When it comes to advertising for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands on Google Ads, it's always a wise choice to make Performance Max campaigns your core. These campaign type offer placements across search, shopping, discovery, video, and display platforms with excellent efficiency. However, if your monthly budget exceeds Rs 500,000, it's worthwhile to test Google search ads for your brand. At ROI Magnet, we follow this approach and rigorously test search ads in such scenarios.
Before diving into search ads, it's crucial to ensure the following:
Proper Conversion Tracking: Make sure you have the necessary conversion tracking codes in place, including events like Purchase, Add to Cart, Checkout, and Product View. These codes provide valuable insights into campaign performance.
Attribution Settings: Set your attribution windows and attribution model correctly to accurately attribute conversions.
Landing Page Optimization: Ensure your landing pages load quickly and provide a seamless user experience.
Search Console Data: Access your search console data, as it will be instrumental in optimizing your search campaigns.
With these prerequisites met, let's delve into structuring your search campaigns. Proper campaign structure is pivotal for achieving successful conversions. We typically categorize search campaigns into two buckets:
1. Brand Search Campaigns: These campaigns target keywords containing your brand name in various variations. This ensures that even if competitors bid on your brand-related keywords, your ads will consistently appear at the top of Google's search results. Don't forget to add Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) on observation settings, along with important in-market and affinity audiences.
2. Non-Brand Search Campaigns: In these campaigns, the focus is on keywords that don't include your brand name. The best approach here is to create different keyword themes and subsequently develop multiple ad groups. To create these themes effectively, utilize Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console data, along with historical performance data from your search campaigns and Performance Max's Search Spotlight edition. This approach enhances the efficiency of your search ads and allows for better campaign optimization.
Here are some key points to consider:
Bidding Strategies: Choose the right bidding strategies for your search campaigns. For instance, when running brand keyword ads, consider using the "Impression Share" option to aim for the absolute top position in search results. However, this is not recommended for non-brand keywords.
Keyword Match Types: Depending on your budget, select appropriate keyword match types in Google Search Ads. Starting with phrase match targeting for keywords is often a good approach.
Optimization Frequency: Pay close attention to the optimization frequency for Search Term Negation (STN) and Search Term Addition (STA). This ensures that you avoid spending on irrelevant or underperforming keywords.
Campaign Structure: Instead of launching numerous campaigns, opt for a minimal number of campaigns with a greater number of ad groups.
Ad Copy: Craft concise and compelling ad copies that resonate with your audience.
Dynamic Ad Copy: Experiment with dynamic ad copy parameters such as Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), Countdown, Location, etc., depending on the situation.