In this day and age, businesses try experimenting with multiple tactics to generate leads. However, one of the top techniques for it is a lead magnet. For those who aren't aware of what's a lead magnet, fret not! It's a tool that marketers have been using for decades.

A lead magnet is a tool that helps in lead generation by providing a long-form resource in exchange for the contact information of the prospect. Lead magnets can take the form of whitepapers, ebooks, templates, cheat sheets, checklists, and a lot more!

Before we discuss different lead magnet ideas, tips, and examples, let’s review the conversion path transforming website visitors into leads and the role of email marketing in this entire process:

• CTA (Call to Action): Website visitors click this button to access the resource you are providing them with.
• Landing Page: When website visitors click on the CTA, they are directed to a landing page. On this page, the visitors fill out a form where they enter details such as name, email address, and other important information you may need.
• Thank You Page: Next, the visitor-turned-lead is directed to a thank you page. This page has the required information regarding where to access the resource.
• Kickback email: After a brief time, you send a kickback email to the lead. You can think of it as a follow-up message. This email marketing campaign begins a conversation with the lead in order to keep them engaged with your brand.

How to Create a Lead Magnet?

Let's discuss the steps to create an effective lead magnet:

1. Know Who You Are Targeting and What They Want

The aim of a lead magnet is to provide a resource your audience wants and get their contact information in exchange. To determine what to offer your prospects, learn about the user persona you are targeting and what you can offer to entice them.

You create a user persona (a semi-fictional character) to represent different types of customers who use the services or products of your business.

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When you create user personas, you may end up having 1-3 of them with different pain points and needs. Keep in mind that one single lead magnet may not suffice in appealing to different personas.

For instance, you have created two user personas. One of the personas may need knowledge-based magnets such as ebooks. Whereas the other persona may require resourced-based magnets such as tools and templates.

Tip: To create different lead magnets for different user personas, you can check the lead magnets of your competitors to get a fair idea.

2. Create and Name Your Lead Magnet

After you decide what you will offer your prospects, it is time to create and design. To undertake the design work, you can take the help of an in-house designer or outsource the work using an independent contractor. You can also not choose either of the two options and simply use Canva.

Tip: Canva contains hundreds of customizable templates that let you create different lead magnets such as worksheets, reports, presentation slides, and books.

Post completion of this process, give a catchy name to your lead magnet that can effectively attract your audience. Also, highlight its advantages in the name itself. For instance - 102 Ways To Monetize Your Brand.

3. Create Your Conversion Path

The next step is building your conversion path, which should include your landing page, form, thank-you page, and email sequence.

Some practices you can follow to increase conversions are:

• Create a dedicated landing page without a navigation bar. Doing so will make the user focus on only your offer without any distractions.
• Your CTA must have words that can appeal to your prospects in the best possible manner. It should also be short, clear, and crisp in its message.
• Add testimonials and reviews to your landing pages to improve conversions. As per the latest testimonial statistics, 72% of consumers have stated that positive reviews and testimonials increased their faith in a business.

Tip: In the form, name and email are the two information pieces you should definitely include. Asking for other details is optional. We recommend you include fewer fields so that the user doesn't get frustrated and abandon the form.

Next, let's talk about your email sequence. After you acquire a lead, you can move them further down the funnel by adding them into a nurturing sequence. It can include newsletters, webinars, and other additional resources.

Lastly, ensure you track your conversion path and check the behavior of users on it.

4. Update Regularly

You need to regularly update your lead magnet so that it provides only the current data to your audience. If you do not do so, the resource will no longer stay valuable to your audience.

Tip: Carry out feedback surveys on your offers and check your lead's comments. When you take these steps, you get to know more about how you can improve your offer.

Lead Magnet Ideas

The most famous lead magnet among subscribers is an ebook. As per the latest statistics,Ā  27.7% of marketers are using them. Other famous ones are free tools and webinars.

There are plenty of ideas for lead magnets out there. Let's discuss some of them in more detail:

1. Webinars

A webinar is a seminar carried out over the internet and is a great way to create a sense of urgency that can push your audience to sign up. If you decide to go with this idea, we recommend you put a countdown timer to tell individuals how many hours or days are remaining to be a part of the webinar.

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2. ebook

An ebook is another idea you can go for. But there is something you should know here. Your target audience will have to take out time to read your ebook because of its lengthy nature. So, ensure it features an irresistible benefit when you decide to offer it as a lead magnet.

3. Tutorial

We all are aware of what a tutorial is. It is a content piece that teaches you how to do a certain thing. It can take the form of a PDF download or a video.

If you decide to go for this lead magnet idea, ensure you use a list-style headline such as X Steps to ABC. Doing so lets your audience know how many steps are there in the tutorial.

4. Checklist

Checklists are easily consumed and extremely quick to create. They condense all the things your prospect should know in a single, actionable list. For instance, you can turn your instructional blog posts into checklists.

Tip: Ensure you provide the checklist in a printable format to make it easy for individuals to tick off an item when they complete it.

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5. Cheatsheet

Cheatsheets provide the user with a process or a list of guidelines they can follow again and again in order to obtain a certain result.

Cheatsheet is an amazing lead magnet idea because it takes away the need to think - a person no longer has to rack their brain if they wish to achieve the desired result.

The list certainly doesn't end here. Other lead magnet ideas include discount codes, workbooks, case studies, newsletters, and so much more.

Lead Magnet Examples

Let's look at two lead magnet examples that can come in handy when you decide to create a lead magnet:

A. MuleSoft

Take a look at this lead magnet by MuleSoft. They have focused on a particular goal for a particular buyer persona. They are targeting Saas executives and their offer guides them on how to make their app enterprise-ready.

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B. HubSpot

Another great lead magnet you can consider is a calculator or grader. HubSpot provides a website grader that scans your website in seconds and offers a score based on the mobile experience, performance, security, and SEO.

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After a person enters their website and email id in the website grader, they get an exhaustive report about their website performance. The grader helps their audience recognize the potential problems with their website and provides a solution to rectify them.

Lead Magnet Tips

Now that you know some lead magnet ideas and examples, it's time to know how to use lead magnets in the correct manner:

1. Understand Your Audience

Not everyone who comes to your website is your target audience. So, if you provide a generic lead magnet, you may receive irrelevant information. So, we recommend you thoroughly know your audience before creating a lead magnet. Determine and understand who they are, what they want, and where they are coming from. This basic rule will aid you in creating the correct lead magnet.

2. Take a Look at the Analytics

Make it a point to check your analytics and know specific information such as the number of individuals who come to your website, the number of individuals who decide to access your content, and how many individuals take the step to download or use it.

Knowing these things helps you determine how you can improve to get more individuals to sign up.

3. Use Your Best-Performing Content

Check your content library and look for your best-performing content resource to create an effective lead magnet that too, in a lesser amount of time. It can be your most viewed/shared Slideshare presentation deck, the most downloaded ebook, or simply a webinar with the most number of attendees. Webinars, slide decks, and ebooks can be readily used as lead magnets.

In case you want to employ your best blog post as a lead magnet, ensure you repurpose it in a downloadable file. A word of advice here - never put a blog post behind a form. We suggest that you repurpose the blog post into a cheat sheet or a checklist and then use it as your lead magnet.

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All in all, when it comes to deciding your lead magnet, your star content is your best bet.

4. Make It a Point to Offer Top-Notch Content

Lastly, we would say that ensure your lead magnet is highly useful to your website visitors. Even if a half-cooked lead magnet gets you a thousand leads, most of them may not convert eventually.

Remember the following pointers:

• Ensure your content resource is easily understandable
• Never provide obsolete content resources
• Provide content relevant to your typical site visitor.

Conclusion

The bottom line? Ensure you understand your audience and offer useful resources to them when you decide to use a lead magnet. Remember, a lead magnet forms an integral part of marketing content. With its help, your prospects get a useful piece of content and you are able to maintain a healthy lead pipeline.

Now that you are armed with this knowledge, you are now in a more informed position to make a decision regarding your lead magnets. Use our lead magnet ideas and tips to see drastic improvements in your digital marketing efforts!

Lastly, we hope this guide gets you more signups and increases your conversions. Now it's our turn to ask you questions - which lead magnet ideas do you like and are definitely going to try?

According to Statista, a total of 4.59 billion people use social media. Users tend to spend 2 hours and 25 minutes daily (on average) on social media platforms.

If you own a business and want to quickly scale your business by reaching out to your potential customers, you must definitely turn your attention to social media advertising. For those who are not aware, social media advertising enables businesses to run paid advertisements on social networks. It is a digital marketing strategy involving spending money to promote content on social media platforms to reach people interested in your business and get them to explore it.

One of the significant benefits of a paid advertising campaign on social media is that it gives your exposure in front of a much larger audience as compared to the people who are currently following you.

We understand it may seem daunting when you decide to opt for social media advertising. Therefore, in this blog, you will get to know the different types of social media ads and how to use them in the most optimum way to attain results that pay off for your business, all while maximizing the amount you spend.

But first, let's understand which social media network to choose to place your ads on.

Which Social Media is Best for Advertising?

Every major social network provides advertising options. But you don't necessarily have to use each one of them. To choose the right social networks to place your ads on, check where your target audience hangs out the most and where they are the most engaged, concentrated, and accessible. Also, see which social media platforms perform well organically for your business. All of this information will help you determine your choice for your social ad campaigns.

Now that you know which social media platform will be the best for your business, it’s time to know the ad types of various social media networks as the first part of our social media advertising 101.

I. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads help you attain the following campaign objectives:

• Awareness: Expand reach or develop brand awareness.

• Consideration: Increase engagement, send traffic to your website, encourage video views or app installs, motivate individuals to communicate with you on Facebook Messenger, or generate leads.

• Conversion: Increase leads or purchases through your app or site or send foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar store.

According to the latest statistics, 1.9 billion daily users access Facebook. From teens to their parents to seniors, all actively use this popular social media platform. Given the precise targeting options offered for such a massive pool of users, Facebook is an apt platform for social media advertising. You can use different types of Facebook ads, such as:

1. Image Ads

Creating an image ad is an effortless process with just a few clicks. All you need to do is boost an existing post featuring an image from your Facebook Page, and you are all set!

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2. Video Ads

Video ads can run in Stories and the News Feed. They also appear as in-stream ads in Facebook videos of a longer length.

Tip: Use these types of ads to showcase a product in action.

3. Poll Ads

A poll ad is a mobile-only Facebook ad format that incorporates a two-option poll to a video or image ad. You can embed different links for the two poll choices.

4. Carousel Ads

A Facebook carousel ad allows you to put up to 10 videos or images to advertise your service or product.

5. Slideshow Ads

A slideshow ad is an ad that generates a compelling video from still images, video clips, and text. In case you are not ready to give video ads a try but want to move beyond static images, you can consider opting for slideshow ads. You can easily create slideshow ads in minutes using AI slideshow maker.

6. Messenger Ads

Messenger ads are the ads you find in the Messenger app (in the chats tab in between conversations).

7. AR Ads

These ads use features such as animation and filters to let individuals interact with your business.

8. Stories Ads

Ā Facebook stories ads are full-screen vertical video format (mobile-only).

9. Dynamic Ads

Here's an example to understand this type of Facebook ad. Suppose a person visited a product page or added a product to their shopping cart on your website. However, they didn't complete the purchase. This is where dynamic ads can prove to be highly useful. You can use dynamic ads to create retargeting ads specific to the product and show it in that person's Facebook feed.

10. Lead Ads

Lead ads are mobile-only ads that make it easy for Facebook users to provide you with their contact information without typing a lot.

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11. Instant Experience Ads

Instant Experience ads are full-screen ad formats that load 15 times faster than compared to a mobile site outside of Facebook.

12. Collection Ads

Applicable only to mobile devices, collection ads let you showcase five videos or images customers can click to purchase a service or a product.

Listen Up: Own a small business? Learn more about Facebook advertising for small businesses.

II. Instagram Ads

Owned by Facebook, Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users.

67% of individuals aged between 18 and 29 use Instagram.

When you talk about Instagram ads, they support the same categories of campaign objectives we discussed about Facebook ads, i.e., Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Let's take a closer look at the different types of Instagram ads:

1. Photo Ads

Photo ads feature a photo, description, and a call-to-action.

2. Video Ads

Video ads help provide a closer look at your offerings in a much more engaging way. You can create long or short format videos as per your requirement.

3. Carousel Ads

This ad possesses a series of videos or images users can easily swipe through. Use these ads to display a collection of related products.

4. Collection Ads

Collection ads look the same as a traditional Instagram post. The only difference is a little shopping bag at the bottom-left corner, which, when clicked, redirects you to the products showcased in the post.

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5. Shopping Ads

These ads are somewhat similar to collection ads. When you tap on the image displayed in it, a link shows up, which takes you to the page where you can purchase the item.

6. Explore Ads

These ads appear in the Explore tab, an area of Instagram where users can access fresh content and discover new accounts, all tailored according to their Instagram usage habits. These ads can be both videos and images.

7. Story Ads

A story ad is a full-screen-sized video or image that you choose. It also has a swipe-up call-to-action directing the user to your website or profile.‍

Tip: Get a good professional photo editing app for amazing photos to build an awesome social media presence or to promote your business through social media.

8. IGTV Ads

IGTV ads are video ads that play when people watch an IGTV video from their feed.

9. Reels Ads

These are the ads shown in between Instagram Reels and can be up to 30 seconds.

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Tip: Use Lightroom Instagram Presets to get the desired effect on your shots, that too, in a minimum amount of time.

III. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is a platform that is far more business-oriented as compared to the other social networks discussed in this post. It provides targeting options based on job title, seniority, and other professional qualifications.

Let's understand the LinkedIn ad types in detail:

1. Sponsored Content

Also called Native ads, these show up on your audience's feed (both on desktop and mobile). When you advertise with Sponsored Content, you can opt for single image ads, carousel ads, or video ads.

2. Sponsored Messaging

Previously called Sponsored InMail, it allows you to advertise to users directly in their inbox.

3. Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are the types of LinkedIn ads that are automatically personalized for each of your prospects. Here's an example of a dynamic ad:

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4. Text Ads

Text ads show up along the right-hand side or the top of a user's LinkedIn feed (on desktops only).

IV. YouTube Ads

YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world. The latest statistics share some interesting insights on YouTube users to help you make an informed decision whether to use it to place your ads or not:

• 81% of individuals aged 15-25 use it
• 71% of individuals aged 26-35 use it
• 67% of individuals aged 36-45 use it
• 66% of individuals aged 46-55 use it
• 58% of people above 56 years of age use it

Over half of YouTube’s users are female.

YouTube ads can help you reach various business goals, such as:

• Get more website traffic
• Increase brand and product consideration
• Develop brand awareness
• Collect leads

The types of YouTube ads include:

1. Skippable In-Stream Ads

These play before or during a video, and the viewer can opt to skip them after the first 5 seconds.

2. Non-skippable YouTube Ads

These are brief ads appearing either at the start, end, or middle of a video. The maximum length of these ads is 15 seconds, and they can't be skipped.

3. Video Discovery Ads

Video discovery YouTube ads appear on the YouTube search results pages, homepage, and as related videos on YouTube video watch pages.

4. Outstream Ads

These ads aren't available on YouTube. These mobile-only ads appear on apps and websites that run on Google video partners. Outstream ads might run within apps or in-feed content, or in web banners.

5. Bumper Ads

Bumper ads are regarded as the subspecies of non-skippable in-stream ads. You can expect bumper ads to be less than 6 seconds.

6. Masthead Ads

This ad type works great for publicizing a new service or a product. Take a look at this image, and you will understand the positioning of masthead ads and the impact they can make:

Learn more about how to use YouTube Ads to grow your business.

V. TikTok Ads

TikTok is a social networking service that focuses on video. 18% of international internet users aged between 16 and 64 use TikTok (GlobalWebIndex).

TikTok ads enable you to achieve different business goals, such as:

• Increase engagement with creative content and interactivity.
• Connect with a variety of audiences worldwide.
• Encourage sales and app installs.

Now let’s talk about the types of TikTok ads.

In-feed ads are ads you create yourself. Types of in-feed ads are video ads (similar to a commercial), image ads (similar to a billboard), and spark ads (boosting your existing content to reach more users).

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There are also carousel ads (these run only in TikTok’s News Feed apps) and pangle ads (placed via TikTok’s Audience Network).

Ads formats for managed brands (those who work with a TikTok sales representative) include:

• TopView ads: Video ads that run on full-screen for 5-60 seconds upon opening the app.
• Branded Hashtag Challenge: It is a 3- to 6-day ad campaign format for engagement.
• Branded Effects: Branded filters, stickers, and special effects to get app users to interact with your brand.

VI. Twitter Ads

Twitter is a popular social network on which users post and interact with tweets (messages). The largest age demographic on this platform is 25 to 34-year-olds. Twitter ads can help you reach three objectives: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Let’s dive straight into the types of Twitter ads:

1. Promoted Accounts

The suggested accounts that show up beneath the “What’s happening” section and under the “Who to follow” section are promoted accounts. Based on the user interest, your profile gets suggested to the right users.

2. Promoted Trends

Sponsored by advertisers, promoted trends show up in a section called “Trends for you.” Brands can promote a trend for one day with promoted trends.

3. Promoted Tweets

Promoted tweets is an option you can consider for making a crucial status update stand out on the feed of your potential customers.

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VII. Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a social site where you can collect as well as share images of anything that intrigues you. As per the latest statistics, six out of 10 Pinterest users are females.

When you talk of Pinterest ads, they help you with various business goals, such as building brand awareness, driving app installs, and driving traffic to your website.

Here’s what you should know about types of Pinterest ads:

1. Promoted Pin

Promoted Pins show up in users’ feeds the same way as a regular Pin would. The only difference between the two is a “promoted” tag.

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When you run these types of ads, you enhance the exposure of your pin and get discovered by people who may want to purchase from you.

2. Promoted Video Pins

The sole difference between promoted video pins and the other ad options is that the multimedia used is a video. These ads are used to grab the attention of your audience more effectively.

3. Promoted Carousel

Promoted Carousel is one of the Pinterest ad types where you can have more than a single photo (2-5 images).

4. Buyable Pins

Buyable pins allow individuals to shop straight from the pins you post. All the user needs to do is click on the white dots and visit your product listing page.

5. Promoted App Pins

You can use Promoted app pins to promote your business app.

VIII. Snapchat Ads

Snapchat is a sought-after multimedia instant messaging app and service. A lot of young adults are known to use it. When you talk of the different ad types of this platform, they can help you attain several marketing objectives, such as increasing your brand awareness and driving catalog sales or website conversions.

Here's what you should know about the different Snapchat ad types:

1. Single Image or Video

These are full-screen ads where you add an attachment (such as a link to your site) and users swipe up to take action.

2. Story Ads

Story ads help you get in front of your potential customers with a branded title in the Discover feed. Snapchat users can visit your ad and check out a complete collection of snaps (ranging from 3 to 20). With story ads, you can showcase any product launches or a new fashion collection. Users can also swipe up to complete your goal, such as purchasing something on your site.

3. Collection Ads

These ads contain four tappable tiles that allow users to browse and purchase your products.

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4. Lenses

Snapchat allows you to run interactive, memorable AR ads in its Ads Manager. With the help of Lens Web Builder, you can choose from a variety of animations, 3D objects, and effects to create your personal branded AR lens. After you are done, you can launch it in the form of an ad for Snapchat users to play with as well as share with their pals.

5. Filters

Filters let brands participate in millions of snaps sent between friends every day. When Snapchat users take a snap in the location you select beforehand, they are able to view your filter and use it to tell when, why, and where they took the snap.

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6. Commercials

Commercials are the ads that Snapchat users cannot skip for 6 seconds and can be up to 3 minutes long.

Social Media Advertising Tips

Some social media advertising tips can always come in handy when you are trying to get the most out of your ad budget. Let's begin:

1. Know the Goals You Want to Achieve

Start by reviewing the business objectives a social media ad can help you achieve. You can't attain your goals when you don't even know what they are in the first place. Precisely knowing your business objectives ensures you are selecting the correct social media platform to advertise on. It also helps you choose the suitable advertising solution in the social media platform you choose.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Before you decide to advertise on social media, ensure you have thoroughly understood and learned about your target audience. In this blog, we have discussed the different types of audiences that hang out on popular social media networks. Keeping this information in mind, you can develop audience personas to know which audience segments to concentrate on.

3. Design Your Ads Keeping Mobile in Mind

As per the latest statistics, about 99% of social media users access apps or websites via mobile. So, we can say that social media ads reach a lot of eyeballs on mobile.

Do you know what this means? You must put those images in your ads which your potential customers can easily view on a pocket-size device (except when you want to go for desktop placement).

4. Test Your Ads to Know What Works Best

Do you know the advantage of using social ads? You get feedback in an instant!

You can know how effective a sponsored post is performing and that too in minutes. You are even presented with an advanced analytics report.

Test multiple ads with tiny audiences and use the best one in your primary campaign.

5. Measure Results and Report on Them

Measuring results holds critical importance because it will let you know what worked out and what didn't. You can then make the improvements accordingly if any. The social media giants, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, provide analytics to let you measure and analyze the results of ads.

Social Media Advertising Cost

Now, you may wonder how much do paid social media advertisements cost? The answer is: It varies based on your business and your ads.

When you talk of social media advertising, a lot of networks require a minimum daily budget. This rate differs from platform to platform, with some basing their required budget on the bid type, such as clicks, impressions, views, or likes.

Here's the lowest possible ad spend spread across famous social media networks:

A. Average CPC for Social Media Ads

With social media advertising, your business can use different bidding options, such as CPV (cost-per-view) and CPL (cost-per-like). A universal bidding option you should also know of is CPC (cost-per-click).

See the table below to know about the average CPC for the social media networks in your ad campaign:

B. Average CPM for Social Media

Leading social media networks also offer CPM or cost-per-thousand impressions as a bidding option.

Here's a breakdown of the social media advertising costs by CPM:

Conclusion

Now that you know what social media advertising is, the different types of social media ads, social media advertising tips, and how much do social media ads cost, you are more informed to get the most out of your ad budget.

Hope this social media advertising 101 helps you achieve real business results when you use different types of social media ads.

Google Ads is a powerful platform as 73% of the paid search market share belongs to Google. And there are obvious reasons for that. According to Emarketer, 35% of users purchase a product within five days of searching for it on Google.

That's the reason every business wants to leverage Google Ads for their products and services. It's full of metrics and data points, which can sometimes baffle agencies.

What Are Google Ads Metrics?

Google Ads metrics cover everything, ranging from impressions to conversions and everything that comes in between. Google uses hundreds of metrics and dimensions that can be overwhelming for marketers.

The most popular metrics for improving ROI and optimizing the campaign are CPAs, CPCs, and Quality Score. Each metric has a specific purpose.

Different metrics are used for various purposes. Sometimes, you need the metrics to persuade your agency and the client to increase their Google ad budget. These metrics are "Impression Share" and "Budget Limits."

What Is Impression Share?

According to Google, Impression Share (IS) is the percentage of impressions your ads receive against the total number of impressions your ads could likely get.

Here are the three categories of the most critical Google Ads metrics:

1. Metrics that Measure Ad and Campaign Quality
2. Metrics that Measure Engagement & Conversion Rates
3. Metrics that Measure Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) & Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Google Campaign & Ad Quality Metrics

It's a tricky metric as Google keeps the algorithms that measure ad quality at the back-end under wraps. Measuring ad quality and keyword relevance is crucial as it influences your ad position and helps you determine the ad spend needed to achieve your sales goals.

Google tracks the following three factors to determine the ad quality:

1. Click-through rates
2. Landing page experience
3. Ad relevance to the keyword

The higher your score on these factors, the better your quality score.

What makes this metric even more important is the fact that it impacts your cost-per-click (CPC). It also indicates the keyword relevance. Your ad quality score should be higher if you need a high ad position and a lower CPC.

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The Reasons for a Lower CTR

A low CTR can be a red flag for many reasons. Here are two significant reasons for that.

A. Lack of Keyword Relevance

A low CTR indicates that your chosen keywords aren't relevant to the searcher's intent. So, the ad doesn't offer what the users are looking for.

B. Poor Google Ad Copy

A lower CTR also reflects that ad copy may not be compelling enough to attract visitors' attention. In that case, you should use an engaging ad copy. You should consider the user behavior, psychographics, and pain points to create a compelling ad copy.

Reason for a High Bounce Rate

Another valuable metric you should monitor is the landing page bounce rate, which indicates that the fault lies in your landing page content and not in your ad copy or keywords chosen.

A high bounce rate means the visitors are not finding what they are looking for on the landing page. The possible issues can be with page design, copy, and CTAs.

How Do You Measure Campaign or Ad Quality?

As an agency, you should track these 13 most important Google Ads metrics daily to make your ad campaigns more effective.

1. Impressions

Impression reflects the number of times your ad appears in front of your audience.

2. Clicks by Campaign

It's almost the same as Total Clicks but split by each campaign, allowing you to check your performance on priority ad campaigns.

3. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

The revenue you generate for every dollar that you spend on Google Ads on behalf of your client.

4. Total Clicks

The number of clicks your client's ads attracts during your campaigns.

5. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

It's usually measured as the percentage of visitors who clicked on an ad out of the total number of visitors.

6. Cost per Click (CPC)

The cost you pay for each time a user clicks on your client's ad.

7. Cost

The total sum you spend on behalf of your clients for Google paid campaigns.

8. Conversions

The number of website visitors who completed the campaign's desired action on your client's website after they landed up on it after clicking on an ad.

9. Bounce Rate

The ratio of sessions (usually a percentage) leaving the landing page without taking any desired action.

10. Conversion Rate

It indicates the percentage of website visitors who completed a desired action on the landing page after clicking on it.

11. Average Cost-Per-Conversion (CPA)

A business's average cost for each conversion through paid ads.

12. Quality Score

It reflects Google's quality rating of the ad, keyword, and landing page, which helps users optimize their ad for the best performance. It involves cost per click and position in the paid results on SERPs.

13. Average Session Duration

Used both in organic and paid search, average session duration tells you how much time visitors spend on your landing page/website.

How to Access Google Ad Metrics?

You can access most Google Ads metrics in one central location at the DashClicks white label dashboard. Sign up for the DashClicks platform for free and try our analytics platform.

Google Ads Metrics for Google Ads Executives

To get an overview of your campaign and see where the campaign is heading, you can track the following metrics.

1. Total spend
2. Revenue
3. ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend)
4. Clicks
5. Conversions

However, marketing managers can use the following metrics to evaluate their campaign performance and make necessary tweaks to it.

1. CTR
2. CPC
3. Conversion rate
4. CPA
5. Quality score
6. Changes in keyword positions

How to Create a Monthly Report for Your Google Ads Campaign?

You can use DashClicks' InstaReports tool and get a monthly report. It will contain graphic illustrations, necessary metrics, and valuable data. It's full of insights and data, and you can use it for decision-making.

Here is what the InstaReports tool looks like -

Source:Ā  What is InstaReports and How Do They Work? 3:16

Source: What is InstaReports and How Do They Work? 4:16

For more details, watch this video.

Final Words

Google Ads comes with a vast array of metrics, and it's neither desirable nor feasible to track them all. You can pick the most relevant ones to follow your campaign's performance.

With the help of the above metrics and the DashClicks' Analytics tool, your agency can get the necessary insights. These insights will help you tweak and improve your bids, keywords, ads, and campaigns. The stunning automated reports generated by our reporting tool will help your clients understand the campaign and how long it will take to achieve their goals.

The power of storytelling is unrivaled in business marketing.

YouTube ad sequencing empowers marketers to deliver brand stories to consumers with ease. No longer do you need to dump all of your content into one video. Instead, you can highlight key selling points in bite-sized content that's easy to digest.

But, what is YouTube ad sequencing and how does it work?

We're going to show you how to create a successful video ad sequence that drives conversions below.

What Is a YouTube Ad Sequence?

A YouTube ad sequence is a marketing tool that allows you to play advertisement videos in a bespoke order.

With traditional video ads, you upload your content to YouTube. After you select your targeting, YouTube will play this ad to key demographics before, during, or after their regularly scheduled content. It will generally select one of the videos in your ad group at random to play.

When you create an ad sequence, you get to determine the exact order. This way, you can ensure that every new viewer sees ad A, followed by ad B, and finishes with ad C. Google will automatically display your ad sequence to one user, one time, every 7 days.

YouTube Ad Sequencing vs Standalone Videos

The power of video can't be questioned.

Even a standalone video ad will drive significantly more conversions than images. A survey of Facebook marketers by Databox found that video accounted for 60% more ad clicks compared to pictures.

Google also declares that more than 33% of shoppers purchased a product thanks to a YouTube ad.

On the other hand, YouTube ad sequencing accounts for a staggering 74% ad recall lift when compared to the standalone video.

The reason for this is that ad sequencing works much like the traditional sales funnel. Rather than expecting a viewer to act on the first discovery, you get to reinforce your message with multiple interactions.

Furthermore, multiple videos provide more breathing room for your content. Rather than trying to sandwich all of the bullet points into one short video, you get to take your prospect on a journey. The gaps in between each video in the sequence then allow the viewer to reflect upon what you've previously shared. Instead of seeing your brand once and forgetting about it, they might see your second and third video and decide to convert at that time.

The trick to creating a great sequence is to ensure that your ads tell an excellent story. Google/YouTube knows this and offers all marketers pre-built storytelling templates to guide you to creating the perfect video ads.

What are these templates? How do you make sure your videos fit into the sequence? We're going to guide you through that setup process next.

How to Set up a YouTube Ad Sequence?

To get started with YouTube ad sequencing, you'll need to create a brand-new campaign within your Google Ads account.

If you've yet to get started with Google Ads, you can create an account for your business here.

Step 1 - Select an Objective

First, you'll need to select a campaign objective. Google uses this to provide campaign options that work best for that goal.

YouTube ad sequencing is limited to the following objectives: Product and brand consideration or Brand awareness and reach. Select the former to promote a specific offering and the latter to boost your audience discovery efforts.

Step 2 – Campaign Creation & Bidding Options

Next, select Ad sequence as the subtype to get started. You’ll need to name your campaign and select your ideal bidding strategy. You can choose between the following options (per Google support):

• Target CPM (recommended) – Google Ads optimizes bids to show your entire sequence campaign to your audience, which can help you get a higher sequence completion rate.
• Maximum CPV – Set the most you’re willing to pay each time your video ad is viewed.

Google recommends the first option as it provides more flexibility to show the full ad sequence. That means that you can leverage all three video types to maximize viewing time while keeping your costs low.

You may be able to brute force your way to securing spots with max CPV, but you are strictly limited to skippable video ads.

To help you select the ideal bidding option, here’s an overview of YouTube’s available video ad types:

• Skippable in-stream ads – Your ad will interrupt the user’s current YouTube video. Users can skip the video after 5 seconds elapse.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads – Your ad will interrupt the user’s current YouTube video. The video may be no longer than 15 seconds and the user may not skip it.
• Bumper ads – Your ad will play at the beginning or the end of the current YouTube video. These are meant to be short and no longer than 6 seconds.

We concur with Google's recommendation as being able to utilize each ad type or a combination allows greater creative freedom.

Step 3 - Deciding Who to Target

YouTube ad sequencing presents a caveat when it comes to a typical campaign targeting setup.

As per Google: You can't target keywords, topics, or placements but you can exclude keywords, topics, or placements at the campaign level.

Unlike your typical ads, you may not target users based on keywords or phrases they utilize to discover new videos. Instead, you're going to primarily focus on the most important audience demographics and the devices they utilize.

Google Ads will allow you to check off any number of demos you wish to target including age ranges, employment status, or household income levels. You can also choose which devices you want Google to prioritize for this campaign. Having pre-existing audience data on your Google Ads account will prove helpful for getting the most out of this ad sequence.

After you select your ideal audience, you'll need to select your content exclusions.

Whenever a YouTube account uploads a video, they’re required to identify the video as having any of the following attributes:

• Profanity
• Sexual content
• Nudity
• Violence & injury
• Drug use
• Crime

As an advertiser, you can exclude any content that contains these characteristics. Users often make a direct association with a brand and the content they view. If your brand is family-friendly, you'll want to exclude any strong examples of the above when possible.

You can choose three inventory types that dictate how often Google excludes content for ad placement:

• Expanded Inventory – This gives you the greatest selection of videos to use for your ad campaign. However, content may include sensitive materials that feature all of the above attributes. It will exclude excessive profanity, graphic sexual content, and graphic violence.
• Standard Inventory – This is the level deemed appropriate for most everyday brands. Google Ads makes the effort to exclude repeated profanity, strong sexual content, and violence either real or dramatized.
• Limited Inventory – This is for advertisers that must go the extra mile to ensure everything stays brand-safe. Google will exclude even moderate profanity and sexual content. However, this greatly limits your available real estate.

Choose the appropriate option that makes the most sense for your brand. As Google states, the standard option should work for most companies. Not only will choosing the right content better speak to your company values, but you're also more likely to connect with the correct audience demographics.

Step 4 - Choosing a Template & Adding Your Videos

Google Ads will prompt you to upload your videos at this time. You must upload a minimum of two unique videos.

However, we're going to help you out by skipping ahead to the next step - choosing a sequence template. Having an idea of how you're going to sequence your storytelling will help you in selecting the most effective videos for this campaign.

A. Choosing a Sequence Template

The four base options Google includes are as follows:

• Introduce & reinforce – This is a simple two-video sequence that features a long video to introduce your brand. You then follow up your initial content with a short video to reinforce the message.
• Prompt & inspire – This is an inverse of the first option. Instead of asking for more viewing time up front, you make the viewer aware of your brand or offer a quick video. After they’re aware of you, you then inspire them to act with a longer video.
• Attract & direct – This is the first three-video sequence template. It’s essentially a continuation of Prompt & inspires, but with a short video that features a direct CTA.
• Engage & differentiate – This is a four-video sequence template. The idea is to continuously reinforce one message through different angles and approaches to the same idea.

Note that you are not restricted to any of these templates. You can elect to make a Custom sequence and formulate any story you desire.

Google explores these sequence ideas more here with additional templates. They support the different use cases for these YouTube ad sequences with demonstrable increases in brand awareness, ad recall, and purchase intent.

1. Tease, Amplify, Echo – Develop curiosity with an initial short video. Follow up with a longer video that provides the opportunity to deepen engagement. Finish with a short video that compels them to action.

This is most comparable to Attract & direct. Tests of this sequence showed a 115% average increase in brand awareness, an 86% increase in ad recall, and a 134% increase in purchase intent.

2. The Mini-Series – This format leverages the 3-act story. Three videos share the rising action, the climax, and the resolution.

This sequence obtained high marks across the board with over a 100% increase in all three areas. It speaks directly to how impactful a genuine story is for marketers.

3. The Direct Shot – We can compare this to the Engage & differentiate template. Rather than focusing on different ideas, you want to revisit one idea multiple times for alternative perspectives. The message never changes significantly, but deviations from the first video cause the user to recognize each subsequent video as unique content.

This format, once again, scores high across all metrics. However, the focus on one idea shows a significant boost to purchase intent.

4. The Follow-Up – This sequence banks a lot into a long-form opening act. You can then follow up a longer video with as many shorter videos as necessary to drive it home.

This format boasts high marks, particularly in brand awareness and purchase intent. However, it appears to be less effective than the previously mentioned formats.

5. The Lead-In – This is the direct reverse of the follow-up. You utilize a short video to peak interest before establishing your message in a longer format.

This YouTube ad sequence showed the weakest performance out of all tested formats.

Using these metrics as a guideline, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the first three sequences. For example, Tease, Amplify, and Echo may be best for purchase intent, but the Mini-Series and Direct Shot are going to leave you with comparable results.

As you become more familiar with ad sequencing, you can set up custom sequences to experiment with other options.

B. Adding Your Videos

With the template you want to use in mind, you can proceed with adding videos to your campaign.

The highest-performing sequences share a commonality in establishing the message quickly. It’s estimated that 9 in 10 users will skip your ad when given the option. This is true even if your targeting is generally on-point.

Remember that users have the option to skip longer ads after five seconds. For skippable in-stream ads, you have exactly that long to make an impact.

You may be thinking: “But, non-skippable ads give me fifteen seconds to work with.” The problem is that the human attention span is on average nine seconds. Even if we run a longer ad, we get distracted by other browser tabs, our phones, our smartwatches, and so on. Just because the video is running doesn’t mean that people will watch.

Consider that the number one reason people visit YouTube is for entertainment. People already don’t enjoy ads, and delaying their chosen content to promote yourself already puts you at a disadvantage. You owe it to yourself and the viewer to make every second count. That means that your emphasis must be on quality versus quantity.

While longer ads are accepted, shorter is almost always better. You may want to think of the shorter videos in a sequence of 5-10 seconds, while your longer videos should be no longer than 15-30 seconds. There are exceptional cases where you may want to go longer, but this will highly depend upon your offer and the audience’s historical reaction.

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Give the most pertinent details upfront. Additionally, look to take full advantage of the disruption by acting outside of the norm. For an everyday watcher, ads are an expected part of life and they're going to tune out without even realizing it. By doing something unexpected, or maybe even shocking, you have a far better chance of demanding attention in the first few seconds.

Finally, avoid any lingering one-shots. Many content creators utilize snappy editing styles, using video editor for YouTube, even when the subject of the video remains the same. Cutting to different angles can trick the brain into feeling like the video is more dynamic than it is. You can also use this to maximize every second and eliminate unnecessary dead air and fluff from the ad.

Step 5 - Assigning Your Sequence Steps

After selecting your template and adding the videos, it's time to assemble all the moving parts.

Google will lay out your selected template as a reminder of which videos you'll want to place in each step. You'll just need to add the YouTube URL.

You can and should select one of the optional call-to-actions to add to each video. There are several options, so you should have no trouble finding the one that best speaks to your campaign objective.

You can change up your CTAs in each step. If you want to treat it like a sales funnel, you might use your first step to “Learn More.” At the last step, you could set your video to display “Buy now” to drive purchase intent.

Be aware that you can also customize your bidding options for each step if you desire. This allows for greater flexibility regarding which videos are most vital for promotion. If you need a reminder, head back up to our coverage on bidding options.

You'll also need to select the ad format for each video. Remember, your options are skippable, non-skippable, or bumper. If your video length extends beyond the allowed limits, that format will not be selectable.

Finally, you need to select the conditions that will trigger the next step in the sequence. For example, you may only want to show the next video to users that click on the first ad. Alternatively, you can pursue users that don't click by setting the trigger to impression. This means that anyone who sees the first video will be eligible for the next step in the sequence.

After you complete this process for every step, click Create Campaign to finalize the process. You can preview each as it will display on YouTube to make your last-minute checks.

Step 6 - Test & Observe Your YouTube Ad Sequence

From here on out, the process will be markedly similar to a traditional Google Ads campaign.

You'll be able to monitor results from your dashboard 24/7. You can obtain more in-depth metrics from each step by establishing custom UTM parameters at the time of campaign creation.

We strongly recommend doing this as it will provide greater insight as to which types of video work best with your audience on YouTube.

For your campaign at large, you're going to be looking for trends in not only ad views, but also minutes watched. The former tells you that you're winning the bid for the display time, while the latter indicates whether users are watching or skipping.

Other indicators of campaign success can be seen in the form of likes, channel subscriptions, and video shares. After taking a few weeks to gather actionable data, you can begin making improvements that will further drive conversions.

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This may involve swapping out videos at a step. It may also see you testing different sequence templates to better present your best content to your audience. Just like with a standard Google Ad campaign, allow the results to guide your performance.

How to Set up a YouTube Ad Sequence - Conclusion

Building a YouTube ad sequence allows you to capitalize on a marketer's greatest tool - storytelling.

By following proven narrative formulas, you get to control how your message gets delivered to your audience. Based on their impressions and engagement, you can filter out unqualified leads and further refine your content for better performance.

Finally, YouTube ad sequencing will help you stand out as a cut above compared to the competitor. Rather than randomly serving ads to target demos, you show the user that you're mindful of what they're experiencing. Leveraging the buyer journey and reinforcing your message will help build awareness and drive purchase intent like never before.

The client onboarding questionnaire is key to starting a business relationship off right.

While you may feel like celebrating and kicking back after crushing that sales pitch, the pressure is on more than ever. The client signed the contract, laid down their first payment, and now they want results.

However, in marketing, few things are instant. That's why you need to prove you're on top of your game by getting the ball rolling.

Let's dive into the process of creating an onboarding questionnaire. Then, we'll list out the best client onboarding questions you can have on your form.

What is a Client Onboarding Questionnaire?

A client onboarding questionnaire is a physical or digital form designed to collect information that's crucial to the success of a project.

When done right, your onboarding form should benefit both parties.

First, a questionnaire with well-articulated questions should give your client pause for consideration. The last things we want are overly-general answers. We want the brand owner to honestly reflect on their company's strengths and weaknesses.

No one is going to understand a company better than someone who works on the inside. They have a deeply vested interest in its success whether it be for personal or monetary gain. Coming to your agency should be a sincere request for professional assistance in achieving that goal.

With that in mind, you want your onboarding questionnaire to focus on key details such as:

• The company and its offerings
• The company’s mission, values, and approach to customers
• The primary business objective of a marketing service
• Competitor offerings & behaviors
• The ideal audience demographics

With these factors in mind, you have the bedrock for an excellent onboarding form. However, you can and should modify your form as necessary to consider the specific digital marketing services that the client is requesting from your agency. For instance, if you're designing client-focused onboarding questions for digital marketing services that highlight SEO strategies, incorporating an "SEO-focused intake form" can be invaluable. This ensures you gather all the essential insights needed to optimize search performance from the get-go.

Your onboarding form will help save time, guide the client on what they need to provide, and establish a permanent record. That way, you'll be able to fall back on their responses when it comes time to discuss progress and results.

Without further ado, let's dive into 20 of the best questions you can use to guide your initial client onboarding questionnaire.

The Best Client Onboarding Questions

1. Who is the primary point of contact at your company regarding your digital marketing services?

This will lay out a clear line of communication. You want the client to provide a name and their preferred method of contact. This helps you ensure that you can obtain a quick response at any time throughout your business relationship. It also helps you avoid bothering the wrong individuals during their regular responsibilities.

2. Does your company have existing marketing assets? (Logo, preferred fonts, color hex codes, images, etc.) If so, please upload them here.

A company that's prepared with its branding material is a godsend. It's a great indicator that your client has a clear image of their company and how they want you to present it. Getting your hands on these assets from the start will ensure that your creative team can get to work as soon as possible.

3. What is your primary business objective with our services? (brand awareness, lead generation, sales, remarketing, etc.) Select multiple if necessary.

You likely have a solid idea of this from the initial meetings with your client. Nevertheless, allow the client to reflect on what they truly hope to gain out of this business exchange. You'll have a record of the primary objective as well as any other tertiary goals that your team can strive to work toward.

4. What is your brand's unique value proposition for the consumer?

This question is critical for successful marketing. However, you'd be surprised how many companies fail to have a solid response to this question. No amount of marketing can help a brand avoid this question for good. After all, if someone at the company can't identify a reason to shop there, how can the consumer?

5. What are your core company values and your mission statement?

Asking this allows your team to gain a solid understanding of what the company represents to the public. Every brand should have an available statement as to what its company aims to provide to the consumer and the community. The values represent how the team might go about achieving that mission.

6. What everyday problems do your offerings help the consumer solve?

Many brands go about reciting a list of benefits that their products or services provided. While that's helpful, it's not the most direct way to win over a customer. Instead, ask the client to think about the everyday problems their average customer faces. Then, explain why the offerings address that problem directly.

7. What is your preferred manner of speaking with the consumer? (professional, humorous, laid-back, etc.)

Your client should help establish the tone of the marketing materials you create on their behalf. Help your team avoid any tonal confusion by establishing how your client wants to be viewed by the consumer in everyday interactions.

8. Describe your ideal buyer persona.

While the prior question describes how you should talk, this one explains who you should be talking to. The ideal buyer persona describes the individual that is most likely to benefit from and purchase the brand's offerings. Try to retrieve as much qualifying data such as demographics, habits, or related interests.

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9. What is your primary weakness as a business?

Time for some brutal, honest reflection. Every person and every company has a weakness. It's being honest about those failings that allow us to eventually overcome them. When your client describes company weaknesses, you can devise ways to address them and alleviate customer concerns through your marketing efforts.

10. What are the most common reasons you hear from customers that lead to lost sales?

The response will likely be a continuation of the last question. While the former asked the client what they thought, this question asks them to reflect on how well they are listening to the customer. Crafting a way to address customer complaints and concerns head-on is the best way to condition potential customers to convert.

11. What is the main reason that customers cite as motivation for being loyal?

After some tough self-assessment, your client gets to reflect on their quality aspects. Returning customers almost always have a consistent reason for sticking with a brand. This could be pricing, customer service, or product quality. You'll want this information so that you can highlight it as a strength.

12. What other demographics do you believe could benefit from your offerings?

The client may or may not have an idea of this. Of course, they're going to want to appeal to as many groups as possible. However, try to obtain some insight as to where you might be able to direct marketing efforts to expand the company's reach and grow.

13. Is your company active on social media? If so, please list your profile handles. If not, would you like us to create these for you?

Social media is vital for marketing in 2022. Whether you're leveraging sites like Facebook for paid ads or using Twitter to share content, there's a place for it in every brand's strategy.

Use your questionnaire to identify the correct social accounts for the brand. If they exist, you can review their social activity to gain a better understanding of their messaging. You can also identify strengths and weaknesses early for future improvements.

14. Do you have a website? If so, please list the URL. If not, would you like us to create one for you?

A quality business website is even more important than the former. Have your client list the URL for you, so that you might avoid locating the incorrect domain. On the other hand, it's important to identify the absence of a website early, so that you can sell the benefits of one to the customer for future project success.

15. Who are your primary competitors?

Now that we have a solid understanding of the client, it's time to attack the competition. Your agency needs to understand exactly who you're competing with so that you can plan your strategy. Understanding competitor strategies is going to be key to succeeding in a variety of digital marketing channels.

16. What do your competitors do better? What strengths do you hold over the competitor?

This may or may not tie back to the client's responses about their company's strengths and weaknesses. However, it's important to ask this in light of the direct competitor. It's vital to address the pros and cons head-on because the customer is going to research it themselves regardless.

17. What makes your product or service a superior choice over the competitor?

This helps your agency examine the key offering comparisons as opposed to a direct competitor comparison. We want to understand both the company as a whole and the actual offering being delivered to the consumer's hands.

18. Do you plan to utilize paid ad campaigns? If so, what is your expected monthly ad budget?

You may or may not have an idea if the client wants this based on your initial meetings. If paid ads are off the table, eliminate this from your onboarding. Otherwise, it's important to establish guidelines early on regarding anticipated ad spending. If there are any anticipated issues, you can hash them out before the paid ad work begins.

19. Can you reference other ads, websites, or marketing materials that you like? What features do they have that can benefit your brand?

We like this question as it can provide a better indication of the client's tastes. The better you can satisfy the client with your early drafts, the more likely you are to establish a trusting relationship moving forward.

20. Are you currently performing any marketing efforts in-house? (SEO, paid ads, blogs, etc.) If so, please describe them.

There's little sense in ignoring the client's hard work to date. This can tell you if the client has anything from a website blog, a Google Ads account, a Facebook Ads account, or anything else related to their online presence.

Creating an Onboarding Questionnaire

You can utilize any form-building software in existence such as Google Forms to craft your questionnaire. However, there are two unique methods of delivering onboarding to clients through the DashClicks platform.

Method 1 - Utilizing the Forms App

DashClicks features a proprietary forms builder software that allows you to build and publish customized forms.

You're able to create your queries, customize columns and rows, and modify a variety of style options. You can also send and manage form invitations from within the same platform. Finally, share the onboarding form directly with an embed, iFrame, or direct share link.

A free account grants you the ability to create one form with the drag-and-drop builder. There's no cap on the number of form submissions you can track, while many other providers set limits based on your existing plan.

You may also resend lost invitations and cancel pending invites at any time.

Method 2 - Automated Onboarding with White-Label Fulfillment

This method is not for everyone as it focuses on agencies looking to benefit from our white label fulfillment services.

Account owners get access to our fulfillment store. This allows you to purchase essential digital marketing services such as Facebook Ads or Social Posting for your client.

When purchasing a service, our system automatically sends the appropriate onboarding forms to the requested party. We can send the white-labeled form to your client or send it to your email directly. Clients and agencies alike enjoy this as it means even less for the client to do, leading to a better first impression.

You can then track and revisit onboarding forms at any time directly through your account's project management software.

If you want to expand your agency's offerings, and want to avoid the hassle of going back and forth with onboarding, this method is for you.

Build Your Ideal Client Onboarding Questionnaire

The client onboarding questionnaire is a necessary form to get your business relationships off on the right foot. You eliminate the guesswork and let the client know exactly what your agency needs to get the job done right.

If you're looking for an easy-to-use form builder, sign up to DashClicks now and take advantage of the free Forms app. If you don't like it, you're free to log out and take advantage of the numerous form builders around the web.

As a final note, don't be afraid to play around with the suggested question format. If your agency is selling a particular marketing service or package to the client, shift the questions to capture the necessary key details. These 20 questions are meant to serve as a guideline that helps identify essential facts that are meaningful for every business-marketer relationship.

Google Ads is a primary weapon in every marketer's arsenal.

However, your search campaign will do little more than burn your budget if you don't know how to optimize Google Ads.

Google knows this, and that's why they provide the tools you need to test, observe, and adjust on the fly. You just need to understand better the options and metrics provided.

Below, we're going to dive straight into our foolproof optimization process.

Google Ads Optimization Checklist:

1. Keyword Planning
2. Using Keyword Planner
3. Keyword Search Intent
4. Spying on the Competitor
5. Knowing Your Ad Options
6. SKAGs vs STAGs
7. Uploaded Image Ads
8. Responsive Display Ads
9. Ad Extensions
10. Testing & Observation
11. A/B Test
12. Demographics
13. Geographics
14. Time of Day
15. Negative Keywords
16. Lost Impressions
17. Remarketing & Adjustments
18. RLSAs
19. Adjusting Keywords
20. Manual Bid Adjustments

What is Google Ads Optimization?

Google Ads optimization is the process of monitoring and adjusting campaign performance to maximize your ROI.

Optimizing an ad or ad set can be as simple as testing and adjusting ad copy, images, or headlines. But, it may also require more careful metric observation to aid you in changing your targeting, bidding, and ad type.

Furthermore, ad optimization is dynamic. For the best results, you will constantly be testing, observing, and adjusting to get the best results. Additionally, the tune-ups you implement for one campaign will not necessarily be a successful recipe for another campaign with different objectives.

When Should I Start Optimizing My Google Ads?

We get it. You're hungry and want to see results as soon as possible.

This is especially crucial when you have an aggressive client that expects new leads quickly in exchange for their monetary investment.

It will be your job to set expectations appropriately.

Brand-new Google Ads campaigns typically begin with a learning phase. This is assuming that:

• The Google Ads account is new
• The campaign is brand-new and is not using existing or lookalike audiences

During this process, Google Ads will actively collect data from every user that sees or interacts with your campaign. You want to allow your campaign to retrieve a healthy sample size as these details will be what guides your optimization process.

This process length is wildly variable and will largely depend upon your campaign's foundation. Factors such as campaign objective, keyword selection, and initial audience selection will all play a role.

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If you're particularly fortunate, you can start acting on the learning process in 1-2 weeks. In other cases, you may need to observe for up to a month.

It's important to allow this process to play out uninterrupted. Making premature changes will effectively reset the learning process and send you back to square one.

If your client is confused or frustrated by this initial period, be sure to lay out the benefits. The more effectively you understand your ideal audience early on, the more efficiently you will be able to spend their ad budget when it's time to move.

After the discovery period is over, optimization should become routine. At the bare minimum, you'll want to revisit your settings once per month.

However, doing so more frequently allows you to keep a closer eye on positive or negative trends. The sooner you lay eyes on actionable data, the better you're able to pivot your bids to the right areas and maximize your investment.

But, how exactly do you do that?

Let's dive into the best Google Ads optimization strategies that set you up for success.

The Google Ads Optimization Checklist

1. Keyword Planning

How do users discover anything online? Keywords.

We utilize keyword planning in almost everything marketing from SEO to paid ads. These help us connect our ads with the users most likely to engage and convert.

If you select the right keywords, you're going to boost your returns. Selecting the wrong keywords and finding the wrong audience is going to result in wasted ad spending.

The reason for this is that Google Ads prompts you to set budgets and bid on your targeted keywords. This is unlike your typical SEO content, which allows you to boost your ranking through content quality alone. Meanwhile, focusing copy on the wrong keywords in your ads not only is a wasted effort but burns up funds you can't get back.

Google provides us with a tool to assist in this process.

A. Using Google Keyword Planner

You can gain access to the Keyword Planner if you have a Google Ads account here.

If you have yet to begin your campaign, it will walk you through the initial process of setting it up. It will prompt you to answer questions about your business and your goals for that particular set of ads.

You'll then be greeted with two options:

• Discover New Keywords
• Get Search Volume & Forecasts

The first will walk you through the process of keyword discovery step-by-step. It's going to ask you for more details about your business such as the products and services you sell.

You can also plan by entering your keywords or by entering your domain. Note that the latter is only available if you currently utilize AdWords for that website.

Regardless of the option you choose, the Keyword Planner will generate a list of viable keywords relevant to your brand. It will also reveal important details such as expected bid costs.

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Our most important tip - be very precise with the keywords you enter into the planner. While Google can generate many different options, not all will be relevant to your campaign goals. The more precise you are when it comes to your objectives, the better you'll be able to research alternatives that can help your campaign.

The second forecast option allows you to enter a list of keywords you already have on hand. It will then pull up a forecast of metrics such as:

• Estimated clicks
• Estimated impressions
• Estimated cost
• Estimated clickthrough rate
• Estimated average cost-per-click

You can dive even deeper and check out historical data such as average monthly searches and competition difficulty. All of these factors play a pivotal role in helping you select the most optimal keywords, not unlike what you would do for SEO.

Also, know that you need not be limited by Keyword Planner. If your company already utilizes tools like SEMRush or Moz, feel free to research and cross-reference results as needed. This phase serves as the bedrock of your campaign, so more preparation is always welcome.

B. Match Your Keywords to Search Intent

A major, and often overlooked, factor in keyword planning is analyzing search intent.

Any time an internet user enters a keyword into a search bar, they reveal the type of content they wish to see. More importantly, they tell us what they intend to do with the content they find.

To better explain this, let's look at the four types of keywords.

a. Informational

The user is looking for information about a subject or an answer to a question. Their goal is to find a reputable source to educate them. Buying a product or service may be the furthest thing from their mind.

Examples of informational searches could be the following:

“Is beer bad for you?”

“Number of calories in bread”

b. Commercial

Commercial keywords express an interest in particular products or services, most frequently regarding specific brands. While they are not yet at the cusp of making a purchase, they've moved from general inquiries to performing targeted research.

Examples of commercial keyword searches might look like this:

“Netflix vs Amazon Prime”

“Netflix customer reviews”

c. Transactional

We are now at the bottom of the funnel and left with users that are ready to buy. Transactional keywords help users find the best product for their needs. They can then readily buy it at will from the provider.

They will often contain modifiers such as “best”, “cheapest”, or “affordable.” It might even be more direct and feature terms like “buy.”

Examples of transactional keywords are as follows:

“Buy Google Ads services”

“Best marketing company zipcode”

d. Navigational

Navigational keywords simply guide users directly to a brand. The user knows where they want to go and are looking for the shortest route.

In other words, a navigational keyword might look like this:

“DashClicks”

“Nike”

Keyword intention matters as it helps you choose the most effective keywords for your campaign objectives.

If your express goal is to sell a particular product that's on sale, you're going to opt for more transactional terms. This helps you discover leads with high purchase intent instead of wasting your budget on uninterested persons.

On the other hand, informational or commercial terms may help campaigns that are built for audience discovery and lead generation. You would then use the data from that campaign to build a more effective sales funnel down the line.

B. Spying on the Competitor

The final step in keyword planning is researching competitor activities.

Your direct competitors are brands that are actively bidding on similar keywords as yours for their Google Ads campaigns.

By using the Google Keyword Planner described above, you can readily spy on your competitor's historical keyword data. You can insightful metrics such as:

• The keywords they use
• The domains they are being used on
• The average monthly budget
• Coverage percentage

This means that not only can you track competition difficulty, but you can see exactly how competitors use these keywords in their ads. By observing their strategies, you can plan your campaigns to incorporate elements that work and modify those which you can do better.

It may also present new keyword opportunities that were overlooked in your initial planning. Likewise, be sure to avoid attractive terms that will end up costing you more than what you can afford.

2. Knowing Your Ad Options

Now that you have the correct keywords to guide your creatives, it's time to explore how you can present them.

Google provides several different ad campaign options to provide you with flexibility. However, each ad type has its positives and negatives that can hurt or harm depending on how effectively you utilize them.

Let's dive into what those types are and their ideal use cases.

A. SKAGs vs STAGs

When it comes to your campaign ad groups, there are two popular options:

SKAG - Single Keyword Ad Group

STAG - Single Theme Ad Group

SKAGs allows you to create an ad group that focuses entirely on one keyword. You can then create different ad groups for each keyword you want to target.

The major benefit of this is that a SKAG has a singular focus. This allows for precise targeting and easier measuring since you are only focusing on one keyword.

If you were to utilize Google's suggested keywords, you may end up with 5, 10, or even 20 related keywords. This can help with discovery, but it can often lead to lower-quality leads. However, this can be mitigated by proactively managing your negative keywords.

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The potential downside of using SKAGs lies in choosing the wrong keywords. Because you only have one avenue to target audiences, you rely entirely on that keyword. Additionally, limiting your targeting option to one can increase the length of your discovery period when your audience size is too small.

STAGs, meanwhile, focus on a target keyword and related terms to expand your reach. Google will intelligently select terms that fall within the theme of your ad group to reach different types of prospects.

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Both have their merits and you can find a plethora of resources arguing for one versus the other. The reality is that both are viable and can lead to amazing results when monitored effectively.

We would recommend beginning with SKAGs to simplify your efforts at the start. They will generally keep your costs low and keep the quality of those leads high. If you need to expand your reach and are willing to experiment, STAGs can create new avenues that lead to even more audience data for future campaigns.

B. Uploaded Image Ads

For the next two ad types, we are dealing with Google's Display Network.

Websites around the internet have the option of opting into the display network. When they do, Google is allowed to generate ads on the site based on visitor data. In exchange, the website owner generates ad revenue to fund the website.

Meanwhile, marketers can choose to opt-in to the Display Network to boost their campaign reach. You can then have your ads appear on websites and apps across any device. It still utilizes your optimized targeting data to maximize your returns.

One way to leverage the Display Network is to use uploaded image ads. This guarantees full creative control over which ads show up on the web. You choose the image, write the copy, and get the final say on the result.

The downside is that you will need to spend the overhead to publish these additional creatives. This leads us to your alternative option.

C. Responsive Display Ads

Responsive ads are becoming more prevalent than ever. However, results can still vary wildly depending on the client and the campaign goals.

Google allows you to upload your images, headlines, videos, or descriptions into your account. The AI assistant will then automatically generate new ads using those assets to display on websites, YouTube, and Gmail.

This allows you to present different types of ads within the same campaign without needing to create and upload them yourself. You can save time and potentially expand your reach as Google's AI learns and refines its ad generation.

Responsive ads can be an amazing tool for optimizing your Google Ads campaign when it works. However, be sure to consistently monitor performance and be ready to pivot if they aren't cutting it for your client.

D. Ad Extensions

Finally, Google provides ad extensions that can further boost campaign results depending on your objectives. There are a variety of extension types that can be installed manually or automatically.

Your Google Ads account should generate relevant extensions if the AI predicts that they can improve your performance. They can assist with the following types of objectives:

• Helping users find your physical location
• Encouraging users to call your business number or tracking number
• Getting users to click on specific domain pages
• Display predefined structured snippets
• Showcase products and pricing
• Getting users to download your app
• Getting users to fill out a form

Be sure to install any extensions that are relevant to your goals. They are free to use and you can find specific instructions for each here.

3. Testing & Observation

The next, and perhaps most critical, step in optimizing your Google Ads is through testing.

When we plan our keywords effectively, we enable our discovery stage to give us ideal results. With this newfound audience data, we can begin testing and exploring new creatives to engage with our most interested users.

From here on out, your Google Ads efforts for this brand will be a consistent pattern of testing and adjusting. The more audience data you accumulate over time, the more refined this process becomes.

Let's start with what may be the most important testing tool for your Google Ads optimization efforts.

A. A/B Testing for Google Ads

A/B testing is the process of creating two versions of the same creative which will display at random to your audience.

These two versions will focus on the same keywords and objectives, but feature key alterations in areas such as headlines, offer presentation, or some other page element.

By allowing Google to randomly select a version to display, we can generate a usable audience sample. This sample group then tells us which version of the creative is ideal for generating more conversions.

The benefits of A/B testing are compounding as they continuously guide you to smarter creative choices. As you allow users to tell you exactly what type of content they want to see, you can then use that data to effectively create the perfect ad for that audience.

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Furthermore, Google can automatically begin to redirect your target audience to the high-performing version once it completes the learning process. You can then eliminate the lower-performing creative from contention.

B. Demographics

Your ad testing will provide you with usable demographic data that reveals details about your average audience member.

To access this data, navigate to the Audiences tab within your Google Ads account. You can then view demographic data by level: Campaign, Ad Group, or Account.

You can then segment your audience by age, gender, income, and even parental status. When you select a certain demographic, you're able to track engagement and conversion rates for that group.

Essentially, you want to optimize your campaign efforts to focus on the highest-performing demographics. This involves going back to your ad creatives and developing new messaging that better speak to that group's needs and desires.

If you have multiple demographics worth pursuing, you can and should create unique ad groups for each. Your messaging to middle-class parents should be different than your sales pitch to a single adult or a teenager. Determining the best way to pitch your brand to the individual is the best way to maximize your conversions.

C. Geographics

Choosing who to advertise can help maximize your budget, but so can choosing where.

Similar to what you did with demographic segmentation, you can use your Google Ads menu to find Locations. Here, you can choose a range of geographic targeting options ranging from whole countries to specific cities.

For example, if you initially try to market to multiple southern states, but only gain traction in Florida and Georgia, you can restrict your targeting to those areas. This helps you to maximize your ROI in those areas while your team revisits how to market to underperforming ones.

D. Time of Day

The time in which you choose to display your ads can be another critical factor in amassing conversions.

If you find that your campaign is underperforming, it may not necessarily be that you're targeting the wrong audience. Rather, that audience may not be seeing your ads as they are displaying at inopportune times.

Your Google Ads account allows you to set up a custom ad schedule for this very reason. You can select specific days and times for your ads to run throughout the week.

If you find that an overwhelming percentage of your conversions happen on weekday evenings, consider scheduling your ads to fit those periods.

Another factor to consider is when your strong competitors run their advertisements. If you're confident that you can outpace a rival, you may choose to go head-to-head for the same display times to drown out their messaging while maximizing yours.

Conversely, if costs become unreasonable for certain periods, try to schedule your ads to avoid appearing during those days and times for a better ROI.

E. Negative Keywords

While primary keywords help you target the right customers, negative keywords help Google Ads understand what to avoid.

This is especially relevant when allowing your Google Ads account to dynamically utilize thematic keyword variants to reach new users. Some of these keywords may lead to low or unqualified users that are taking up unnecessary ad spending.

You can determine what terms you want to add to your negative keywords by keeping an eye on user behavior. Specifically, you can look at what keywords a user typed that led them to discover your ad. If you see a trend of unqualified impressions based on unrelated terms, you will then have a better idea of negative keywords to add.

As an example, let's say that a brand focuses on selling shirts. However, they do not carry t-shirts, specifically.

If a user looking for a t-shirt enters “shirt” into Google, there’s a good chance they will find that brand. This is because Google recognizes that t-shirt is a type of shirt and can often be used interchangeably.

For the brand, however, this leads to an unwanted click that burns ad spending. They want to avoid these types of broad associations so that they don't match up with users looking for something they do not sell.

You can use negative keywords to avoid these engagements. Specifically, you can use them to avoid broad category matches, related phrases, or exact matches.

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F. Lost Impressions

Finally, your Google Ads account allows you to review impression share data. This shows the percentage of time your ads appear in comparison to other ads vying for the same audience.

You can add impression share data to your campaign by going to Campaigns > Ad Groups > Keywords. Then, click on Modify Columns > Competitive Metrics > Impression Share.

You can then review the following lost impression data:

• Search Lost IS (budget) – when your ads do not show in search due to insufficient budget.
• Display Lost IS (budget) – when your ads do not show in the Display Network due to insufficient budget.
• Search Lost IS (rank) – when your ads do not show in search due to poor Ad rank.
• Display Lost IS (rank) – when your ads do not show in the Display Network due to poor Ad rank.

Lost impressions due to budget occur due to spending all of the budget before the scheduled ad period comes to an end. This is likely due to overspending on high-cost keywords, which results in losing out on potential ad time.

Lost impressions due to rank signify that your ad quality is lower than the average competitor. If you manage to improve your headlines, messaging, or other creative properties, you can salvage more impressions with the same daily budget.

Monitoring these metrics for Google ads campaign is important and your next actions depend entirely upon the campaign performance to date.

If the campaign is continuously netting you quality results, and you have an additional budget, consider raising the daily budget to capitalize on those lost impressions. On the flip side, an underperforming campaign may not be able to compete at the current cost. You’ll need to pivot your resources and direct your PPC efforts to other areas.

Lost impressions due to rank are unfortunate, but salvageable if you act quickly. As explained above, utilize testing methods to help improve overall ad quality. When your creatives are up to snuff, you’ll reclaim that valuable display time for your client.

4. Remarketing & Adjustments

Our final Google Ads optimization checklist tips focus on making the most out of your existing audiences.

While many of us still refer to the traditional sales funnel as a guidepost, the buyer’s journey is seldom so straightforward. Users that see or click on your ad are constantly bombarded with other information that can distract or redirect.

That doesn’t mean that the lead is uninterested or unwilling to sign up for your offer. Some highly-qualified users require that extra push.

A. RLSAs

RLSA stands for Remarketing Lists for Search Ads.

Remarketing refers to serving ads or other marketing material to users with previous behaviors that expressed interest in your brand.

Creating a sizeable remarketing list gives you a large enough audience segment worthy of creating unique ads and landing pages. Just as you would with demographic segmentation, remarketing to existing customers should feature a unique approach that acknowledges their previous engagement.

Furthermore, users on your remarketing list are already qualified versus the unknowns you’re aiming to attract at the onset. You’ve essentially hit the target, and now it’s a matter of putting together the right sales pitch to get the conversion.

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You can automatically create an RLSA by adding a remarketing tag to your landing page. This way, every user that clicks on your ad will automatically be added to the list. Be aware that Google requires you to have at least 1,000 unique users on the list before you can utilize it in ad creation.

B. Adjusting Keywords

When nothing in your Google Ads campaign seems to be getting results, it might be time to get back to basics.

No matter how well you plan out your keywords and offer, your potential audience will always have the final sale. That’s why it’s vital to never get too personally attached to your creatives as your PPC journey is one of constant adjustment.

The difference is that you now have a wealth of audience metrics available in your Google Ads account to work with. Use your audience data when researching alternative keyword options to see which best describes your average user’s needs and problems.

Also, be sure to revisit how competitors have changed their keyword selection and campaigns over time.

When all else fails, fall back to the rules described at the very beginning of this checklist. Use a keyword planner to research the most cost-effective keywords, be sure to match your offer to search intent, and find weak points in your competitor’s strategy to capitalize on.

C. Manual Bid Adjustments

Finally, bid adjustments allow you to explore the grey areas as opposed to ruling out segments as a win or loss.

At any point, you can manually override your Google Ads bidding based on keywords, demographics, display times, geographic region, and more. Just be wary of where you place these adjustments as even a few small overlapping changes can result in unwanted expenses that eat away at your budget.

When used effectively, manual bid adjustments can help you with your unique goals. You can direct traffic to specific devices or specific demographics for maximum results.

Keep This Google Ads Optimization Checklist Handy

Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools available whether you rely on search or the Display Network.

However, it can simultaneously eat away at your advertising budget in no time if you mistarget or misspend your funds.

Give yourself a foundation for success by taking advantage of the countless tools available for free within your Google Ads account. Take all the time that is necessary to research keywords, learn from your competitor’s best strategies, and craft the perfect offer.

Then, experiment with the different ad options that are natively available. Make sure to take advantage of any recommended extensions to help you with your ad campaign’s specific conversion goals. You can stack as many of these as necessary for optimal results.

Then, it’s time to test, test, test. A marketer’s work is never done, and consistently getting the best results requires monitoring and optimization. Rule nothing out and always be willing to change copy, headlines, images, or targeting parameters. You can utilize the audience data gathered by Google’s AI for better content creation.

Finally, never forget to take advantage of your existing audience. Getting to know a previous visitor and curating a landing page that speaks to their pain points can be the tipping point for many consumers. Once you convert a customer, it’s exponentially more cost-effective to resell to them than to acquire a new one.

If you’re looking to consolidate all of your agency analytics into one convenient place, consider trying the DashClicks 2.0 platform. Our marketing analytics software allows for seamless third-party integration and 24/7 performance tracking for both you and your clients.