot. You may be surprised to know, it's not all about money.
No-one can guarantee to get your ads showing in the number 1 results position. A number of factors are involved, all of which need equal attention to pull them altogether to give businesses the best possible chance of appearing at the top. Factors we can influence include:
- ad relevancy - how relevant is your ad to what is being searched for? Do the keywords appear in the headlines and descriptions?
- landing page experience - how relevant is the page you are sending people to? Does it talk about the keywords? Is it clear? Is it easily readable?
- expected click through rate -how likely are people to click on your ad? Are you testing too many/too few ad variations?
- budget - is it sufficient to meet demand and the average cost per click? Are you running out of budget early on in the day?
- bidding strategy - is it focused on impressions, conversions or clicks? Is there enough data history to make it work?
- goal conversion categories - do you have goals in place that are a good match for the bidding strategy?
- target audience - are you targeting the right demographics, locations, interests etc.
Factors beyond our control include audience signals - does the person searching match the audience signals required to make the bidding strategy work. For example, if your goal in Google was a phone call to get a car insurance quote, Google may choose not to serve your ad to someone browsing car insurance who hasn't previously shown any interest in cars, driving tests, directions or anything related. If their audience signal shows a slight possibility that they may call you, Google may serve your ad but may place it lower down the results page with a lower cost per click.
The other factor is of course how the competition ranks in terms of all of the above. It doesn't always come down to how much money a company is prepared to pay per click. There will be some highly competitive keywords in a busy market place such as car insurance but there will also be less competitive keywords such as long tail keywords which can be cheaper and less competitive yet with high intent.
Another interesting point to consider is that while the number 1 spot in the results list is desirable, not everyone clicks on the very first listing. Often position 2 or 3 can be just as if not more successful. This is a metric that should be tested.
If you are in a truly competitive market (such as car insurance) another way to reach your target audience is through the display network. This is considerably cheaper and can target the people who won't have seen your search ads but who are looking for your keywords/products/services.
If you are struggling to get your ads seen, get in touch for a free, no obligation review.
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