March 21, 2025
An effective Google Ad strategy combines the right campaign type, smart bidding, and audience targeting. Learn how to optimize ads, cut costs, and boost conversions.
To improve your ads’ performance, adjust your Google Ad strategy and focus on choosing the right campaign type, refining audience targeting, and optimizing bids and landing pages.
Today, we'll dive into 20 actionable tips to help you run more efficient, high-performing ads so you can maximize your return on investment.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Let’s start with the foundation.
A solid Google Ads strategy starts with the basics. Here’s what you need to get right from the start:
Picking the right Google Ads campaign type helps you reach the right audience while making the most of your budget. Here’s how to decide which one fits your goals:
Every time someone searches on Google, an ad auction determines which ads appear and in what order. Your Ad Rank is based on your bid, Quality Score, and ad relevance.
A higher Quality Score — which measures expected click-through rate (CTR), ad relevance, and landing page experience — can lower your cost-per-click (CPC) and improve rankings.
To boost your Ad Rank without increasing bids:
Your ad format should match what users are looking for. For example, high-intent keywords, like “buy running shoes”, work best with search ads or shopping ads because they target people who are ready to take action.
Choosing the right keyword match type also helps balance control (how precisely you target searches) and reach (how many potential customers see your ads). Consider:
Targeting high-competition keywords can drain your budget quickly, so it’s a good idea to focus on overlooked keywords with strong conversion potential.
Search term reports show real searches triggering your ads, helping you find valuable terms to target while filtering out the irrelevant ones.
You can also analyze competitor keyword gaps using tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to discover high-performing keywords your competitors rank for, but you haven’t targeted yet.
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches, which can help you save your budget and improve Google Ads targeting.
Common negative keywords include terms like "free," "cheap," "DIY," "jobs," or anything unrelated to your offer.
To automate filtering, dynamic exclusion lists allow you to update and apply negative keywords across multiple campaigns, helping you block low-quality traffic without constant manual adjustments.
When you structure your Google Ads campaigns well, you’ll get more clicks, lower costs, and better overall performance while reducing wasted ad spend. Here’s how to set up your ads strategically:
Single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) were previously a popular way to make ads highly relevant by focusing on just one keyword per ad group. This gave advertisers more granular control over their messaging and Quality Score, but also made campaigns less flexible and harder to manage.
Today, the popular method is thematic ad groups, which group similar keywords together to reach more people while still keeping ads relevant. They’re easier to manage and scale as your campaigns grow (plus Google’s AI works better for optimization with broader keyword groupings).
Responsive search ads (RSAs) let Google’s AI mix and match your headlines and descriptions to find the best-performing combinations. To improve results:
Try different styles, like unique selling points ("Handcrafted from premium leather"), promotions ("Get 20% off today!"), or credibility boosters ("Rated #1 by experts"). The more variety you provide, the better Google’s AI can optimize your ads for higher conversions.
Ad extensions add extra details to your ads, making them more informative and helping you get more clicks without increasing costs.
Consider using:
Choosing the right bidding strategy, whether that’s manual, automated, or a mix, helps you control costs, maximize conversions, and get the best return on your ad spend. Here’s how to set up your Google Ads strategies for bidding:
Start with manual bidding if you want full control, then switch to automated bidding once you have enough conversion data for Google to optimize effectively.
Consider these automated bidding strategies:
Fine-tuning your bids based on time and location can help you maximize your ad budget. Here’s how:
Even the best Google Ads campaign won’t deliver results if your landing page isn’t optimized for conversions. Here’s how to ensure your landing page works as hard as your ads:
Because of shortening attention spans, slow and non-mobile-friendly sites can hurt rankings and raise your ad costs.
Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze speed, optimize images, and improve server response times to prevent people from clicking away while they wait.
A simple, focused landing page makes it easier for visitors to take action. Keep the layout clean by removing distractions, highlighting key information, and using one clear CTA.
To see what works best, try A/B testing different headlines, layouts, and CTAs. Tools like VWO let you test small changes, so you can see what gets more clicks and conversions.
Strong visuals make a good impression, build trust, and make your landing page more engaging. Use:
Reaching the right audience is important if you want to lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and improve conversions. Here’s how to refine your targeting for better results:
There’s no need to keep showing ads to people who have already bought from you. Excluding past converters saves your budget for new potential customers instead of paying for clicks from people who’ve already converted.
Lookalike segments (formerly Similar audiences) help you reach new people who share traits with your existing customers, using data from your customer match lists.
Custom segments, on the other hand, let you target users based on their interactions with your website. The more solid first-party data you provide, like website visitors or customer match lists, the better Google can create these segments and match your ads to the right audience.
Want to target users who are actively looking for what you offer? Consider trying:
Google’s AI uses first-party data to predict which users are most likely to convert.
Customer Match helps reconnect with past leads by targeting people who have already interacted with your business, while Lookalike Audiences uses AI to find new users with similar traits.
While these tools aren’t predictive on their own, Google’s AI analyzes behavior patterns to show ads to users who are most likely to take action.
Segmentation means grouping your audience based on behaviors, devices, or past interactions to fine-tune your targeting.
For example, mobile and desktop users don’t always convert the same way, so adjusting bids based on performance can make a big difference. Small adjustments like these help you optimize your ad budget.
Running a Google Ads campaign is just the beginning — continuous tracking and optimization are what drive real results. Here’s what you can do to keep your campaigns running at their best:
Tracking the right metrics helps you measure success and make smarter optimizations. Focus on:
Tip: Avoid vanity metrics (numbers that look good but don’t directly impact your goals). Impressions or total clicks might seem impressive, but if they’re not leading to conversions, they don’t tell the full story.
A/B testing helps you optimize by comparing different versions of your ads and landing pages to see what performs best. Testing ad copy, landing pages, and bidding strategies can reveal small changes that lead to better conversions.
Google’s Experiments tool makes it easy to split test without affecting your main campaign, allowing you to optimize based on real data.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) gives deeper insights into how users interact with your site after clicking an ad. It helps you connect ad performance with actual customer behavior, leading to better optimization decisions. You can:
Google Ads (once called AdWords before it was changed in 2018) is constantly changing, and what works today might not work tomorrow. Stay on top of Google’s updates, industry news, and new tools to make sure you can keep your campaigns competitive. Regularly learning about new bidding strategies, audience targeting options, and ad formats helps you adapt before your competitors do.
If your ads aren’t converting enough or if you’re having trouble optimizing your Google Ad strategy, Bestever can help.
We make ad optimization as easy as clicking a button by using AI computer vision to analyze your creatives and suggest improves based on data. Here’s how:
Ready to optimize your Google Ads for success? Let our team show you how to fine-tune your Google Ads campaigns so you can maximize your ad budget, starting today.