Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Many people set up Google Ads Pay Per Click Advertising to get traffic to their website and turn into leads and enquiries for their business.
However, not setting Google ads up correctly or continually optimising your campaigns over time, it’s easy to show your ads in Google for ‘Search Terms’ that are not relevant to your products or services, costing you money with little to no return.
Funnily enough, even though the ‘Search Terms’ that people type into Google are not relevant to your ad, people will still click on your ad but won’t take any action on your website or your landing page, which costs you money.
Alternatively, if your ad shows up for ‘Search Terms’ that are irrelevant, and therefore people do not click on your ad, your Click Through Rate (CTR) significantly reduces.
Your Click Through Rate (CTR) significantly reduces your Google Ads Quality Score and consequently increases the campaign’s ‘Cost Per Click’ (CPC), so you spend more than you need to.
To get the best from your Google ads campaigns, that is, more conversions (leads and enquiries) at a lower Cost Per Conversion, it’s essential that your ads only show in Google for ‘Search Terms’ that are relevant to your product or service.
Showing your ad for relevant ‘Search Terms’ provides relevancy and congruency from the search term typed in Google through to your website or landing page, creating more conversions (leads and enquiries) at a lower ‘Cost Per Conversion’.
Ensure Your Ads Are Only Shown To Relevant ‘Search Terms’ in the Google Search Engine
Within your Google ads account, click on the relevant search campaign, enter the ‘Keywords’ section, and click ‘Search Terms’.
Within this section, you will see a list of all the actual ‘Search Terms’ typed into Google (by a searcher in Google) that then clicked on your ad in Google.
If you have ‘Conversion Tracking’ on your website or landing page, you can sort by ‘Search Terms’ (typed into Google) that converted the visitor into a lead or enquiry.
In each Ad Group, go through all the ‘Actual Search Terms’ to ensure that each one is relevant to the product or service on the website or landing page your prospective customers are sent to after clicking your ad in Google.
To get the best results, ensure the ‘Actual Search Terms’ has good commercial intent relevant to your product or service. The ‘Actual Search Terms’ are the words prospective customers would type into the Google search engine, searching for your product or services.
What To Do When You Find ‘Search Terms’ Not Relevant To Your Product or Service
Once you’ve highlighted ‘Search Terms’ that are not relevant to your product or service, click on the box to the left of the search term.
The next step is to click on ‘Add As Negative Keyword’ on the blue bar directly above the search terms. You will now be able to add that search term to the relevant Negative Keywords list.
You will now be able to add that search term to the relevant Negative Keywords list.
Select the ‘Ad Group’, ‘Campaign’ or a ‘Negative Keyword List’ to add the negative keyword. Ensure the negative keywords are correct and press ‘SAVE’.
Now you’ve made the search term Negative, when someone types in that search term into Google, your ad will no longer be displayed, making your campaign more relevant, increasing performance and your overall return.
As a result, your Click Through Rate (CTR) increases over time. A high Click Through Rate indicates to Google that your campaign is relevant, which increases your Google Quality Score and subsequently reduces your Cost Per Click (CPC).
Check Your Campaigns’ Search Terms’ To Increase Performance…
- Check the Actual ‘Search Terms’ in each Ad Group (found in ‘Keywords’ and ‘Search Terms’).
- Make each non-relevant Search Term NEGATIVE to increase leads and enquiries and reduce ‘Cost Per Conversion (enquiries)’.