Google Ads Checklist: 5 Ways To Audit & Optimize Your Campaigns To Boost Results

This post was sponsored by That PPC Guy. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Google Ads campaigns not yielding the desired results?

Want to turn things around, but don’t quite know where to start?

Unsure of where your PPC campaign may have gone wrong?

Google Ads can be a powerful tool to drive traffic, generate leads, and increase sales.

However, managing your campaigns successfully can be a complicated task – especially as a small business owner competing for search visibility against the big spenders.

Between proper audience targeting, conversion tracking, and keyword optimization, there’s a lot that goes into making a Google Ads campaign effective.

So, if you’re going to invest your precious time and money, you might as well get the results you deserve.

With that said, let’s explore how you can: 

First, what should you avoid when creating Google Ads?

5 Common Causes For Underperforming Google Ads

Some of the most common issues encountered by small businesses using Google Ads are:

1. Missing or incorrect audience targeting.
2. Lack of proper conversion tracking setup.
3. Irrelevant or poorly targeted search terms/keywords.
4. Failure to establish negative keywords.
5. No connection to Google Business pages.

So, let’s dive into how you can fix each of these issues to improve your Google Ads campaigns.

1. How To Improve Google Ads Audience Targeting

One of the most common pitfalls in Google Ads campaigns is improper audience targeting, as many tend to ignore or neglect to select the bulk of their audience.

It’s estimated that $37 Billion in marketing spend is wasted every year due to poor targeting and a lack of relevancy.

This is why it’s important to optimize your audience targeting effectively by refining your settings to ensure they align with your campaign objectives and audience demographics.

You can select and segment your audience based on:

• Who they are.
• Their interests and habits.
• What they’re actively researching.
• People who’ve already interacted with your ads or website, and may return.

Google offers many in-market and affinity audiences to select from, and you can also add bid adjustments to emphasize the most relevant audiences.

Another option is to build custom audience segments using URLs, customer lists, and keywords.

The Easy Way: 

While you focus on your favorite tasks that grow your business, That PPC Guy can build your custom audiences, using your customer data to get you in front of your ideal audience.

2. How To Improve Future Conversions With Conversion Tracking

Accurate conversion tracking is essential for determining your ROI and measuring the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns.

If you don’t take the time to set up conversion tracking properly, you’ll miss out on valuable information about what makes your customers decide to convert.

With Google Ads, you can track conversion actions such as web purchases and sign-ups, phone calls, app installs and in-app actions, local actions, and more.

How To Import GA4 Conversions Into Google Ads

Once you’ve set up conversions in Google Analytics 4, you can import them into Google Ads for reporting and bidding, using the following steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. In the top right, click Tools and Settings Google Ads | tools [Icon].
3. Go to Measurement > Conversions.
4. In the top left, click + New conversion action.
5. Click Import, select Google Analytics 4 properties, then click Continue.
6. Select each conversion event you want to import, then click Import and continue.
7. Click Done.

The Easy Way:

That PPC Guy can audit your attribution and conversion tracking and give you a personalized strategy to increase your paid ad ROI.

3. How To Focus On Keyword Relevance & Targeting

The success of your Google Ads campaigns ultimately hinges on the relevance of your keywords.

Irrelevant or poorly targeted search terms can lead to wasted ad spend and low-quality traffic.

Which Keywords Are Irrelevant?

If you’re choosing the “wrong” keywords to target in your campaigns, it usually means that the search terms or phrases you’re using don’t align with the products, services, or content offered on your website.

For example, if you own a clothing store specializing in formal wear, targeting keywords related to casual or athletic wear would be irrelevant.

And ultimately, these keywords won’t accurately reflect the intent of users or attract your desired audience.

Making sure you target the right keywords helps ensure your ads are being shown to users who are interested in or actively searching for what you have to offer. 

How To Find Relevant Keywords That Will Attract The Right Visitors

First, you’ll want to conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant keywords that align with your campaign goals and audience intent.

Then, you’ll want to make sure you’re refining your keyword lists regularly so they remain targeted and effective.

Whether you use an exact keyword match or a broad match type, you should continually review to ensure you’re reaching the right audience.

Or, you could try the easy way and let That PPC Guy do the keyword research for you, and then build out a campaign around your objectives and budget. Get started by outsourcing your Google Ads Management now.

4. How To Manage Your Negative Keyword Lists

Neglecting to establish negative keyword lists can result in your ads being displayed for irrelevant search queries, leading to wasted clicks and low conversion rates.

As you set up your campaigns, you want to create these lists in order to prevent your ads from being triggered by certain search terms that are not relevant to your business or likely to attract clicks from your targeted users.

A negative keyword list is an effective way to exclude specific categories of keywords across multiple campaigns or the entire account.

However, sifting through individual negative keywords within a campaign or ad group can be quite time-consuming, much like identifying duplicate keywords.

With negative keyword lists, you can organize certain keywords into groups and apply them to different campaigns with ease.

To access this feature in Google Ads, navigate to Tools and Settings>> Shared Library >> Negative keyword lists.

Creating and regularly updating a negative keyword list is an essential part of optimizing your campaigns and ensuring that your ads are reaching the right audience.

The Easy Way: 

That PPC Guy will take the time to identify and implement negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic and improve the overall performance of your campaigns.

Learn more about how PPC management services can help your business.

5. How To Integrate Your Google Business Profile

Integrating your Google Business Profile with your Google Ads campaigns can not only enhance your local visibility but also improve the overall performance of your ads. 

A Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows businesses to create and manage their online presence, providing essential information such as location, contact details, hours of operation, and customer reviews to help users find and connect with them on Google Search and Maps.

You’ll want to make sure that your Google Business Profiles are properly connected to your ads and optimize them for local SEO in order to maximize your reach within your target market.

With location assets from Google Business pages, your ads can display information such as your address, a map to your location, or the distance to your business to help people find your stores.

People can then click or tap your location when shown with your final ad to get further details about your location on your location page, which includes the most relevant business information all in one place.

For seamless integration with Google Business pages, try Google Ads management with That PPC Guy.

Start Auditing & Optimizing Your Campaigns With That PPC Guy

Optimizing your Google Ads campaigns requires proactive effort and attention to detail – not to mention a deep understanding of the platform and its nuances, which can be overwhelming for those without extensive experience.

That’s where active campaign management resources like That PPC Guy come in, with expert advice and solutions to help you master Google Ads and grow your brand.

By addressing common challenges such as audience targeting, conversion tracking, keyword relevance, negative keyword management, and Google Business page integration, you can optimize your campaigns for success.

Schedule a discovery call with That PPC Guy and learn more about how to achieve your business goals through Google Ad management.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by That PPC Guy. Used with permission.

PPC Made Easy: 4 Strategies To Save Time With No-Cost Tools

This post was sponsored by Redesign.co. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Tired of overspending on PPC tools that provide more than you need? It’s time to get back to the basics.

Whether you’re an established PPC manager or a small business owner handling your company’s Google Ads campaign, advertising tasks can quickly become overwhelming.

While it’s tempting to turn to pre-packaged software for help, there may be a more efficient way.

Learn to do more with less by following a few PPC management tips for maximum efficiency and performance.

1. Become Proficient In Google Ads Offline Editor: Your Secret Weapon For Quick Edits

Time Savings: 1 hour/week

It’s surprising how many Google Ads users neglect this powerful tool.

With the Google Ads Offline Editor, you can quickly download, edit, copy, paste, move, review, and upload changes.

The real magic is that you can make dozens of changes in seconds without waiting for the browser to reload every time you go to another screen. If you’ve spent any time in the Online Editor, you know how annoying this can be.

How Google Ads Offline Editor Speeds Up Your PPC Workflow

Here’s a quick example of how efficient the Offline Editor can be.

Imagine you’re running a PPC ads campaign called “Plumbing.”

You’ve got various services under this umbrella, but you’ve noticed that water heaters are particularly in demand.

So, you decide it’s time to break out the “Water Heaters” ad group from your Plumbing campaign into its own campaign.

In 15 seconds, working offline in Google Ads Editor, you can:

1. Duplicate the “Plumbing” campaign.
2. Rename it “Water Heaters”.
3. Delete the non-relevant ad groups in the new campaign.
4. Pause the old Water Heater ad group in the old campaign.

If you do this online, each action – pausing or deleting – requires navigating through and waiting for multiple web pages to load.

Offline, making changes like pausing multiple ad groups or deleting irrelevant keywords can be done in bulk with a few clicks, without any loading delays.

While seemingly insignificant, small delays add up to significant amounts of wasted time and decreased productivity throughout a campaign’s lifespan.

This streamlined approach not only saves time but also eliminates the clutter of “paused” or “removed” assets in your campaign, keeping your workspace organized and focused.

In the Offline Editor, you can make edits before posting online. When you delete items from the new campaign, there’s no history of the old keywords, ads, or ad groups existing. Once they’re gone, they’re gone – no residual clutter.

But this just scratches the surface regarding the Offline Editor’s functionality. Here are a few other things you can do with this no-cost tool:

• Upload/edit campaigns in bulk from a CSV.
• Import from Google Drive.
• Quickly apply Negative Mobile App lists (among many other options).
• Copy and paste location targeting in seconds.
• Compare account structures side-by-side.
• Edit PMAX campaigns.
• Upload photos.
• Edit extensions in bulk.
• Catch errors before pushing live.

2. Master DIY Tools: Easily Build Quick Solutions In Your PPC Workflow

Time Savings: 20 min/week

Need Custom, No-Cost PPC Tools? Build Yours With Our Help.

Are you considering using high-end budget pacing tools? You may be surprised to find that creating your own versions in spreadsheets can be more effective.

Despite popular opinion, automated PPC management software does not guarantee a life free of issues. In fact, it gives some people a false sense of security.

Does this mean that you should completely shy away from automation? Absolutely not!

While automation is useful, it shouldn’t entirely replace vigilant, hands-on management.

For instance, what if data to the software lags or something is set up incorrectly and the software starts ramping budget unbeknownst to you?

In fact, we’ve seen an account overspend by nearly 50% in a month under automated software.

How To Track PPC Campaigns At A Lower Cost

Imagine starting your day by reviewing a custom spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Excel that acts as your PPC command center.

A custom spreadsheet can:

• Show yesterday’s spend, monthly pacing versus budget, and L7 and L30 KPIs.
• Offer complete recommendations for daily budget adjustments.
• Actively recommend actions to meet your monthly targets.
• Display alerts to flag any account that starts overspending.
• Keep your PPC team agile and informed.

With our spreadsheets, we manually make budget changes at Redesign.co because, frankly, we want that control.

Budgets are vital to client-agency relationships, and keeping the decision-making power close at hand ensures every dollar spent is a dollar well-considered.

Another significant advantage you’ll find with Google Sheets or Excel is the ability to tailor reports to your specific needs – a level of flexibility often lacking in PPC management software.

We’ve used the same report for over a year, and it’s custom-built for us. It’s still 98% the same as one year ago.

Talk about a huge ROI on our initial time spent building it!

3. Streamline Account QA & Maintenance: Google Sheets As Your Efficiency Ally

Time Savings: 2 hours/week

Simplify Your PPC QA. Let Us Help Create Your Free Template.

Google Sheets can also play a critical role in your PPC management by creating robust systems and processes for PPC account QA and maintenance.

Mistakes like burning through a month’s budget in two days, directing traffic to the wrong website, or typos in ad copy are costly.

It’s the little things that often go unnoticed until they snowball into major issues, affecting your credibility and client trust.

Use a simple tool like Sheets or Excel to create well-crafted, structured systems to prevent mistakes.

We use systems and QA checklists to:

• Keep PPC budgets on track.
• Ensure traffic goes to the correct landing page.
• Regularly review search terms.
• Catch ad copy typos.
• Monitor ad schedules and targeting accuracy.
• Quickly fix conversion tracking issues.
• Stay on top of crucial account verification deadlines.
• Notice subtle changes in performance.

With thorough, well-designed QA lists in a spreadsheet, you can zip through your weekly and monthly QA checks, sidestepping blunders that cost time and money and hurt client relationships.

We’ve learned that even the sharpest managers benefit from structured systems. Allowing managers to “wing it” and rely solely on their expertise creates blind spots.

Mistakes happen not because people are unqualified but because they’re human; structure and systems act as a guardrail against costly human mistakes.

Avoiding a common yet critical PPC mistake requires a delicate balance: not getting too absorbed in the minutiae or losing sight of the big picture when optimizing accounts.

The key is in setting up systems that allow managers to effectively alternate between a “10,000-foot view” for overarching strategy and a “magnifying glass” for detailed scrutiny.

How To Set Up QA In Google Sheets

The Easy Way: Build Your Free Custom Template With Us.

Utilizing Google Sheets or Excel for listing all essential tasks scheduled bi-weekly and monthly and holding our team accountable for each task.

A built-in notification feature gently nudges us if a task is overdue, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.

4. Use Google Apps Script For Proactive Automation

Time Savings: 1 hour/week

Losing sleep at night worrying about your Google Ads campaigns? The key to your peace of mind is preventing problems before they happen.

By using Apps Script to automate certain tasks, you can keep all your campaigns on track, even when you’re focused elsewhere.

Scripts require a bit of coding knowledge, but the proliferation of ChatGPT allows you to get 90% of the code written for you.

One of our favorite scripts at the moment pauses campaign ad spend and sends an email when an account reaches a pre-set threshold. The applications don’t stop at monitoring ad spend, though.

Need help catching PPC errors?

From scanning PPC ad copy for spelling mistakes and broken URLs to setting up alerts for sudden changes in KPIs, Google Apps Script can be your first line of defense.

Looking to refine PPC keyword strategies?

Set up a script to analyze search terms and send a monthly summary of those generating clicks but not conversions.

Tired of pulling data for reports?

Use a script to automate the process in a Google Sheet for real-time reporting and analysis.

You can even connect it to the reporting dashboard mentioned earlier so that it’s entirely hands-off once built!

Bonus Tip For The Tech-Savvy: Advanced Automation With Anomaly Detection

Time Savings: 2 hours/week

If you’re already comfortable with Apps Script and have experience with Python or R, you can take the previous strategy up a notch by automating anomaly detection.

This isn’t a beginner strategy, but we’ve found it incredibly effective. By combining the vigilance of Google Scripts with the analytical power of Python, we’ve set up a system at Redesign.co that alerts us to any unusual activity within our campaigns.

Every morning, we receive a report pinpointing recent anomalies, complete with graphs of key metrics to help us grasp the full context.

Transform Your PPC The Redesign.co Way

Mastering PPC doesn’t have to mean investing in expensive, complex software. It’s about smart, efficient strategies that maximize your resources and minimize hassle.

No-cost tools like Google Ads Offline Editor and Google Sheets provide a DIY path to transform your PPC campaign, turning potential chaos into an easily manageable system customized to your needs.

If you’re looking for more PPC management strategies, along with expert support, Redesign.co offers a partnership that extends beyond the basics. Book a free, no-pressure call with our PPC marketing agency to learn how we can help you focus more on growth and less on the day-to-day grind.

This article has been sponsored by Redesign.co, and the views presented herein represent the sponsor’s perspective.

Ready to start optimizing your website? Sign up for Redesign.co and get the data you need to deliver great user experiences.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Redesign.co. Used with permission.