How To Avoid The Pitfalls of Google Automation
Google Ads are like any other type of advertising: how well they work depends strongly on creativity. But unlike other advertising mediums, you have to bid for optimal areas. The twin tasks of coming up with creative and bidding on keywords can take up a lot of time, so Google offers automation in these areas to make things easier.
Features like Smart Bidding and Smart Creative take control in a way that gets you better results faster – or so Google says. These solutions analyze millions of signals in real-time and use machine learning to show the right message to the right customer. It can be an effective and time-saving tool, but only if you avoid the pitfalls that come with Google automation. Here’s how to avoid the common traps in Smart Bidding and Smart Creative!
The Potential Pitfalls Of Google Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding can optimize bids for every pay-per-click (PPC) auction, increasing or decreasing the bids based on the chance it thinks you have of converting the sale. It should only increase it when the automation thinks it will lead to conversions when an audience hits your landing page. Used correctly, it can reduce the time spent on bid maintenance while also helping you get better results that are within your budget.
It’s a good way to avoid one of the main pitfalls of Google Ads: PPC bidding can take a lot of time, especially if you’re pulling reports from Google Ads manually. But automation needs time to work, and a new campaign may need to get enough data before Smart Bidding can be effective. Google says that Smart Bidding can work off after 15 conversions within 30 days, but it’s most effective after 50 conversions. To avoid frustration, don’t go full-automation or stick with all-manual tasks right away; work towards automation in steps.
Data will keep you away from common pitfalls, but you also have to pick the right bidding strategy. Five options in Google Ads can use the automated Smart Bidding process:
- Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
- Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)
- Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)
- Maximize Conversion Value
- Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC)
Your choice depends on your ad goals. For example, ECPC automatically adjusts your manual bids for clicks that seem more likely to lead to a conversion on your website. If this is a goal that will help increase your business, focus on this option. Avoiding the wrong one means knowing your goals and what you want to achieve with Google Ads.
The Potential Pitfalls Of Smart Creatives
Smart Creatives uses Google’s machine learning algorithms to choose creative assets and build an ad that works for the customer. It frees up time so that you or your marketing team can focus on the more strategic parts of your ad campaigns.
There are three forms of Smart Creative ads, most of which have reduced ad creation time down to minutes:
- Responsive display ads let you upload assets like images, headlines, logos, and descriptions to Google Ads, and the program will generate advertising on the Google Display Network.
- Dynamic search ads use your website to target your ads. It can also fill in the gaps of your keyword-based campaigns.
- Responsive search ads make ads that show more text and relevant messages to your audience.
Choosing the right one for your ad goals is key. Responsive display ads, for example, are a form of Google Ad where clients can let Google extract images and logos out of their site pages to create ads. They can’t leave everything to Google, though: you have to ensure that your keywords and themes are accurate, precise, and relevant to your business.
Again, a common pitfall is trusting Google with everything. Try using unique headlines and selling points in your responsive display ads, as copied messages don’t perform very well with audiences. Also, think of and list synonyms of your keywords so that your messaging stands out and doesn’t sound repetitive. Find inspiration from the search queries report and see how users come across your ads – you can tailor something that will make them click!
