INTRODUCTION
Google Search ads are an effective way to reach people who are actively searching for products or services like yours. However, according to WordStream, the average conversion rate for Google Ads is just 4.40% on the search network.
In other words, only about four people out of 100 are taking a specific action, such as making a purchase or completing a lead form, from search ads alone. When paired with targeted push marketing efforts, specifically Google retargeting ads, your business’s conversion rate could increase by 115%.
Following are some tips on how to use retargeting ads with Google Search ads.
USE GOOGLE SEARCH ADS TO CAPTURE LEADS AND BUILD RETARGETING AUDIENCES
As noted above, Google search ads help your business target people who are actively searching for products or services like yours. In other words, they help reach prospects who are in the consideration or research phase of the customer journey. They also can help promote brand recognition, as they can expose your business to people using keywords you add to your campaign.
Create different search campaigns for each of your products or services and tailor them to your target audience(s). For instance, a company that offers nationwide home and auto insurance should run separate campaigns for each product. These can be further broken down by region or state, or by different demographics, interests or search habits.
Research keywords associated with your products or services and use tailored language for the headlines and descriptions in each search campaign. Aim to highlight the offerings or solutions that appeal to each audience. For example, the home and auto insurance company could reference snow or sleet damage-related coverage in states like Wisconsin or wind damage coverage in states where hurricanes are prevalent.
Similarly, the ads should route to dedicated landing pages that encourage conversion actions, such as purchasing a product or filling out a lead form. You can then use landing page URLs and/or corresponding actions (or lack thereof) as parameters for building an audience for your Google retargeting ads. You also can use any first-party data you collect (e.g., via lead form or subscription).
USE GOOGLE RETARGETING ADS TO REENGAGE PROSPECTS
Like the name suggests, Google retargeting ads (or remarketing ads) allow you to retarget prospective customers and potentially drive them from the consideration stage to the decision, or purchase, stage. To launch them, you must first install a Google tag and event snippet(s) on your site, which track your website visitors and their actions.
Next, set up a data segment in Audience Manager (go to Tools > Shared library > Audience manager). Click the “+” symbol and choose the type of segment you would like to create. Select “website visitors” to create a segment made up of specific URLs (e.g., Google search ad landing pages) or pages with specific Google event tags (e.g., form submissions, button clicks).
If you are looking to target people who visit a specific landing page or pages, for example, you can select “visitors of web pages” from the “Segment members” section. Then set the number of days you would like individuals to stay in the audience. You can target people who have visited your site in the past 1-540 days.
Next, click “Refine action” in the “web page visit” action box and enter the page URL or slug. This will automatically be sent to “contains,” meaning the page URL contains the information you included in the box.
Select “equal” to ensure an exact match or exclude specific pages by selecting “does not equal.” You could enter the URL of a purchase confirmation page as a “does not equal” parameter if you don’t want to retarget existing customers, for instance. You can add multiple conditions to each retargeting data segment using “AND” (e.g., must adhere to all conditions) or “OR” conditions (e.g., must match at least one).
Make sure to name your segment and add the customer type, such as all customers or qualified leads.
From here, set up a Google display ad campaign using the retargeting segment you created as the audience, along with location targeting as needed. Of note, your data segment must reach a minimum threshold (100 people for display) before the campaign will run. Since it can take some time to grow, you can typically use a lower starting budget than you would for a search ad campaign.
Create headlines, descriptions and visual assets that encourage people to take action, such as “take the next step,” “act now” or “come back.” Make sure to echo the same themes as your landing pages and original search ads so your efforts complement one another.